Steam Trading Cards Officially Revealed

[Lobster]

Following a week of speculation and rumour, Valve have officially announced the beta of Steam Trading Cards, a new feature that will allow players to earn and trade rewards using their games and Community Profile. Also included is a major cosmetic update for the Steam Community, offering players better ways to personalise the look and layout of their profile pages.

Players will be able to obtain the new Trading Cards in two ways. Firstly, by playing any of the participating games on Steam and secondly, by trading with other players in the Steam Community. Currently, the beta allows users to obtain cards using any of the games listed below, with more titles to follow in the coming months:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Don't Starve
• Team Fortress 2
• Portal 2
• Dota 2
• Half-Life 2

Once you have amassed a completed collection of cards, they can be combined to craft a badge specific to that game. These badges will be displayed on your profile page, including one "featured" badge displayed at the top of the page. Badges now also posses an XP value that contributes towards your profile level. Each new level offers certain perks, including increased friends list capacity and Profile Showcases, a new feature that allows you to highlight your favourite games, workshop items, or achievements on your profile page.

Crafting badges will also unlock their own randomised rewards, including coupons for the steam store which offer discounts on Games and DLC; new emoticons for use in your steam chats; and background art for your newly customisable profile page. All of these crafting rewards are tradable. However, they can only be used while you own them.

Profile pages in general have also seen a major update, with a greater emphasis on your personal playing habits and style. Along with customisable background art, information such as achievements, statistics, and community contributions have been organised into blocks which can be highlighted via the new Profile Showcase feature mentioned above.

Invites to the new beta are being released periodically, so be sure to sign up here if you wish to get early access to all the new features.

 

[JossiRossi]

Anyone else bored with EVERYTHING being turned into a game to hide the fact they just want to sell shit?

Sorry to reveal the man behind the curtain and all like that, but seriously.

 

[Karl57]

Anyone else bored with EVERYTHING being turned into a game to hide the fact they just want to sell shit?

Sorry to reveal the man behind the curtain and all like that, but seriously.

Nah, as long as I have fun it does not really matter what valve comes up with.

 

[Ivy-kun~]

I don't know, I'm pretty hyped about this. I'm kind of an OCD collector...

 

[Maestro]

Just when I thought the whole hats/special weapons/other meaningless crap couldn't get any more ridiculous and patronizing.

 

[cavifax]

It's a shame my account is blocked.

 

[Rorschach120]

This is what they are working on instead of HL3??? ARE YOU F**KING SERIOUS VALVE?

 

[Lubci50cal]

HL3 ARG anyone?

 

[chichakman]

When I first started reading this, I thought Valvetime was messing with me....man this just doesn't seem like something that Valve would do...now I'm getting worried...

 

[ríomhaire]

I'm sure everything else Valve was doing has been cancelled just to make way for this and more Dota 2 couriers. Literally every other project has come to a dead stop because Valve consists of a team of five people.

 

[Omnomnick]

I'm sure everything else Valve was doing has been cancelled just to make way for this and more Dota 2 couriers. Literally every other project has come to a dead stop because Valve consists of a team of five people.

You'd think. God forbid they COULD EVER have a work force of around 250-300 people split into a multitude of teams, each with different priorities and tasks.

I can't imagine such a world, I mean Steam must just run and update itself using a self-developing AI created by plugging Gabe's brain into the Valve mainframe and making a virtual copy of his soul.

 

[ríomhaire]

BTW if anyone gets an invite early I wouldn't object you sending it on to me.

 

[ThePerson5]

This is an optional system is it not? If you like it, use it. If you don't like it... ignore it. I'm not sure why this is getting so much anger.

 

[Omnomnick]

This is an optional system is it not? If you like it, use it. If you don't like it... ignore it. I'm not sure why this is getting so much anger.

It gets so much hate from people because they don't understand Valve is made up of nearly 300 people, all of which work on different things including Steam, Dota 2, TF2, CS:GO, L4D2, SteamBox, Linux, game/mechanic prototypes, Source 2, side content like trailers/shorts/comics, etc.

People believe Valve should be 300 people working entirely on the next HL game, which is a ****ing hilarious idea.

 

[Maestro]

This is an optional system is it not? If you like it, use it. If you don't like it... ignore it. I'm not sure why this is getting so much anger.

I'm not angry, I just think it's a way to scam people into spending money on things that don't actually exist. It's like any other online "possession." You don't own it, you just pay money to change some database values on a server somewhere.

