You can say that in a some way achievements describes the skill, dedication to the game etc. But collecting cards describes only one thing - that you spend money to increase your digital penis. You get cards not for your skill, you get them buy buying, because there's no other way to earn them. Would it be fun to buy achievements?
Comment has been collapsed.
Or trading... Some people actually do just trade them instead of buying.
I'd say they do more to display your ability to idle games, and then trade.
If they did achievement-based cards (which I think has been implied as a possibility) I'd be all over it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Trade for what? You must buy something to trade it for the cards. Lets take TF2 wich has 8 cards. You can get 4. And to fully level up the badge you need 40 of them, wich means you need somehow get 36 cards and this is impossible without spending money.
Comment has been collapsed.
I mean that there's not enough cards to trade. You can get one full set and craft it and after that you do not get more cards wich means you NEED to spend money to collect them. Lets take TF2, you need 40 cards, and you get only 4, you get some from the other games, but still its not enough.
Comment has been collapsed.
1: You do not NEED badges, especially level 5.
2: You do not NEED to spend money or use market. You can work your way up in TF2 items if you care that much about both getting them and not spending money. Same as unusuals or other luxury in-game items that already exist.
Also what do you mean by you can only get one full set? If you own several of the games you could get a few sets.
Comment has been collapsed.
Well if you do enough to get up to level 10 and try for foil cards, they're supposed to be worth a bit sooo...
Other than that, who the hell is ever going to use an Alyx Vance face emoticon? Sell 'em off. The backgrounds are pretty cool though, I guess.
Comment has been collapsed.
Shhhhhh that was my master plan from the beginning of all this!
Comment has been collapsed.
IDk, all I know is I made 10 bucks and I am happy with that...It's fun to watch though, companies complain about lose of sales due to crap like pirating but Valve is all like "LOL CARDS BRO, WHO CARES".
Comment has been collapsed.
there is a bot for trading steam cards
it has a few cards in stock and yeah
just check it out yourself http://steambadges.com/bot.php
Comment has been collapsed.
Add me. I got some dupes that require 1:1 trading.
Comment has been collapsed.
I agree. It's a waste of time IMO. Better play some games you actually want to play and beat.
Comment has been collapsed.
I only completed the badges of the games I really like (Portal 2, Don't Starve, and Borderlands 2), and that was really only to get to level 10. I sold all of the other cards I got. From now on when the add games, I'm going to keep the ones from games I don't like, to trade for cards from my favorite games, and then sell whatever is left over, to buy the few icons or backgrounds that I want.
Comment has been collapsed.
gimme your cards then (joke!)
But I think this whole card business is cool
Comment has been collapsed.
How do you even get the community ambassador badge?
Comment has been collapsed.
That explains it, it was showing as Pillar of Community for me since I only have the first level of it.
Comment has been collapsed.
I was excited when they introduced the cards. I signed early to the group, got beta access... And when I activated it, it quickly became obvious to me that it's nothing about the community. It's all about the money. TF2 for example. I bought Orange Box long ago. I played houndreds of hours - much more that it shows on my profile, I guess steam didn't gather those stats back then. And now what? I have to buy items for the money to get more card drops than any free-to-play player gets?
If it was about gaming, you could get all the drops for play time or the achievements. So I told myself that I'm not going to gring those cards. If they drop anyway, fine, but I won't go hunting them.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, you have the point, but to me it would be much more fun if I could simply "level up" my account like we do in certain games. I'm not very much into that trading thing. I never even traded all those vintage TF2 items I have - when I have time to play, I prefer to play than trade. Maybe when they add more games and tweak a few things I'll change my mind.
Comment has been collapsed.
if you bought Orange Box, you will have card drops WITHOUT making any ingame store purchases, as your copy of the game is "premium", so you will have card drops (5/9).
Comment has been collapsed.
You can sell them, but I don't play any of the games that have steam trading cards.
Comment has been collapsed.
I hate the trading cards. It's all so insidious how they've managed to monetize features that have been 100% free since the dawn of the goddamn internet. If EA did something like this, they'd be crucified. But since it's valve, people just let the shit slide.
Comment has been collapsed.
Certainly it's common to pay for emoticons in chat. I bought all emoticons on facebook too.
I agree with ButtsCallhoun. Make something common like emoticons collectibles and purchaseable is bullshit. Emoticons were always free everywhere and making them purchaseable is bullshit. Just another way how to get money from ppl.
