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I am sure that for every experienced and not so experienced player, like me, the word “Steam” once had an unclear meaning. I played Counter Strike (no-steam) about three years ago and heard something like this:
- You're a cheater, you bastards, I'm your mother **** so you can die.
- Shut up, I have steam.
And then I left the game and started googling information to understand what this steam was all about.
To give as much useful information as possible, I will, first, talk about Steam itself, how it works and what it is needed for, and then I will make a small Question/Answer list, which will expand.
This is an online store of games, programs, and in the future films and music may appear, which delivers goods to the user via the Internet. The service itself belongs to Valve and was originally developed to distribute games from the same company, but in the near future it made its platform open, and each developer could add their own games.
In addition, Steam has a good social component, which makes the service a kind of “VKontakte for gamers.” You can communicate with other players, add them as friends, give them games, share your library, create groups, like and post screenshots of games, receive achievements, collect trading cards, use emoticons, stream gameplay and much more.
What is Steam for?
First of all, this is a great way to drain your salary.
Secondly, having purchased the desired game, you will be able to promptly download updates, patches, modifications, as well as other technical support services.
Thirdly, Steam has protection against cheating programs, so on secure servers you will be completely sure that you are playing with honest people. If they even try to use programs that simplify the gameplay and give some kind of superiority over others, their account will be blocked from this game.
How much does Steam cost?
As mentioned above, Steam is a service whose client program is distributed free of charge. You only pay for the games themselves, which are linked to your account upon purchase.
What if I don't want to buy games on Steam?
In this case, you can add third-party games to your account, but they are not tied to your account and you do not receive all the functions that the service provides. There are also a large number of free games on the Steam store.
And so, for starters, the article will do, in the future I will correct and add new information.
What is Steam and what is it for?
Do you know what Steam is? If you have a school-aged child, he knows for sure. But adults, as our experience of communicating with parents shows, are often not aware of what kind of service this is and what it is needed for. Steam is the largest online store for computer games. In it you can get both games from Valve, the creator of Steam, and other developers. Along with a large number of free programs, Steam also has paid content. Both purchased and free games are launched through the program of the same name. One way to get a paid game is to buy an activation key. All purchases are linked to the player’s account: no matter what device the user logs into his account from, he always has access to his collection of games.
In addition to distributing gaming content, Steam is also a social network for gamers. There they can communicate, add other users as friends, create and join communities, give gifts, receive achievements, like, exchange items, and much more.
What are the pros and cons of this gaming platform and why should parents know about its existence?
Let anonymous communication remain anonymous
If Steam is a social network, then children and teenagers communicate on it. Moreover, Steam has a ton of multiplayer games in which players also have the opportunity to communicate with each other. The main, in our opinion, features of communication both on the network itself and in games from a security point of view are that, on the one hand, players communicate with a mass of random and unfamiliar people, and on the other hand, they usually use nicknames - “Pilot777 ", "ХХХваняХХХ" and so on. That is, in this environment, communication with strangers is common, which does not flow into personal meetings, or even into acquaintance as such with the exchange of personal information. It should remain that way. Explain to your child that such anonymous communication is completely acceptable, but in no case should it be de-anonymized - you cannot tell someone you know from the game your real first and last name, age, especially address or phone number, or give a link to pages on social networks.
Some gaming communities practice meetings between their participants. Your child should know that if he plans to go to such a meeting, he should definitely tell you. You can go to it, but only on condition that the message about such a meeting was posted in the public domain, and did not come in a private message from one of the players. At such a meeting, the child will be able to evaluate for himself who is who, see children of his own age and get to know them personally. He can continue to communicate with older players in the game, but transferring communication to social networks or real life is not worth it, because just because a child saw this person at a meeting does not make him a good acquaintance, and this person may still turn out to be a criminal .
What is my child doing? Check it out on Steam!
Parents should consider registering for Steam themselves and adding their child as a friend. This will allow you to see who your child is communicating with, what games they are playing, how much time they are playing, and when they were last online. This will help not only to make sure that he does not spend too much time in games and does not play games that are prohibited for his age, but also to better understand his interests, and maybe even share them.
By the way, the family account settings and parental controls inside Steam will allow you not only to look at what he is playing and sigh, but also to limit your child’s access to games, for example, 18+, or to certain works that are not suitable for children.
