Steam: 5 Reasons It Is A Gamer’s Best Friend

In a previous blogging life I’ve ranted and raved about Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam. I truly think this is one of the best things to happen to gamers since…well, ever…and I’ve come up with 5 reasons why I think Steam should be every PC gamer’s best friend. Now, I realize this may come across as a bit of promotion for Valve and looks alot like what they’ve already said about Steam, but trust me I’m not paid by anyone. I’m just here to say that it is my opinion that Valve is right. Steam does the things they say it can do, and it does them well. Here are 5 reasons I think they are right, and why Steam is a critical tool in The Gamer’s Toolbox:

Deals, Deals, Deals!
I think there are few places that you can find an entire studio’s games bundled in to a 20 dollar sale price other than on Steam. 5 dollar MMO’s, half price sales, free weekends and all other kinds of great gaming deals are to be had on Steam. This alone is enough reason for most people to love Steam, since Valve’s digital distribution platform allows for quick and easy impulse buying. Steam allows game developers to lower their prices since their overhead for getting the game to you is much lower than creating boxes for store shelves.

Patches, DLC and VAC
Steam powered games get patched easily since the updates and patches to them can happen in the background while you are playing another game, or simply away from your machine. Patches occur very often and keep you game up to date as developers squash bugs, fight exploiters and improve their games. Speaking of exploiters, what is VAC you ask? It’s short for Valve Anti-Cheat, and comes built into Steam to prevent cheating in Steam powered games. Personally, I like that it’s there and that it is another tool that developers can use to try to catch hackers, cheaters and aim-botters. It doesn’t always work, but having it there is better than having to rely on yet another tool to try and handle game security. Sadly there aren’t a whole lot of non-Valve games using VAC, and you’ll have to hope that whatever game you just purchased has something on it in lieu of VAC.

Convenience and Ease of Use
In 5 minutes (after downloading) you can be playing a new game and you never had to get out of your chair. If you buy a new machine, no worries as your games can get still be accessed on that new rig. You can set your machine to download all of your games to your new computer as your games are tied to your Steam account, not your PC. Migrating your games to a new machine is made substantially easier with Steam. If you are thinking about upgrading to the newest version of Windows, just go for it (if your games are Steam powered) as it will be pretty straightforward to get back in the gaming action. After years of development, Steam works very well and is unobtrusive to most gamer’s play experience.

In Game Tools and Social Networking
Steam also has some very nice features built into the platform. With Steam you get friend lists and notifications, groups, voice chat, chat rooms and in-game web browsing. When you launch a game, your friends can know what you are playing, and if applicable, join you in that game. You can create groups and invite people to those groups. You can schedule events for the groups, like “Team Fortress 2 Friday Fragfest” and invite everyone in the group. While it would be great to see some integration with other social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Xfire, Raptr and the like, Steam has some great tools in it’s own right.

The iTunes Effect
iTunes changed the way that people buy and manage their music. People do not purchase entire CD’s the way they used to, all packaged up on store shelves. Apple single-handedly destroyed the music distribution methods of old with iTunes and the iTunes store. Valve is on its way to fundamentally changing how gamers buy and manage their games as well, since Steam’s digital distribution platform brings so much to the table. It is a great way for game developers to bring their games to market and make a higher percentage of profit on each sale, all the while leveraging all the tools that Steam brings to the table, should they choose. Potential conflicts of interest aside, Steam is a great tool for the entire gaming community.

Am I just a Valve fanboy, or do you like Steam as well? Why or why not?

Happy New Year.

~br3ntbr0