Welcome, Achievement Hunters!

I wasn't really sure if I would make a post about this, but having seen a few different takes by other Steam Guide creators I felt I may as well give my two cents. I recently came to a different conclusion that may be surprising.

For brief context, as most of you know, Steam has changed how Steam Awards work, & by extension, how you earn Steam Points. In the past, if someone gave you a Steam Award you would earn a small portion (maybe a quarter of what was spent on it?). With the new system the only way to earn Steam Points now is by spending real money on games. This was always an alternative, but now it is the only possible way to earn Steam Points. Unfortunately, they never increased how much yield buying a game gets you; having just spent $14 on Lords of the Fallen, I only got 1000 Steam Points which is roughly 70ish Steam Points per $1. If all Steam Awards cost 500 Steam Points... each Steam Award is technically costing you $7. Which brings me to my main point:

Stop sending me Steam Awards.

It just isn't worth it for anyone anymore. You are better off saving your Steam Points to buy Backgrounds, Emotes, or saving up for the Seasonal Badges which cost 40,000 Steam Points. 40,000 Steam Points will take you $57.00 to accumulate, though it may be significantly more (I don't think my Steam Point metrics are totally accurate).

Rating my guides is just as good, & more importantly, it is free to you. If you really want to show appreciation, leave me a nice comment; I always enjoy reading them, even if I rarely respond to them. Which I am sorry about; that balance is something I haven't really figured out. As a cheat code for getting me to respond, just tack on a question. I wish the Steam Comment system was a bit more nuanced & I could <3 them like YouTube Creators can so I you'd know that I saw it. In the past, I would actually send people Steam Awards & it was a neat way for me to track regular guide users. Give me a Comment, & I would send a "Superstar". Leave me a second Comment on a different guide, & I would send a "Treasure" & so on. Haha if you have ever wondered where random Steam Awards came from in the past, you probably Commented on one of my guides. But I can't do that anymore which is honestly what irritates me the most; I CAN'T give people Steam Awards either! Or at least not like I used to.

Either way, long story short, just please save your Steam Points for yourself. If you want to show support, Rating my guides or Commenting is the best way to do that now. Sorry for the rant, I don't mean to sound ungrateful either, but it has been bugging me for a bit now & I just wanted to air this out. I will be altering my text descriptor on my Profile page to say similar sentiments.

I really appreciate all the support you have given me over the years. I recently crossed the 1500 Follower threshold & we have over 500 member of this Steam Group which is just crazy to me. This should be a pretty big year for guide releases & I hope to get a lot done (I know I say that every year). As some my have seen, I have gotten a bit sucked into Halo - MCC at the moment & have broken my "2 Halo games a year" strategy. I may be completing the guides a few years ahead of schedule...