Master Shojindo wrote:
I totally don't get this card thing. Why would people pay money for them? Do you earn free stuff towards games with sets or is it just pointless collectionism?
Basically the second one.
When you collect a set, you can combine them and get a badge, an emoticon, a profile background and a stupid worthless coupon. Except that the emoticons and profile backgrounds sell for dirt cheap anyway so if you really wanted a Super Meat Boy emoticon, you'd be better off just paying the 15¢ or whatever to get one directly. You also gain some xp towards your Steam level.
As an example for the coupons, I got a 25% off Surgeon Simulator coupon. Yay
Originally, you could only get a foil drop if you had a Steam level of 10+ so there was some incentive there to level up, hope for foils and turn a profit. But now any level can get foils and the market for them has largely collapsed anyway. I think level is supposed to affect your chance for a Booster drop now but who knows. Also, as your level increases you get more customization options for your profile. I won't pretend that anyone should care that much about their profile.