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Steam, what program is it? How to use it? What is Steam? What is Steam for? What is it on Steam?

You can often hear the question of what Steam is and how to use it. Steam is currently the best service for purchasing computer games online. Here you can find hundreds of different games for Windows and MacOS operating systems. In this article we will look at the main features that Steam provides to users.

The Steam service has four main parts, these are: Store, Library, News and Community. We will now look at each of these parts in more detail.

Shop this is a catalog of games where you can choose and buy the game you like. After the game is purchased, it moves to the Library section and begins downloading; after the download is complete, you can play.

Library This is a catalog of games you have purchased. Having purchased a game once, it remains in your Library forever, and you can always download it using Steam and start playing. This way, all your games are centralized and cataloged in one place.

News not a particularly interesting section. News about the Steam system, new games and updates are published here.

Community is a social network for gamers. Here you can chat with Steam users you have added as friends. The community provides many opportunities for organizing joint leisure time playing computer games.

Key features of STEAM

  • Purchasing games. If you don't know what Steam is, it's best to start by purchasing games. There are a large number of games available in the Steam catalog. And most of these games can be purchased from anywhere in the world. All you need is Internet access to top up your Steam account and download the game after purchase. By purchasing at least one game, you will quickly understand all the capabilities of this system. You can top up your Steam account using Webmoney, MasterCard, American Express, Visa, PayPal, as well as other payment services. Replenishment occurs quickly and without problems.
  • Free games. Steam users have access to a large number of free games.
  • Convenient client. You can also work with Steam using a browser. To quickly get acquainted with what Steam is, go to . But, in order to gain access to all the features of Steam you need. The client is an application with which you can top up your account, buy games, communicate with other players and much more.
    • If a game you purchased from a physical store is also sold on Steam, you can add it to your Game Library. To do this, just enter the key to the game. After this, this game will become available in your Steam account, and you can download it any time you need it.
  • Saving game settings to the Steam Cloud online storage. By saving your settings online, you don’t have to worry about their safety.
  • Creating offline backups of games. If you have a slow Internet connection and downloading games is difficult for you, you can create a backup copy of the game you purchased on Steam and burn it to a disc or other

Steam is a service that is primarily useful to people who are interested in computer games. What does Steam give us? Using 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 products of those developers who have signed a contract with Valve.

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

Who works with the Steam service?

  • 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 computer games, trailers and modifications for games.

The word Steam itself means “steam” in English.

It is impossible to overestimate the influence of the emerging service on the modern computer games market. The most serious development was found by developers of independent games. 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, which gives a start-up team of programmers a chance to get into serious business in the field of computer entertainment.

Steam is a new word in the sales of computer games via the Internet. The method by which Steam operates is called digital distribution. If a publisher uses this method, it significantly reduces its costs on a number of items. There is no need to spend money on producing discs, packaging, printing covers or transporting them. Now everything is possible via the Internet. Accordingly, the financial risk of independent games is reduced several times. In addition, if an 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, but you cannot destroy an idea.” (Victor Hugo)

The service replaced the earlier WON system, 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 with success 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 reconsider traditional methods of organizing online games. It was necessary to solve problems in light of the further influx of players. This mainly concerned automatic updates and improvement of the anti-cheat system. 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 at the Game Developers Conference on 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 The user interface was slightly changed and an instant messaging system with friends was integrated. In late 2003, Valve announced its plans to shut down WON and make Steam installation mandatory for Valve's online games. This angered many players, who then created WON2 as a replacement. On July 26, 2004, World Opponent Network was closed and replaced by Steam.

Steam interface version 2.5

In September 2004, it became known about Vivendi Games' lawsuit with 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 to license Valve games to internet cafes. The contract between the two companies was later terminated and Valve chose Electronic Arts as the new retail publisher.

Standard interface of Steam version 3.

In November 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2, the first single-player game to require a Steam client. At the end of 2005, games from third-party developers 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 errors were corrected, the built-in browser began to use the WebKit engine instead of Trident, available only for Windows, which significantly increased productivity and security, and also made it possible to port it 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 released a stable version on 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. On May 12, 2010, the final version of Steam was released on Mac. 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 an update to the game 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 by 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 was announced for the iOS and Android operating systems.

Name

Also, the spread of Steam influenced digital distribution in general. Immediately after the release of Half-Life 2 (which requires a mandatory Steam installation), this service 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, several large companies such as Sega, EA Games and 3D Realms announced the creation of their own similar services. 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 the presence of its own trading platform Origin (in addition to digital distribution, this service is also intended for online sales of games on physical media).

At the end of November 2008, Brad Wardell (eng. Brad Wardell), the head of Stardock, which owns the digital distribution service Impulse, said that, in his opinion, “the undisputed leader in the market for digital distribution of gaming content for the PC 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 the CIS (such protection was implemented for the release of Half-Life 2: Episode One in 2006). At the same time, this approach allows publishers to make any official voice acting available, since publishers do not have to worry about re-exporting 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

The responsibilities of the part of Steam responsible for online gaming include obtaining a list of servers, checking the client and server versions to ensure compatibility, as well as providing the server with Steam account information and blocking accounts found to be cheating by the Valve Anti-Cheat service. 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 of DRM protection. This component cannot bypass hacked versions of Steam as it requires hacking or bypassing Valve's authentication servers.

