-What is a showcase?
It's a way to customize your profile with the things that you find most interesting on Steam. There are a lot of showcases to pick from, including your favorite games, best achievements, screenshots, virtual items, among others.
-How do I add a showcase to my profile?
Once you reach Steam Level 10 you can pick and customize a showcase from the profile edit page. Each 10 Steam Levels earns you an extra showcase, i.e. two showcases at Level 20, three showcases at Level 30, etc.
-What is a Steam Emoticon?
An emoticon is a small image, themed for a particular game, that you get from crafting a Game Badge. You can insert it in Steam chats, discussion board posts, comment threads, etc. You can see the emoticon in your Steam Inventory and you can trade it to other users, or put it up for sale on the Steam Community Market.
-What is a Profile Background?
A profile background is a large image, themed for a particular game, that you get from crafting a Game Badge. You can select it to show in the background of your Steam Community Profile. You can see the profile background in your Steam Inventory and you can trade it to other users, or put it up for sale on the Steam Community Market.
-What are Foil Trading Cards?
There is a small chance whenever you get a Trading Card from playing a game that it will have a special foil border. You'll need to collect a set of foil cards in order to craft them into a foil badge. There is no extra benefit to having foil cards or foil badges aside from their rarity.
-Is there a game I play with the cards?
Steam Trading Cards are about collecting and trading; there isn't a game with them. It is a great idea though and something we'd like to look at adding in the future, or maybe find a way to let users build games using the cards they have.
-Do I get Trading Cards for completing achievements in game?
Trading Card drops are currently just tied to playtime within a game, independent of which achievements you are getting. We will definitely look into adding more rules for how cards are dropped in the future, but there are a few problems with in-game achievements that prevented us from using them right now. Many games have achievements that are grindy or un-fun to get, and we want the act of getting game cards to be fun for all users in games. We also don't want to push users to cheat or use achievement-unlockers in games in order to get cards, since that devalues achievements and isn't that fun either. Achievements are still valuable, and having the Achievement Showcase on your community profile is a great way to show off those rare achievements.