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What is steam and why is it needed. What is Steam. Steam software and its benefits

Steam - service to pump money out of your wallets digital distribution of licensed video games, programs and films, serials and music may also appear in the future.

The developer and owner of the service is the world famous company Valve - the developer of such popular games like Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress and others.

A bit of history

The Steam service began its history in 1999, but it officially appeared in 2002 and then it was not yet a platform for sale and was simply an unnecessary component for games.

It was around this time that Valve got the idea of ​​selling digital content through their service. At the time, such an idea was very expensive to implement, so the company decided to partner with Amazon, Yahoo or Cisco to help solve the problem. Negotiations between them did not lead to anything, and Valve begins to implement the idea on its own.

So already in 2003, sales of digital goods start on the Steam store, and in 2004, with the release of Half-Life games 2, the presence of a Steam client has become mandatory.

A year later, games from other developers began to appear on Steam intensively.

The service develops, new functions appear, the design changes several times and after a long way to become what we see it today.

For more information on the history of the service, please click on the links:

  • Steam history: Wikipedia
  • Steam Story: Steam User Story

What is Steam?

If I was asked to briefly and clearly give a person an answer to the question “what is Steam?”, I would say something like the following:

Steam This is a service that provides access to thousands of licensed products, mostly games. Here you can buy the game for real money and download it immediately licensed version on computer.

All purchased games will be linked to your account and you will be able to access them at any time, years later, and even from another country. Even if the game is removed from the service for some reason, it doesn't matter if you bought it before deleting it, you can download it and play it.

In addition to paid products, there are many free ones, and some of them are really high quality and are worth your attention.

In addition, Steam has a social part, that is, you can add other users as friends, share with them achievements, screenshots, videos from games, etc.


What is Steam for?

I decided to answer this question by listing all positive sides of this project:

    • A huge catalog of games with easy search and navigation makes it easy to find and purchase games. Your collection will always be with you, even when you have to reinstall the operating system or even change your computer. A couple of clicks and the library will be restored. Conveniently.
    • Steam is famous for spontaneous sales and promotions, and the discounts themselves have become a hallmark. Although we are not talking about new products, but old games that came out a year or more ago, you can definitely get a good discount, up to 90%. The largest sales are Summer Sale and Winter sale... There are also less global sales, for example, Autumn, or dedicated to some kind of holiday, such as Halloween. There are also mini-sales - discounts are received for all games from one developer or one publisher. And that is not all. Several games also receive good discounts and a “free weekend” every week, which means you can play the game for free on the weekend.
    • Steam has long been not only a trading platform, but also a kind of social network. Convenient communication with friends, social services (comments, likes, etc.) and many network games, which were developed precisely thanks to Steam.
    • Do not forget about other useful services. For example, Steam family sharing allows you to share games with your family or friends. There is also Steam Cloud, which makes it possible to store settings and save from games on Valve servers. This means that even if you lose all data from your hard drive, you can continue the game thanks to the cloud storage of your saves.
    • If the game or other product turned out to be bad or you didn't like it stupidly, you can cancel the purchase, thereby refunding your money. But it's worth noting that the game can only be returned if you have played it for no more than two hours. This opportunity encourages developers to release the highest quality product possible, and you will be guaranteed the fairness of the service.
  • Steam provides an opportunity to receive money for our users. Ordinary players will definitely not be able to earn much, but $ 10 per month (if you work with multiple accounts) can be earned by selling game cards, things, emoticons, backgrounds, and more. But the designers have a lot to develop, as they can create their own models of items for the workshop.
  • Steam has become a real paradise for indie developers. Indeed, in the vastness of the entire Internet, it will be easy for a small project, but Steam is easily able to raise a standing product to the top.
  • As stated above, there are many online games on Steam that people from all over the world can play. However, there are some users who play with cheats and others supporting programs... Especially for such games and players, an anti-cheat has been developed, which is not flawless, the most "rage" cheats are able to detect and prohibit the player from playing this game for life on this account. In addition, Valve is preparing a neural network that should itself learn to detect foul play.

", - experienced gamers say goodbye to each other. And to any avid lover computer games it is clear what the speech is about. About the place where each of them is a superhero. About where you want to return again and again. About a virtual "house" where games dear to the heart live.

