Steam (content delivery)
Steam is a content delivery system created by Valve Corporation. Its primary use is digital distribution of game software, although it has other features such as game server browsers, friend lists, automatic updates for supported games, and digital rights management. Popular personal computer games such as Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike are distributed and managed through Steam.
History
Development on Steam began on an uncertain date prior to 2002. Its codenames before 'Steam' were 'Grid' and 'Gazelle'. Steam replaces WON, Valve's original authentication system for older games such as the original Half-Life.
Features
The Steam content system provides users with not only a frontend graphical user interface to configure options for existing installed software titles, but to purchase other software available through the system by use of secure e-commerce transactions.
Demos of game software is available through Steam, as well as video previews and automatic updates. The Steam Community feature lets users create a Steam ID page for themselves, showing what games they have played recently, their friends list, and how many hours of games they have played in the last week. Steam also gives users a rating from one to ten, depending on how often they play games.
Users get a "SteamID" when they sign up for Steam. This ID is a digit showing their member number. It can be used to see how long someone has been a member of Steam, as the digit number rises with each new Steam user. Users who connect to a game server are identified by their SteamID.