Give me steam

I had a friend say to me the other day, "I don't play many video games for computer anymore because the video game stores don't stock much now. It's all for game consoles." So I explained game portals like 'Steam' to them. I figured that if you have no idea what I'm talking about, but you'd like to get back into playing games on PC again, this post is for you.

So, it's true, you're not going to find much in the way of physical copies of video games for PC in physical stores anymore. That's mostly because the money is in selling games for the big gaming consoles. But there are a lot of PC games out there. Like, thousands. But your new store is going to be online. Except that there is more than one store. I'll talk about Steam, but the other online game portals are basically the same, except in how they look. If you're an Office 365 subscriber, you might know about the Office portal web site, where you log in with your Microsoft credentials. Once logged into that site, Microsoft gives you an option to download and install Office on your PC.

Well, with Steam, it's very similar. You create a Steam account (joining the 150 million other users), then you look through their 'store' and browse or search for game titles. The thing about Steam is that it installs a 'client' program or 'engine' on your computer. So you open the client app rather than visit a web site. So, it acts like a game manager. Like most games in general, if you want the latest, greatest, then you're going to pay top dollar, typically in the arena of $50-$70 each. If you're patient and willing to wait for the glamour to die down or wait for a holiday or summer sale, you can get the games you want much cheaper. Like Spotify, if you show Steam what games you like, it will help you discover similar ones you might like as well. You can even manage a wish list. Once you find and buy the games you want, you download them to your computer, for now or forever. I say for now, because once you buy a game, you own it, even if it's not installed. So for example, I have uninstalled some games that I haven't played in a while, knowing that I can download and reinstall them anytime I want to.

You're not going to find every game you might be interested in in one store though. Origin has its own portal, which you would create an account for, etc. There are others, but these two will likely give you access to 90% of what's out there. What serious gamers like about Steam and Origin, is that it's not just for buying game titles. If the maker of a game also sells or gives away downloadable extra content (DLC), you'll find that on the portal as well. For example, I play a game called Surviving Mars, where you build a colony on the red planet and see if you can sustain it. The game now has extras you can buy to give it new capabilities or missions. These are found under DLC list for the game. Aside from the game creator's DLC content, a game may also have a Steam Workshop (known as a 'modding platform'), where other players / content creators can share add-ons (mods) they've made for the game. Some of this user created stuff is free, some costs. Each game also has its own resources available to read as well, so if you're looking for tips and how-tos, you'll find them here. You can play collaboratively through Steam (in multiplayer games). You can even watch others play their games if they are streaming live. There's text and voice chat and community forums too.

One thing I love about game portals like Steam is how nicely things get updated. If you buy a game when it's released, and they start creating fixes and updates, you should get them installed automatically, as long as the Steam engine is running in the background. Family sharing is a nice touch. If I have that enabled in my account, other family members or friends with Steam accounts can play my games (once installed), just not at the same time as me. You can also install your Steam library on up to 10 computers (I'm assuming on the same network) - don't know for sure - never used it.

Some folks are concerned about buying stuff online and I understand that. I have added a layer of protection by paying for content through PayPal. That way, Steam doesn't have my credit card number and I have an intermediary if things go wrong. Steam has a decent refund policy, where as long as you've played less than 2 hours in the game and haven't owned it more than 2 weeks, you can get your money back and the game will be removed from your library. In fact, some folks do this when they discover that a game they just bought at full price went on sale today.