it's stupid and sad how long the cards take time to drop

I think it's so games aren't bought for the sole purpose of getting cards.
People want their game to be played and loved, not just idled or play half-arsed to get some money back.

is that just developpers wanting to get better global stats on hours played for their games ?

No, its steam refund policy.

It was brought in as a result of Valve's updated refund policy. Once you've played a game past two hours the refund option gets less likely to succeed.

It's almost as if we're intended to actually be playing the games. Preposterous!

Use jshackles' Idle Master if you just want to harvest cards.

I don't think its ever taken me 5 hours to get all drops from one game..even games with many drops

There's Idle Master to solve your issue. Use it and you don't have to bother about farming anymore.

Try the new idlemaster.

games like if they were made only to get cards

( o_O)
Were they made for something else?????

There should be an option to click - something like "I dont want to be a part of refunding policy with this game" and after confirming you would be able to drop cards immediately. It would be nice. Yes.

they should put an option when installing greenlit games like "i don't want to play this game, please give me the cards and delete it from my library". :3

Maybe they should make it so after 14 days (game no longer refundable) your drop times go back to what they originally were. There have been a couple games I beat in an 1hr - 1hr30min and no drops and the games have been on my account long past the refund date. So I'm forced to idle it or replay it.

I have Skara - The Blade Remains +18 hours played and nothing! + bunch other games, something very odd is happening on steam...

It sucks...wish there was option when buying a game that would let you decide if you want to refund or not. That way we could let go the two hours of not getting single card.

It took me 7,5 hours for cards to drop once -_-

I agree. I don't idle any of my games, maybe a few hours in CS:GO when new community cases get added and are worth ~$10. Other than that I always play my games, even for farming cards (and that is why I have tons of games that still have card drops remaining.) It's bad enough when you finish a game and still have a card drop or two left and there is no new game + or any type of replay value, just have to start over and stop the second you get the card (assuming it's not a really good game that's worth playing a second time so soon) or just not get the last few card drops.

What I really hate is that, once again for the umpteenth time, normal steam users are being "punished" for what a few abusers are doing. Steam never tries to find a good solution that doesn't make it more unpleasant for most users, they just go for the easiest/fastest solution and their user base be damned.

/me is sad

use the steamapp id trick, use a small game & let the game idle while you're not playing

now its 3-4 h for drop...

Now that you mention it I haven't gotten a single card in FOREVER!

Refund should be available only for games bought straight from Steam Store, and these games should have this crappy 2 hours wait time.
Games bought as steam key (for example from Humble Bundle) shouldnt have this 2 hours to drop cards, and refund thing aswell.

[buying bundle for 1$ with game for 10$ and return it - legit :) ]

the really sad thing is that they onlt give half of them in every game

Thank the abusers using idle tools, that's why we can't have nice things.

I know. But the refund policy changed it all.

my discussion 3 months old - http://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/0mamb/new-in-game-card-drop-time

First, steam should detect if a game wasn't buy in the steam store or has more of 14 days, for that then the cards drop without the +2 hours of wait.

Second, all the games should drop the cards with the same wait time, 15-20 minutes max between each card (actually the developer set this time and a lot of games drop cards with 1 hour or more of wait, very soporific).

Third and last, retroactive drop cards, e.g. if you had 10 hours of gameplay in a game without cards and then launch the cards for this game, automatic all the cards should drop in your inventory without wait nor idling (maybe with the requeriment of launch the game first).

But maybe this will happen never û_û