Steam is ...

You've probably already guessed what Steam is. This is a gaming platform, a service designed to buy and launch computer games, communicate between players, create gaming communities and much more that is related to gaming.

The brainchild of Valve in the early 2000s years of Steam was only used to distribute and activate this developer's products. Today it represents a complete social network with many functions, like Facebook or VK, which supports more than 10,000 games and applications from different manufacturers: Sega, Epik Games, Ubisoft, Rockstar games etc., among which there are many free ones.

The Steam platform exists in a web version, accessible through a browser, and as an application for all major stationary and mobile operating systems- Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, Android, iOS, and Samsung Smatr TV Tizen OS (limited). Installation and use of the service is completely free, payment is charged only for content.

Features, pros and cons of the platform

IN last years the functionality of Steam has grown to such a scale that even a developer will probably not be able to say which of its functions is the main one. Its users are given the following possibilities:

  • play on any supported device;
  • buy content on promotions with a 50-75% discount and play paid games for free, and such promotions take place almost constantly;
  • install game updates as a matter of priority - the platform does this automatically;
  • do not think about the safety of game data - Steam also takes care of this;
  • create and save backup copies of game distributions;
  • activate supported games purchased in boxed versions;
  • buy games as a gift to other users;
  • return the money spent if you did not like the game (the opportunity lasts up to 14 days after purchase, provided that the toy was launched no longer than 2 hours);
  • create personal pages and groups, join communities;
  • find like-minded people and friends;
  • exchange messages and communicate in the built-in voice chat;
  • share achievements;
  • exchange, buy and sell game items- inventory, cards, etc.
  • take screenshots and shoot videos, upload videos to YouTune;
  • record and broadcast streams without third-party programs;
  • receive the latest news about events game world;
  • listen to music stored on the device instead of game soundtracks;
  • give other users access to their library of games (family access);
  • customize the design of your personal page;
  • use services technical support developer.

And since Steam is the official store of gaming content, the products that are distributed through it are 100% legal and safe.

Among the disadvantages service users attributed:

  • The inability to use the means of obtaining illegal privileges over other players (cheats).
  • Lack of ability to launch pirated content.
  • There is a high risk of losing your account, and with it - the funds that are stored on the balance sheet. Steam user accounts are very attractive to attackers and are often attacked. To prevent attacks, the Steam Guard is built into the platform, but it does not guarantee complete security either.

Someone thinks that buying content through Steam is too expensive and for this reason they do not use the platform. However, it makes it possible not only to spend, but also to earn real money. One of the ways to make money is mentioned above - is the sale of game inventory. Also, some users manage to unofficially sell previously purchased games, and experienced gamers earn by promoting and selling pumped up accounts.

How to register on Steam

To register for the Steam service, launch the pre-installed application or open the store.steampowered.com website, go to the "Login" section and click the "Create an account" button.

Enter your email address, confirmation and verification code. Accept the user agreement and confirm the registration by clicking on the link that will come in the email.

After confirmation, return to the registration section, come up with a unique name that will be displayed to other users, and a password. Click Finish Registration.

How to link a payment instrument to your Steam account and replenish your account in the system

To link a bank card to the Steam profile, go to the "About account" menu. In the "In-store transactions" section, click "Add a payment method to this account."

Select a payment system from the list and enter the card details - number, expiration date, CVV / CVC code.

In the "Account Information" section, enter your real name, surname, zip code, residential address and telephone number. In the fields "Billing address" and "Billing address 2" enter the street, house / building and apartment number.

Once the card is linked, funds for purchases on the Steam store will be debited from its balance.

Beyond the tied bank cards, you can use the money on your personal Steam account to pay for content.

To top up your account balance, do the following:

  • Press the button "+ Top up balance" in the section "Operations in the store". Choose one of the proposed amounts (at least 150 rubles).

  • Choose a convenient payment method. In the CIS countries, Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express cards are available for this; payment systems PayPal, Yandex.Money and Webmoney; check mobile phone and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Once you have made your selection, click Continue.

  • Further steps depend on the specific payment method. Complete the payment by following the instructions on the screen.

How to download games

The selection, purchase and installation of games are made through the "Store" section of the main menu. Distribution of content by genre and other categories (new products, sales leaders, etc.) - in the column on the left.

