Steam "Cards"

[Trippy]

Wait.  Hats?  I LOVE hats.  Where are the hats?

In Team Fortress 2.

[Kail]

Agreed with most of your points Rokal. They should have tied the cards to achievements or something, instead of just "launch game, wait, receive cards".

IMO, they could maybe tie your overall Steam Level to achievements somehow (like gamerscore or something) but trading cards look like they serve a slightly different purpose.

For one thing, they appear to be super easy to implement.  Even ancient games that the original programmers haven't touched in decades, like System Shock 2, can support them really easily, apparently.  Even though putting in achievements evidently would have been too much work for them.

For another, it's good for the whole "Steam Backlog" problem where people have mountains of games they never play.  It's a system that encourages players to dip a toe in to more of the games they buy.  Previous sales did this, too, by tying achievements to the sale itself, but the trading card thing works even without the sale.  Since you can't max your cards out (even for a level 1 badge) on your favorite game, anyone who wants to show their e-peen for that game needs to either pay real money or trade cards from games they care less about... but to get those cards, they have to play those other games.  It's a way to be "advancing" in game X while playing game Y.

The whole system is designed around the idea of getting players to trade cards.  If you could just play Borderlands 2 for 100 hours to get everything, that's what everyone would do, and you wouldn't have to trade, and Valve wouldn't get their cut.

[calapine]

Thanks for the reply RK. I know about how to see what friends have cards, but I hoped there was a smarter to do it. I hate bugging others and being a nuisance by randomly spamming people asking for stuff. Especially as a big chunk of my steam list are F13 members I hardly know.

"Hi Lantyssa. We haven't talked in months, but now that I need something from you....How is it going? Good? Here too. So now, about those cards you have...."

[calapine]

To get the ball rolling, I currently have the following Summer Sale cards in duplicate and am willing to part with them for other cards, or in lieu of that, a 'Oh thanks, Cala. You're the best!':

[Trippy]

To get the ball rolling, I currently have the following Summer Sale cards in duplicate and am willing to part with them for other cards, or in lieu of that, a 'Oh thanks, Cala. You're the best!':

I'll trade you a Dead Island Riptide for a Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

[Lantyssa]

I've got Dead Island Riptide and Skyrim extra.  All I need is Football Manager.

Also two extra Azuras in the Skyrim set (need anything but Mehrunes Dagon), and an extra Keith Preston in Tropico 4 (don't need Penultimo or General Rod).

[Llyse]

I need a skyrim, will trade you in 8 hours if you're online then Lantyssa for a Football manager if you haven't traded by then!

[Paelos]

I have like 4 extra Summer Skyrim cards because RNG 

[5150]

I must be doing it wrong, I launched both Mount & Blade: Warband and System Shock 2 (both of which apparently have cards) and got nada :-(

[murdoc]

I must be doing it wrong, I launched both Mount & Blade: Warband and System Shock 2 (both of which apparently have cards) and got nada :-(

I think you have to let them run for 10-15 minutes or so before you get the cards. And by run, I mean sit at the main screen menu.

[Lantyssa]

30 minutes, I believe.  I tend to let my games idle overnight or when I'm at work.

[Segoris]

Random drops are random. It could give you a card in 5 minutes, it could not give you one for 2 hours. Just let the games run like Lant is saying

[Ceryse]

Random drops are random. It could give you a card in 5 minutes, it could not give you one for 2 hours. Just let the games run like Lant is saying

I've been running a lot of games at the menu screen to get the cards while I do other stuff on the computer and every single time I've gotten cards at the half hour mark; if I start a game up at 9:14, I'll get a card around 9:28-9:32ish, and every half hour after that until I run out of drops. Never had it take more than 30 minutes to get a card in the ten or so games I've done this for.

[Segoris]

I'll watch for that a bit more, as I'm not noticing that to be the case. Ex: I played TL2 for over 30mins and do not have a single card for that game.

[sickrubik]

I've personally gotten a couple cards within 10 minutes of launching a game. There may be something with individual games or maybe the amount needed, but I haven't noticed a 30 minute thing. I've also gotten all the drops within an hour at times, but also had games not get them in several hours. RNG is apparently very random.

