stupid question but steam?

i5aces

i5aces

i5aces

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please could someone explain to me what stem is and how it works, i looked at the site but didnt really understand what it does,

from what i saw it looks like a site where you buy games and download them, but i cant see where this would be an advantage over having a phyisical disc.
 
Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses. Steam also has community features, automated game updates, in-game voice and chat functionality.
 
Hats, lots of hats.

Seriously though, the key advantage of digital distribution, of which steam is the best IMO, is not needing to swap DVDs between games, and finding the disk is scratched. You can backup the install files onto DVD if you wish, and you are not going to lose your game keys.
 
Shamikebab said:
Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses. Steam also has community features, automated game updates, in-game voice and chat functionality.
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Nice copy and paste from the wikipedia page there :D
 
It's also the best system for managing your online gaming buddies ever made!

The best feature of steam imo is the steam friends, knowing what your friends are playing, what server they're on, having it integrated with games so you can join directly through steam or invite people to play with you through the game and/or overlay itself = massive win.

Oh and the deals aren't half bad either :D
 
Good for indie developers as well to reach larger markets I think, I've played some very good indie games bought from Steam.
 
It's useful because you get to have a full game library in just one place. I have over 50 games bought on Steam and I can install them and uninstall them whenever I want.

Just one thing, never give your password to anyone because you will lose your account and all of your games.
 
mufc802 said:
Just one thing, never give your password to anyone because you will lose your account and all of your games.
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Not true so long as you enable steam guard!

Just don't have your email address password + steam account password as the same thing else if someone got both you'd be screwed :p
 
so its like downloaded pc games rather than on disc but with things that you get on PS3 like firnds and voice chat.
is it a pay monthly service or do you just pay for the games.
 
The steam service is free, you can have an account with no games on it just to talkto friends etc if you want. If you want to play a game on steam, you either buy it direct from the steam store or buy the game from a shop and activate the product through steam. Steam is where a lot of games are headed these days and is definitely worth using imo.

And yes, it is just downloaded games rather than installing off a disc, all legal as well. There is voice chat, buddy lists, community pages, groups etc :)
 
It's free, sort of. The developers will be paying a percentage of the sale price to steam, and sometimes (but often not) that means the game is more expensive on steam.

The periodic steam sales are pretty epic though, you can save a lot.
 
EAs Origin service is also exactly the same thing by the way, albeit no where near as refined and only selling EA titles currently (as far as i know) of which are (as far as i'm aware) no longer available on steam.......because EA are ***** :)
 
i5aces said:
sweet will prob give it a go then.
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Make sure you enable steam guard once you've enabled your account, just an extra layer of security so that any machine you try to login to your steam account on has to be activated with a 4 or 5 digit key which is first sent to your email address. That way if anyone ever got your steam password they'd not be able to get in to your account without first gaining access to your email.
 
A a side note once you have got steam, Team Fortress 2 is now a free download :).

Another game to look at is Alien Swarm, again free but is more fun with friends (is a 4 player birds eye view co-op :).
 
The biggest advantages of Steam are its sales. Normally stuff is more expensive on Steam than ensewhere, but during their sales you can pick up some really decent titles for a few quid.
 
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