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Articles related to Steam

Steamcast: The podcast about all things Valve is back!

Steam

Over a year has passed since the community-founded Valve-centric podcast, Steamcast, closed down. However during August this year, a countdown clock appeared on a sub-directory of the website with the title ‘2013’.

Steamcast was originally founded back in 2009 with the aim of supporting the Valve community by offering frequent and direct participation with listeners, however in 2012 the podcast closed indefinitely.

Valve Announces SteamOS, Steam Machines and Steam Controller

Steam

This week Valve introduced us to a trio of living room orientated products that will be entering the Steam Universe in 2014.

The announcements took place as a series of countdowns which occurred on rather peculiar and cryptic webpage on the Steam Store. The page, titled as The Steam Universe Will be Expanding in 2014, presented three small circles which individually became available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday respectively.

The Problem with Steam Trading Cards

Steam

With Valve having recently released the full version of their new ‘Steam Trading Cards’ feature, after a surprisingly short beta period, there has been much discussion around the Internet about the purpose and usefulness of the system. Some have praised the system as another way for allowing users to get more involved in the Steam Community, and rewarding dedicated Steam users; others, however, have criticized the system as being gimmicky and even exploitative, and nothing more than a money-making scheme on Valve’s part.

A quick run-down for those of you who are unfamiliar with the system: Steam Trading Cards allows users to receive random trading cards for playing various games, which they can then craft into ‘badges’ in order to increase their ‘Steam level,’ a new, RPG-like feature added to Steam. Higher Steam levels grant users additional Steam features, such as the ability to customize their Steam profiles further, or have larger friends lists. Trading cards can obviously be traded with other users, and can also be sold for money. At first glance, the system seems like a fantastic idea: it rewards you for playing games you like, which you can then use to unlock additional features; meanwhile, people not interested can simply ignore the system altogether. Thus, everybody is happy. The truth is not that simple, however.

INFRA Has Been Greenlit on Steam!!!

Steam

Two years in development, a jump from the Portal 2 branch of Source to Alien Swarm, and six months of voting by eager fans, this total conversion mod has been given the Greenlight from Valve to go on Steam!

Infra is a self described “gun free exploration game” where your goal isn’t to fight off monsters or some shadowy organization hellbent on world domination. No, you take on the role of a pencil-pushing, structural analyst fighting the war on poor construction…..whilst being trapped beneath a city with a collapsing infrastructure. As you attempt to stay alive, you will explore through the city’s underbelly and solve puzzles that will force you to make a choice: will you restore the city’s structural integrity, or ensure your own survival?

The Sale Happened, and We Barely Noticed

Steam

This is an editorial piece written by Jon “Tyk-Tok”, one of our new writers and editors (you might remember hearing him in many episodes of the recently hiatus’d Podcast 17). It focuses on last year’s Steam Holiday Sale, which just came to a close earlier this month; and the criticisms aimed squarely towards it, by some of the Steam userbase.

With tongue firmly in cheek (and wallet trapped in a state of existential chaos), Tyk-Tok looks at the 2012 Holiday Sale, and offers some of his thoughts.

I remember my first handful of Steam Holiday Sales, and just how magical the whole experience felt. Right on down the line of your friends, acquaintances, and who-is-this-persons, you would see their green-highlighted avatars playing the new daily deal, which they had been craving all-year round. I remember taking my holiday bonus and just going on a virtual rampage of five and ten dollar steals. But that was a good few years ago.

Looking at the experience nowadays, I might see something very different.

Steam’s New Community Market Beta Goes Live, Lets Players Buy And Sell In-Game Items Using Steam Wallet Funds

Steam

Though we may take it for granted these days, Steam Trading might just represent one of the most significant innovations in the field of in-game community interaction in recent years. Trading games, coupons, and items, all within the Steam community. The Team Fortress 2 economy alone was estimated last year to be worth 20 million dollars – and that was a very conservative estimate, made only 6 months after the game had become free-to-play.

And a lot of people have made some a lot of money by buying and selling these in-game items. But since so much of that activity takes place outside the Steam ecosystem (in the so-called gray market), it could be quite difficult to track what’s going on in the marketplace at large. But it seems as though Valve have found a way to remedy that problem in a pretty unique way. Read on!

Steam Halloween Sale Goes Live (Technically, It’s Gone Undead)

Steam

This might be a shock to you, because it certainly was to me: Halloween hasn’t actually started yet. We’ve still got about a day left, yet anything remotely Halloween-related has already been going on for a few days now. How will I be able to celebrate… uhh, the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on the 27th of October, when people are just going around asking for candy while dressed as video game characters (some of them even appear to be dressed as homeless people, although they tend to ask for money instead)? That’s just not right, not right at all.

But what if cheap horror games are involved? Then… well, I suppose all sins are forgiven after all. Screw you, Audiovisual Heritage Day! It’s time to play Killing Floor with my friends!

“A Call For Communication/Message To Valve” Movement Still Going, Now Has Its Own Steam Group

Half-Life

Despite what Valve plans or doesn’t plan to do regarding the next Half-Life, or how long they plan on developing it, there’s no denying that they’ve dropped the ball when it comes to communicating with the Half-Life community, and the gaming community at large. As a result, they may have inflicted a fatal injury upon the franchise and its community. There’s better ways to ensure a lengthy development time than acting like the franchise in question doesn’t exist, and occasionally annoying your fanbase by blatantly trolling them.

Whenever Half-Life 3 does come out, we’re all pretty sure it’s going to be monumental. I wouldn’t expect any less from a Half-Life game that’s been in development for nearly a decade. But I think we can all agree that Valve isn’t doing this right. At all. So what can we do? Can we even do anything at all? Well, there might be something. Let’s see what it is…

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