There are no new games. Money too.
Fraudsters are well aware that children, on the one hand, are very interested in new games and “pumped up” characters and, on the other hand, do not have enough money to buy and do not want to spend a lot of time on “pumping up”. As a result, scams are emerging that target schoolchildren looking for cheaper and easier ways to get new games and “level up.” And if a scammer targets a schoolchild, that means the parents’ wallet is at risk. Tell your children that the following tricks are scams and should not be fooled.
Sale/giveaway of invalid Steam keys
There are a huge number of stores on the Internet offering to purchase keys. Buying a key is always a pig in a poke; until the moment of activation it is impossible to know whether it works or not. Here you can only count on the seller’s integrity. Often, users, in pursuit of a new game and an attractive price tag, forget simple safety rules and purchase keys on dubious sites. As a result, they may become the owners of an already used key, and, of course, no one will return the money spent on its purchase.
Fraudulent stores have an extremely short lifespan, so along with this type of fraud, a more sophisticated scheme is also used - drawing random (“random”) keys. The random key is a lottery. By paying, for example, 60 rubles for participation in the drawing, the user, according to the organizers, can get any game: from a cheap one for several tens of rubles to a top-end one, the price of which can reach several thousand.
The process of drawing a key, however, is not demonstrated on the sites, so it is impossible to verify its fairness: among the prizes, there may not be keys that are more expensive than the cost of participation, so we advise you to refrain from participating in such dubious lotteries.
Buying/stealing an account.
Along with selling keys, these same dubious stores are also selling accounts. Why do people buy them? Having made a decent discount on purchased games, things, etc., the seller gives the user a ready-made profile. The buyer only needs to log into his account using the purchased login and password, and he becomes the proud owner of not only game content and items, but also all the achievements of the previous owner. However, it is impossible to get someone else’s account and be one hundred percent sure that it has completely come under your control: the purchased profile may turn out to be stolen, and the original owner can return it at any time.
Everything acquired through backbreaking labor!
In addition to schemes aimed at the user’s wallet, gamers may encounter attempts to steal their account. For your child, losing a Steam account can be a real tragedy, because a lot of time and pocket money have been invested in it. Here are some methods that allow scammers to gain control of your account:
Phishing sites.
This scheme is simple, but most effective, since it is designed for inattention and ignorance of users. Here's how it works:
- You receive a link with a tempting offer on Steam (free giveaway or discount on inventory, exchange of items, etc.). There are many ways to get such a link: in a letter, in comments to articles, in public pages or in a personal message on social networks.
- Clicking on it takes you to a page that is almost indistinguishable from the official Steam page. Where you are asked to enter your username and password for your account to continue.
- The user, in anticipation of an excellent exchange/purchase of goods, enters all the data required of him, not paying attention to the address bar of the site. The official Steam domains are steamcommunity.com and steampowered.com. Fraudsters register very similar domains to lull the victim's vigilance. Eg:
- steam.stearncommunity.click
- steamcammunitty.com
- steamcammunity.ml
- steamcamrnunitty.com
- steamcommunity.ml
- After entering the data, it is leaked to the scammers, and along with it, access to the account.
Third party programs.
Another way to steal an account is to install additional programs (in particular on mobile devices) supposedly designed to protect the account, add additional functions, ban and damage the enemy’s reputation on Steam, etc. There are a huge number of such programs, but you shouldn’t trust them. The only exception is Steam Guard, Valve's official account protection application.
If they are installed, not only data for accessing Steam can be stolen, but also other personal information: contacts, SMS, and even logins and passwords from accounts on other sites.
Tell your child about these schemes so he can protect his account.
How to protect yourself?
There are several simple but effective rules to help you avoid falling for scammers:
- Treat with healthy skepticism the too attractive prices of goods offered to you. Don't forget that the miser pays twice.
- Never click on links received from unknown senders. If it was sent by a person you know, first find out from him what it is and why he sent it: his account could have been hacked by scammers.
- Buy games online only from reputable stores.
- Use security solutions for your devices and update databases on time. Antivirus will protect you from downloading malicious programs, and anti-phishing will protect you from switching to fraudulent resources.
- Always be careful when entering logins, passwords and other personal information on any resource.
You should not protect yourself from the Steam gaming platform itself. This service has more pros than cons: it teaches children and teenagers to use licensed software, allows parents to keep track of their children’s gaming activity, and can limit access to adult content. Learn to use this service as another tool to ensure your child's digital safety.
