Steam Profile Rework

Published September 2024

1. Profile level rework
2. Trading cards and badges rework
3. Inventory redesign
4. Badge management features

1. Profile level rework

Problem

Steam profile level calculation is heavily weighted in favor of badgecraft. Veteran accounts can quickly be surpassed by relatively new accounts who choose to craft a small amount of badges.

In the current system, a single level 1 badge provides the XP equivalent of 2 years of using the platform. A single level 5 badge provides the same XP as owning 250 games on the platform. A full badge level can be purchased for as low as 20 cents (USD), as of September 3rd, 2024.

Solution

Rework profile level calculation to accurately represent veteranship and core platform engagement.

High-weight factors: Account age, games owned, hours played

Low-weight factors: Card badges, store event badges, community badges

Example proposed rework:

• New accounts start at level 0
• Non-limited accounts receive 100 xp to become level 1
• The experience required to reach each level is double the XP of the previous level (1-100, 2-200, 3-400, and so on)

[Note: Currently, all profile XP is derived from badges, including account age and games owned badges. Reworking profile level calculation is possible without complete overhaul since only the XP associated with different badges would have to be updated. If a new factor such as hours played, was introduced, it would simply need to be in the form of a badge representing the "tier" of hours played (1, 10, 100, 250, etc.), like the current implementation of the "owned games" badge.]

Considerations

How were the proposed XP values decided?
The proposed XP values are chosen as example values to create a simple progression scheme that demonstrates the proposed weightings.

What would happen to existing accounts?
Their experience would be recalculated under the new system.

What about level boosting?
This rework is not designed to address level boosting. A small percentage of players currently boost their playtimes beyond physical possibility through use of third-party tools. Steam would have to ban the use of these methods to prevent boosting. The purpose of this rework is to improve the Steam experience for the broader user base.

Why are game achievements suggested as a low-weight factor?
Number of achievements available and achievement difficulty varies by game. Lower weighting ensures players are not discouraged from playing games with little/no achievements, or playing less total games overall.

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2. Trading cards and badges rework

Problem

The trading card and badge system is poorly designed. Trading cards are regarded as collectibles, but Steam has designed them as consumables.

Have you ever completed a trading card badge by playing a game? All 5 levels of a badge? A foil badge? Do you enjoy converting cards to gems to craft booster packs? Has the trading card system ever provided you with a meaningful social experience? For most users, the answer will be “no” to all of these questions.

Solution

Remove badgecraft and fully rework the trading card system. Reserve badges for profile stats only, as defined in section 1.

Example proposed rework (cards)

• Add “Trading Cards” section to the profile navigation panel. This new screen displays all card sets with currently owned cards (like the current Badge screen) and quantity per card.
• When a card set is completed, the user will have a “Full Set” icon displayed next to the set. The icon will use the current badge art. Multiple full sets of the same set will unlock the different set tiers (1-5) and unlock the respective Full Set icon. This will allow the existing tier art to be retained.
• If a user trades or sells cards from a Full Set, the Full Set icon will be removed.
• Remove gems and booster packs.
• Update card drop rates to be based on % chance per 15 minutes played for the respective game. % chance should decrease exponentially as playtime increases (Longer playtime = Less chance of card drop). See: Exponential Decay (Wikipedia)
• Remove card drop limit
• Increase foil drop rate

Example proposed rework (badges):

• Keep account badges and community badges
• Remove existing card badges, replace with “Full Set” icons, as described in the proposed card rework.
• Create a “Cards Owned” tiered badge, like the current “Games Owned” badge. This allows trading card engagement to be factored into profile level in a manner consistent with the calculation rework defined in section 1.
• Remove trading cards from store events. Keep event badges for purchasing anything during an event. (Event cards are currently broken anyways, as of September 4, 2024. If you have a card that expires after an event, it disappears from your inventory. However, it remains displayed as an incomplete card set on your Badge page.)

Potential future badge expansions: Game achievements (Tiered badge), expanded community badges

Considerations

What will happen to my existing gems and booster packs?
Gems will be converted to shop points. Previously convertible items such as emoticons and wallpapers will now be convertible to shop points. Existing booster packs can be opened like normal.

What will happen to my currently existing card badges?
They will become “Legacy” icons, accessible from the Trading Card screen, so you can still display them within showcases.

Will this impact card prices?
It may.

What if I don’t want to upgrade my Full Set icon to tier 2 but own 2 full sets of the same set?
Full Set icon tier should be selectable based on unlocked tiers. (Currently, this is not the case with badges either, and this is part of the badge management features proposed in section 4.)

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3. Inventory redesign

Problem

The Steam inventory UI is poorly designed, as it does not scale well for larger game lists and individual game inventories easily become cluttered. Additionally, Steam and other developers indiscriminately add untradable/unmarketable items to your inventory, which is unable to be pruned or organized. Even tradable items cannot be deleted and must be traded or sold to be removed.

Solution

This simple list of changes would massively improve the Steam inventory experience:

• Change the inventory game selection panel to a drop-down menu with game icons (like the Market game search drop-down)
• Separate Steam community items into individual groups (Profile items, trading cards, VR items, etc.)
• Add the ability to delete inventory items (This suggestion has been discussed in this Steam forum thread from 2021. This thread has been recently locked by forum moderators for being "old," despite regular posting in the thread.)

Example inventory game selection drop-down

Old:


New:
🟨 Counter-Strike 2 ⬛ Steam Chat (Emoticons, Stickers) ⬛ Steam Profile (Profile Modifiers, Wallpapers, Avatars) ⬛ Steam Trading Cards ⬛ SteamVR 🟦 Team Fortress 2

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4. Badge management features

Problem

Steam has no functionality to delete/hide badges or downgrade your badge levels. Many users have requested this feature to enhance profile customization or to hide adult-content badges.

Additionally, since there is no privacy setting to hide badges on your profile, the only way to hide the badges section is to set your entire Steam profile to Private (which also privates your game activity from your friends and prevents their ability to invite you in some games).

Solution

Add management and privacy settings for badges. This topic has been thoroughly discussed on this Steam forums post by Greyarty: Options to Delete, Hide, Downgrade Badges/Levels. It is one of the largest existing threads on the Suggestions forum, and has been active since 2019.

[Note: In the card/badge rework proposed in section 2, some badges would become Full Set icons. The badge management features discussed in the linked thread would still apply to badges and full set icons.]

Badges

Games

Trading Cards

Inventory

Friends