The introduction of trading cards to Valve’s Steam storefront encourages obsession.
Twice a year, Steam—Valve’s digital download service—hosts enormous sales that discount its vast catalogue of PC and Mac video games. For about two weeks during the summer and two weeks before the New Year, it’s possible to buy a title that may be less than a year old for 60 to 75 per cent off its original cost. Most of us who play games on our computers look forward to these sales. They’re a great way to pick up a few mainstream titles we may have passed over and an inexpensive way to try out indies we may have overlooked during the rest of the year.
As great as these events are, they’re also starting to have the unexpected effect of making Valve look a bit sinister.
During past sales, incentives were offered that allowed buyers to participate in prize draws. These promotions typically invited Steam users to collect a certain number of limited-time achievements added to the games on sale. Shooting down demonic Santa Claus monsters in Killing Floor during the holiday sale, for example, would earn virtual entries into a draw that, if won, awarded a lucky user a bunch of games from their wishlist.
Spending lots of time collecting achievements—and buying discounted games to earn even more achievements—awarded entries to the contest, increasing the chance of winning the prize draw for “free.” This type of promotion straddled the line between innocuous fun and dangerous encouragement of obsessive compulsion. The recent introduction of collectable digital trading cards has, I believe, pushed Steam into the latter category.
Just before the launch of the 2013 summer sale, Valve began adding digital cards to many of their games. These cards can be collected by playing titles that support them or, more curiously, by spending money on the Steam sale. The store’s users are encouraged to complete sets of cards to turn them into badges.
These badges are accompanied by little profile customization items (like page backgrounds or chat emoticons) and, similar to how accumulating PlayStation Network trophies works, an increase in the Steam account’s “level.” If someone is missing one or two cards needed to complete a set and craft a badge, they’re encouraged to hop onto the Market and buy or sell cards for real money—providing Valve with a percentage kickback on each transaction.
On the surface, the whole program seems like harmless fun, but the mentality it encourages is troubling. Valve, like many modern video game developers and publishers, understands the power of harnessing compulsion as a business tool. Its business people are smart enough to realize that the same type of game players who spend countless hours completing small tasks to “100%” (earn every achievement in a game) are likely the same people who will strive to collect matching sets of virtual cards. They’re also aware that even the least obsessive person feels a nagging sense of incompletion when faced with little progress bars in their profile or store checkout page that are always just so close to filling up.
As quick as video game players are to condemn the cynical free-to-play (F2P) models introduced to so many iOS, Android, and computer games (like buying experience points with real money), we seem to give Valve a free pass when it comes to the psychological tricks they play on consumers. This can probably be attributed to the fact that Steam’s huge biannual sales offer buyers such great deals and that, in the end, nobody is forced to pay attention to the trading card or achievement-based incentives.
Steam is also a business, after all, and coupling their sales with money-making metagames is a genius move. Still, it’s important to take note when a company attempts the kind of consumer manipulation that Valve is currently rolling into its sales. Whether someone objects to Steam’s recent practices or not, it’s always a good idea to raise awareness of questionable business strategies and how they affect the service’s users.
