This is a big, busy thread. There are some guidelines to keep things nice and orderly:
We have two core Steam groups. Both of these groups have chat, and both are used sometimes to try to limit giveaways to community members:
Penny Arcade is a general Steam group for folks from the PA forums.
PA G&T Adventure Team is a group that was originally created to get multi/coop going for smaller or older titles. Because it is actively moderated, a lot of folks use it as a giveaway group (to avoid problems we've had in the past with non-forumers scooping up gifts intended for the community.) Membership is locked during major sales.
How do I join the Steam groups?
If you've just arrived, hang out here in the thread for a while and talk games with us before you ask for membership. When you do ask, include a link to your Steam profile. Membership to the two Steam groups is for reasonably active community members. If you have been on the PA forums for a while and have participated, post a link to your Steam profile here in the thread and a Steam group mod will take care of you.
If you've been on the forums for three days during a major sale and your only posts have been to casually express your strong desire for certain games, your request is unlikely to find a positive reception. Ditto if your very first post on the forum is to ask for group membership. Sadly this does happen sometimes.
The best parts of this community are available to you now just by showing up. Read some posts, make some posts, ask to be invited as a guest to chat, buy some games, play some games, etc. Group membership is modest icing on delicious cake.
Warning: This guy is going to make you buy games. All the games.How do I join the chat rooms of the PA Steam groups?
Each PA Steam group has its own chat room which you can freely join once you are a member. They are happy places with no monsters.
To enter a group chat you must follow these steps:
- On the main Steam menu, go to your username submenu and then click on the "GROUPS" option
- Then, click on the link showing the number of people present in the chat of the group that you want to join. This will launch the Steam client (in case it is not already running in your system) and open the group chat in it
- In case your web browser is not able to launch the Steam client, the following window will show giving you the option to open the group chat directly in your web browser (web chat) or to download the Steam client
- Alternatively, you can go to the main page of a Steam group and then click the "Enter chat room button"
- Want to chat and use Steam, but not at your computer? There are apps for that!
Android Steam or iOS Steam
- Don't want to install the full Steam App, but still want to chat...there are apps for that as well!
Android Chat or iOS Chat
Where are you guys getting those nifty Steam Signatures?
Check out
Alabaster Slim for his lovely signature generator.
Has Game X ever been Price Y? How can I keep track of all the sales and discounts?http://isthereanydeal.com/ is your friend. Sync your Steam wishlist and get notifications when prices drop. Double check that you are getting a Steam key from a 3rd party site before buying.
How do the new [codes ][ /codes] tags even work?
Put a series of Steam activation codes (or activation links, or movie quotes, or winning lottery numbers...) inside the tags, each on its own line like this (without the spaces inside the brackets, of course):
[codes ]code 1
code 2
...
code n[/codes]
That will create a little box with a clickable link and a number. Each forumer who clicks the link will get a popup and a PM with the next line. Each line can only be sent out once and each forumer can only click once. It was originally designed to allow developers to hand out lots of codes for a game without some goose grabbing the lot.
Just one code thingy per post!
Note: [ code ][ /code ] is a different tag. Be sure to get that "s" up in there!
Steam Game Categories
You can make a copy of of the file below to backup your category tags!
\Steam\userdata\*USERIDHERE*\7\remote \shareconfig.vdf
Trading cards? Badges? Steam profile levels? Boosters? FOILS?! What the hell?
Jrraghen put together this helpful guide:
The House of Cards!But that's pure, diabolical evil!
Yes, that's right.
Can we trade cards in the thread?
Yes, but it's inefficient. Use the Steam feature that shows which of your friends has the cards you need. Join our Steam group for trading cards:
PA Card Sharks
Check this
handy tip from HiT BiT:
A little Steam trading trick some of you may not be aware of:
- Go to your Steam Inventory
- Click on the "Trade Offers" button
- Then click on the "Who can send me Trade Offers?" link
- Below you will find a "Trade URL"
Share this URL with other Steam users to allow them to directly send you a trade offer even if they aren't on your friends list.
You can share this URL anywhere, including your forum sig.
If you have shared or posted your URL and would like to stop receiving trade offers from it use the "Create New URL" button.
A new Trade URL will be created turning the previous one inoperative.Is Steam down?!
Is it Tuesday? It's probably scheduled maintenance.
It's not Tuesday. Is Steam down?!http://isSteamdown.com/What are you people talking about? Why hats and what is an "Isy?"
Check out the handy Steam Thread Primer, written by Smokestacks!
Steam Thread Primer:Gaben/The Newell - Gabe Newell, Director of Valve Software. Called "Gaben" because in the commentary for older Source Engine games he would tell players to email him at "Gabe N. at valvesoftware.com" with user feedback.
