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Steam is a content delivery, digital rights management and multiplayer system developed by Valve Software. It is currently used to digitally distribute and manage AAA games including Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Steam also replaces WON, the original authentication framework for Half-Life multiplayer games and a number of other now largely or entirely defunct titles.

History

The client application, Steam version 1.0, was first made available for download in spring 2002 during the beta period for Counter-Strike 1.6. At the time, it looked to be a method of streamlining the patch process common in online computer games. Installation and use of the Steam program was mandatory for CS 1.6 beta testers, but Steam remained an optional component. In late 2003, Steam was later revealed as a replacement for much of the dated framework of WON and Half-Life multiplayer and also as a distribution system for entire games.

As Steam would allow a game developer to "cut out the middleman" — namely game publishers and storefronts — and directly sell and distribute their products to users via the Internet, many have predicted Steam and future concepts like it would revolutionize the gaming industry in the same way P2P threatens the livelihood of the music and movie houses. This fact culminated into a legal battle between Valve and their publisher Vivendi Universal Games, where VUG argued that Steam was an attempt to circumvent their publishing agreement. However, on November 29, 2004, Valve announced the courts had granted their motion of summary judgement in this case.

Valve's Doug Lombardi revealed in October 2004 that Half-Life 2 required activation via Steam in order to play. When Half-Life 2 hit some store shelves earlier than its intended release date of November 16, Valve reported that Vivendi prevented them from activating the Steam authentication servers until the 16th.

Steam client

File:Steamui.png

Steam's main menu

The Steam client is a Windows application that allows a user to access Steam products and multiplayer servers through the Internet. When executed, it logs into the Steam system using the user's account, and resides in the Windows system tray.

Steam allows a user access to their 'Steam-powered' game collection from any internet connected computer (given enough time to download; Half-Life 2 is approximately 3 gigabytes), find multiplayer servers and create a contact list to organise multiplayer games.

Steam's greatest advantage is its ability to quickly disseminate upgrades and patches to games and the Steam client itself. Users automatically receive bugfixes and new content simply by starting up the client application. This has also allowed Valve to add incremental refinements and features to their products on a daily basis versus releasing monolithic, semi-annual upgrades.

Steam also allows Valve to "preload" content before its release date. Users can download encrypted parts of the to-be-released product at their leisure, then unlock the game on the official date of its release and begin playing immediately.

The program has the following features:

Servers: Displays a sortable, filterable list of multiplayer servers
Friends: An instant messaging client designed to allow groups of people communicate and join servers together
Browse games: Online storefront where users can pay, register and/or download Steam-supported games and featured third-party modifications
Monitor: A bandwidth chart that tracks the progress of game and Steam client upgrades
Backup: Allows a user to backup games on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs
Downloads: Steam allows you to download games instead of having to hang on to a disk. There is no limit for downloads.
VGUI: Valve's GUI is a flexible unicode-compliant system used in all their games. VGUI windows work both from the desktop and from within games. It is a part of Steam and available to all who use it
Auto-updates: Steam manages your updates and ensures you have the latest version before you know it
Content Streaming: Although not implemented very well in current titles Steam fully supports the streaming of games, allowing you to play with only a fraction downloaded
News window: A optional pop-up window that displays promotional messages and news bulletins

There is a Linux version of Steam but it is only used to manage accounts for dedicated game servers. Games themselves cannot be natively played through Linux.

Criticism of Steam

On November 16, 2004, Half-Life 2 was officially released. While the launch was mainly regarded as successful, later in the day a significant number of buyers (both through Steam and retail) found themselves unable to play the game, due in part to a bottleneck of Valve's Steam system. The European authentication servers went down for about 5 hours before being fixed, preventing those with accounts stored on them from decrypting or playing the game they had bought. The problem was, according to Steam engineer Taylor Sherman, "a little more involved" than lack of bandwidth. He predicted that the problem would never happen again.

Privacy concerns have also been raised, as one needs to login and validate with Steam online at least once in order to play any Steam game. While there is an offline mode available, critics point out that it can only be accessed when not connected to the internet - there is still no command line parameter. There are also no alternate methods of activation such as via telephone or fax. These issues have caused those with computers with sporadic or no internet access to often be denied from registering their purchased Steam products.

Another major issue is the auto-update model. To play a game offline it must be fully updated, and updates are always checked for when starting Steam while online. The game is then marked as not up to date, regardless of whether the user wants to update or not. They must then update the game before being able to play offline again. The worst affected are dial-up users: not only are they the ones who are most likely to use offline mode, they are the ones least capable of updating.

Some players have also expressed concerns that Steam is going to become a subscrition-based (Pay-To-Play) service at some point in the future. Valve, however, has repeatedly denied this and pronounced such fears as unfounded. Regardless, Steam remains a controversial issue within the Half-Life communities.

Security

Many hacks sprung up following Half-Life 2's launch, each claiming to be able to circumvent Steam and enable the user to get the games free. Many were actually trojans, keyloggers or virii. Some were genuine however, and Valve Software swiftly released fixes to the Steam servers to prevent illegal users from playing online and banned accounts using them whenever possible. The process has now been abandoned by crackers, who have switched to the more standard method of removing authentication from the games and putting up with only having cracked servers to play on. In this regard, Steam is very successful.

VAC

Although in the public domain longer than Steam, Valve Anti-Cheat has benefited greatly from it. As with all anti-cheat/anti-virus/anti-spyware solutions, VAC is only good for as long as it has updates and Steam provides a stable and capable framework for distributing them on a whim. However, VAC was left abandoned for many months while Valve engineers worked on its successor, VAC2. It swiftly became useless during this period.

Products

Current

Codename: Gordon
Counter-Strike: Source
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
- Condition Zero Deleted Scenes
Half-Life
- Counter-Strike
- Day of Defeat
- Deathmatch Classic
- Team Fortress Classic
- Opposing Force
- Ricochet
Half-Life: Source
Half-Life 2
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

Future

External links

Steam website
How to run Steam in Linux using Cedega (formerly WineX)
17's Buddies - More than 10000 maps to download for Steam games.
Games xStream - a competing service.
17Smi: 17's Buddies Steam Map Installer
17Ims: 17's Buddies Integration Map System
GCFScape: view and extract from GCF files.
How to Design Online Crack: Article covering the possibilities of new economic models that technologies like Steam allow, and how they differ from retail models.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Another major issue is the auto-update model. To play a game offline it must be fully updated, and updates are always checked for when starting Steam while online. The game is then marked as not up to date, regardless of whether the user wants to update or not. They must then update the game before being able to play offline again. The worst affected are [[dial-up]] users: not only are they the ones who are most likely to use offline mode, they are the ones least capable of updating.
-Some players have also expressed concerns that Steam is going to become a subscrition-based (''Pay-To-Play'') service for future games. Indeed, all existing games on the service are legally subscriptions, albeit where the user only ever makes one payment. Other developers may use the model however, particuarly [[Flying Lab Studios]] for their upcoming [[MMORPG]] [[Pirates of the Burning Sea]]. Valve have repeatedly denied that they will follow a subscription model, and cannot legally do so for existing titles.
+Some players have also expressed concerns that Steam is going to become a subscrition-based (''Pay-To-Play'') service at some point in the future. Valve, however, has repeatedly denied this and pronounced such fears as unfounded. Regardless, Steam remains a controversial issue within the Half-Life communities.
 ==Security==