Steam Summer Sale 2013!!!!!

Yeah, as long as Steam considers you to be in-game (for some games, the game itself doesn't even have to be running, just the launcher), that's good enough. If your name shows up in green in the client/friends list, your (non-) play time is counting towards getting cards. You still won't get anything useful out of them just by doing that though. You need to complete a full set to get a badge, which gives you the chance to get useless emoticons or a maybe useful coupon or something, and to do that you need to trade for the ones you don't have (or buy them). Possibly more usefully, you can sell them in the marketplace if you don't care about that stuff at all. Whenever you're at your computer doing stuff other than gaming, leave a game running in the background that you haven't used up all your drops for yet, acquire cards, and then sell them for a few bucks (total, not each). Then get bored of the tedium of installing lots of games and idling in them one after another and give up on it eventually like I did. Heh.

If you are interested in selling the cards for money, acquiring the card drops from games makes you eligible for booster packs to drop randomly for just for using steam in general provided you've used steam for at least 10 hours in the week. At that point steam is essentially giving you free money every so often. If you want to collect and craft badges, making yourself eligible for boosters should be a high priority as well since you can at least acquire some trade fodder for badges you do want to craft.

Well Day 2 is down, and I escaped with only buying Sleeping Dogs, Fez and the DLC for XCOM. It is driving me nuts when a flash sale comes up and I own all 4 games.

Well if this morning is any indication of my weekend and the steam sale...I will actually spend money, since Ys chronicles was on flash sale the rest of the series also went on a flash sale if you went to their individual pages.

So far I already have most of the stuff or just not interested but its good I don't want to spend much this year spent $50 only so far so I'm doing good other year I spent over $300

I picked up Surgeon Simulator and Far Cry 3 so far. I don't expect to buy anything else but that's usually wishful thinking.

Today I picked up quite a few more than I had the last few days still hadn't spent all that much though, I have spent $50 for the first 3 days, and compared to previous sales that isn't bad at all for me with steam. Though I know I will spending a bit more by the end, I am just waiting for the right things to go on flash/daily sales

The only game I got so far is Faster than Light, by trading half a dozen summer cards for it. Since the release of the trading cards, this is the fifth game that I add to my library without spending a single penny. Thanks for the gifts, Valve!

Not sure if I'll "buy" anything. The Tomb Raider pack is tempting, but my computer can't handle the latest installment, so I might as well wait.

How has the steam sale been treating everyone else?

So far for me the steam sale is a big DLC fest for me, and a few other things, but nothing like years past, and it feels like the same things keep going on bigger sales.

I grabbed a few other things GTA complete pack, The Incredible adventures of Van Helsing, and Carpe Fulgur Collection.

I'm having a grand old time. I've bought...9 games and 2 DLCs. Cleared off 40% of my wishlist. Still waiting for 3 or 4 more things to go on 50/75% off.

I started having serious fun with the trading cards today. I finally explored the marketplace and have been buying low and selling high!

I've bought far too much, and probably will still buy more. Am mulling over if I should get Civ V and Rayman Origins, probably not as I can't decide. Just had a reorder of my games and apparently I have bought 53 games I will never play thanks to impulse buys, so I have promised myself to really think if I will play the game before I jump in head first.

I haven't been getting a whole lot. My backlog is huge, and my general rule is to not buy things if they'll be cheaper by the time I get around to playing them. Most stuff so far has either not been cheap enough or is stuff I already own. I might do a final sweep on the last day for a few things that I've been holding out on on the off chance they get cheaper, even though I know it's incredibly unlikely. They're already in my acceptable range, but it never hurts to wait until the last minute just in case.

I haven't been getting a whole lot. My backlog is huge, and my general rule is to not buy things if they'll be cheaper by the time I get around to playing them. Most stuff so far has either not been cheap enough or is stuff I already own. I might do a final sweep on the last day for a few things that I've been holding out on on the off chance they get cheaper, even though I know it's incredibly unlikely. They're already in my acceptable range, but it never hurts to wait until the last minute just in case.

This is my policy now - too many games to play already, so might as well wait until Xmas or next year, when things might get even cheaper and I might've cleared up some of my backlog - though money is not a problem for me, time is! I was really tempted by Tomb Raider and Borderlands 2, but exercised enough self control to hold myself back for another year. I did pick up Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim, Risen 2 and a couple of cheap little indie games. Oh, I also got Tomb Raider Underworld, because it was just 62p. Would've been rude to leave that on the shelf at that price.

This is my policy now - too many games to play already, so might as well wait until Xmas or next year, when things might get even cheaper and I might've cleared up some of my backlog - though money is not a problem for me, time is! I was really tempted by Tomb Raider and Borderlands 2, but exercised enough self control to hold myself back for another year. I did pick up Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim, Risen 2 and a couple of cheap little indie games. Oh, I also got Tomb Raider Underworld, because it was just 62p. Would've been rude to leave that on the shelf at that price.

I was also tempted to get Tomb Raider at that price, but maybe at the end of the year. There's only so much time to play games in a week. I haven't been making much progress lately either, with the series of bizarre heat waves that have been hitting us one after another with only a few days in between, which haven't left me in the mood for doing complex things like sitting up. I have gotten a bit of Reus in in the mornings if I'm up early enough though. That was a good choice to pick up.

I ended up getting the following:

Far Cry 3 - 20 hours in. Absolutely love it so far, never thought it would be this good. I find the music and voice acting to be very enjoyable.
Surgeon Simulator 2013 - 2 hours in. Alright game, mostly fun in 15 minute bursts.
System Shock 2 - A game I always wanted to play.
Rage + DLC - Originally beat it on 360 on the hardest difficulty but the DLC adds an even harder difficulty and the ability to keep playing after the credits. Something that should have been in to begin with.
Retro City Rampage - Haven't played it yet but it looked fun for nostalgia sake.

I ended up getting the following:

Far Cry 3 - 20 hours in. Absolutely love it so far, never thought it would be this good. I find the music and voice acting to be very enjoyable.
Surgeon Simulator 2013 - 2 hours in. Alright game, mostly fun in 15 minute bursts.
System Shock 2 - A game I always wanted to play.
Rage + DLC - Originally beat it on 360 on the hardest difficulty but the DLC adds an even harder difficulty and the ability to keep playing after the credits. Something that should have been in to begin with.
Retro City Rampage - Haven't played it yet but it looked fun for nostalgia sake.

I recently finished System Shock 2, but I played with co-op... it was great fun but definitely felt like it was meant for a single player experience. great game none the less, good choice

Choose how much you pay bundle
Saints Row
Saints Row 2
Risen 2: Dark Waters
Sacred 2 Gold

if 4,96$ or more:
+ Dead Island GOTY
+ SR3 Full Package

if 25$ or more:
+ Dead Island Riptide
I think this is an amazing deal
https://www.humblebundle.com/