[Ceryse]

Its just weird, then. I did it with another two games today (Shogun 2, Sleeping Dogs), specifically looking for when I got the cards and of the eight card drops they all hit within the 27-34 minute interval window from what I started the game and from last card drop.

Maybe my randoms just love being randomly consistent. Or something.

[Segoris]

I've had similar to Sickrubik, but the TL2 was in the last couple of days.

For today, I launched Magicka, TL2, and Saints Row 3 at the same time at 5:38, at 5:54 I received a card for all 3 games, so 16 minutes. What is odd is that all 3 came at the same time. Waiting to see if that happens with the 2nd card for these games.

edit/update: 6:54, so 1 hour after receiving the first cards I still do not have the 2nd cards. Random is random.

[Ingmar]

It is very likely that you're getting them at different times, but the Valve servers are backed up and they're just all arriving at once when it gets around to barfing them out all at once to your account.

[Reborne]

I've noticed that the cards that I'm getting for buying things are coming a lot later than the purchase.
This has only been the case in the last couple of days.
Before that, since the start of the sale, they would arrive as soon as the purchase completed.

Interesting thing is that when crafting a badge, the rewards arrived as soon as I pressed the crafting button.

As for my game play, they arrive around the half hour mark for me as well.

Trading:
Does anyone have sale foils they are willing to trade?

My extras:
Borderlands 2 - Axton, Jack, Salvador
Defiance - Jon Cooper
Don't Starve - Wendy, 2x Willow, Wilson
Endless Space - United Empire
FTL - Mantis Cruiser
Halflife 2 - 2x Respite
Left 4 Dead 2 - Spitter
Magicka - Fire Element
Portal 2 - 2x Finale
 Summer Sale - 3x Dead Island, 2x Reus
Super Meat Boy - Dr. Fetus!
Team Fortress 2 - 2x Sniper, 3x Spy

Edit: added my spare cards.

[Rendakor]

I let 3 games (Portal 2, Hotline Miami and Torchlight 2) run for ~4 hours and only earned one card for each game.

[Reborne]

A couple of questions for the people who are having a far more random time of things.

Are you running more than 1 game at a once?

Does Steam recognize that you're in the game for the entire time?

Not saying anything conclusively but it makes sense that if steam doesn't think you're in the game (because you've gone offline or the game has a launcher that closes once the game start, etc) then it may not track as well.
I've also only seen Steam say that I'm in 1 game at any given time, no matter how many I have running, which could confuse it.

[Segoris]

It is very likely that you're getting them at different times, but the Valve servers are backed up and they're just all arriving at once when it gets around to barfing them out all at once to your account.

I figure there is some sort of checking going on where Steam is pinging accounts and distributing cards to players, but I don't think there was some delay due to them being backed up. I received a summer card from the store within seconds and I had an idle tf2 account running at the time on my media comp which was receiving items (as I am thinking that may be the other drop system which would be used). That, and this has been going on longer than just during the sale when the servers were not under nearly as much stress.

I've noticed that the cards that I'm getting for buying things are coming a lot later than the purchase.
This has only been the case in the last couple of days.
Before that, since the start of the sale, they would arrive as soon as the purchase completed.

I'm still receiving them within sceonds for store purchases.

A couple of questions for the people who are having a far more random time of things.

Are you running more than 1 game at a once?

Does Steam recognize that you're in the game for the entire time?

Not saying anything conclusively but it makes sense that if steam doesn't think you're in the game (because you've gone offline or the game has a launcher that closes once the game start, etc) then it may not track as well.
I've also only seen Steam say that I'm in 1 game at any given time, no matter how many I have running, which could confuse it.

Last night was the first time I had been running multiple games at one time, but not the first time I noticed that it wasn't distributing cards at a set pace.

Anyone's online status will only display that you're playing 1 game at a time, but your activity log will track for all of the games (which it did), and last night I had received cards for all 3 at the same time meaning they definitely recognize all the games are running.