The service replaced an earlier system WON, which was a more highly specialized service and was not a system for distributing data over the Internet (digital distribution). The history of Steam began in 1999 successfully Team Fortress Classic And Counter-Strike . Even before the release of the final versions, these games became some of the most popular multiplayer games. At that time, the popularity of games reached a maximum of 2-3 thousand active players. Number of players TFC And C.S. a couple of years later it increased several times. As a result Valve began to revise traditional methods of organizing online games. It was necessary to solve problems in light of the further influx of players. This mainly concerned automatic updating, improvement Anti cheat-systems. When the developers were working on this system, they came up with the idea of using this platform to sell games. The implementation of this idea seemed too expensive, so Valve sought cooperation with various companies, such as Amazon , Yahoo And Cisco, offering this approach, but everyone was limited to promises. Since the system was so necessary for Valve, the company decided that it would implement this idea itself.
Steam interface of the first version.
Steam was first introduced on Game Developers Conference March 22 2002. Version Steam 1.0 became available during beta testing Counter-Strike 1.4 . Steam installation was required for beta testers CS 1.4 , but was only an additional component for the final version.
Further development
IN Steam 2.0 was slightly changed user interface and an integrated instant messaging system with friends. At the end 2003 Valve has announced its plans to shut down WON and make Steam installation mandatory for Valve online games. This angered many players, who then created WON2 as a replacement. 26 July 2004 World Opponent Network was closed and replaced by Steam.
Steam interface version 2.5
In September 2004, the trial became known Vivendi Games from Valve. The first company argued that the distribution of Half-Life 2 through Steam violated the publishing contract. Vivendi lost the case and was banned from continuing licensing Valve games for Internet cafe. Later, the contract between these two companies was terminated, and Valve chose Electronic Arts as new retail publisher.
Standard interface of Steam version 3.
In November 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2- the first single-player game that requires a Steam client. At the end 2005 Third-party games appeared on Steam for the first time: Rag Doll Kung Fu (October 12) And Darwinia (December 14).
Steam game library version 4 in a compact form.
At the end of 2009, the design of the official website was slightly changed - instead of dark yellow, blue tones appeared, and it was also possible to purchase games online through the Steam website without using the Steam program. At the same time, Valve began development of the fourth version of Steam with a completely new design. The beta version was released at the end of February 2010, and all interface menus were significantly redesigned. At the same time, the design of the official website was greatly changed for beta users. The design of the Steam shell, as well as the in-game overlay, was almost completely redesigned. In particular, instead of the three standard lists “Games”, “Trailers” and “Tools”, a new “Library” menu appeared, to which, in addition to these 3 subsections, a new one was added - “Downloads”. At the same time, 3 options for displaying games became available - a list with detailed information and background, a large list with updated icons, and a grid with large icons. Compact view is no longer supported. In addition, many bugs were fixed, the built-in browser began to use the engine WebKit instead of Trident, available only for Windows, which significantly increased productivity and safety, and also made it possible porting to other platforms. The format of skins for the fourth version has also undergone changes, which made the skins of the third version inoperative. Valve has released a stable version April 28 2010. The design of the Steam community and the main Steam web page has also been updated for all users. In the release version, the ability to collapse the “Library” menu into a compact view was restored, while the old low-format icons were replaced with new colorful ones in a three-dimensional style. This update was the largest since the launch of Steam in 2003.
This version of Steam has received mixed reviews from the community. On the one hand, the interface has become more intuitive, logical, modern and colorful. On the other hand, there were many flaws, shortcomings, and there were also problems with performance on weak machines. This has been fixed in subsequent updates.
In March 2010, information appeared on the official Valve websites about the future transfer of Steam and all Source games to Mac OS X. 12 May In 2010, the final version of Steam on Mac was released. For some time, performance problems were observed on Mac OS X. On August 18, Valve announced that updates had become available to improve performance. .
On September 10, a Steam wallet was announced and launched into beta test, with the help of which users could transfer certain amounts of money to it to use later. It finally appeared on Steam on September 30 along with the game update Team Fortress 2.
