Tell me, Gabe, when did Steam the Trustworthy abandon reason for greed?

[TTV/madao_sensei]

It seems that Steam decided to take advice from the Grinch and gave us a big, bitter Christmas gift by removing the free cards from the Discovery Queue. Now, we are graced with the opportunity to spend even more to earn something as "valuable" as a virtual card.
Tell me, Steam, isn’t 30% on each game enough? Haven’t we spent enough feeding your coffers this year to deserve this small privilege, which doesn’t affect you in any way?
Are you trying to remind us that Epic Games is right there, one step away, eager to overtake you and begging for our credit card? The same Epic Games that, right now, is giving away free games to everyone. Are you, Steam, trying to show us that, once friendly and fair with your customers, you have now succumbed to greed?
A simple decision to stop distributing something as trivial as a few cards could, one day, turn a competitor once considered defeated into a colossus, because what history has taught us is that an empire doesn’t last forever; every great domain, no matter how strong, eventually succumbs to the weight of its own arrogance and decadence.
And if you agree with Steam’s decision to remove the cards from the Discovery Queue, keep your hands away from the keyboard. I won’t waste time arguing with a fool.

[jerk store]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

The vast majority of the older sale cards sold for only $0.03 on the Market.

Right now, they are selling for at least 5x that amount.

Seems like Valve made the best choice, getting a larger cut of each sale and the sellers getting more per sale by making them more scarce.

:nkCool:

3 cent after steam taxed it 50%, you need to learn how to tell the whole story to people. How much is paying you?

[Start_Running]

Well.. think of how much the cards will sell for now that they can't be farmed across multiple accounts.

[nullable]

Watching people meltdown over pennies is pretty hilarious. I always hope for some sale drama, and no matter how small users always find a way to make mountains out of anthills.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Seraphita:

OR people skipped games to get cards faster.

There were scripts to go through the discovery queue in a click to redeem the cards.
People weren't even paying attention to the queue contents.

Steam has this thing where they add tons of noise to a feature just for the sake of generating engagement. It takes usually years for them to recognize the noise to signal ratio is too high.

They made it with the discussions post badge task.
They made it with the free cards per discovery queue cycle.
They're making it with the Steam comment awards.

[KiRA]

Steam is the worst thing that happened to PC gaming. Single reason why disc based games disapeared. And every game needed a online launcher.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by KiRA:

Steam is the worst thing that happened to PC gaming. Single reason why disc based games disapeared. And every game needed a online launcher.

Disc based games would have dissapeared regardless of Steam existing.

[Seraphita]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

There were scripts to go through the discovery queue in a click to redeem the cards.
People weren't even paying attention to the queue contents.

Steam has this thing where they add tons of noise to a feature just for the sake of generating engagement. It takes usually years for them to recognize the noise to signal ratio is too high.

They made it with the discussions post badge task.
They made it with the free cards per discovery queue cycle.
They're making it with the Steam comment awards.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if you agree or disagree with what I said. The way you say it seems to say that you think that it was a bad thing, anyway. I personally didn't know people botted card rewards. Maybe this is entirely why steam removed the feature.

[KiRA]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by KiRA:

Steam is the worst thing that happened to PC gaming. Single reason why disc based games disapeared. And every game needed a online launcher.

Disc based games would have dissapeared regardless of Steam existing.

Nope it was one of Valves own initiative to go from a product basis to a service based industry.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by KiRA:

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Disc based games would have dissapeared regardless of Steam existing.

Nope it was one of Valves own initiative to go from a product basis to a service based industry.

It was literally being done before Valve released Steam.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by Seraphita:

I mean, steam is trying to sell games, not just show you them. So if you want cards, you buy games. Sounds plausible and reasonable to me.

That's not how marketing works.

The reason for the free cards is to drive engagement and get eyes on. Then you use that captured attention to drive sales.

If people are coming back to get free cards each day, then they are having new products (and that is what these games are), put in front of their eyes each day. So they might end up seeing something interesting and purchasing something that they had not previously considered.

This is the same reason why cash registers tend to have low-priced eye-catching goods stored around them, such as magazines and candy bars. Because they have your eyes on, so they are trying to get that one last purchase before you leave the store.

This is basic marketing strategy, and it has been accepted as such for like a century or more.

[Gray]

I think a lot of the disappointment stems from Steam just slowly taking the fun out of itself. You can look down your nose at those that are upset about it all you want. "The cards don't matter!" "You're not giving me free things, waaahh!" I hear those a lot. But the point is that it's just slowly dying away for, yes, greater profits. There used to be winter and summer games for everyone, like the auto-clicker Saliens game. Those are gone. The cards were fun! Even if you don't think so, others did. Getting another badge was something to look forward to for many. It was something that you could participate in without spending money. And it's gone now. What's next? What's left to take away?

[Anthony "Jeet" Coast]

muh digital cards, oh no, how will i show off to my digital friends

[Akakun]

Originally posted by Gray:

I think a lot of the disappointment stems from Steam just slowly taking the fun out of itself. You can look down your nose at those that are upset about it all you want. "The cards don't matter!" "You're not giving me free things, waaahh!" I hear those a lot. But the point is that it's just slowly dying away for, yes, greater profits. There used to be winter and summer games for everyone, like the auto-clicker Saliens game. Those are gone. The cards were fun! Even if you don't think so, others did. Getting another badge was something to look forward to for many. It was something that you could participate in without spending money. And it's gone now. What's next? What's left to take away?

Recieving points from awards. I can see it already.

[Skullmonkeys44]

Absolutely true, agreeing on the fact that Valve is losing interest in doing it for the ppl.

card pack aren't flooding the market, same level each year... yet player base and accounts keep going up. they cap the maximum of random loot that can be given

you don't buy anything worth more than 5 bucks every year... NUH UUH no more community market or trades !

also, i really think Valve got bored of trying things out.
buggy mess, remember the SALIEN war event ?

i also remember event with task to do, to get free cards and a badge... but nope, gone.
every year, you could get the seasonal badge by doing things like, review a game, play a game or post a screenshot...etc.

But they lost hope after the salien stuff i guess.
FUNNIEST THING THOUGH, is how the steam massive overload of connection (19 dec) was making steam store a nogo for a long time.

it cleared out in a few hours when ppl just found it that there was pityfull sales and no event.

now, just sh*t up and vote for game awards, look at your yearly retrospective and like the seasonal garbage emotes. and be happy we give you that.


And for those who are like "you're worked up for just unconsequential digital cards ? bruh !". like the Joker said : "it's not for the money, it's to send a message"

*clap*
i'm happy to have stayed 17.5 years on this plateforme to see the day where i cannot find any joy to play games, nor hype to buy them.

Merry Christmas anyways to y'all who read this

[Mailer]

Chances are the free cards were abused so much by account creation and scripting that Valve saw it wiser to preserve the value of the cards a bit. In my opinion this was inevitable with the arms race of users constantly trying to abuse everything that is given for free, no matter how small.

At least now you actually stand a chance at selling them on the market.