Serve the Newell - To buy games on Steam, to give Gaben your money. From this comic edit.
Bad Rats - An incredibly awful 'physics' based puzzle game, available on Steam, notorious for being as awkward as it is broken. Will haunt your dreams. Popular gift to give to people.
Class - An attribute demonstrated by people who will generously purchase games and then give them to internet strangers.
Class War - When two or more forumers buy each other games back and forth until one of them gives up. I know this sounds really crazy, but it happens.
Bundle - Originally the Humble Indie Bundle, which was a "pay what you want" system for a group of games, now usually means any website selling a group of games (usually able to be registered on Steam) for a low price.
Giveaway/A Giveaway - Usually refers to a giveaway on Steamgifts.com, a website where you list a game you want to give away, people enter, and then a winner is randomly decided among all entrants after a set time period.
Hats/The Hatconomy - The purchase and sale of in-game hats or sometimes other items in TF2. Some hats are very valuable, which is funny because they are just hats for videogame characters. People who have valuable hats or other items in their inventories sometimes get messages from random people on Steam begging for those items.
Backlog - The list of games you have purchased, but have not gotten around to playing yet. Tends to grow over time, often to immense proportions. If you do not have a backlog yet, between the thread and the sales you will get one.
Spies/Russian Spies - People who lurk the thread or try to get into the various PA Steam groups not to participate in the community, but to try and get free games.
Steamsigs - Custom forum signatures that display a link to your Steam profile, as well as an image of a game you are currently playing, have played the most in the last two weeks, or have played the most over all time (if you haven't played any games on Steam in the last two weeks). Available here courtesy of forumer Suds. Having a Steam sig (or some sort of clickable link to your Steam profile in your signature) makes it considerably easier for people to add you to their friends list.
Child's Play - A charity started by the writer and artist behind PA that raises money for videogames/toys that go to children's hospitals, originally started in '03, has grown every year. Helps sick kids feel better about their time in the hospital while simultaneously refuting the idea that gamers are antisocial jerks.
Isy - Big Classy, a forumer. Formerly known as "Big Isy", he was granted the new name after donating a hefty amount of money to Child's Play during a fundraiser. Sometimes referred to as Isy, which might cause confusion to people who haven't been around very long.
Summer Dale - A phone's auto-correction of "Summer Sale", which through some sort of internet voodoo produced an actual entity, a smooth voiced funk loving man who lives in a world where the 80s reign eternal and supreme. Also sometimes used to describe the upcoming Summer Sale itself.
Rainbow and/or Slash - Two forumers by the name of Rainbowdespair and slash000 who are notable for developing the third and fourth installments of the Penny Arcade: On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness series. Also developed Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World, two RPGs that, along with the Rainslick games, are available on Steam.
Also, sometimes shit gets real. Like that time we all murdered each other for bloodsport games. And there was a kabob conspiracy and a kind of Cthulhu bunny. Akajaybay took us
down that particular rabbit hole.
Why are you people obsessed with Bad Rats and Amnesia?
A moment of ill-advised swagger from Anoffday turned into a horrifying LP of Bad Rats which,
because reasons, turned into over $6000 raised for Child's Play.
CorriganX raised over $1100 for Child's Play via Amnesia.Previous Years Winter Sale Drives
2019: $2,407.09
2018: $2,190.06
2016: $5,315.84
2014: $9,248
2013: $11,903
Fanda
shared this with us:
For our Christmas fundraiser to restore TychoCelchuuu's threadmaking privileges (and help the kids), I donated to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. This week I received a nice letter from them! I figured I'd share part of it with y'all, since this applies to all of you at least as much as it does to me.
What is this Steamgifts site? I wish to create a giveaway! I cannot enter a giveaway!
Steamgifts is a neat site that lets people create giveaways for games on Steam. Points for entering giveaways are accumulated over time, so just wait a bit if you need points. Entry to giveaways can be limited by Steam group membership to prevent mooches from getting games.
How do I make one of those cool Steam Gifts signature giveaway banners?What are all these bundles you people keep talking about?
In addition to Steam sales and sales of Steam keys on other sites and gifts, we live in a golden age of bundles! Bundle sites sell batches of games for modest amounts of money, often as low as a few dollars. Many, but not all, contribute to charity and many, but not all, give you Steam keys for the games. Sometimes you'll buy an indie gem that isn't even on Steam, and later when arrives on Steam you will get a key through the bundle site. Be careful if you plan to gift some of the games, as sometimes the bundled games will come in a single Steam key. We have a separate bundles thread.
I have too many games! Which do I play?Steam Roulette randomly picks a game for you.
I have too many games! How do I move them to my new hard drive?Steam Mover makes transporting your massive library easier.
