the Steam is a changing: Trading Cards!

[Teggy]

Now when your grandma gets you a bad game on Steam, you can regift it.

[Purge]

Just like Garion killed you in book 2?

[Asharak]

Just like Garion killed you in book 2?

Well, I didn't give my enthusiasm a fiery bitch-slap from hell...but other than that, pretty similar, yes.

- Ash

[Blackjack]

Trading beta FAQ:  https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6748-ETSG-5417

and before you get too excited, it's only for Steam Gifts and TF2 items.  they aren't planning on letting people trade used games.

I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced." 

You got me excited that all these mediocre to lousy games I tricked myself into getting would finally be worth something.    I mean, c'mon, at least let me trade them for Diablo III gold! 

[CeeKay]

coupons are coming!

[CeeKay]

Steam comes to the iOS and Android!

http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

now you can shop Steam wherever you are with ease!

[jersoc]

Steam comes to the iOS and Android!

http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

now you can shop Steam wherever you are with ease!

will be awesome in 6 months for the summer sale

[EngineNo9]

Steam comes to the iOS and Android!

http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

now you can shop Steam wherever you are with ease!

My mind says "Yay", but my wallet screams "NOOoooooo!!".  I usually miss out on a bunch of the holiday sales when I'm visiting family or something, so all I needed was a way to buy all those extra games wherever I may be.  

[Caine]

Steam comes to the iOS and Android!

http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

now you can shop Steam wherever you are with ease!

My mind says "Yay", but my wallet screams "NOOoooooo!!".  I usually miss out on a bunch of the holiday sales when I'm visiting family or something, so all I needed was a way to buy all those extra games wherever I may be.  

if you had an android phone, you could have bought them from the site already.     also, buying from the web site itself is easy.  if even remembers your payment information so you don't half to.

/devil horns

[CeeKay]

now you don't even need a credit card to buy stuff on Steam:

[Doopri]

neat!  i dont use steam but i always applaud companies for doing this.  i know i personally am a person who doesnt like to have my card out there with a million different online retailers and i pretty much use cards like this as often as possible (or a designated credit card with a very low limit).

[Purge]

Yay. Now I can get rid of my... wait, I use paypal.

Nevermind.

[CeeKay]

neat!  i dont use steam but i always applaud companies for doing this.  i know i personally am a person who doesnt like to have my card out there with a million different online retailers and i pretty much use cards like this as often as possible (or a designated credit card with a very low limit).

yeah, I look forward to using Gamestop credit to buy the to buy stuff on Steam.

[CeeKay]

another new feature:  remote downloads.

Available immediately, users’ Steam library of games can now be managed remotely via the web. With an active Steam client running on the remote PC or Mac, users may log into the Steam web site or mobile app to access and manage their library of games, downloading pre-loads, new releases, or their latest purchases, as soon as they’re available. Head home to find your new downloads installed and ready to play upon arrival.

To kick off a remote download, simply visit your Games list on the Steam Community site, which can be accessed from your own profile using a web browser or the Steam mobile app on iOS or Android. If logged into the latest update of the Steam client on a PC or Mac, there you’ll see which games are currently installed, and have the ability to install others from your library. Or, seamlessly complete your online purchase with remote installation: When a remote session is detected, the Steam store will ask whether you'd like to download your new purchases immediately.

[Teggy]

Now you can not only build your backlog remotely, you can immediately have your backlog take up space on your ever-shrinking hard drive!

[CeeKay]

now they have an economist working on a weekly economics blog for them.

Within hours, an agreement was reached: I would become, in some capacity (that was to be hammered out later), Valve’s economist-in-residence. Valve is not the first video game company to have brought an academic economist on board (e.g. EVE Online were the first to do so, recruiting Eyjólfur Guðmundsson  – whom I would like to thank for making my name sound almost easy-going…). My intention at Valve, beyond performing a great deal of data mining, experimentation, and calibration of services provided to customers on the basis of such empirical findings, is to to go one step beyond; to forge narratives and empirical knowledge that (a) transcend the border separating the ‘real’ from the digital economies, and (b) bring together lessons from the political economy of our gamers’ economies and from studying Valve’s very special (and fascinating) internal management structure.

sounds like it will be a great cure for insomnia.

[CeeKay]

introducing Source Filmmaker:

The Source Filmmaker (SFM) is the movie-making tool built and used by us here at Valve to make movies inside the Source game engine. Because the SFM uses the same assets as the game, anything that exists in the game can be used in the movie, and vice versa. By utilizing the hardware rendering power of a modern gaming PC, the SFM allows storytellers to work in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get environment so they can iterate in the context of what it will feel like for the final audience.

[CeeKay]

Steam Greenlight:

Enlisting the community to help select new titles

July 9, 2012 -- Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Steam Greenlight, a new platform feature that enlists the community’s help in selecting some of the next games to be released on Steam.

