Just announced: Steam Trading Cards

primesuspect

This is certainly something new.

Introducing Steam Trading Cards. Steam Trading Cards are virtual cards earned by playing games on Steam. Sets of cards can be turned into game badges and tradable Steam community items.
Play any of the participating Trading Cards Beta games to get trading cards. Up to half the card set is dropped through game play, the other half is earned through your collecting prowess.

BobbyDigi

Damn it.

shwaip

Can we get hats for our trading cards?

PirateNinja

Y dey do dis to our poor @BobbyDigi

d3k0y

Trade your hats for cards, then your cards in for hats, then those hats into boxes, but then the boxes for keys, then those keys for other cards for games.

Its going to be like exchange rate trading.

PirateNinja

Steam needs a futures market.

AlexDeGruven

Don't even go there. Now that you've thought of it, this will materialize and we'll never see Digi's face again.

PirateNinja

I have a few invites for those who want them.

cola

I want a hat with badges on it

Thrax

#cards

Cliff_Forster

Something about trading cards always appealed to my mild case of OCD. Sorting, collecting, trading. I may enjoy this.

_k

When is this starting? What is the random drop rate? Why haven't I gotten one in my idle accounts yet?

Be calm my heart. I am screaming yu-gi-oh every time I find one of these because I have the heart of the cards.

PirateNinja

You have to join the group, then hope you get an invite to the beta program. I joined, I got an invite, and I have two invites left to to give out. Once you are in the beta program you start seeing the drops.

CB

I searched the FAQ for this question, but I'm still unsure of the answer: Are the drops retro-active, or do I have to play the games again to get them?

BobbyDigi

I can confirm these are very much so not retroactive at this time:

PirateNinja

You play games to get up to 1/2 of them. They are dropped based on play time. The other half you have to trade for. That's the gig folks.
edit: If you are Steam level 10 or above you can get foil cards and foil badges as a result, just sayin.

BHHammy

Just to clarify- all of these features you're unlocking with these "STEAM Levels" or whatever ARE things that you -don't- have under the current layout, correct?

It would kind of be a big dick move to yoink away basic program functionality to dangle in front of folks just to get them to participate in your big social experiment, IMO.

PirateNinja

Yes, you level up to unlock things on your profile page and grant access to rare foil cards. None of the existing features have been removed.

The whole thing is largely done to try and get people trading and toying around with new social features. There are some rumors about limits on the amount of cards you can have in your inventory, which would indicate a monetization strategy as the cards are already up on the marketplace where Steam takes cuts. Same goes for the fact that you have to trade in order to get a complete set.

Regardless, it's just silly little things you unlock. Example:
You collect all 9 TF2 cards. You build a TF2 Badge with them. Now you can select, from a list of TF2 images, one for the background on your steam profile.
Steam will likely never make it so you can use your own image on your profile.

It's all just for fun. Oh, and $

Zanthian

It sounds like they felt the need to compete with raptr on the levels thing.

_k

The one nice feature with the card drops. They tell you how many drops are remaining for you.

Bandrik

PirateNinja said:

It's all just for fun. Oh, and $

I love how this image continues to be relevant.

CB

Steam knows how long we have played each game. Not getting the cards retroactively for our existing playtime feels like being cheated.

I get that it would flood the market, but it kind of sucks that people who have played Portal 2, for example, until all possible gaming has been wrung from it's very soul, will go without Portal 2 cards. :/

PirateNinja

CB said:

Steam knows how long we have played each game. Not getting the cards retroactively for our existing playtime feels like being cheated.

I get that it would flood the market, but it kind of sucks that people who have played Portal 2, for example, until all possible gaming has been wrung from it's very soul, will go without Portal 2 cards. :/

I rarely disagree with you, but in this case that is like saying you deserve hl3 for free just because you played hl2 a lot. This is an expansion on Valve's social network, and it has nothing to do with their content with the slight exception that it is the first set of content they have control over and can try this on. They are making a new meta game, and if you want to see the credits you have to pass the game. It's as if you entered a new authorship contest, and said but I've written before so why don't I deserve the prize already? It's a new contest meant to bring on new players. Not that hl3 will ever come out, ofc.

Thrax

I don't see the point or value.

PirateNinja

On a personal level, but surely you understand what's going on macro?

Thrax

They're trying to suck people into the Steam service with a Skinner Box of no material value. Check. Got it. Crystal. But for the time I anticipate it will take to invest oneself into all these meager rewards... well... have fun with that.

PirateNinja

On a straight up monetary American Washingtons per hour, yes people are probably slaving over this at perhaps .20$/hr to get this stuff. There are two contrasting values here though. What Valve gets in dollars, and what people get in fun which can be converted to dollars using some arbitrary scale.

The point is, it isn't about logic or $/time. It is about Valve trying new things, likely making an excellent income from it, and consumers having a lot of fun playing along. Obviously if your mind is on your money and you are a logical being you won't go for this. I sacrificed a fair amount of opportunity cost this evening getting Steam cards and obviously lost money vs. what I could have made working my day job. It isn't about that though. Anystuff, I get it isn't for you. But hopefully you see how this makes perfect sense for Valve.

BobbyDigi

My prediction is this is just another no value beta for the big bucks later. Like Hats in TF2, Valve learned how to run trading in an environment where if a mistake was made they could simply produce/delete items. Then once they were comfortable with the system, they monetized it with the market and introducing game trading.

These cards are worthless now (though Valve is making money right out the gate by putting them on the Market), but they will lay the framework for;

-Magic The Gathering 2015 to allow a Steam inventory of cards.

-A digital version of those old school swipe to play games. Maybe a game like Street Fighter where you can earn, buy or trade for your fighters.

-Digital card packs. Games like MTG already do this but Valve will make money hand over fist by selling random Steam card packs. Free random TF2 item with every purchase.

Going to be fun to see what Valve has in store for this.

Bandrik

Some people buy new Xbox games just to increase their Xbox Gamerscore points. Therefore, I can see people buying up Steam games just to collect more hats cards. That's added value for Valve.

_k

This is actually rather lame since the card drops do not reset. If you get all of your drops to be unique then you are stuck with no spares to trade, pay to increase steam level. This could be the new bling for market place traders, their MASSIVE STEAM LEVEL...so big.

PirateNinja

Well I officially, completely, stopped caring. I think all of you were right.