As of 2010, there are over 1,100 games available through Steam. In January 2010 Valve claimed that it had surpassed 25 million active user accounts. Steam is estimated to have a 70% share of the digital distribution market for video games. (from wiki)
Steam has four major sections:
Store
This is where you can browse for games to purchase. Demos and Downloadable Content (DLC) are usually free. There are a few free games as well.
Library
Your purchased/installed games are listed in here. It is possible to manually add games in here (even pirated games) and make it The Game Library.
News
Various promotional news are displayed in here. The discounts are usually really attractive.
Community
Home, Profile, Groups, Friends...in short, this is like a mini-facebook of gamers. You can view your friends who are online and also, if they are gaming or not. Text chat/voice chat is are also available.
Following are the major problems of Steam (for us Bangladeshis):
- No easy way to pay online
- High ping with foreign/official servers
- Large downloads
However, if you can manage a credit card or paypal (doesn't have to be yours) account, it's all good.
Ping problems can be rectified by hosting locally. Also, it's not like you'll buy original games every week. So, large downloads is not that much of a problem.
Here are the plus points:
- Original games
- Digital distribution means no shipping hassle
- If you lose your game (hdd crash or whatever), you can redownload.
It is possible to backup the games too. - Except new games, most other gamers are quite cheap.
- VAC security means no hacks.
Next page will focus on Alien Swarm and BangalGamer group on steam.
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