Steam's Holiday Sale 2011: Achievement Hunting, Coal, and Spite Purchases

Valve is a legendary computer game company responsible for Half Life. Now they're a monolithic entity which is known for its online distribution/other platform, Steam. Every year Steam is the meta-location for sales where the prices are low enough to trick you into buying games you will play for five hours then forget. Steam includes a library that tallies up the amount of games you have, and the amount of hours you have wasted on each.

In late 2011, Steam began its ambitious Holiday Sale/Contest Event. The premise was simple but awe-inspiring: users would complete various trivial/useless tasks (known as 'achievements' in gamer parlance) in order to win various paraphernalia including games, coupons, and chances to win further prizes which were cunningly disguised as useless bits of coal. This was the first time in history that I witnessed and experienced achievements having an actual purpose, and an actual real-world benefit. This is the sort of thing that will either be forgotten in the dismal future of gaming, or will inspire a great upcoming era where interesting games are buoyed by thoughtful, interesting distribution.

The event got people to replay old games for the sake of a small chance at winning something. Each day there were a handful of new things to do, and once again the participants would be heartbroken to receive a free copy of a game they already owned, a useless piece of coal (which could be crafted into heartbreak), or a coupon which would be valid into March 2012. Now it was a generous decision to allow participants to finish achievements until the last minutes of the contest.

Well the event finished, and there is a draw which will take place on the 3rd of January, 2012. The winner takes every game available on Steam. Other prizes exist but are vague and generally related to wishlist fulfillment. I will say that it was an interesting and largely successful event, though when it started there were some hiccups with the Steam service and at times the company's servers were swamped with download requests and purchases.

Valve clearly means to be good to both the industry and its consumers, as events like the Christmas Sale 2011 show. Publishers sell a lot of units on the basis of sale pricing, and customers tend to buy things they would otherwise ignore, because the price (and season) warrant a bit of curious purchasing. Everybody enjoys themselves and content producers profit. On top of that win/win situation, Steam offered an interesting contest event which encouraged users to replay titles they may have forgotten about, in the exciting pursuit of prizes. Looking back, it was perhaps the best Steam sale thus far.

Christmastime and Other Stories

No I am not releasing a volume of existential/seasonal short fiction. That danger has passed. Though it does seem to me that every year Christmastime starts earlier, or maybe that's just my imagination or relative youth. I don't have too many years to really extrapolate anything from, but my hypothesis is that, since the 50's, Christmastime has begun to begin earlier. What this means for the planet is anybody's guess.

I don't really think that heavy visualization and especially musical cues are necessary until mid-December. If I was to de-Grinch a bit, I would say December 10. I really think we should leave Halloween decorations up longer and just take a little time out of this Christmas thing, that's going on. Somebody has to reign in these Christmas Lobbyists. They're taking over.

I think sometimes that all the early emphasis burns me out when the December upswing begins. This is probably a yearly thing now that is unconscious, subliminal like seasonal affective disorder - but more mysterious. Infinitely better looking on an application. "Doctor, we're dealing with record amounts of Christmastimeosis. We don't have the spearmint antibiotics to deal with this!" ; "You fool! Just give them disability and get them out of here, we don't need a damn epidemic!"

The bottom line is that anyone who was not heeding the cues about Christmas creep got their late shopping vote-banned by the supporters of... well I'll not even mention him. Still, I mean if a five-year old misses their X-Box with Kinect, somebody has to be held responsible. Julian Assange is who should be called on Dec. 26th for forcing internet power users to go to a brick-and-mortar store. Give him time, though. No doubt this will be added to the growing list of offenses which, I am told, includes geomancy.

I guess they'll add several Days of Christmas in the next 50 years. Maybe it'll be good for us and not just a cynical economic tweak. Maybe aliens will steal Christmas (I already have the script, Michael Bay, and you'll have to get in line for it) and hide it on the moon. They'll get our extra days but we will have just enough time to assemble a rag-tag task force of curmudgeonly misfits. You know who will emerge victorious, with extra Days of Christmas into the bargain.