Welcome to Steam!

Steam is the premier home of PC Gaming

On Steam you'll find just about anything and everything from FPS, RPG's, MMORPGS > Survival games, racing games, Real-Time-Strategy, Top-Down Shooters, clicker games, cute indie games, VR titles, games for deck gaming, software for editing and production and sadly....degenerate smut...But you can block, ignore and set filters for what you like in your preferences so no worries

Here on Steam you can build your library, customize your profile, make friends, join a community, earn badges, create guides, share screenshots or videos, write reviews, publish games, be a curator and more.

Joining the PC Master Race can be overwhelming at first but there's actually not that much to learn as learning as you go is the best part! The only frustrating bit is maintaining your PC (this is universally the annoying part we all have to deal with sorry! but atleast your rig can be better than any given console out!)

So welcome to Steam! I'll do my best to give a simple rundown of Steam for Dummies!

Developed by Valve, Steam originally launched as early as 2002 but wasn't publicly available until September 12th, 2003. Valve launched Steam to mostly positive reception despite the normal anger for needing Steam to play Counter-Strike 1.6, Half-Life Deathmatch, Team Fortress Classic and future Valve titles. Owners of CD keys from their WON copies would carry over to Steam allowing for free copies for WON owners

Little did they know it would become the biggest marketplace for PC gaming over the years.

The launch of Half-Life 2 brought alot of new users to the platform in 2004 as the first title to launch on Steam but by 2005 other games were being sold on Steam by various publishers and developers. The Orange Box in 2007 saw a significant increase of players.

With the release of The Orange Box saw the introduction of Steam Achievements. Over the years Steam evolved with new features such as Trading Cards, Badges, Steam Trading, Profile customization, Library customization, The Points Shop and more.

Valve introduces Seasonal Sales beginning with the first Holiday Sale on December 26th, 2008. Following this sale, Valve would have a Summer and Winter Sale every year aswell as a Spring, Halloween and Autumn Sale.

Steam is officially supported on Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android.

Steam Trading was introduced in 2011, which allows users to trade virtual game items between each other. During the 2011 Steam Winter Sale, users could complete objectives in select games to receive virtual "coal" which could then be redeemed for prizes, a progenitor to the system that would later be utilized for Steam Trading Cards. In the same year, Steam Workshop was introduced allowing for user-created content to be downloaded directly on Steam for select games such as Garry's Mod, Left 4 Dead 2 and Team Fortress 2

Steam Greenlight was introduced as a way for new games to be voted on and approved for a Steam release, Black Mesa being one of the most notable. Big Picture Mode was added as a separate way to use Steam on TV's and the mobile steam app was released. The Community Market was added December 12th, 2012 allowing for users to sell and buy in-game items acquired from games such as Team Fortress 2. "Extending game economies beyond trades and giving players a way to turn gameplay into funds for new items and games is a key component for moving that success forward."

May of 2013 saw the introduction of Trading Cards, Badges and Emoticons with six games initially participating in the system including Half-Life 2. The Linux client is out, Family Sharing and Steam Early Access

In-Home Streaming and Steam Music are released Sept 24th, 2014 with the Half-Life and Portal OST's for free aswell as allowing custom mp3's to be played through the in-game overlay

On November 10th, 2015 (Funnily my birthday) Valve releases The Steam Machine after a two-year testing period. The Steam Machine is a discontinued series of small form factor gaming computers by Valve, designed to operate SteamOS to provide a game console-like experience. The same day sees the addition of Steam Remote Play or Steam Link allowing games to be launched on one computer, while being played from other devices connected to Steam

Valve introduces the Steam Awards. On November 23 - 29th, 2016 users could nominate games for selected categories. December 22 - 30 after nominations players then vote for the winner to be announced on the 31st. Every year would follow with a Steam Awards

Summer of 2018 sees the Summer Sale introduce mini-games such as Saliens, Grand Prix (2019), Forge Your Fate (2021) and Steam 3000 (2022). 2022, 23 and 24 did not feature mini-events. Steam TV releases and Proton

October 21st, Steam Remote Play Together is released allowing for local co-op/multiplayer only games to be played over the internet similar to couch co-op. Simply put allowing you and a friend to play Portal 2, It Takes Two or Left 4 Dead 2 with someone across the world even if they don't own the game. 2019 also sees the overhauled library allowing for a better streamlined library including custom artwork on your games such as grids, heroes and logos for any game including non-steam games. Collections also get an overhaul allowing for Dynamic and Static for deep customization and organization. On April 30th, 2019 Valve announces the Valve Index. Their new premier VR HMD developed solely by Valve and released on June 28th of the same year and the choice headset for later to release Half-Life: Alyx

