STEAM!

[kirottu]

 

So, Steam Broadcasting is in Beta. It's basically personal streaming where you can supposedly watch your friends play games.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of watching other people play games?

 

I do enjoy watching really good players especially if they are explaining why they did the things they did. I watch PvP videos mostly.

[Bryy]

 

So, Steam Broadcasting is in Beta. It's basically personal streaming where you can supposedly watch your friends play games.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of watching other people play games?

 

Sometimes I watch to preview games I'm on the fence about.

Sometimes I watch to be social.

Sometimes I watch because devs are playing.

Sometimes I watch just 'cause.

[Blarghagh]

I mostly watch people playing horror games because seeing people get scared is very funny.

[Hurlshort]

 

So, Steam Broadcasting is in Beta. It's basically personal streaming where you can supposedly watch your friends play games.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of watching other people play games?

 

 

The only one I ever got into was the Assassin's Creed Movies, and that was because the game was too long to bother finishing, but I still wanted to know how it ended.

[LadyCrimson]

 

So, Steam Broadcasting is in Beta. It's basically personal streaming where you can supposedly watch your friends play games.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of watching other people play games?

 

No, you're not the only one. There are only a few reasons I watch such things:

 

1--I'm looking to see if the gameplay is something I might be interested in. And then I'll skip around randomly for a few minutes, not watch a whole 30 min. video.

2--the player is more of a comedy performer, where commentary makes me lol a lot. I happen across those once in a while but I don't actively search them out.

3--it's my husband and I can sit on the couch and make fun of him.

[Lexx]

It's pretty much this. You see a friend playing a game and check it out. Then you might or might not buy it. Though, you can get the same from watching youtube videos, imo.

[Keyrock]

This Steam Stream Stream Steam Steam Steam Stream Stream Steam Stream Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers thing will be wonderful for when you want to help out someone who's stuck in a game.  Now, rather than going through an awkward explanation of where in the game they are and how to go about getting past, you can watch them play and send messages back and forth about how to proceed while the game is being played.  For that alone, I think it's a worthwhile service.

[Leferd]

Picked up some Crusader Kings 2 DLC.

 

Maybe I'll try again and see if I can maintain the staus quo in The Levant and prevent the Third Crusade.

[Vaeliorin]

 

So, Steam Broadcasting is in Beta. It's basically personal streaming where you can supposedly watch your friends play games.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of watching other people play games?

 

I'll watch people play games I'm never going to buy but am interested in (for example, I'll never play Earthbound or any of the Persona/Shin Megami Tensei games, but I'm curious what all the fuss is about), or one that I've played part of and know I'm never going to finish.

 

Other than that, I've only watched people play free-form sandbox stuff to see what they do/how they overcome similar problems, or to learn about a mechanic I'm unfamiliar with. People that I've watched previously who stop doing things that are new to me I generally stop watching.

[Gorgon]

It's useful if you want to learn a competitive game better. Say DOTA or something. Other than that it's better than a review.

[Hassat Hunter]

I was coming here expecting to find pages upong pages of posts on the Holiday Sale and the gem-issues... and I come here, nothing since 4 december...

 

What's up Obsidian Forums?

[Rosbjerg]

Are there any sales on?

[kgambit]

Are there any sales on?

 

Nothing major at Steam.  The only game I see currently is a Metro Redux bundle that includes Metro 2033 Redux and  Metro Last Light Redux for 16.99 (66% off).  Nothing else as far as I could see. 

[Oerwinde]

The auction was interesting until I saw that top bids for games I was interested in was at 90000, and the most I could get was 900

[Nordicus]

The auction was interesting until I saw that top bids for games I was interested in was at 90000, and the most I could get was 900

Maybe the situation will be different next time when the auction comes up again, since the gems won't be able to be infinitely duplicated anymore.

