Steam Trading Cards coming out of beta recently made me realize something.

Steam is becoming a game in itself.

In September of 2011, Steam Trading went live to all users. It's a feature that allows users to trade items between each other, from in-game items, to Steam items such as coupons and unredeemed games.

June 2013, the Steam Trading Cards and profile update goes live for all users. This adds profile levels, crafting of badges and collecting of trading cards and achievement showcases/other showcases.

The trading cards are obtained from playing eligible games. You craft the cards to increase your level to reap the rewards, then go on to get the next set of cards to craft the next badge. Purchasing games also increases your experience points. The cards can be sold to other players for Steam Wallet money which can then be spent to purchase more games.

You could say that Steam has become some kind of meta game in itself, and that the eligible games could be seen as minigames played to power-up your player profile in the main game that is Steam.

So, Steam seems to be blurring the line between digital distribution platform and game in itself. I'm curious to see if this is Valve's intention, and if they go further with it. If I had to predict anything, I'd say the obvious direction they would go with it would be releasing a series of "lesser" games in which your Steam Profile's level determines stats in the game. It seems obvious Valve would do something like that because not only would they be making money from purchases/microtransactions in the game, but they would also profit from people purchasing Steam Trading Cards and eligible games to improve their characters in the integrated games. It would reward the rich and leave the poor to be underpowered, but Valve is a corporation, and corporations are after one thing. Money.