4 ms·

I'd rather Steam get back to the core business of selling games, rather than trying to be some sort of oddball social network. Drop the achievements (do a larg

I'd rather Steam get back to the core business of selling games, rather than trying to be some sort of oddball social network. Drop the achievements (do a large number of players actually pay attention to that?), drop the trading cards (I still don't know WTF those are for). Drop everything that isn't about selling a game to a player. Then hire some competent UI people to simplify and clean up that abhorrent interface that tries to do too much. In fact, separate Steam from Valve entirely. Let Valve focus on producing games and let Steam focus on selling them, but put a wall between them.

striking 10y ago
The trading cards are part of the Steam economy. It's a money-making ploy. I don't know if it works or not, but it probably does. If they dropped everything that isn't about selling games to players (Steam Matchmaking, social features, the Steam economy especially wrt CS:GO and Dota) I don't think Valve would be able to sell and host games as cheaply as it does, and I think more people would pirate games rather than getting them on Steam.
- chrisdbaldwin 10y ago
  Ding ding ding! Each one of those trading cards facilitates trade. When there is more trade, there are more transactions for valve to skim. It's simple broker economics, and it works great for everyone involved.
  - elcapitan 10y ago
    Except for the people who get annoyed by a message in Steam for every new achievement for jumping from platform a to b (like me).
dageshi 10y ago
Valve doesn't seem to really care about making games for the sake of making games, they make games if they can do something new/cool which hasn't really been done before. In other words, it's not that Valve can't produce games right now it's that they don't want too. They're too busy with Steam/VR cause those things are new/cutting edge.
majewsky 10y ago
> do a large number of players actually pay attention to that? I anecdotally do.

striking 10y ago

The trading cards are part of the Steam economy. It's a money-making ploy. I don't know if it works or not, but it probably does. If they dropped everything that isn't about selling games to players (Steam Matchmaking, social features, the Steam economy especially wrt CS:GO and Dota) I don't think Valve would be able to sell and host games as cheaply as it does, and I think more people would pirate games rather than getting them on Steam.

chrisdbaldwin 10y ago
Ding ding ding! Each one of those trading cards facilitates trade. When there is more trade, there are more transactions for valve to skim. It's simple broker economics, and it works great for everyone involved.
- elcapitan 10y ago
  Except for the people who get annoyed by a message in Steam for every new achievement for jumping from platform a to b (like me).

dageshi 10y ago

Valve doesn't seem to really care about making games for the sake of making games, they make games if they can do something new/cool which hasn't really been done before. In other words, it's not that Valve can't produce games right now it's that they don't want too. They're too busy with Steam/VR cause those things are new/cutting edge.

majewsky 10y ago

> do a large number of players actually pay attention to that? I anecdotally do.