 

[aKew]

I don't like that they say something along the lines of "The higher your level, the more you are worth to the community".

 

[Omnomnick]

I don't like that they say something along the lines of "The higher your level, the more you are worth to the community".

...they don't. They talk about "showing off", which is just giving people space to flash their virtual e-peen. The whole update is just about giving people room to customize their profile while showing off their own content, be it screenshots, videos, Greenlight or Workshop.

It mentions something in the FAQ which goes along the line of "How much the person has invested in their Steam account", it doesn't say "More Levels = Better than you low level scrubs".

 

[aKew]

What is the point of my Steam Level?
The Steam Level is a quick way for users to see how much someone has invested in their Steam account, and how valuable that user is to the rest of the Steam Community. We have just a few different ways to get badges right now, but we hope to expand that to include all the different ways users contribute.

But don't get me wrong, I like the new features.

 

[Omnomnick]

"The higher your level, the more you are worth to the community".

...does not equal...
"how valuable that user is to the rest of the Steam Community."

What you said states that an individual with a higher level is more valuable than a lower level player, whereas the real version says that levels could potentially be used by individuals to track usefulness/experience/knowledge.

 

[aKew]

Okay, makes sense now.

 

[Beat Darwin]

I do believe I am ready for the drilled magnesium version of Steam.

 

[Eejit]

I'm not angry, I just think it's a way to scam people into spending money on things that don't actually exist. It's like any other online "possession." You don't own it, you just pay money to change some database values on a server somewhere.

Wait, where do you need to spend money with this system?

 

[Vegeta897]

You don't own it, you just pay money to change some database values on a server somewhere.

And games are just a way to manipulate values stored in your computer's RAM and hard disk.

If it's fun to do, it doesn't need to have any real value at the end of the day. Same goes with almost anything people do for fun, online and in real life.

 

[Rorschach120]

There is no way that only 300 people are working there and a team of 5 more people working on HL3 would probably mean that 5 total people are now working on HL3.

When was the last Half-Life game?

...does not equal...
"how valuable that user is to the rest of the Steam Community."

What you said states that an individual with a higher level is more valuable than a lower level player, whereas the real version says that levels could potentially be used by individuals to track usefulness/experience/knowledge.

So usefulness/experience/knowledge are of no value to the community? You are like Valve's PR guy that doesn't work for Valve. No disrespect intended, I like your reviews, this just seems like defensive fanboyism.

 

[ChiliFan]

There is no way that only 300 people are working there and a team of 5 more people working on HL3 would probably mean that 5 total people are now working on HL3.

When was the last Half-Life game?

Forget Half-Life, there's not going to be a new one any time soon. I think Marc Laidlaw's recent comments show that although he would like there to be another game he doesn't have enough support from the rest of the company to actually make it happen.

 

[Omnomnick]

There is no way that only 300 people are working there and a team of 5 more people working on HL3 would probably mean that 5 total people are now working on HL3.

When was the last Half-Life game?

You want 250-300 people or more working on Half-Life 3? Ever heard of too many cooks spoils the broth? Plus, Valve are a business, and they wouldn't still be in business if it wasn't for everything else they've been doing over the past 10 years and especially the last 6.

So usefulness/experience/knowledge are of no value to the community? You are like Valve's PR guy that doesn't work for Valve. No disrespect intended, I like your reviews, this just seems like defensive fanboyism.

I'm not even sure where you got that idea from, I was basically saying that a person with a high level with loads of game badges with Dota 2, for example, has more likely played a lot more of that game, and is therefore more knowledgeable about it, than someone who has no badges.

 

[Vegeta897]

So usefulness/experience/knowledge are of no value to the community?

Nick is saying these are things that can be used by a person who doesn't know that individual personally, to help determine if they're knowledgeable about something. Just like an employer can use the fact that an applicant has a master's degree in something to help determine if he would be a good hire, even though that's not the only thing they need.

Just because Steam is incapable of quantifying how valuable you actually are to the community, doesn't mean what it can quantify isn't helpful.

 

[Omnomnick]

Nick is saying these are things that can be used by a person who doesn't know that individual personally, to help determine if they're knowledgeable about something. Just like an employer can use the fact that an applicant has a master's degree in something to help determine if he would be a good hire, even though that's not the only thing they need.

Just because Steam is incapable of quantifying how valuable you actually are to the community, doesn't mean what it can quantify isn't helpful.

Exactly, but I would've thought that much was obvious from what I originally said.

 

[ríomhaire]

I have a Half-Life 2 badge. Am I cool now?