Steam Trading Cards discussion

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:52 pm

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered added

(I still need to play this, maybe now is the time!)

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:35 pm

It's decent if you can stand quick time events. Not much like Omikron at all. I still need to play Heavy Rain.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:40 pm

Are they related?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:50 pm

Same developer. I really enjoyed the story...until the ending. But I'd still recommend it.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue May 08, 2018 5:43 am

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue May 08, 2018 9:00 am

That's...impressive.

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Tue May 08, 2018 4:03 pm

The DLC count is looking a little weak. Step up your game son!

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu May 24, 2018 1:06 pm

I don't think there are any cards, but there's a badge to earn for this new "Spring Cleaning" event STEAM just scheduled. Looks like they want to get people playing games instead of just hoarding them.

Dust off that library of games and uncover something new, during the Steam Spring Cleaning Event!

Earn a new badge for your Steam profile by playing selected games already in your Steam library, or by trying out something new from an assortment of games with a great history on Steam available for free this weekend!

More info here

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri May 25, 2018 2:48 pm

The page will tell you which games you have that will count. Pretty easy to just run the games and close them. The most annoying thing was downloading Half-Life which is only 4GB.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri May 25, 2018 3:07 pm

Yeah, I haven't found it to be a problem. I am quite curious to see what's in the mystery boxes.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri May 25, 2018 3:40 pm

It's probably either a coupon or card. I'm not getting my hopes up for anything more interesting.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:53 pm

I’m finally doing something I’ve needed to do for a long time. Indie Gala was the last bundle site where I needed to break my mindless addiction. Humble and Fanatical aren’t a “problem” because they are less frequent than Indie Gala and include good games. But Indie Gala has been on a 3-a-week cycle for $3-$4 each for quite a while now, and nine times out of ten the bundle is 10-12 games that are ALL crap, not one single thing worth trying. And I’ve been buying them anyway because, we’ll, it’s crap I didn’t have. So in the last week or so I’ve skipped a few bundles from them, which is all I had to do to break the habit, make a new rule. Now I’ll only buy a bundle if there’s a game in it that I know I’d pay that price for if it were the only game.

Part of what made up my mind was a day when I’d gotten behind and had 100 keys to enter from IG and they were all garbage. That’s a lot of $3 flushed down the drain. Yay for breaking bad habits.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 11:13 pm

Well, badge crafting is now in that window of dropping cards for the sale rather than coupons, so here it comes.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 12:08 pm

Awesome. All signs point to this Thursday (6/21) so I guess it's time to prepare...

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:33 pm

So Evolve 2 is disappearing in September, but trading cards were just added? Cash grab, I guess. Very strange.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sat Sep 08, 2018 11:45 pm

The Norwood Suite added a few days ago FYI.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:23 pm

Everyone else notice that you aren't having to confirm card sales on the app anymore?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:33 am

JetFred wrote: ↑Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:23 pm Everyone else notice that you aren't having to confirm card sales on the app anymore?

Nope, as of tonight, I still have to confirm.

Your VIP status has perks!

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:19 pm

Weird. This sale is set up so you can get 11 cards today by voting and clicking through your queue three times.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:33 am

I just discovered "IdleMaster"... something that tricks Steam into giving up all the cards your game should give you... without actually playing them.

https://github.com/JonasNilson/idle_mas ... d/releases

According to my stats, I have 447 card drops remaining. Hmmm...

EDIT: Down to 445, already got 2 cards (of games I don't even have installed)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:08 pm

I wouldn’t risk a ban over cards.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:07 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:08 pm I wouldn’t risk a ban over cards.

I don't play online, and thus VAC ban wouldn't affect me any way.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:11 am

Are you currently idling every single game in your library? Your "now playing" message has been changing on my desktop notifications for like 30 minutes now.

EDIT: 90 minutes later and it's still updating with new "Now playing". I mean, really.

DOUBLE EDIT: 2 hours later is when I figured out how to disable "Now playing" notifications. It's under the Friends/Chat options, not general settings.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:51 pm

Yes.

Left it active over night, got 114 cards in the deal.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 9:33 pm

If you can imagine how devastating a ban would be to me, you understand why I won't do that.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri Oct 04, 2019 11:12 pm

JetFred wrote: ↑Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:53 pm I’m finally doing something I’ve needed to do for a long time. Indie Gala was the last bundle site where I needed to break my mindless addiction. Humble and Fanatical aren’t a “problem” because they are less frequent than Indie Gala and include good games. But Indie Gala has been on a 3-a-week cycle for $3-$4 each for quite a while now, and nine times out of ten the bundle is 10-12 games that are ALL crap, not one single thing worth trying. And I’ve been buying them anyway because, we’ll, it’s crap I didn’t have. So in the last week or so I’ve skipped a few bundles from them, which is all I had to do to break the habit, make a new rule. Now I’ll only buy a bundle if there’s a game in it that I know I’d pay that price for if it were the only game.