On March 3, 2011, Valve announced and launched into beta testing the Steam Guard service, which was supposed to provide additional security for user accounts. When this service was enabled, access to the Steam account became possible only from the current computer; to enter the recording from another computer, it was necessary to enter an additional code that was sent by email. Steam Guard was also shown at CeBit 2011 Gabe Newell, who also published the password to his account and stated that no one could steal it. The service became publicly available on March 16.
On January 26, 2012, a beta version of the Steam client for operating systems was announced iOS And Android.
Name
Also, the spread of Steam influenced digital distribution in general. Immediately after release Half-Life 2(requiring Steam installation) this service has attracted the attention of many players. Steam was the first successful project in this area (about 25% of Half-Life 2 copies were sold through Steam). Soon after this, several large companies announced the creation of their own similar services, such as Sega , EA Games And 3D Realms. Smaller companies such as Stream Theory and Virgin Games have also announced their projects.
However, some of them did not bring their own projects to completion. Sega began selling its games on Steam, and Game xStream's Triton service, which distributed 3D Realms games, was closed (3D Realms games also moved to Steam). Electronic Arts also distributes some of its games through Steam, despite having its own trading platform Origin(in addition to digital distribution, this service is also intended for online sales of games on physical media).
In late November 2008, Brad Wardell ( English Brad Wardell), head of the company Stardock, which owns the digital distribution service Impulse, said that, in its opinion, “the undisputed leader in the digital distribution market for PC gaming content is Steam - it has approximately 70% of the market. Our Impulse service comes in second place with about 10%. Everyone else shares the remaining 20%." He also added that in 2009, publishers receive about 25% of the total income from game sales through such services.
Possibilities
Multilingual
Steam is currently available in the following languages: English , Dutch , Danish , Italian , Spanish , Korean , German , Norwegian , Polish , Portuguese , Russian , Thai , traditional chinese , simplified Chinese , Finnish , Turkish , French , Swedish , Czech And Japanese.
Steam has implemented regional protection due to the fact that in different regions, boxed editions of Steam games have different prices. That is, games purchased in Russia (in a boxed version) will not work outside CIS(such protection was carried out towards the exit Half-Life 2: Episode One V 2006). At the same time, this approach allows publishers to make available any official voice acting, since publishers need not be afraid re-export games. Most games purchased on Steam are multi-region and have no restrictions since they are sold at the same price in all regions.
Network games
Responsible for the part of Steam responsible for games through Internet, includes getting the list servers, version checking client and server to ensure their compatibility, as well as providing the server with information about account Steam and blocking accounts, caught in foul play service Valve Anti-Cheat, access to all online Steam games that support VAC technology. Steam also blocks access to users who do not have a Steam account (No-Steam versions of games) or whose account does not have a purchased game, which is another component DRM protection. This component cannot bypass hacked versions of Steam as it requires hacking or bypassing servers authentication Valve.
Matchmaking
This function appeared with the release Left 4 Dead. Its essence lies in the fact that players do not connect directly to the server, but first to a lobby created by one of the players. The lobby leader can choose game parameters (map, difficulty level, etc.), “kick out” someone who has connected, and make the lobby accessible only to friends or by invitation. After the required number of players has been recruited, the lobby leader starts searching for a server. Steam selects the most suitable empty server on which it installs the required settings and connects players from the lobby to it.
Steam Cloud
This feature allows you to save game data (such as personal configurations, keyboard and mouse settings, logo sprays for multiplayer games, save files) on Valve servers. This feature is useful for those who use their Steam games on multiple computers. The following games are currently supported by Steam Cloud: Half-Life 2 , Half-Life 2: Episode One , Half-Life 2: Episode Two , Portal , Portal 2 , Left 4 Dead 2 , Team Fortress 2 , Alien Swarm , Sid Meier's Civilization V , Plants vs. Zombies , Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 , Dota 2 , Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fallout: New Vegas, Braid, Worms: Reloaded, Metro 2033 and others.
Steam Community
In 2011, the inventory was redesigned again, introducing the ability to view and trade in-game items directly through the Steam website. In addition, gifts, guest invitations, and discount coupons are also now associated with Steam category inventory items, and can also be traded. The Steam category also includes special items (for example, coal) dedicated to special promotions and providing the opportunity to win prizes or exchange them for a cheap game. By default, items from the Steam category are only visible to the account owner, while items from games may be visible to other players, depending on the profile privacy.