Although there are two more possibilities that I've read of.
1) it's possible that running multiple games at once may slow down the drop rate. This supposedly is a comment from Valve but I have not seen it, and if it slowed down card distribution then my receiving a card for all 3 games at one time within 16 minutes makes this tough to buy into but it could be true.
2) Different games drop at different rates. This just goes along with drops are random imo, and does not prove anything without massive data collected for people running individual games and timing how long it takes to receive a card.

[Kail]

2) Different games drop at different rates. This just goes along with drops are random imo, and does not prove anything without massive data collected for people running individual games and timing how long it takes to receive a card.

That seems pretty plausible to me.  Some games have way more drops than others, for example Organ Trail has eight, and I've got them all, but I only have three hours total play time on the game (and that's including time played before the sale and after getting all the cards) so at a minimum it can't be a half hour straight across the board for every game.  Maybe the drops are calculated with respect to the amount of cards currently in existence, the way boosters are, or something.

With regards to trading, it looks like the summer event cards will stop dropping after the sale ends on Monday, but you can still trade them, so I suspect prices are going to rise a bit after that.

My inventory page is here, if anyone sees anything they want, let me know.  Currently I've got duplicates of Reus, Tomb Raider, Dead Island, and Bioshock Infinite, and I'm missing Skyrim and Torchlight 2.

[calapine]

Today I played Portal 2, Witcher 2, FTL, Terraria, Borderlands 2, System Shock, Dead Island, Orcs must Die 2, Mount and Blade:Warband and Crusader Kings 2 simultaneously. It's quite fun, altough sometimes it can get a bit confusing. Oh, and I can confirm cards drop for multiple games, as Segoris said.

Edit: I almost forgot Don't Starve and Shogun 2. Gameplay musn't have had a memorable impression on me.

[schild]

Is there any reason whatsoever to get cards / make badges / gain experience. I'm like level 11 or 13 or some shit but I simply don't see a purpose.

Also I'm not selling my summer cards til it spikes from people who totally ignored the sale.

[Kail]

Is there any reason whatsoever to get cards / make badges / gain experience. I'm like level 11 or 13 or some shit but I simply don't see a purpose.

Aside from e-peen, not much.  There's allegedly profile related stuff like different options for your profile page and extra friends list slots, but I have no idea what that means.  Maybe I just don't have enough friends to fill up all my slots or something, but I've never even been aware that there was a limitation on it.

Higher level also means more card drops (and more foils) which means more money if you're selling them, but it's not like it's going to finance your ninth camaro or anything.

[Segoris]

Besides profile related stuff, you gain a higher % chance to earn random booster packs when they go out. So basically, more cards....

[Thrawn]

I have two extra Dead Island and just need Football Manager.

[schild]

Alright, fuckit, I'll join this goofy game.

I have the following Extra:
Kerbal Space Program
Skyrim
2x Tomb Raider

I need:
Dead Island
Football Manager
Torchlight II

[Signe]

My one card is Torchlight II which you can have because I don't buy enough to make them useful.  I'll send it to you as soon as I figure out how to send cards or even where they live.  I also don't know if I'm your Steam friend or even if I have to be.  Everything is so complicated!!

[Rendakor]

I need:
Chivalry
Reus
Kerbal Space Program
Torchlight II

Extras:
Skyrim x2
Tomb Raider

[Kail]

My one card is Torchlight II which you can have because I don't buy enough to make them useful.  I'll send it to you as soon as I figure out how to send cards or even where they live.  I also don't know if I'm your Steam friend or even if I have to be.  Everything is so complicated!!

I THINK the way this works (haven't tested it) is that you have to:

• Go to his profile (if you're not a friend, you can find it in the F13 group, or here if you want to do it in your web browser, but you have to log in first)
• Right underneath where it says his level, you should be able to click "send a message"
• In the chat window with him there should be a little down triangle at the top right corner
• There should be an option there to "invite to trade"

[Signe]

It doesn't say send him a message so I sent him a friend thing.  He might reject me though because he's a contrary boy.

[Rasix]

Need: Chivalry

Extras:  Torchlight II, Skyrim, Bioshock: Infinite, Prison: Architect

I also have a double of Gaige for Borderlands 2.

[schild]

I guess I just need Football Manager and Torchlight II now.