Steam to evolve and get on the community centric bandwagon
Thursday 21st June 2007, 11:11:00 PM, written by Farid
Valve issued a press release yesterday to announce a major update to its famous digital content delivery system, Steam. Expected to be available by early July, this update is said to be the largest the platform ever had since its commercial inception in 2004.
"Adding these new community features to make it easier to connect with other gamers is something we've wanted to see on Steam for a long time and this latest update is just the start. We've got a long list of items that we''re working on to make it easier for gamers to connect and play games on Steam," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.
The keyword for this new version of Steam is “community.†Users will be given personal and customisable pages and profiles, they’ll be able create and join groups, schedule games, review the folks they played with and voice chat with others.
This new system reminds us of Xfire or Microsoft’s Xbox Live initiative.
"Adding these new community features to make it easier to connect with other gamers is something we've wanted to see on Steam for a long time and this latest update is just the start. We've got a long list of items that we''re working on to make it easier for gamers to connect and play games on Steam," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.
The keyword for this new version of Steam is “community.†Users will be given personal and customisable pages and profiles, they’ll be able create and join groups, schedule games, review the folks they played with and voice chat with others.
This new system reminds us of Xfire or Microsoft’s Xbox Live initiative.
Tagging
graphics ± steam:valve, community
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So long as they don't fudge with the tried-and-true, simplistic interface that they have now, I don't suppose this is of any concern to me. I think I would much prefer that they do a few other things besides creating a MySpace for Steam;
a.) Finish Episode 2 allready, damnit.
b.) Fix the various menu bugs, such as the 'crushing' information columns ingame in CSS.
c.) Work on reducing the overall bandwidth requirements for Steam. Where I am, we have crap internet, so we get capped if we go over this pathetically small limit (about to change that, but anyway), once capped to 64k/64k, launching into Steam, let alone firing up a game is next to impossible due the apps' rampant plastering of my internet connection. From clicking my Steam shortcut to just getting my games on the Steam Games List takes anywhere up to 30 minutes...never mind launching the damn game. A year ago (last time I was capped), Steam was exceptionally fast. What's changed so damn much? I don't have the update alerts enabled, and I 'minimise' my Steam window to it's smaller version the moment I can. This situation is the same for everyone else I know...capped internet = no Steam, it's just too much hassle.
d.) Finish Episode 2? :mad: