Shortly
after launching its "Holiday Auction" on Steam last night, Valve was
forced to put the thing on an indefinite hold—suspending many PC gamers
wish to reap a bounty of free games. The problem? "There have been some
issues with Gems." Dammit, Gems!12
For those
unfamiliar, the Holiday Auction is a new and exciting-sounding event
that Valve kicked off this year inviting PC gamers to compete in a
large-scale raffle staged by Steam. This year, Valve promised to give
out 100 copies of almost 2,000 games. And the best part? You don't need
real-world, paper money to participate in the auction. At least,
directly. Rather, participants used the "Gems," a virtual currency that
can be acquired by trading in Steam community items: trading cards,
custom backgrounds, game-specific virtual swag, stuff like that.
If you are
familiar with PC gaming, you can probably tell where this is going.
Shortly after Steam users were allowed to start placing their first
bids, posts popped up on the service's subreddit
identifying issues with the gems and highlighting potential exploits.
Player reports vary depending on people's personal experience, but many
have said that their gems have simply disappeared from their Steam
inventory. A rough consensus has emerged, meanwhile, which concludes
that the Holiday Auction has officially been derailed by numerous
duplication exploits—i.e., certain participants figuring out how to
artificially inflate their gem count, and thus increase their chances of
winning the games that are being given out next week.
Needless to
say, some Steam users are upset with the news. And they're particularly
upset with the alleged gamers who are taking advantage of the exploit
for "ruining [the] fun for everyone," as one person put it on Reddit. It's not entirely clear if duplications or other exploits are actually the problem here, however.3
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All Valve
has said so far is: "Sorry, but there have been some issues with Gems
and the Steam Holiday Auction has been temporarily closed," in a notice
on the FAQ page
for the holiday auction. "The elves are working frantically to get the
issues sorted out, and the auction will start again as soon as they're
done."
According to the FAQ
page, the actual auctions take place from December 15th through the
18th. Whether the event will still go according to plan remains an open
question, however, since the service is still down.
We've reached out to Valve for comment, and will let you know when we have more information.
UPDATE (1:45 pm): Valve got back to us saying they've updated the holiday auction page.
It now says: "We had an issue with Gems that means we need to reset and
start again." Valve said that players will have their Gems returned to
them, and be reimbursed for any "Gem purchases from the community
market." Bids have been canceled since the auction is being reset, and
"trades involving Gems are being investigated on a case-by-case basis."
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We'll have more on this story as it continues to develop.
UPDATE 2 (5:45 pm):
And it's back! The auction has been up and running again for the
afternoon, so you're free to go in and participate in the Gem trading
once again. Proceed with caution, as always. Happy holidays!
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