14 DAY TRIAL // Valve released the Steam Trading Cards system to all the users of its digital distribution service this week, allowing anyone with a valid Steam account and with games that have support for the new mechanic to start accumulating card drops.
The new system had been in closed beta for some time and, during that period, the number of games with support for the mechanic quickly grew from just a few core Valve-developed ones to big triple-A titles like Borderlands 2 or smaller, independent games..
The system, while a bit complex, is fairly easy to explain with an example.
Each game has a certain number of cards in its collection and for our example let's say there are 10 cards that can be dropped.
Each owner of the game can only earn half of those cards by playing it regularly, aka only 5 can be unlocked.
To complete the collection, Steam users must either trade with others for the cards they want, or simply buy them from the Market.
Once a collection is complete, it can be forged, resulting in a badge that brings an increase to the account's Steam level, but also in chat emoticons, profile backgrounds, and discount coupons for other games.
While that's quite fine, once you earn a card you can also choose to directly sell it via the Steam Market, instead of trying to complete your collection. If another player buys it, you get a share of the final price, while 10% goes to the developer and 5% goes to Valve.
This is where Valve's so-called "manipulation" comes into play, as no matter what you do, the company is winning, as it forces players either to buy or at least trade things in order to complete their collections, or to sell the cards as soon as they get them.
This isn't a bad thing, as I, for example, am more than eager to sell the cards received from the multitude of games I own. Most of them I barely even played but I'm thrilled that I can at least recoup a part of the investment I made when I bought them from Steam.
What do you think about the new Steam Trading Cards? Are you completing collections or just selling the drops you got from your games? Share your thoughts below.