Right now, Steam has a contest going on where one lucky person will win every video game on Steam. There are ways to get entries in every day for “free”. There are also ways to get extra entries by completing objectives in various purchasable games. Each piece of “coal” is an entry into the contest. Each Steam account can get more chances (and more coal). Steam also allows gamers to take coal, trade it, and then craft prizes with it…specifically, get free games.

Over at HumbleBundle.com, there are a bunch of games for really cheap. You can pay whatever you want. And they issue Steam keys for the games. Before today, you could be an ultra lame cheapskate and buy the bundle for one cent…and get Steam keys.

You probably see where this is going.

Some video gamers decided it would be “fun” to attempt to get tons of Steam coal by abusing this system. Unfortunately for them, Santa keeps a naughty and nice list and they are now squarely on the naughty list. These people set up a script and paid one cent for hundreds and hundreds of Humble Bundles. Then, they generated a bunch of Steam redemption codes and plugged them into new Steam accounts. Suddenly, they have tons of entries into the Steam contest for mere dollars, tons of coal, and tons of prizes (from a limited prize pool).

In addition to getting caught, PayPal transaction fees are 30 cents plus 2.9% of the transaction (usually). And, by buying so many copies at one cent, the average price on HumbleBundle.com has dropped significantly (approximately 25 cents according to one article). So, this little fiasco actually cost HumbleBundle money and will hurt them for a while longer. Fortunately, doing things like this is also against the Steam Subscriber Agreement and will hopefully result in permanent bans from Steam for their regular user accounts too (i.e. total loss of access to their entire digital collection). A suitable punishment for cheating and violating the Steam Terms of Service agreement. So, if you were directly involved in this stunt, here’s a big thumbs down from the gaming community. And a big shame on you too.

I also learned about a new website offering a near-clone of the Humble Bundle: indiegala.com. They only generate Steam keys but they generate one key per game, making the one cent thing even more tempting a target for video gamers without a conscience.

For the record, while I’m definitely a “cheapskate”, I still pay what I consider a reasonable amount for the games I want to own – and I’m patient for good deals. I also try to offset PayPal’s fees accordingly and I don’t cheat online systems. I’m okay with “cheating” in single player games – hey, game developers put in that infinite ammo code in single-player for a reason…. But even I understand and respect that an equal playing field is needed in the online world for everyone to have fun.

Here’s the original announcement for the change: $1 Min. Price For Getting Steam Keys. I originally heard about this via word of mouth.

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale. Recettear is better than Skyrim. There, I’ve said it. And you can pick up Recettear for $5 on Steam today.

After having played it through (twice), I can safely say I’m a fan of Recettear. First off, it is an Indie game. Not some AAA hotshot title that everyone talks about incessantly. It is budget-friendly. While not a AAA title, it is still a lot of fun. It doesn’t have a ESRB rating, but if it did, it would probably be E10+ – due to some mild innuendo, cartoon violence, and a few drinking/alcohol references. It has a better Metacritic user rating than Skyrim. There is no cussing or other foul language. There is no gore/blood. The story – it has an actual story – is charming, entertaining, and will touch your heart. It is a different type of RPG: You play from the perspective of an item shop owner in a RPG where you open an item shop to pay off a debt your father left behind (probably deceased). And it offers an actual challenge to players. When was the last time a RPG actually forced you to put on your thinking cap? Plus, Recettear has educational value in critical-thinking skills in regards to finances – but that is secondary to the fun you’ll have learning those lessons.

Now that I’ve got all the Skyrim fanboys riled up, onto today’s Steam deals worth getting:

Recettear (seriously – go get this game right now)
Half-Life Complete (or Orange Box)
LEGO Batman (or just get the WB Complete Pack)
Chantelise (older game by the same authors as Recettear, actual RPG though)
Costume Quest (Wrong holiday…LOL – but it supposedly has magical unicorns with rainbows – nothing can possibly go wrong with that, right?)

The last few rounds of video game deals have been quite pathetic. It was looking like a sad, sad year for PC gamers. Until today. It has taken me a bit to sift through all the deals on Steam and figure out what is worth having and what is worth waiting for a better deal on. In addition, one really lucky person will get every game on Steam. Every. Game.

To be honest, I’m really tired of most newer M-rated games. WAY too much cussing/foul language exiting the various characters’ mouths. And none of it helps the main story – in fact, such language really detracts from the story in nearly all cases. So you’ll find I’m leaning heavily away from such games this year and favoring those games that go out of their way to have an actual story or just focus on having fun. Without further ado, today’s deals:

Portal 2
Portal
Bunch of Heroes (Gift Pile game)
Orcs Must Die (Gift Pile game)
Just Cause 2

Deals that will be going on the entire time:

Sega Complete Pack (80 games for $100)
Warner Bros. Complete Pack
Various Capcom games
Valve Complete Pack
Various LucasArts games
Dirt 2
GRID
Overlord and Overlord 2
Mirror’s Edge (Maybe other EA games? But they’re really being stupid right now with their Origins service, so don’t give them money. Plenty of other games to be played.)
Magicka Collection
Terraria
From Dust (actually looks interesting – seems Darwinia-ish plus a physics engine)
Introversion games (Darwinia)
THQ Hit Collection (Mostly M-rated games here – okay price)
Square Enix Eidos Complete Pack (okay price – lots of DLC)
Various Atari games
Nail’d
Darkstar One

Looks like there will also be a high-resolution daily wallpaper too.

Cave Story can be picked up over at humblebundle.com for less than on Steam. Plus, you get Jamestown, a bunch of other games, and all the soundtracks for all the games in the process (even if you paid for the Humble Bundle already) and everything is DRM free and comes with free Steam keys (should you want them).