Clicking on the game's banner will take you to the purchase page. More than detailed information about the offer: trailers, gameplay screenshots, description, system requirements, as well as the distributions of the game themselves and additional paid content. On the same page you will find information about discounts and promotions.

To buy something from the offer, click the "Add to cart" button next to the product and follow the instructions to make the payment. The purchased game and additional content will be uploaded to your Library.

How to add friends

To add Steam users as friends, go to the section of the main menu named after you and select "Friends". In the "Find Friends" field, enter the username. After it is found, click "Add as friend".

In addition, the "Add to Friends" button is present on the personal pages of Steam users:

And on the personal page of your profile in the section "Your friends" there is a search line for users by login and game name (the system shows who you played with):

The function of adding to friends becomes available after replenishing the account balance or purchasing in the amount of $ 5 or more.

In general, the Steam platform is quite simple to understand and master, it is enough to wander through the sections - and everything becomes clear without explanation. Moreover, it is fully translated into Russian, and besides it supports 25 more languages ​​of the world.

Once upon a time, when computers were large, and games for them were very small, no one could have thought to what heights the industry of this kind of entertainment would reach. After all, then no one was seriously involved in the development of systems that prevent the unlicensed use of games.

In addition, there were practically no online games, as the possibilities of the Internet at that time were very stunted. The maximum that was available to gamers was to stretch a coaxial cable between their computers.

As time went on, it developed at an ever more rapid pace. Unsurprisingly, in front of the developers at full height both of these problems arose. Simply put, they were faced with the need to provide players with a stable and reliable service for battles in interactive mode and also protect your creations from illegal copying.

One of the most successful developments was the Steam service from Valve. By the way, what is Steam? What is it for at all?

Brief historical background

Steam was created relatively recently, only in 2002. However, then he was known under the name Grid or Gazelle. It was revolutionary in that fans of Valve's creations could buy a digital version of the game without bothering to go shopping.

While Half-Life-2 was under active development, the company wanted to receive funds from the royalties from the creators. This venture was 100 percent successful.

The first version of Steam was sent for testing right before the release of CS 1.4. At that time, the service allowed the following:

  • a person could independently search for servers of interest to him;
  • of course, registered games could be used;
  • buy (!) a digital copy of the program (once again, we note that at that time it was a real breakthrough);
  • "Cut yourself" into an unpretentious client of chess or checkers.

Further development of the service

The release of Half-Life 2 was a major event in the industry. Counter-Strike: Source, released at the same time, caused no less excitement. But the buyers of games on physical media (i.e. on disk) faced a lot of inconveniences:

  • Internet was required to activate the product;
  • the game needed not only to be installed, but also to be updated via the same Internet;
  • the size of updates and patches was considerable, even by modern concepts;
  • activation often failed;
  • in a word, everything was not very good.

The author of this article once bought the famous Orange Box. Expecting to play his beloved Half-Life 2, he inserted the disc into the drive ... and spent the next two days in anxious expectation of downloading all the additions and updates via a stunted GPRS channel.

Major innovations in subsequent years

The main innovation is a seriously redesigned and improved store. All legacy servers have been permanently shut down.

Valve at the same time began to attract third-party developers, offering them to sell games through their service. The release of the first part of HL2 was marked by the emergence of regional protection. The release of the Orange Box delighted all fans with the Steam Community service, which soon turned into a real social network for gamers.

When the famous Left 4 Dead appeared, the service developed matchmaking (searching for suitable opponents in online games). However, a much more important innovation was the "cloud" Steam Cloud, which finally made it possible to fully synchronize settings between user accounts. Since then, the need for physical media for games (that is, buying a disc) has almost completely disappeared.

Around the same time, iMac users learned about what Steam was. Today, this platform has considerable weight in the community. Finally, last year there was a truly epochal event: Steam was released for Linux systems, and Steam OS was also announced.

Where to get it from?

So we learned what Steam is. It's time to turn to its direct use. There are two installation methods: if you bought a game (on physical media) that can be linked to your Steam account, then the operation will be performed automatically.

If you are planning to purchase programs in the Valve brand store, then visit their official website and download the client installation package. The program "weighs" several tens of megabytes, which is simply ridiculous at the present time.