Part of what made up my mind was a day when I’d gotten behind and had 100 keys to enter from IG and they were all garbage. That’s a lot of $3 flushed down the drain. Yay for breaking bad habits.

As proof that I slowed down on bundles, I was adding 1000 games (much of it garbage) about every 5-6 months. I think this time it took almost a year and a half. And I was at least halfway to the next 1000 before I slowed down.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Oct 05, 2019 12:16 pm

Not to derail your positive vibes, but have you verified that the number of bundles available / titles available hasn't diminished? I know it feels like there's lots shovelware on STEAM (there is), but I was also under the impression they started clamping down and it peaked and has now declined (number of new titles). Maybe I'm making that up though. Either way...still an impressive effort.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Sun Oct 06, 2019 12:44 pm

Valid, but Groupees and Indie Gala were two of my addictions, and they continue to offer multiple bundles each week, which I am now almost completely avoiding. There are definitely fewer successful little small-time bundle sites.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Oct 06, 2019 12:55 pm

Ahh, Fanatical is about as far as I'll go (I buy my 3rd party keys from them and Green Man) and they regularly offer bundles of games I've never heard of in the ~$5 range. As I recall, the sites you mentioned had lots of $1 bundles so I'd imagine you could overload yourself rather quickly.

I'm still surprised they trading card program exists as originally launched. I'm half expecting "second edition" cards to start, giving Valve a whole additional cash injection for imaginary things.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Mon Oct 07, 2019 7:33 pm

I'm at $1,180 net positive for cards. I rarely let games idle anymore unless I want something very cheap.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Oct 07, 2019 7:43 pm

I really wish I was better about maintaining what I made, but that data is long gone. I also actually like crafting badges (for games I enjoyed), so that certainly eats into the profits.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue Oct 08, 2019 12:19 am

Yeah, I'm accounting for that when I say net. I didn't get level 73 by selling every card.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 31, 2021 12:28 pm

Posting here mostly to document it - I know that no one cares about trading cards anymore.

However, I've just learned that if you get a game for free on STEAM, you do not get access to the trading cards it would drop. I am not sure if this includes games acquired through free promotions outside of STEAM that can be activated on their platform, but apparently they've tweaked there system to stop people from getting free games and then making money off card drops.

Not that I know anyone that would do that...

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Mon May 31, 2021 1:03 pm

Hey, my current net (not gross) of $1200 credit has barely increased in a couple of years.

Chraolic · Post by **Chraolic** » Mon May 31, 2021 4:41 pm

I'm pretty sure most of Valve's community market revenue comes from money launderers nowadays, I just don't know how they get the money out of the system afterwards. https://steamcommunity.com/market/listi ... 20Postcard

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Mon May 31, 2021 7:06 pm

What is the definition of a free game in this context?

Free - All the games people on here exchange around Xmas time are free to the recipient (if I pay for a game and give it to Jetfred so it's free to him, does that mean he can't earn steam cards?).

Promo's? If you buy our Game the 5th, we'll throw in Game the 4th edition free! (So, game the 4th edition is free, no cards?)

Just curious. It's trivial money, but I still get/sell all the cards that my games do produce.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 31, 2021 8:18 pm

I'm not entirely sure - that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Right now if the game is free for X number of days on STEAM and you pick up a copy, there are no trading cards associated with getting the game added to your account. That's all I know for sure.

If someone gets a free key outside of STEAM and you register it with them, that's really the next big one to see.

If you pay for the game and give it to someone, that's not the same - you paid for it, but your gift recipient will get access to the cards (because at some point, STEAM knows it was paid for).

I'm honestly a little surprised they cracked down on it, but I guess with "free money" involved (albeit pennies at this point) maybe it all adds up.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon May 31, 2021 11:25 pm

I have come to suspect that the increased power/heat/wattage that ramps up your video card and computer when idling these games for cards eats into profits pretty quickly.

Assuming .13/kWh, and maybe an hour or two of idling per game?

I guess it depends on what video card you have , and how big/efficient your PSU is.

Chraolic · Post by **Chraolic** » Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:30 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 11:25 pm I have come to suspect that the increased power/heat/wattage that ramps up your video card and computer when idling these games for cards eats into profits pretty quickly.

Assuming .13/kWh, and maybe an hour or two of idling per game?

I guess it depends on what video card you have , and how big/efficient your PSU is.

There are programs that do it all for you, they even switch games automatically until you've got all the cards you are eligible for. Steam just needs to think you're playing the games, you don't actually have to do it or anything. Although if anyone had told me ten years ago I'd be pretending to play games while I'm at work to make a few bucks I'd probably have thought they were utterly crazy.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:23 pm

Oh I'm sure my actual net is zero at best after power bill, but no one can prove it, so stop wrecking my fantasy.