From today through Monday 27th, logging onto Steam will net you a red envelope containing Year Of The Rat tokens. Of course, waiting for freebies will only get you so far. Valve want you to spend money in their big money-spending event, and will hand over 131 tokens for every £1 (100 tokens to the dollar) spent during the sale. These can be spent at the Lunar New Year Night Market which - rather than a melting pot of Steam’s sauciest delights - is full seasonal goods to spruce up your Steam profile. Animated profile backgrounds, mini-profile backgrounds, chat room effects, stickers, and the like are up for grabs if you’ve got tokens to flaunt. Plenty of bewildered-looking animated rodents to spam at your friends in there. Like last year’s event, you’ll also be able to use your ill-gotten rat money to pick up Lunar New Year Coupons, which can be spent to grant further discounts throughout the event. 5,000 tokens will get you £3.80 off your next purchase. With a meagre 100 tokens gifted daily, it’s very much a “spend money to save money” situation. As before, they’re offering this swathe of discounts and daily rewards under the guise of retelling the origin story of the Zodiac - one where, instead of critters competing for the Jade Emperor’s favour, he hands you a fiver off Planet Zoo, the absolute lad. Each day’s gift also gives you a little story tidbit, which may honestly be more valuable than the tokens. What’s education worth, compared to one-fifth of a rat gif? Steam’s Lunar New Year Sale runs until Monday 27th at 6pm (10am Pacific). Standard sales etiquette applies, readers - don’t bloat out your backlog with games you’ll never get around to.