Steam Greenlight will allow developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince the Community that their game should be released on Steam. Greenlight piggybacks on Steam Workshop’s flexible system that organizes content and lets customers rate and leave feedback.

As well as serving as a clearing house for game submissions, Greenlight will provide an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans.

“Making the call to publish or not publish a title isn’t fun,” said Anna Sweet, at Valve. “Many times opinions vary and our internal jury is hung on a decision. But with the introduction of the Steam Workshop we realized an opportunity to enlist the community's help as we review certain titles and, hopefully, increase the volume and quality of creative submissions.”

Steam Greenlight will be released August 30.

For more information, please visit www.steampowered.com/greenlight

interesting idea. 

[Kagath]

So how hard do you think they will laugh when HL3/Ep3 gets the votes to get released?

"Bwahahahahahaha jokes on them! We haven't even started it!"

[Turtle]

Well, this could be a response to an earlier bit of negative press where Steam denied an indie developer a release on Steam.

[CeeKay]

looks like the Steam store may be branching out of games.  I checked the app on my iPhone and the categories shown in the pic are there.

[CeeKay]

Valve's Linux blog is up:  Steam'd Penguins.

[heloder]

Mandatory Binding Arbitration!

Will that fit in the thread topic?

[CeeKay]

Mandatory Binding Arbitration!

Will that fit in the thread topic?

yep.  in case anyone is wondering, heloder is talking about this.

[CeeKay]

there's a big community update coming, and they're revealing new stuff daily:

first up, Game Hubs:

Game Hubs are collections of game-centric discussions, workshop items, screenshots, videos, and news. It’s both community created and official content, as rated by you, Steam users.

Everything in one place
Now all of the community and official game content lives together on the Game Hub: Screenshots, videos, workshop items, news, and discussions are all easily accessible.

Discussions
Each Hub has a Discussions tab so now you can talk about your favorite games without diving into the Steam Forums.

Curated by players
The most popular content as rated by you and other community members floats to the top of the Hub. So it’s easy to see what’s currently the best and most active.

Every game has a hub
Think of it as the flip side of the Store. Every game on Steam has a hub to show off the latest news and what’s going on in the community.

[CeeKay]

Day 2 let's us know that changes are coming to groups:

Since The Community first launched, Steam gamers have created over 2.5 Million groups, bringing together their friends and other like-minded gamers to talk about their common interests. Whether these groups were associated with a particular game or were just made up of friends who wanted to play together, we’re making it even easier for those players to share and enjoy their gaming experiences.

New layout
The revamped groups layout makes it easier to see what a group is really about, who’s in it, and what they’ve been up to recently. We’ve added a group overview, friend showcase, and more.

Group Discussions
Most significantly, each group will now have their own discussions area, enabling public and private discussions within the group. You get complete moderator control over your group forums, with the ability to create sub-forums, add moderators, delete posts, etc.

More Personalized
Each group can now proudly list their favorite games for others to find. You can also set the default language for the group.

looking forward to seeing how they change the layout.

[Teggy]

Beta invites to the new community showed up on my account. If by chance everyone isn't getting these and someone wants one, let me know.

[CeeKay]

Day 3 was 'My Content Updates':

The content you’ve published will also get a new treatment. We've put all the content you've created in one convenient place to make it easier to both show off and manage. This goes for all your friends and people you follow as well.

My image wall
The screenshots page will have a couple of different viewing options now, with a new layout that makes your finest gaming moments look like a work of art.

In one place
Whether you take screenshots, replays, link videos from YouTube, publish from SFM, upload Workshop Items, or create Workshop Collections, all of your content is easily accessible from your profile.

Favorites
Found a cool screenshot, video, or workshop item? Now you can favorite them so you can find them later and share them with your friends.

and Day 4 is Friend stalking Activity:

We’ve broken out your Friends from the larger Community and each now have their own areas in Steam. Community is now about the entire Steam Community and it’s where Game Hubs, Steam Workshop, and Steam Greenlight will live. Friends is now simply all about you and your friends.

New friend activity
See what your Friends are up to in the new visually rich and more interactive feed where nearly everything can be rated and commented on. Share your opinion, taunt or help your friends, save the best content to your favorites, and rate up your friends’ content to get them to the top of the Game Hubs.

Post a status
Finally make it past that boss-level? Need opinions on a game purchase? Post a status to your feed and tag it with any game for bragging rights or just to start a conversation.

Nicknames
Now you can nickname your friends so you know who they are even if they change their profile name.

[CeeKay]

Beta invites to the new community showed up on my account. If by chance everyone isn't getting these and someone wants one, let me know.

I got two as well.  it'd be odd for them to send out two to each person if everyone is getting in.

[Purge]

I got nuthin.

[CeeKay]

so, any brave soul who got an invite take the plunge?