Currently the inventory function is used Team Fortress 2 , Portal 2 , Dota 2 and a number of indie games.
Steam Workshop
The Steam Workshop is an item gallery made by Valve that is designed to create and review items created for various games by users. At the moment, you can upload items to the workshop for Team Fortress 2 , The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Portal 2 And Dota 2.
Steam Greenlight
Achievement system
In some games there are achievements- optional game tasks, each of which saves information in the game. At the same time, if Steam is launched in online mode, the achievement is also saved on your Steam account, which allows you to restore previously obtained achievements when you reinstall the game. The first games to use this system were Orange Box . All games from this set, except Half-Life 2 And Half-Life 2: Episode 1(for PC versions of these games achievements appeared only 26 of May), offered players an arbitrary set of achievements, the completion of which carried absolutely nothing other than information in Steam statistics. However, after some time, completing achievements was reflected in the gameplay network command shooter Team Fortress 2 , which is currently receiving extensive updates that expand the weapons of each game class. Along with each such update, the developers supplement the list of achievements with a set specifically for the improved class. Completing achievements can unlock new weapons, and tasks can force you to change your game tactics. For now Team Fortress 2 is the only game that fully utilizes the capabilities of achievements. Another Valve online shooter, , after switching to the updated game engine I also received a set of achievements, but completing them does not affect the gameplay.
The system was later added to the Steamworks developer kit, allowing achievements to be added to any Steam game. The first game to support the system that was not created by Valve was Audiosurf .
In games whose engine is heavily integrated with Steam, achievements can only work when the Steam client is running online (mostly games Valve). In most third-party games, they can work without Steam, but they are not saved to the Steam account. For example, in Unreal Tournament 3 achievements are tied primarily to the game account and only when the Steam client is running online, they are also saved on the Steam servers. However, if achievements are deleted from Steam, they will be saved in the game itself.
There is a program for unlocking/blocking Steam achievements on a game account - Steam Achievement Manager. With its help, users can add achievements to themselves without having to earn them in the game “honestly” or delete them. Moreover, this applies even to games for which achievements have not been released and are in the testing stage. The program has become widespread primarily among players Team Fortress 2, since unlocking new weapons directly depends on the number of achievements received.
To make it easier to create a backup copy on Steam, the archive is split into files of 640 MB, 4.7 GB, or as specified by the user. Further archives written to disks by any program. Steam does not have a built-in optical disc recording feature. However, you can also perform a backup manually by writing the contents of the SteamApps folder to disk.
Features under development
Developers periodically announce what features they plan to implement on Steam. Such declared but not yet implemented functions are:
The ability to select an alternative browser for the Steam client was also promised (only used Internet Explorer), but with the release of a new version of the client on April 26, 2010, which uses its own shell based on WebKit, the need to search for an alternative browser is gone.
Promotions
Omissions ( English Guest Passes)From time to time, players who have any multiplayer game, a guest invitation is issued that can be sent to any person via Steam itself or Email. The person who receives the invitation, in turn, can activate it and play the full version of the game within a few days.
Weekend discount ( English Weekend Deal)
Every weekend there is a discount on one or more games. As a rule, this is 50 - 75%. This way, you can buy games much cheaper than usual.
Sometimes Steam holds major sales on games, usually around New Year's. Such actions were carried out at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010 and the end of 2010/beginning of 2011. Most games during the promotion period are sold at prices reduced by 33 - 75%, as a rule, with the exception of recently released ones. In addition, every day there are super discounts of up to 90% on certain games and a timer is turned on, after which the list of games with super discounts changes.
Sometimes the discount goes to a game from a developer who does not allow the purchase of games from Russia. You can't buy this game. However, if this game is purchased as a gift by a user living in a country where purchase restrictions do not apply, the game can be linked to an account and played.
Mid-week promotion
Every Wednesday, Steam offers a significant discount on one or more games. As a rule, the discount is 50 - 75%.
Offer of the day
Every day a game is selected for which a discount is provided. Moreover, on Wednesday, in addition to this promotion, there is also a mid-week promotion.
Publisher's Week
Periodically, Steam offers significant discounts for a whole week on games from a specific publisher (Ubisoft, EA, etc.).