Note! We have already talked about the large size of patches and updates that will be downloaded after installation. If you do not have a more or less sane Internet (at least 1 Mb / sec), then you should not contact "Steam" at all. Spend a lot of time and nerves.

By the way, what is a Steam key? This is a permission for the game that supports activation and assistance through this service. Such a possibility will be announced on the package with the disc or on the manufacturer's website.

How do I install it?

Everything is simple here. Click on the installation file with the right mouse button, select the item "Run as administrator". The installation dialog box will open.

Very important! In no case do not install "Steam" on the "C" drive, as all your games will be installed there. Considering that the same Left 4 Dead 2 or Force unleashed"Weighs" more than 10 GB, your system disk will soon be crammed to capacity.

Following the prompts of the "Installation Wizard", thoughtfully click on the "Next" buttons. After he finishes working, the client will automatically start, update, after which you can start buying games. However, you will not always need to purchase: Valve constantly organizes chic sales, or even gives some programs at all. In a word, just have time!

By the way, about sales. The fact is that for a purchase you will need not only a credit card, the data of which can be linked to Steam. What is it that comes in handy to confirm your order? This is your own home address and may receive bills or written notices. As a rule, filling in this field can be neglected. In this case, some obligations are removed from the company.

Some problems

Immediately, we note that the author of the article personally did not notice any problems (except for cases with a bad Internet) during the entire time of working with the official Steam client. However, if you download the "broken" versions of the No Steam Edition games from then you will see them without fail. In particular, you will immediately know what a Steam dll is.

The fact is that when you try to start a "broken" game, a window often pops up with a message about its absence. How to fix the situation? The easiest way is to simply buy licensed content. If for some reason you do not have such an opportunity, you can try to launch the game not through its shortcut on the "Desktop", but by double-clicking on the.exe file, which you will find along the path D: (or another drive) \ Steam \ bin.

Viruses

It must be admitted that sometimes even owners of completely legal content that were bought for their hard-earned money run into problems when launching. So, you may well see a message about the same missing DLL in the case when a normal file has been modified by some virus.

In a word, if the problems started on " empty space”, Immediately install the normal anti-virus package.

Opportunities for developers

Do you know what a Steam api is? This is a unique service that allows players to try themselves in the field of creating entertainment. Speaking in Russian, this is a special tool that makes it possible to obtain data both about the game and modify its code.

So, the Steam Web Api mechanism is used in those games that have a corresponding icon in the store. This means that you can not only participate in online battles, but also produce your own content. Of course, in most cases this is limited only to drawing the famous hats in Team Fortress, but sometimes users create mods that are incredible in functionality and beauty.

The creator of Minerva MOD for Half-Life 2 became especially famous for this. He was so good that he was almost immediately added to the official store, and his developer was invited to work at Valve. In a word, thanks to this tool, the corporation finds its new promising employees, and gives ordinary users a unique chance for self-expression.

Identifier

By the way, and the presence of which is sometimes required to connect to some internal servers? This is your unique network name, assigned depending on the characteristics of the hardware of the computer. Simply put, if you log into your account from a computer and then from a laptop, in both cases you will be assigned a separate ID.

What is a Steam id? This is the second name of the same identifier, which we talked about just above.

To find it out, in the game (which supports this feature) press the ESC key, then enter the Status command in the console that appears. A long list of destinations will open. Among them, find the one that starts with your nickname. There will be an index like "STEAM_1: 0: 12345678" next to it. This is the same identifier.

That's what Steam is and what it's for!

Before you figure out how to use Steam, it is worth explaining what the program is and why it is needed. Steam is a well-known and largest digital store of games and updates for them on the Internet. The name translated into Russian sounds like "valve". Users among themselves call it simply: "Steam". With the help of Steam, you can purchase more than three thousand products on this topic and not only. At the moment, Steam has more than 63 million users, which is an undoubted record for such a resource. The owner and creator of the store is a well-known company Valve Software.

Steam features

  • free use of already purchased and activated games,
  • automatic free update of games. Updates are installed automatically upon exit,
  • news of the world of games,
  • informing about new products,
  • search for games and servers for them by various criteria and filters,
  • buying a game for another person as a gift at your own expense,
  • various communities of interest,
  • chat between users.