PS: Fu***k anyone who tells me "It's optional". It's not about valve making me pay for emoticons but rather about valve making purchaseable what always was free everywhere else since ever. I do not plan buying emoticons nor background simply because i don't like them. I like trading cards because i can earn money from it but the part where valve earns money for emoticons is laughable and it's thievery. I don't complain about steam trading cards but about valve making emoticons purchaseable - something that always was everywhere for free.
PPS: Fu***k also those who say "You can get it for free". Only way how to get it for free is to trade cards 1:1 with someone (market = fees = valve gets moar money). Not many ppl do that and valve knows it. So something like 80%+ of those who do stuff with cards will be victims of valve's thievery. Conclusion: Valve makes something that was always free collectibles and purchaseable and ppl will be stupid enough to approve or even worse support and defense it and let valve eat more money.
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't know why you're so angry about something optional. You can dislike it, sure, but your reaction far overreaches the reality of the situation.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yesterday, they wanted money for horse armor. Today, they want money for emoticons. Future looks really bright.
I'm starting to hope that Valve will put some premium accounts, just to read how people hating Xbox Live Gold will defend it to death.
Comment has been collapsed.
You just mentioned everything that was optional.
For xbox live, people bitch because they have to pay $/£/€50 every year to play an integral part of each game. COD/Mass Effect 3 and the like all needed online play to get the most out of it, not as a bolt-on that is unnecessary.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yes, those are optional things. But before, they were FREE and Valve decided they can't be free anymore.
PC Gamers defended free multiplayer laughing in MS face when they tried to sell Gears of War with Gamers for Windows Live with same Gold shit Xbox has. Now we're happy we can get money from emoticons, while losing ability to use them.
Valve wants money from emoticons today. Who knows what they will monetize tomorrow?
Comment has been collapsed.
Did steam have these emoticons for free previously?
Comment has been collapsed.
Nope. But REST OF WORLD had. Valve decided to get money from something that was always free. It comes from exactly same place as Xbox Live Gold - let's see if we can get money for it. And unlike MS, they can't say "emoticons servers costs additional money".
MS gets money from previously-free multiplayer (and it is quite optional for large amounts of people, seeing how there are tons of players saying "single player is the only way of playing"), Valve gets money from previously-free emoticons. Looking forward what will be next.
Comment has been collapsed.
If the trading card system did not come along you would not have any emoticons. Tell me how that is better. Plus, the emoticons that exist for free elsewhere are just regular smilies and that sort of thing. They are not as nice and varied as Steam offers.
Comment has been collapsed.
Not to mention that those emoticons are branded products derived from Valve's (or other companies) intellectuall propierty. Why wouldn't them have to be free?
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't use Facebook so I don't know their emoticon selection, but I sure as hell bet it doesn't feature pictures and items from your favourite games, nor as wide a selection as Steam will one day have. And again, Steam has never offered so much as a smiley-face. This is extra and OPTIONAL. Besides, the emoticons and backgrounds are ridiculously cheap unless you're trying to collect them all.
Furthermore, Valve is hardly making piles of cash on ANY of this. They give people cards, for free. If you just want the emoticons or backgrounds you can easily trade cards or even TF2 items (another thing Valve gives you for free) for said emoticons and backgrounds. If you DO choose to sell them on the market or buy them on the market, Valve makes a few pennies on the dollar.
"Valve's thievery" indeed. They give us something new, for free, and people still bitch.
Comment has been collapsed.
"Valve makes a few pennies on the dollar"
Ok I am actually interested in knowing how much does steam make money on market fees so i made little ruby script that browse steam market, visists page of every item listing on market, extracts amount of item sold yesterday and calculates it's fee from price (and multiplies it with item count). There might be (and are for sure) some bugs in the script as i made it fast for demonstration not for extensive usage. But it should be working correctly in general.
You can run it yourself and wait for it to parse all 1430 market items. It'll take up a while. So far i am at page 59 and from fees for trading items on first 59 pages valve made 247€ yesterday. Just on fees. It'll be more when script finish.
So far i can say this:
So from game with 8 cards valve will earn:
From ONE game. At the moment cards are in beta and there is only 11 games. So at the moment valve gets from market fees on trading cards around:
That is if there was only 11 games with STC forever.