Free weekend
In December 2006, Valve confirmed the introduction of advertising in Counter-Strike CS-Nation website and announced the imminent release of a beta version of the game with advertising. 5th of March 2007 An update has been released for Counter-Strike that adds advertising. On January 9, 2008, advertising was added to Counter-Strike: Condition Zero .
In an interview with the site GamesIndustry.biz Gabe Newell stated that advertising in C.S.- just an experiment to implement in-game advertising as a Steam feature. And this function can be used, for example, in free games that pay for themselves through advertising.
Account Operations
Account creation
The user can create an unlimited number accounts. When you first launch Steam, the create account button appears automatically. The user must provide an account name and password, address Email, which can be used to recover a password, as well as a security question and answer in case he forgets his password. An account can be created either through the Steam program or through the store's website, but a restoration request can only be sent through the Steam client. The account name can contain Latin letters, numbers and underscores _ . In this case, the account name should not be already registered, and should not contain the word valve And steam- this is done to prevent the possibility of impersonating employees and administrators Valve in order to steal the password.
Activation
However, such a system has a number of serious disadvantages:
- To install the game, an Internet connection and a mandatory update to 100% are required. Otherwise, it is impossible to install the game. Thus, users who have a low-speed modem or an expensive (if paying for traffic) Internet connection cannot download updates and start playing, even if they have a boxed version of the Steam game.
- Inability to activate the game or download updates for it when the Steam servers are busy.
It is precisely because of these shortcomings that pirated No-Steam versions have become widespread, since such versions do not have Steam. Such games can be launched immediately, without connecting to the Internet and launching Steam. Pirates also created hacked versions of Steam for users with an Internet connection, allowing them to download games and play them without paying. However, such versions become outdated quite quickly, and it becomes impossible to download new games or updates for some existing games. Through such hacked Steam clients, it is also impossible to play on licensed servers controlled by Valve using Steam accounts.
However, it was the activation that caused the most complaints from Steam users. Being a bottleneck in the game distribution system Valve, Steam activation servers were overloaded on release day Half-Life 2 , despite all efforts and assurances Valve(in particular, announced Valve the non-boxed version was pre-loaded long before the game was released), and many buyers were forced to wait for many hours, waiting for a stable connection with the servers and decryption of the game files.
Purchasing games
Instead of buying boxes of games, discs, CD keys, a Steam user gets the opportunity to download purchased games from Steam servers from any place where the Steam client can be used. Games can be purchased either individually (with some exceptions) or as part of “packs” of several games (if any), costing less than the total cost of the games individually, sometimes even several times. It should be taken into account that the volume of such “packages” can be tens of gigabytes, which must be downloaded via the Internet, which, in turn, requires a high-speed cheap connection.
All purchases are made from the Steam client desktop or on the store website through any browser, and the data is transmitted through an encrypted connection. To ensure greater security, payment information is not saved, so it must be entered again each time. Purchases are made through a virtual shopping cart. Steam has a wallet to which users can transfer money and keep it there. Payment for purchases is possible either through this wallet or by transfer of money. The following payment and wallet replenishment methods are supported:
Maestro debit cards, popular in Europe, are not directly supported, but can be used when paying via PayPal. For a long time, payment methods were limited only to credit cards and bank payment systems using accounts linked to credit cards. This was the reason for criticism of Steam, mainly in countries where strict criteria are established for obtaining credit cards (for example, age) and non-bank Internet payment systems are predominantly developed (for example, WebMoney). For RF And CIS the situation has changed November 2 2010, when for these countries Steam allowed payment for games via WebMoney.
Price
Prices for games and downloadable content on Steam vary within some limits. Now the lowest price for the game is $0.99USD ( Fortix), downloadable content $0.99USD ( Just Cause 2: Monster Truck ), for downloadable manuals $1.99USD ( Portal 2: The Final Hours ), or for the collection $2.99USD ( Ctulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII Double Pack) and the highest price for the game is $59.99USD ( Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ), downloadable content $39.99USD ( The Sims 3: Late Night), downloadable manuals $19.99USD ( Homefront: Prima Official Strategy Guide ) or for the collection $49.99USD ( Valve Complete Pack).
In different regions, the price may differ from the standard price or may vary for different titles of the same game. For example, the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. costs $9.99USD, but the same game in America costs $19.99USD, as it bears the name S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl . Thus, you can buy two identical games. First days after release Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare had a huge range of prices: $49.99USD in Russia and America, $69.99USD in France and $88.50USD in Australia. Also, for example, All Points Bulletin in America it sold for $49.99USD, and in Europe for $28.99USD.