How to install the program and how to use it to activate games and use all the variety of resource capabilities? Let's look at the step-by-step instructions.

Installing "Steam" and creating an account

  • To install Steam, you need an Internet connection. It is best to download the program from the official website.
  • During installation, the program will ask for a username and password. If this is your first time installing Steam, you need to go through a formal registration process. To do this, you must fill in the following fields: "Account name" - your unique name (login) in the Steam system, "Password" - the password, respectively. In the next field, you will need to re-enter the specified password. Then press the button "Next"
  • If the login you invented already exists in the system, you will be given the opportunity to change it to a new one.
  • Next, in both fields, enter an active email address and select a secret question, which in the future may be needed to recover the password. We answer the question and press the "Next" button.
  • The system will display a message on the completion of registration. Click "Finish"

entrance

At the first entry into the field "Login", respectively, enter the login, and in the field "Password" - the password. Next, press the "Remember my password" button for convenience. The next time you log into your account, it will be done automatically. And this will also allow you to run games without connecting to the Internet, which is very convenient if suddenly the connection is lost and you want to play. Press the "Login" key.

Game activation

Registered, entered, looked around and now the key question is how to activate the games? How do I use Steam? To activate the game, you must do the following:

  • Open the menu item of the program called "Play Games"
  • In this window, click on the name of the game
  • If your copy of the game has not yet been activated, Steam will automatically offer you to buy it.
  • Click on "Register a product I already own"
  • Next, you need to enter the individual registration number of the copy of the purchased game and press the "Next" button.
  • After checking the number and downloading updates, the program will complete the activation

Payment for purchases

You can pay in the Steam store in the following ways:

  • credit cards Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover, JCB
  • debit cards Visa, Mastercard
  • PayPal
  • Webmoney
  • ClickandBuy
  • Yandex money
  • Xsolla
  • QIWI Wallet
  • And others less common (depending on the region).
  • An important point to remember in the context of how to use Steam is that it is not possible for two users to play from the same account.
  • if at boot activated game, the speed is lower than your connection can provide, you need to go to "Settings" - "Download" and change the download server in the context menu.
  • look for the secrets of the games in various themed communities.
  • be sure to wait for the games to load at 100% and do not allow the Internet connection to be interrupted, otherwise, the entire activation procedure will need to start over.

Steam is a service that is primarily useful for people who are fond of computer games. What does Steam give us? With it, you can activate your new toy, download its components via the Internet, download updates and news about the game.

Steam is the brainchild of Valve. Accordingly, Steam works with Valve products and the products of those developers who have signed a contract with Valve.

In addition, through Steam, you can buy new games from Valve and other developers without leaving your home and without being distracted from your computer.

Who works with Steam?

  • Activision;
  • Codemasters;
  • Eidos Interactive;
  • EA Games;
  • Epic Games;
  • GSC Game World;
  • id Software;
  • Sega;
  • Atari;
  • Rockstar Games;
  • UbiSoft;
  • NCSoft;
  • and many others.

According to statistics for October 2010, up to 3 thousand products are sold through Steam, and the number of registered users reaches 30 million. The main products of Steam are PC games, trailers and game modifications.

The word Steam itself means "steam" in English.

It is impossible to overestimate the impact of the emerging service on the modern computer games market. Developers of independent games have found the most serious development. Previously, large publishing houses were very wary of new non-standard games, since it was not known in advance how profitable these developments would be. Now the situation has changed. Indie games are distributed through Steam, giving the aspiring team of programmers a chance to get serious about the computer entertainment business.

Steam is a new word in the sale of computer games over the Internet. The way Steam works is called digital distribution. If the publisher uses this method, then they significantly reduce their costs for a number of items. There is no need to spend money on the production of discs, packaging, printing covers and shipping them. Now everything is possible via the Internet. Accordingly, the financial risk of independent games decreases several times. In addition, if the independent game finds particular popularity among Steam users, then the developers will have the opportunity to get a contract with a major publisher.

There is no doubt that digital distribution is a step into the future. These technologies are used not only in the field of computer games, but also in the music business. The time is coming not for material values, but for ideas that bring material profit.

"You can break a sword, you cannot destroy an idea." (Victor Hugo)