Valve’s new trading card system’s still in beta but they’ve added support for five new games, expanding the number of games running the new tech to 21. The beta group has also expanded, allowing 280,000 Steam users play around with the new system.
The new games in the beta are FTL: Faster Than Light, 1… 2… 3… KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby), Strike Suit Infinity, Zach Zero, and Tower Wars. What this means for players in the beta is that there are new cards to collect, new badges to craft, and new rewards to be earned.
The way the system works is that as you play the games you’ll occasionally find dropped cards. These cards, once you have a full set, can be crafted into a badge that you can then display on your profile page – showing how good you are at a certain game. Plus, whenever you craft a new badge you get rewards, things like backgrounds for your profile page, or emoticons that you can use in Steam chat.
The kicker lies in the fact that you can only find half of the available cards while playing through the games. You’ll need to trade with other users to amass the full set: you’re going to have to get social if you want to earn those rewards.
To apply for the beta head on over to the Steam Trading Cards group and hit the green “Join” button.