About

Valve, Add This Please! is a catchphrase associated with an ASCII Art resembling Facebook's "Like" button that is typically used as a seal of approval for a proposed video game or add-on features to existing titles on Valve's online marketplace Steam, particularly within the Workshop^[1] and Greenlight^[2] communities.

Origin

The original ASCII is created out of 5 unicode symbols including: Light Shade "░" – 0×2591, Dark Shade "▓" – 0×2593, Full Block "█" – 0×2588, Upper Half Block "▀" – 0×2580 and Lower Half Block "▄" – 0×2584. The phrase "valve, add this please" has been used by Steam users since as early as October 2011, with the first known instance posted by user Hooded Owl in the comments section of "The Bellhop",^[3] a popular add-on item for Team Fortress 2. On July 21st, 2012, the ASCII art was used for the first time by Steam user Lucas2616 in support of "The Ankle Biter" add-on item available for Team Fortress 2 on Workshop.^[4]. Later that same month, on August 30th, the ASCII art made its first appearance on the Steam Greenlight forum page for 8BitMMO^[5], a massively multiplayer, free-to-play game that was subsequently picked up for release in December 2013.

Precursor

The ASCII art rendition of the "Like" button has been also used by Facebook users since as early as 2011.^[6]

Spread

Both the phrase and the picture gained popularity on Steam forums. The sentence was reused on October 16 by The Fastest Shot in the West ^[7]. The ASCII was copied three times by BlueFox, first at 4:15pm and Vimy at 4:18pm on Steam Greenlight^[8][9]and by Biohazard Paladin [HUN] on Steam Workshop. From 2012 up to now, people created over 100 variantions of 'Valve, Add this please!' and wrote over 100 000 related comments. On October 26, 2013, user Piranha developed a remake of weapon P90 from game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive painted in popular and recurring comments containing 'Epic' and 'Valve~ Add This Please!'. It received over 40 positive comments^[10]. On November 14, 2014, Steam Workshop released a new update featuring decrease of spam, by removal of comment threads. The litter was mentioned as 'Giant ASCII art' reffering to 'Valve, Add This Please!' fad^[11]. Dota 2 players players responded positively on Reddit^[12].

Derivative: Mega Ultra Epic

This ASCII is originating from Steam Workshop. The Unicode elements its made of are 'Valve, Add This Please!' excluding Dark Shade "▓" – 0×2593. Its first known appearance is MCQubill's comment from December 29th, 2012, 5:42am on Team Fortress 2 item Name Badge^[13] in form of Epic Smiley, based on FishSticks™'s ASCII^[14] mixed up with 'Add it now Valve!' and 'Epic' ASCII, later reposted by ♥Kawaii♥, Foxy, Sir-loot-a-lot, zeanzoom, Breakfast_Alcohol, Samekasve, EternalScout and Chaos Deamon^[15]. It shortly after leaked out to Steam Greenlight, generally used in combination of 'Mega Ultra' and 'Valve, Add This Please! And Give Me One!'. However, it got bad reception from Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2.^[16][17]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References