As part of the 2020 Summer Sale, Valve introduced the brand new Steam Points Shop. Anyone can earn points from purchases on Steam or from other users rewarding your profile, review, guide or workshop content. You can spend points in the shop on multiple things from Profile items such as avatars, frames, backgrounds or showcases, the seasonal badge, chat effects and game profiles that completely overhaul your profile. Or you can spend your points on the same stuff that others can.

Next Valve would go on to introduce Steam Next Fest as a way for Developers to receive feedback through Demos for upcoming games. July 15th Valve announces the Steam Deck. A new handheld PC allowing you to carry and play your steam library wherever you go.

February 25th Valve releases the Steam Deck. A handheld gaming console running on SteamOS that allows you to bring your game library on the go. You can even mod it to play games like Minecraft or emulate titles such as TimeSplitters or Super Mario 64. A new Big Picture Mode on PC is released to experience Steam with the Deck UI. Just click the monitor next to your name! Formerly Steam Replay, 2022 also saw the addition of Year in Review a new feature that recaps your year in stats such as playtime, new games played, achievements earned and your top 5 games of the year

The Steam in-game overlay gets an overhaul with updated and new features such as Notes and the ability to pin them on-top of your gameplay. The shopping cart is updated and the ability to keep shopping after adding stuff to your cart. September 12th, 2023 saw the 20th Anniversary of Steam with free point shop items and a stroll down memory lane. Very cool. Later in November Half-Life received its 25th Anniversary Update.

March of 2024 sees Steam Families Beta. A new system allowing for multiple people in a household to share 1 steam account allowing for more than 1 person to enjoy the same copy of a game or setting parental controls on a child account. In June Valve adds the new Steam Recording Beta, a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, that works on any game on Steam. From capturing highlights to documenting entire campaigns, there are many ways to use this all-new set of features. Sept 11, sees Steam Families release out of Beta. Nov 5th sees Steam Recording out of beta and fully released. December 11th, sees new Betas and Updates tabs for games.

Valve kicked off the new year with a new SteamOS handheld with the Lenovo Go S. The first 3rd-party handheld to run SteamOS. Valve also has plans to bring SteamOS to other platforms in the future, possibly hinting at a Desktop alternative.

Before anything is done you need to creata a Steam Account, it's free and only takes a minute or two.

When creating a new account keep in mind, your username is permanent and can't be changed. Your display name (profile name) is always changeable at anytime and is the name used in games NOT your account name. Account name is only used for billing and privacy reasons so choose wisely.

For example:

Username: steamname2003
Password: sept122003

The username is never displayed publicly or used in anything except for signing in and billing info
Your password can be changed obviously, but NEVER EVER share it with anybody. I highly recommend enabling 2FA on your account for maximum security.

After creating your account, you'll want to setup billing info for buying games

After all that is setup you can now begin buying games and making friends!

This is where its all about you. Where you tell people about yourself, what games you enjoy, what movies you like and your personal statistics for games such as playtime, achievements etc.

You can set your Profile name, picture, bio, language and even url in the profile settings.
The settings is split into a few sections all about your profile.
General, Avatar, Profile BG, Mini-profile, Theme, Special profile, Featured Badge, Favorite Group, Featured Showcase and Privacy Settings.
This is where you choose your Profile Name that shows up everywhere, It can be anything you like. Real name is optional but will appear under profile name on your main page
Custom URL lets you create a custom link to your page. Can only be used by one person so choose wisely. You can set country and state if you want. Summary is your bio that appears underneath your name and can be anything even links.
Pretty simple. You can upload an image or choose one that you've acquired from the Points Shop
You cant have your own but you can choose any you've acquired from crafting badges or Points Shop and even choose to fill or original size
Your mini-profile is the small box that appears when someone hovers over your name on Steam. You can get smaller bg's from the point shop or a special profile
Themes are profile colors so its nothing too special. If you have a Special profile you'll get an exclusive color with it that doesn't show up here
Special Profiles are only obtained from the Points Shop and rarely from some events such as Steam 3000 and past events. These overhaul everything on your profile but you can still change stuff like your avatar.
Pretty simple it just features 1 specific badge on your page
Same thing but is a group and displays on the right side
This is the meat and potatos of your profile. With these you can showcase multiple different things including favorite game, group or guide, Steam year in review, screenshots, videos, achievements, guides, awards, badges, inventory items, review showcase, artwork or a custom info box to type whatever you want like social links or PC specs.
Every 10 levels you'll recieve a new showcase up until Level 100
Pretty self explanatory. You can choose who can view your profile, game info and all that jazz
If none of this matters to you, you can just leave your profile as is.