But wait! I have ALL OF THE GAMES installed! I need more hard drive space! What do?You download Tikione Steam Cleaner and clean it up.Steam Cleaner also available through GitHub!That helped! I have more room for stuff. Free stuff.Isorn wrote:
Someone on a Steam forum made
a nice list of all free DLC you can add to your Steam account if you have the base-game but that thread is currently not available so I figure I post it here. Since it is pretty easy to miss some of these.
The sale prices aren't right! What's going on?!
During seasonal sales, you are one of a million monkeys hammering F5 at 10am PT to see the new sales. The system is always borked for 5-20 minutes. Take a deep breath. The Newell will deliver.
Why are some games not available in my region?
Publishers determine what countries get what games. Someone in a suit decided that it wasn't worth the money to make the game available to your region, so it isn't available on Steam. This also applies to cases of games having edited/censored versions showing up on Steam in certain countries. The good news is that you can generally get around this by having someone from another region gift or trade you the game.
Steam is downloading slowly. What gives?
Steam > Settings > Downloads + Cloud to change your download region until things improve. Sometimes other regions are less populated and you can get somewhat better results even if the new server is in another country.
VR - You know, the thing with the goggles and doo-dads.
EvmaAlsar did a great write up about various
VR game options on Steam.Want to review and download your cloud saves?
Follow this magical
Cloud Link of Saves and Wonder!!!
What was the PA Friday Night Game Fever?
CorriganX had this crazy idea of getting some folks together to play games and thus Friday Night Game Fever began. Each week a game was posted as the Friday selection and at 9pm EST/6pm PST people would get online and fire up some multiplayer action. The games were typically streamed by at least one or two folks for viewing as well. The game night and its Steam group are not actively managed any more.
Old PA G&T Friday Night Game Fever banner made by HiT BiT
Posts
Twitch/Mudzgut
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
I'm not afraid of any man, but that Gift scares me
The man, the gift, the legend.
So whats coming up in the next few months that people are looking forward to? Outriders at the end of this month, but most of my super looking forward to games are on the switch atm.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Evil Genius 2
and
Guilty Gear Strive!
There'll be bluebirds over, the white cliffs of MNC Dover...
Steam | XBL
Not sure if there's anything really prior to the Mass Effect remaster that I've got my eye on.
Steam | XBL
Also, teach me how to be more anime, I would like to learn. Unlock the cute anime girl in me
Thanks again!
GG Strive is definitely something im looking forward to (Thanks again @Stabbity Style ) but they pushed it back and now its kinda off the radar just due to length of time until release.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
@Malakaius just had to push that button.
thanks "Isorn"
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
That is very clearly @Spoit!
Sorry Spoit (and thanks)! Corrected
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Phantom Brigade looks really, really good and I may just have to pick that up...
Fortunately, for the time being, I have Tenderfoot Tactics to keep exploring courtesy of Awesome an_alt.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
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I'm liking more of what I see in videos the devs release. Not seeing a life count when they were showing henchmen suggests they got rid of one of my annoyances with the original.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
They pushed it back like, the day after I gifted it to you, too, lol. Or at least it seemed that way.
No one do it, its a trap for sure.
That dragon (Century age of ashes) game I was talking about is dope. Will be playing that on launch.
Diablo 2 remastered on BNet. Don't know of many Steam games definitely coming out this year that I'm super hype for.
...Silksong would be nice.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Thank you you generous person you!
(Now, do i tell people what the game was, or do we leave it a mystery?)
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
It's been a hard road, not buying the early access. But I wanted to wait until it was complete to experience it in its fullness. The hype is real.
Depends what it was.
What was it?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Well, i think we've established that it's a mystery.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Steam: betsuni7
I, however, have a bad feeling about this........
It's funny, I started playing the original Diablo for the first time in like 20 years the other day. It's a lot of fun. I'm tempted to give the remaster of 2 a shot when it comes out.
Not to paint myself as someone who would brush off that kind of decision, but it's up to you, dog.
The original was such a weird game. I remember two of the best strategies were A.) just have a giant fucking empty warehouse filled with doors on the opposite side of your island because agents would quite literally trap themselves inside it forever and it was full of doors, so it fucking HAD to be something worth checking out, and B.) Just a fucking nonstop army of valets and bellhops constantly swarming every agent that got anywhere near anything.
You were supposed to build these complicated Rube Goldberg traps, but even the most basic ones never worked, and you didn't want them near anything important or where there was foot traffic anyway, so all they were good for was empty hallways.
Been playing some a mix of things lately including some older games that just have updates from when I last played them.
Monster Hunter Rise on the Switch has my eye, but on good ol' Steam I'm thinking Outriders and Evil Genius 2.
If I look out a bit, I played the demo for Across the Obelisk and enjoyed that as well.
Twitch/Mudzgut
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.