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It's trash and I'm using it right now. I'm disgusting and yes, it's trash.

Haven't really been paying attention to the previous discussions, in any case, I didn't request this one but here you go anyway:

I would argue that Steam as a metagame only started in earnest with the introduction of Steam Trading cards and the massive Community overhaul that came with it in 2013. The so-called "gamification" of services had been the talk of the town in Internetland for many years already at this point (i.e., incentivising normal activity and simple tasks with external rewards). Rewards didn't even need to be substantive or meaningful, just throwing out "achievements" and badges and enumerating the user's engagement with the platform in easily trackable stats was enough. At the time, it seemed somewhat ironic that the foremost storefront for PC games was not gamified in this sense, considering how rival stores such as GamersGate already had account leveling and loyalty programs in place designed to encourage spending. So when Steam finally embraced gamification it went full bore, not only introducing account leveling, profile showcases and badges but also tanglible rewards in the form of marketable items that were integrated with its in-house economy and could be monetised within.

Randomised trading cards were rewarded for playing games and badges that could be leveled up by consuming said trading cards, which in turn leveled up the account of the user, led to a feedback loop fueled by continuous purchases of more items and more games. (There's more to it, of course, but I don't think I need to go into more detail here.) Valve takes a cut of the sales of all market items, with a percentage being paid to the developer. The customer gets shiny new badges and stuff, everybody wins. In gamification terms and from a business perspective, the system was brilliant. With the launch of the trading card system, Valve had created an additional significant stream of income seemingly out of thin air. The system, however, would come with a long-term cost that we did not anticipate.

We didn't know then that trading cards and badges would ultimately sound the death knell for Valve's seasonal mini-game like "events" and ARGs that the community had come to enjoy. The previous actual "metagame" required actual engagement and effort to meet in-game goals and achievements in games for rewards (remember Holiday Coal? The grand giveaway of all games sold on Steam? The Potato Sack?). In its place, the new meta of account leveling and badges became a pay to win system that did not require meaningful engagement but significant funds instead. The rewards for your efforts (as menial as just idling your games in the background) and your hard earned cash are, in the end, questionable at best. (There were some notable exceptions and mini-games like the coloured team battle, Christmas auction event and the Summer clicker game, but they were short lived and but a shadow of the former meta).

The death of the old meta was only the first victim of Steam's new gamified turn. The true cost of the new meta has only become fully apparent in relatively recent times. There is little question that the ultimate failure of Greenlight as a means of curation and the opening of the floodgates has led to a dramatic increase in the quantity of available games. It is a sad fact that the quality of a great number, if not the majority, of games for sale today on Steam is sub-par at best, downright atrocious at worst. Many bottom of the barrel games today don't even provide the basic courtesy of loading and actually running. Cheap asset flips that function as little more than mere vessels for the trading card profit machine have overrun the new releases section. It has become needlessly difficult to browse the store and discover actual games worth seeing, discussing, buying and playing. The uncontrolled proliferation of bad games coupled with externally incentivised rewards for their acquisition has finally turned the positive feedback loop into a devil's bargain of a vicious cycle.

Discovery queue, Steam Curators, community tags and user reviews are a step in the right direction, but not enough to tackle the fundamental problem. (Not to mention that user reviews come with their own set of minor to major pitfalls, with sometimes devastating effects for developers and consumers alike that I won't go into further detail here). What Valve really needs to do, is ditch its obsession with automation and crowdsourcing its problems, and hire actual human beings to wade through and clean up the cesspool before Steam collapses under the weight of its own mediocrity. If we want to play digital dumpster diving on a grand scale, Google Play and iTunes are just but a few taps away. Both are double-plus-ungood and decidedly unfun. I doubt that is what anyone wants Steam to become. (Although it can be argued that is what it has become already.)

On the positive side, we have Steam Workshop (once in danger of being run aground by paid mods, the spectre of which is still dormant and not yet completely banished), Steam Hardware (the Steam Controller and Steam Link are both great, I'll fight you if you disagree), longer lasting daily deals (48 hours from 24 hours), and most notable of all, the introduction of refunds. The latter is arguably the best thing to happen to Steam, ever.

With the growth of Steam and its brand, the other notable meta of aspiring to own a game on Steam versus owning the exact same thing on a rival platform (Uplay, Origin, GOG, Itch.io, etc.) is a strange phenomenon of brand loyalty that is hard to explain. PC gamers like to trumpet the superiority of their platform compared to the consoles, and yet many die-hard "no Steam, no buy" loyalists voluntarily lock themselves to a single ecosystem, much to their own detriment. More people than I would care to mention refuse to even consider games that are only available on a different platform, or not at all on Steam. These noobs need to git gud, and by that, I mean they need to stop playing the Steam meta for the meta's sake. Snap out of it. You're just making it worse for everyone, including yourselves.

A couple more suggestions for the next topics if you need them: Pony Island, Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery, Bioshock Infinite. (Also, I've played my Wall of Text card, so won't be repeating that anytime soon).

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