http://steamcommunity.com/tradingcards/

If you guys hadn't seen in the last few hours.

I personally continue to be blown away by these ideas Valve implements to incentivize gamers to spend more time on Steam and associated games.

I was curious what you duders think.

I paid .70 cents on the market for an invite. I am a sucker for drops. I have 3 cards so far. Valve is ridiculous in the best way. I far prefer this to achievements, honestly, although it does seem really exploitable since you could just leave games running to farm cards.

Seems like a neat idea.

That does sound neat. They're like Steam-wide hats!

In the process of looking up this stuff, which is crazy and appropriate given the discussion on the Bombcast this week, I re-discovered the Steam Market after its announcement.

I wouldn't go out of my way to get them, just like I don't with achievements, but I have no problems with them implementing things like this. I want to the Gamers Online number to raise. It's boring when it's always around the same numbers.

I wonder if they will eventually do an online card game with these cards

@rapid: They said in the FAQ that they're not planning to right now, but they've been discussing crowd-sourcing it in the workshop so that people can make their own card games, which could be cool.

Seems pointless. I guess people who see gamerscore as some sort of achievement will love this though.

I started with $10, and after an hour of buying and selling beta invites I've ended up with $9.50 and one spare invite I'm going to sit on for tonight hoping the price explodes overnight.

I'm a terrible businessman, but at least I had fun.

I'm sure the achievement whores from live will go nuts for it, but I have no interest in it. If one procs and I see the pop up I will think it's neat, but I will not go out of my way for it unless it gives me some "tangible" reward.

I'm sure the achievement whores from live will go nuts for it, but I have no interest in it. If one procs and I see the pop up I will think it's neat, but I will not go out of my way for it unless it gives me some "tangible" reward.

It is an interesting idea. We'll see how it pans out for them.

What was the story behind the Whiskey Media trading cards? I remember everything being hush hush about how they worked, and then eventually interest faded, and then Whiskey Media dissolved.

It is an interesting idea. We'll see how it pans out for them.

Super excited about it, especially since it gave them an excuse to make profiles useful and pretty again. I already got a full set of TF2 cards and crafted them for a Pyro background and an emoticon, best craft I could have gotten.

I think the story was that they were sent out one a piece to specific users in an email and if they weren't posted then they remained secret. It kind of works like that cube game, if you want to keep it a secret, you could, so that's probably why some of them weren't revealed. Of course, since it's been so long, there is no way anyone is going to discover the cards in their inbox now, and it makes sense that it died down after it started.

Seems silly to me but I went ahead and tried to get into the beta so I guess it works. We'll see if this takes off or not, but I love Valve is willing to try weird stuff like this.

I read their, FAQ. By the sounds of it, it seems to be their profile "patch." More invest into getting these card and get badges, the higher steam level goes up and the more you can customize your profile.
Personally I love achievements, and I've been waiting for them to do something with the system for while now. I guess I'll take this over nothing.

Little things like this always get me excited. I can't wait till I get to try this out. It might turn out dumb, but hey, I am one of those crazy people who likes achievements.

I don't quiet understand how it works yet. Do you get the cards for just playing the game (meaning you can just leave it running with the same results) or do you actually have to progress and achieve something?

I'm a collector by nature and this appeal to me and to be honest I like the new features for the profile too (more friends, smiley, background...etc.) but unfortunately I still don't have any invite yet.

P.S. If anyone have a free spare invite, I'll love to have it.

The only thing that seems rubbish about this you have to trade your cards for a badge to get a reward. I'd rather it just kept my cards in like a card binder page on your profile, so everyone could see your collection.

I think i'd rather have a Steam Tamagotchi, similar to what Brad describes on the last Bombcast, but have it feed off of my Steam achievements so that during the gaming droughts i'll be incentivised to play all the games i bought, that i haven't touched, to keep it fed or have to watch it die of malnourishment.

Even *Steam* is marketing emoticons now?

This all started with LINE, right?

Also this text below probably explains why Steam never had a "gamerscore" or a "trophy level" equivalent. We finally know.

Level Up

All badges now have XP which contributes to your Steam Level, a summary of your badge collection. You can view someone’s Steam Level by hovering over their avatar. Leveling up earns you non-tradable items like profile showcases, extra friends list slots, and more.

@chavtheworld: I agree, I was aiming (once I get an invite) to actually collect the cards and only craft the double or trade them.

This is like "reverse achievements" and actually a pretty good idea. There are a ton of old games out there that never supported any sort of tracking where something like this with cards and buttons can take that place without touching classic games.

I signed up for an invite, but it can't get here fast enough.

It's a cool idea, the new profile page looks way nicer.

Does anyone have a spare invite perchance?

it's a really brilliant idea. the new profile features look very nice as well.

It seems like the drops you get are all the drops you'll ever get. Which is dumb. Even if they reset monthly or something, it's really going to discourage trading unless people REALLY want those cards. Even if you could randomly get a card out of Dota 2/TF2 chests as a bonus or something would be preferable.

Just got in. I was 50-something thousandth in line, too.

Can I wear the trading card as a hat?

An interesting concept. Not really into it, thought. I believe they could have improved Steam in other, more useful ways.

I'm still not sure what the point is.
One guy said "You can get vouchers for discounts" but.. I already get those thrown at me every other day, included in that almost daily package of shit Valve throws at me are DOTA 2 invites.
So what, now I can fill my inventory even more, or what?

Also make my profile look pretty, I guess.

Just got in myself, seems interesting to personalize your profile and all that jazz. Realistically though, I don't even look at other profiles..

Still, XP. GOTTA LEVEL UP. GOTTA GET BADGES.

I dunno. I'm a sucker for hats and junk but trading cards seem like too much for me.

Valve is really the best company out there. They always have great new features added. I'm looking to forward to play with this a bit.

I'm addicted to filling bars, and I just got accepted. Looks neat.

I Just got my 1st duplicate for Don't Starve, so I've got 2 Winstons. I'm also genuinely curious if any of the rest of the community are grooving on this, or just consider it yet another digital treasure hunt they could do without. I for one am sucker for collecting junk.

I am a former Xbox gamerscore whore. I approve of this very much. We need it in more games already.

Not sure how many people here are trading but I have an extra Portal 2 Mannequin card and I need Finale, Destruction, Chell, The Lab, and Intro.

it helped fund my upcoming old gods purchase (by selling them) so I love them

I just made about 3 bux playing video games tonight and selling the cards so I have no complaints.

Do the developers get any money for the cards or just Valve/the users?

I'm doing this as well. I decided early on that I'd just sell all the cards I get. I bought Don't Starve with the help of my dirty trading card money, and then I got more cards from Don't Starve and sold those too.

This is something that will work out nicely for me until they add cards for The Walking Dead or Saints Row: The Third at which point I might have to buy foil cards.