Epic fail or how Steam did cure my addiction

[Randall Flagg]

It’s time for summer sale again. Huge discounts, great new releases and chances to make good deals and grab one or the other game cheaply. It is also time for collecting trading cards and leveling up your account. So if you have a real life and are not the kind of nerd who is online (in steam) 24/7 you still might consider to launch that Steam app on your smart phone. Convenient way to monitor the discounted software, which is offered for a specific time only. Argh. But what, you are requested to type in a verification code AGAIN. Sent by old school email. Let’s disable that annoying feature called Steam Guard on your mobile. Good enough you have it on your PC. So back home you check your trading cards and want to complete a set by releasing a buy order on the market. Ups, not possible. What has happened? Your steam client shows steam guards is still active on your computer. So might be a hiccup from the settings you changed on your mobile. So what will you do? What does helpdesk always recommend? What do you tell your relatives, when they ask you for IT support? “Turn it off and on again.” - EPIC FAIL

Now you are blocked for 15 days (if you are lucky) from market. You f*cked it up already changing the settings on your mobile. What about the summer sales running out in a few days? You are only missing one trading card for the next badge and the twenty residing in your inventory will soon disappear? Your blood pressure is increasing. Think. Think. What to do now? Ask a friend to buy that card for you and gift trade it to you? Not possible. Buy from trading bot instead? Not possible. You are totally F*CKED. But listen, it is for your own protection. Of cause you still are allowed to load credits to your steam wallet and buy games through that. But no trading. No cards. No life. Sounds more STEAM is protecting itself of any possible fraud. But honestly… this concept is bonkers. Or I just did not get it. You have email-verification, credit card verification (including credit assessment), two path authentication, etc. So WTF…

Finally I understood. This is just a therapy. Medicine. A forced prescription. A cure to trading cards. You are addicted. You need to learn it the hard way. To read the warnings. To not carelessly click on any buttons. To RTFM. To think. To think about all this commercial madness. Do you really need to get a level 100 batch? Waste money for no good. Just to satisfy your addiction. Steam does everything to help you to detox. They really care about you. So focus on gaming and ignore the other BS. You can do it. I know it. Be strong. Be a man, not a boy. Protect yourself. Reset your steam guard now!!