Well, I can be a pretty obsessive collector myself (there's a reason why I got nearly 4000 computer games in my archive ;) ). I understand the drive to collect things, or complete a set or series, from decades of experience actually. ;)

But I tend to collect games (which you can play) and RPG materials (which you can use for creating campaigns). Others collect music (which you can listen to), Magic the Gathering cards (which you can play with), books (which you can read), and then there are these Steam trading cards, which you can ... look at?

Of course, not every collectible needs to have a use. Stamps don't really (at least not in the way they are collected). But they weren't created just for the purpose of being collectibles either.

I think what makes me wonder about the Steam cards is that they look so obviously like a low-cost way to tie more users to the service without even providing actual, tangible, additional value. It looks as if Steam just threw a bunch of plastic carrots into a dog cage, and the well-conditioned dogs now fight for them without even realizing that they are plastic.

But anyway, different strokes for different folks. :) I do not _have to_ understand everything, and that other people are collecting harmless trading cards doesn't affect my own experience in any way, so I don't really have anything _against_ it either. I just find it strange. I'll keep that in mind. :) I'll probably wait until I have more of them (100 perhaps?) and then look what I can do with them.