Steam has the potential to empty gamer's wallets

In 2011, I joined a gaming service called Steam.

Steam was released to the public on September 13, 2003. Originally designed by Valve Corporation as a platform for them to easily update games such as Counter-Strike, Steam has grown to become a global media-distribution center for games and services, with over 100 million users.

This year would mark five years of being on Steam. Within the five years that I have been here, it has changed quite a ton.

So why exactly am I talking about a 12-year old internet service? Well, because Steam continues to be relevant today (unless you don’t play games) due to the growing support for PC-gaming rather than through consoles such as the Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Valve’s exploration into the virtual-reality scene as well as with their co-created ‘Steam Machine’ consoles have made Valve a bigger competitor than they have ever been in past years.

Steam and Valve themselves have become important figures in the gaming industry, despite the latter’s lack of recent game production. The last game that Valve had any significant involvement in was Dota 2, whose beta was released back in 2013.

Steam on the other hand offers users a digital library containing over 5000 games as of the past year. However, a majority of them include AAA titles that are much more expensive than their various counterparts.

For instance, a game such as Black Ops III, which was released last year in November, is normally priced at $59.99. That price is fixed throughout the year on Steam unless there are sales.

Steam typically marks these games down at discounts ranging from 10% to 75% depending on the title or type of sale. So Black Ops III could go from $59.99 to almost $19.99, which is affordable for most users.

These Steam sales occur mostly during the holiday season stretching from November through the end of the year, but smaller ones may occur throughout the year as well. Additionally, some games may be included in a bundle with added DLC. These ‘Steam bundles’ sometimes also receive discounts.

Steam sales are a clear hit for consumers. The month of December usually generates the most revenue. This is a direct result of Steam’s annual Winter sale, which (as previously stated) discounts games to prices you didn't think were financially possible.

But with all good things, there’s of course something negative. Steam isn’t exactly perfect.

The main issue with Steam is that the service requires internet to run properly. You can still play games without an internet connection, but the Steam client itself basically becomes useless. Any kind of progress or achievements earned while playing aren’t recorded and anything saved in Steam Cloud will also be unavailable. Steam Cloud allows game data to be synced to the cloud (through the internet), and by doing so, you’d be able to play your games on different computers.

Internet connectivity has been a problem for years on Steam but recently there’s been more issues regarding trading than there is with internet connections.

Trading allows users to trade items from games with other users. It’s a simple concept. However, with the increasing number of fraud attempts happening with trading, Valve placed a 15-day waiting period on trading and item selling on their online market.

The change is a part of Valve’s initiative to crack down on scammers potentially stealing items from other users. In order to avoid the 15-day period, you’d need to use the Steam mobile app’s two-factor authentication code alongside your phone number. But if that wasn’t enough, you also need to accept a trade offer sent to your email before the trade could finally be processed, regardless of whether or not you’re using the mobile app.

And even still, you’re still subject to at least two or three days before the trade actually happens. It’s tedious, and at this point it makes trading or selling items more a nuisance than a privilege. You basically give up the ability to have quick and easy trades for extended security that most users might not entirely need.

This revised trading system began in March, and it’s driven down the amount of trades happening on a daily basis. I myself quit trading, but that was before this new system was implemented. However, the majority of the criticism comes from some not having phones to use the app.

Regarding the Steam market, the waiting period is even worse because prices could potentially fluctuate between the day you try to put something for sale and the day it actually gets put on the market. It skewers competition and could leave you with less money than you hope to make. If you wanted to take an item off the market, then you’ll again be subject to a 15-day waiting period before you could resell that item on the market. It’s a mess.

This technically only affects those who want to exchange game items. It’s not that big of a deal, but remember that most of the people who use Steam are gamers that want to take advantage of everything that the platform offers, and the community becomes very vocal when something doesn’t go their way.

So when a simple concept like trading goes awry, you can expect the Steam community to complain about it.

Aside from those issues, Steam works as expected. It’s not perfect for all gamers, but it is very rewarding to PC gamers looking to expand their gaming library in a short time.

Or emptying their wallet and going bankrupt within a month. On Steam, it’s possible.