 

Though if you're waiting to buy something big and popular with that 900 gems, forget it, since that is basically worth 30-40 cents

[Oerwinde]

 

 

The auction was interesting until I saw that top bids for games I was interested in was at 90000, and the most I could get was 900

Maybe the situation will be different next time when the auction comes up again, since the gems won't be able to be infinitely duplicated anymore.

 

Though if you're waiting to buy something big and popular with that 900 gems, forget it, since that is basically worth 30-40 cents

Took me 3 years to build up that 30-40 cents

[Keyrock]

I have a Steam copy of Serious Sam 3 to give away (I got it free with The Talos Principle and I already own it).  Drop me a PM if you want it.  First come first serve.  Not sure how gifting works in Steam, but we'll figure all that out once a recipient comes forth.

[Nordicus]

Took me 3 years to build up that 30-40 cents

Oh yeah it definitely will if you don't build a lot of badges and get a lot of those emoticon/background rewards. The marketplace is (currently) still so full of them that they cost 3 cents and are worth 80 gems each, while cards are 17 gems

 

Anyway, the auctions are back up. I'm gonna initially put tiny bids on a bunch of games to see which ones are just too popular to really properly bid on, then slowly focus up. I kinda like auctions and number crunching

Edited December 12, 2014 by Nordicus

[Bartimaeus]

Before they took down the auction for a bit, some individuals had literally tens of billions of gems. And people complain about USD inflation...

[IndiraLightfoot]

Good folk, don't bid! The auction prices are climbing as I type this, and they are way passed ridiculous sums of gems. I browsed through auctions I could afford, and there were nearly no good games left (that I don't have or have played). The good news is that if you do like I did, and turn your gems into sacks (1,000 gems = 1 sack), you get a lot of money from junk. I hade like five pages of stuff that I never used: emoticons and most backgrounds (all of which were worth nothing on the market) - and a few minutes ago, I sold six sacks of gems for over three Euros. With them I can buy a game that I want to have, whenever I'd like to get it (during the upcoming Winter Sales that start Dec 26 IIRC).

[Hurlshort]

The auction isn't live yet, so that's why the prices are so high.  The high bid is only for the first copy of each game.  On Monday when the auction starts, a new copy will go every 45 minutes, meaning you can probably pick up a game or two for cheap if you get in the window at the right time.

 

At least that's what I gathered from the FAQ.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I don't know if this is global, but even the most obscure games over here have 60-100 bids on queue, presumably reasonably high as well at times. Moreover, you have to snipe it at auction, which takes time too.

[Nordicus]

The auction isn't live yet, so that's why the prices are so high.  The high bid is only for the first copy of each game.  On Monday when the auction starts, a new copy will go every 45 minutes, meaning you can probably pick up a game or two for cheap if you get in the window at the right time.

More like first 10-20 or so out of a hundred is just whales trying to outbid each other.

 

I've got 15k gems (2k of my own, 13k that I got for 5€ through emoticons), and I'm still on top 100 list of 32 different titles with ludicrously low bids, roughly 15 cents worth on average. Obviously I'll slowly drop off, but like i mentioned before, that's when I focus up into fewer games as some become too contested. Something like Divinity: Original Sin I backed off from in minutes

 

And while the sniping concern is there, when you're the top bid, the auction system only shows your bid as "2nd place bid + 100" to everyone else until you reach your limit.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Nordicus

[Lexx]

What exactly is this gem system anyway and why would I want to care about it?

[Nordicus]

What exactly is this gem system anyway and why would I want to care about it?

The gem system is just something that gives you a quicker, better, more stable method of getting rid of your emoticons and backgrounds in your inventory. Don't have to wait for months for them to sell for 1 cent profit, you just turn them immediately into gems, usually 80 gems a piece, and if you have roughly a thousand gems, you can directly turn those into steam card booster packs or sell them on the market.

 

There is an auction really soon that uses gems and there's a possibility that you might pick up a game with gems for a relative bargain. But after that's over, you don't really need to care about your gems except if you game the marketplace or really care about the tidyness of your Steam inventory.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Nordicus