[CeeKay]

Greenlight is live. 

[Caine]

Greenlight is live. 

yup, went through and bumped about a dozen or so decent looking games and some I have already tried on other platforms. 

[Crawley]

I looked through a few games but didn't see anything all that exciting. What should I be taking a peek at?

[CeeKay]

I looked through a few games but didn't see anything all that exciting. What should I be taking a peek at?

I just browsed through the other day but now they're treating Steam like it's a dumptruck, just dumping the games into it.  Steam is a series of tubes people!

[Blackjack]

I looked through a few games but didn't see anything all that exciting. What should I be taking a peek at?

I just browsed through the other day but now they're treating Steam like it's a dumptruck, just dumping the games into it.  Steam is a series of tubes people!

I'd just keep in mind the whole point seems to be panning for gold amongst smaller titles would sell well if they brought them to Steam. I checked a few, I'll share a list later but know that my tastes are, eclectic, to put it kindly.  

There's an awful lot of iOS titles that seem to hope to use Greenlight as a springboard to a transition to PC. And then there's odd things like maybe bringing Silent Storm (which I loved, but it's several years old) to Steam.

Steam already has soooooooooo many titles on it, and I think most would admit that there's already a lot of crap amongst the gems. I'm not really sold on the idea yet of "Facebook liking" everything, including what games deserve to be on Steam. Especially when in many cases we have no playable demo to go on. It's like we're given one video and a bunch of screenshots, and that's how we decide if something's worthy or not?

To me, word of mouth on actually playing something and telling your pals is worthwhile. I'm not sure me watching one video, leafing through a half dozen or so screenshots and then clicking a big   button is really how Valve should determine what games warrant a Steam release. That said, I had some fun leafing through the games listed, and seeing a few interesting ones I'd never heard of.

[EngineNo9]

I haven't really been looking at it to only approve games I specifically want to play, I look at it more like a community-wide validity filter to rule out the dregs of the submissions.

I look at the video, screenshots and text and ask myself questions like: "Does this look like a valid product?", "Does it look like a valid team/company?", "Does this look like something that people on Steam might want to play?", and "Would having this on Steam lower the quality expectations of future games?".

But yeah, I still think there is a lot of crap on there, as well as many mobile games or unfinished projects.  And discoverability is horrible in the Greenlight section right now.

[CeeKay]

What We’re Doing About Discoverability in Steam Greenlight

Two things we’ve noticed so far. First, there are a ton of legitimate submissions that people want to see. Second, there is unfortunately a significant amount of noise and clutter being submitted, either as a joke or by fans not fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight.

So, with those things in mind, today we’ve made two updates to how Greenlight works.

The first update is a $100 fee for someone to post to Steam Greenlight. The proceeds will be donated to Child’s Play. We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system. (Note: Anyone who has already posted a submission to Greenlight will not have to retroactively pay for any existing submissions, but will need to do so for any future submissions.)

The second part of this update is to improve your window into Greenlight and help you find “your kind” of games. The next time you visit Steam Greenlight you’ll be shown a smaller, manageable list of games that you haven’t rated. This view is a mix of popular games and new games to Greenlight.

[Blackjack]

Fwiw, here's what I   for over the weekend, added some today. I've skipped one retread on my list (Silent Storm, already available on GoG). The links will take you to their Greenlight info page on Steam. I don't pretend any of these will be/are good, they just caught my eye. Keep in mind due to my motion sickness issues, I mostly steer clear of FPSs -- I made a couple exceptions at the end because I love co-op games, and squad-focused games.

Space Combat games (some mix in roleplaying, some are more arcade-like)
Armada Online
Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator
Dawnstar
Miner Wars 2081
ORBITOR

Platformers
Waking Mars (popular iOS game seeking a PC-Steam release)

Racing Games
Altitude
Little Racers STREET
Slingshot Racing (another iOS game seeking a Windows/Steam release)

Hack'n'Slash RPG
Forced

Overhead Shooter
Recruits

Couple FPS types that caught my eye:
Interstellar Marines (4-player co-op and "land sharks"  )
Signal Ops (multiple-perspective first-person tactical espionage)

*I'll do a Collection at some point and I guess that's the easiest way for us to share our findings.

On my fledgling list, fwiw, Interstellar Marines seems to have made the farthest "voting progress" at 7%. I'm glad it's doing well but I do have this fear that the only games that will reach 100% will be ... FPSs. If it really just boils down to people voting for what they "know," then nothing terribly interesting or different will "win" in Greenlight. It'll be interesting to see how that shakes out.

[CeeKay]

ones I've voted for so far:

Delver
Receiver
DLC Quest
Kenshi
The Real Texas
Slender: Source
Project Zomboid
WazHack
Pitiri 1977
Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

Zomboid is at 27% and Slender is at 29%.

[edit] enlinkened!