Retail keys
A CD key is a kind of code for activating a game on the Steam service, which is a set of 13 characters ( old Retail version Half-Life ), 18 characters ( Prey ), 25 characters ( SiN Episodes: Emergence ) and 26 characters ( The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings ), which in turn consist of Latin letters and numbers. Typically, the CD key is printed on a sticker under the disc or on the disc itself (Retail version), on the back of the booklet (DVD version) or on a separate sheet (Collector's Edition). The key also confirms your purchase of the game when you enter it in the window Product Activation the game is immediately connected to your Steam account. In addition to products Valve Corporation Keys can be used to activate games from third-party developers. Some games that can be activated with keys:
Account blocking
STEAM displays this window if the account is blocked.
Valve reserves the right to block accounts users at their own discretion. The main types of violations are:
Fraudulent activities with credit cards Any fraudulent activities with credit cards when paying for Steam products, including the use of other people's credit cards, the data of which was obtained by carding, as well as performing chargebacks (regardless of when the transaction was made). Registration for an account of gifts purchased by carding. Until 2010, if a payment was refused, the gift was revoked, but the recipient's account was not blocked. However, in December 2009, Valve changed their policy and a massive wave of bans began. Valve themselves recommend not accepting gifts from unknown persons; Piracy and hacking This includes using a hacked Steam client program to access the Steam network, attempting to register fake ones or those found on the Internet CD key. Theft, sharing or trading of other people's accounts Any actions with other people's accounts without the permission of their owners: stealing and changing the password, using the account to log in, any operations with the account, disclosing account data, etc. But sharing is possible in turn. Phishing-attacks and deliberate deception of users This includes communicating with Steam users under misleading names and e-mail addresses purporting to be Steam employees or Valve(for example: “Steam Admin” or “ [email protected]"), with the aim of luring password and other confidential account information. Purchasing and selling Steam accounts Responsibility for using and ensuring the security of a Steam account lies primarily with the original user - all accounts subject to purchase or sale may be blocked if Valve determines the fact of purchase and sale. Any other violation of the Steam Subscriber Agreement or Steam Online Code of Conduct
Also, sometimes an account can be temporarily blocked if, for example, the account was stolen and Valve blocks it until the real owner is identified.
After blocking the account, the user is deprived of the opportunity to download and play all previously purchased games that are linked to Steam, including boxed versions. If your account is blocked, money will not be returned.
Collection of statistics
Sales statisticsThe Steam platform provides publishers with product sales statistics (including for retail if the game requires mandatory registration). As a result, the developer receives up-to-date information on game sales, which can be used to evaluate the success of the game, as well as the effectiveness of promotions.
Hardware and software
Steam collects certain information from users' computers.
Game process- Information about ways to complete the game, places in the game that caused the greatest difficulties/mortality. This data, for example, can be used by developers to make decisions about balance adjustments.
- If the game uses achievement system linked to the Steam system, the game statistics page displays the percentage of players who have completed a particular achievement. Some of these statistics are available to users on the official website.
- Information about the popularity of mods: the number of servers for the mod, the number of players currently, as well as the total number of minutes per month spent playing the modification by all players.
Technical features
System requirements
System requirements required to use Steam:
- , Vista , Windows 7 or ". On Mac OS X, game files are stored in the “/Users/name/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/” directory. There are two formats: modification with changes in characteristics directly inside the game. Also, using GCF files requires unpacking library files ( DLL) and applications ( EXE), as well as media files, which reduces free space on your hard drive. The GCF format is based on the use of modifications while saving the original game, which makes it easier to restore it, but does not allow you to change the base game files.
Steam game files that do not contain cache (NCF)
NCF (No-Cache File) files do not contain game cache, unlike the GCF format. All game files are located in the folder steamapps/common/game name, and inside the NCF file there is only a list of these files and information about them checksum. These files are located in the folder SteamApps together with GCF files and are needed to be able to launch and update games via Steam, but are not part of the game. Updates and searching for damaged files for such games are more difficult and longer than for GCF files. NCF files can also be opened using GCFScape.
Installing modifications
PlayStation 3
Problems with localized versions of SteamThe Steam interface has been translated into many languages, but this also causes certain problems.
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