So this is the reason why i call this thievery. There are no expenses on this feature (except the salary of the programmer who implemented it and that one is one time payment) because this feature does not require separate server and runs on server where steam site runs (as it's part of the site). And content is made by other developers for free. So every game that implements it will make thousands of € for valve. And valve doesnt have to do shit. Just watch the money flow on their accounts.
So this is my reply for "few cents from a dollar" part :)
Edit: I am at page 77 and got ~343.88€ from yesterday's fees so far. 66 pages more to go.
Edit2: Page 88 and have ~475.42€ from yesterday's fees
Edit3: page 97 -> ~565.22€ from yesterday's fees
Edit4: page 110 -> ~661.95€ from yesterday's fees
Comment has been collapsed.
You did not calculate just those fees associated with cards though. That's really the relevant data, though I do think your achievement with the program is impressive nonetheless.
As for selling items in general, think about it like this. Valve gives everyone items for free, whether it be TF2 hats, Dota gear, or trading cards. Now, people want to sell those things for money. Valve says OK, you can do that and we'll continue to give you things you can sell for money, but you have to give us a small cut on the things you got for FREE. Not only that, they offer a safer alternative to PayPal trading for those that are too squeamish to trust someone to send something outside the trade window. They're adding value here in a number of ways.
Comment has been collapsed.
Not sure how you could get vintage TF2 items, but AFAIK nothing that is on a Steammarket can be obtained for free (well, outside of getting them as gift, but that means someone else had to pay anyway). Most genuine items comes from preorders (which means you have to pay more for game, since you can always find someone who sells it cheaper than Steam). AFAIK, other stuff is from crates (need money/trading for keys) or steam in-game shops.
Only cards can be obtained for free.
Comment has been collapsed.
Cards are free drops. Some of the Dota 2 items are free drops. Some of the TF2 items (paints, name tags, description tags) are free drops. Many of the other Dota 2 and TF2 items can be easily gotten by trading what you get for free in game for those items. That includes genuine items.
Comment has been collapsed.
No idea about DOTA2. Never knew TF2 dropped any kind of tools (paints, tags), only standard, not-steam-marketable weapons and "once in a million" a hat.
I don't think anyone will trade standard weapons for genuine items (you might be lucky with hats, through), but I'm not into TF2 and it's traders, so you might be right.
Comment has been collapsed.
You can sell those annoying TF2 crates - and more than enough people get them for free.
I think some hats are also tradeable by now, and those also drop for free (not very frequently, but free nonetheless).
As for vintage weapons: all normal weapons turned vintage when the Mann-Connomy update was released.
And ever heard of Dota 2 invites? You could get into the beta free and you got your invites for free (some more, some less of them) and you can sell them on the market.
Steam trading card beta invites - also free and also marketable.
Genuine Robot Chicken hat - free.
Genuine Faerie Solitaire pin - free for over 20k users on SG.
Comment has been collapsed.
Can't sell anything outside of genuines and vintages on Steammarket, TF2 drops are still not-marketable (outside of crates, which beside special crates are worth nothing, but ok, they are free).
Card beta invites - they are part of cards, but ok, I could make it clearer.
You're right about those two genuines, but those are 2 items in a sea of pay-to-sell stuff.
But those are exception that proves the rule :) (rule saying only valuable free thing from steam are cards, outside of few nearly not-obtainable stuff).
Comment has been collapsed.
I dont but a lot of people are excited about it and its a fun little thing they can do so whatever.
Comment has been collapsed.
15,541 Comments - Last post 20 minutes ago by devotee
14 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by VahidSlayerOfAll
153 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by marilynhanson
1,498 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by SeefKroy
14 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by PoeticKatana
19 Comments - Last post 3 hours ago by Comiclove
79 Comments - Last post 4 hours ago by freshduke
52 Comments - Last post 2 minutes ago by BrandeX
2 Comments - Last post 2 minutes ago by icaio
324 Comments - Last post 10 minutes ago by Megamind9
153 Comments - Last post 34 minutes ago by ERROR989
156 Comments - Last post 37 minutes ago by Zlia
48 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Arcsurvivor
66 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by CrabdaddyLonglegs
If you are not bothered about a badge, which is a tiny cosmetic feature, why don't you just sell all your cards, and buy a background and emoticon cheap on the market?
You'd get most of the benefits and make a profit! You can get the XP for your level from doing the Community Ambassador badge so you wouldn't lose that either...
Comment has been collapsed.