Matchmaking

This feature appeared with the release of 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. Currently the following games are 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 feature is used by 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 for Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (for the PC versions of these games, achievements appeared only on May 26), offered players an arbitrary set of achievements, the completion of which carried absolutely nothing other than information in statistics Steam. However, after some time, completing achievements was reflected in the gameplay of the online team 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, he also received a set of achievements, but their completion 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 Valve games). 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 are they also saved on 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 Team Fortress 2 players, 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. Next, the archives are 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:

It was also promised the ability to choose an alternative browser for the Steam client (only Internet Explorer was used), but with the release of a new version of the client on April 26, 2010, which uses its own WebKit-based shell, the need to find an alternative browser disappeared.

Promotions

Passes Guest Passes)

From time to time, players who own any multiplayer game are issued a guest invitation, which can be sent to anyone 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 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. On March 5, 2007, an update was released for Counter-Strike that added 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 of accounts. When you first launch Steam, the create account button appears automatically. The user must provide an account name and password, an email address that can be used to recover the password, and a security question and answer in case they forget the 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 Valve employees and administrators in order to steal the password.

Activation

However, such a system has a number of serious disadvantages:

  1. 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.
  2. 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. As a bottleneck in Valve's game distribution system, Steam activation servers were overloaded on release day Half-Life 2, despite all the efforts and assurances of Valve (in particular, Valve announced a pre-load of a non-boxed version long before the game's release), 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 individually (with some exceptions) or as part of “packs” of several games (if available), 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 transferred 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 (for example, WebMoney) are predominantly developed. For the Russian Federation and the CIS, the situation changed on 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 version of the Retail version of 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 Valve Corporation products, 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 user accounts at its sole discretion. The main types of violations are:

Fraudulent actions with credit cards Any fraudulent actions 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 CD-keys or CD-keys found on the Internet. 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 or Valve employees (for example: “Steam Admin” or “ [email protected]"), in order to lure out the password and other confidential information about the account. 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 statistics

The 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 an achievement system linked to the Steam system, then 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 into the game. Also, using GCF files requires unpacking library (DLL) and application (EXE) files, 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 their 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 Steam

    The Steam interface has been translated into many languages, but this also causes certain problems.

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.

“,” experienced gamers say goodbye to each other. And any avid fan of computer games understands what we are talking about. About a place where each of them is a superhero. About where you want to return again and again. About the virtual “house” where sweet games live.

Steam is...

You probably already guessed what Steam is. This is a gaming platform, a service designed for purchasing and launching computer games, communication between players, creating gaming communities and much more related to gaming topics.

Being the brainchild of Valve, in the early 2000s Steam was used only to distribute and activate the developer's products. Today it is a full-fledged 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., including many free ones.

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

Features, pros and cons of the platform

In recent years, the functionality of Steam has grown to such a scale that even a developer probably cannot say which of its functions is the main one. Its users are provided the following options:

  • play on any supported device;
  • buy content at promotions with a 50-75% discount and play paid games for free, and such promotions take place almost constantly;
  • install game updates as a 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 gifts for other users;
  • return the money spent if you don’t like the game (the option remains up to 14 days after purchase, provided that the toy was played for no longer than 2 hours);
  • create personal pages and groups, join communities;
  • find like-minded people and friends;
  • exchange messages and communicate in built-in voice chat;
  • share achievements;
  • exchange, buy and sell game items - inventory, cards, etc.;
  • take screenshots and shoot videos, post videos on YouTune;
  • record and broadcast streams without third-party programs;
  • receive the latest news about events in the gaming world;
  • listen to music stored on the device instead of game soundtracks;
  • Give other users access to your game library (family sharing);
  • customize the design of your personal page to your liking;
  • use the developer's technical support services.

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

Among the disadvantages users of the service attributed:

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

Some people think that buying content through Steam is too expensive and for this reason they do not use the platform. However, it provides an opportunity not only to spend, but also to earn real money. One of the ways to make money mentioned above is by selling gaming equipment. Also, some users manage to unofficially sell previously purchased games, and experienced gamers make money by promoting and selling upgraded accounts.

How to register on Steam

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

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

After confirmation, return to the registration section, create a unique name that will be displayed to other users, and a password. Click "Complete Registration".

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

To link a bank card to your Steam profile, go to the “About Account” menu. In the 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, indicate your real first name, last name, postal code, residential address and telephone number. In the “Billing address” and “Billing address 2” fields, enter the street, house/building number and apartment number.

After linking the card, funds for purchases in the Steam store will be debited from its balance.

In addition to linked bank cards, you can use money in your personal Steam account to pay for content.

To top up your account balance, do the following:

  • Click the “+Top up balance” button in the “Store Transactions” section. Select one of the suggested amounts (minimum 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; mobile phone account and Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Once you have made your selection, click Continue.

  • Further actions 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. The distribution of content by genre and other categories (new releases, top sellers, etc.) is in the column on the left.

Clicking on the game banner will take you to its purchase page. Here you can find more detailed information about the offer: trailers, gameplay screenshots, description, system requirements, as well as the game distributions themselves and additional paid content. The same page contains information about discounts and promotions.

To buy something from what is offered, click the “Add to cart” button next to the product and follow the instructions to make a payment. The purchased game and additional content will be downloaded 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 your username. Once it is found, click "Add as Friend".

In addition, the “Add as a friend” button is present on the personal pages of Steam users:

And on your personal profile page in the “Your Friends” section there is a search bar for users by login and game name (the system shows who you played with):

The “add as a friend” feature becomes available after replenishing your account balance or making a purchase of $5 or more.

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