Your library is the home for everything you've bought on the store. Once a purchase has been made the game will appear in your library for you to download, favorite and categorize if you choose.

New games will be under "Uncategorized" by default, meaning, you can either leave it there or setup a collection to put your game in. You can always also Favorite a game and it will automatically be included in the favorites collection on the left of your library. This is one of the only you CANNOT get rid of. Any that are custom can be.

For example:
Say you bought all Valve games. Click the + and name it VALVE and select either Static or Dynamic. Once its made you can start adding all the games to it and your collection will appear on the left column (Quick tip - hold ctrl and click all the games you want and you can add them all at once)

Next to the official games in your library, there is support for custom games or software that enable you to have custom library art and use steam overlay.

Adding a non-steam game simply allows you to import just about any software you desire to your library whether its Minecraft, Dolphin, Notepad, Spotify or some games that aren't sold on steam such as select titles from GOG or a .exe you have laying around and want to play it through steam for its overlay support. Or you just want to have custom artwork and make it look legit.


If you want to show off that you're playing Minecraft on steam you can
If you want your profile to show you're playing Super Mario 64 you can
If you want friends to see that you're in-game on Microsoft Word, well you can

If you have Flash or web games downloaded you could add those too

Have fun adding random games to your library. You can even make a collection for your "Non-Steam Games".

Steam features rewards for playing games called Trading Cards. With these you can craft a Badge. Each badge can be leveled up 5 times by collecting all the cards again whether from the market or friends. Badges level your profile up giving you access to more stuff including showcases, more friends and other things.

Every game that supports Card drops will give you about 4 per game. Each game that features a Badge also has a higher tier one called a Foil Badge that grants more XP but can only be crafted once as normal badges can be crafted up to 5 times aka Level 5 Badge. Seasonal Badges rotate every 6 months with Winter and Summer Sales and only goto level 40 costing 40k Steam Points.

Sale Badges can be crafted as many times as you're able to collect all the cards. For example, the Summer Sale 2024 Badge can be crafted to Level 5k. This would cost you alot of money for cards but you'd end up with a ton of XP.

Steam Levels don't actually have a function other than allowing you more showcases on your profile and just being a higher level than others. Is it cool to be Level 550? yes but wouldn't grant you any advantage as Level 100 is the last level for anything other than increased friend slots.

The Steam Workshop is your one stop shop for addons and mods built-in for a wide range of games including Garry's Mod, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, Counter-Strike 2 and lots more!

The Workshop is a community curated place to download custom addons for games without any installation hassle. Click & Play. To browse the workshop first make sure you own the game you're modding and then proceed to its corresponding Workshop page.

From here you can make subscribe to addons, favorite them, add them to collections for later or for you and your friends to use and even publish your own addons to the workshop. I don't have experience in that regard but there are tons of guides for it so don't worry.

The Steam Workshop is the best way to spice up your games and have fun with friends without worry or stress.

This is the epicenter of Steam. From here its up to you on what you want. An FPS? maybe an RPG? maybe something relaxing? regardless the storefront has thousands of choices to browse through

The basic features of the Storefront boil down to
- Search
- Wishlist
- Discovery Queue
- Filters
- Recommendations

With each you'll get better at finding the games of your choice. Wishlisting a game will save it for later and notify you of a sale or of its release if its not out yet. You can always view and organize your Wishlist at any time. Discovery Queue will give you a quick queue of 10 games that Steam thinks you may be interested in. Filters allow you to block or hide certain types of games like NSFW for example, these can be configured in account settings. You can also click ignore on the games store page. Recommendations will popup all around the store based on what you play, follow and wishlist.

Over the years Steam has had a few different mascots. Some minor while others became iconic.

Emoji Pals
Steam Pal (2022-2022)
For a short period to promote the brand new Steam Deck, Valve had the Steam Pal mascot. Was featrured in the Game Awards that year as a limited-time sticker you could get for watching TGA on steam.
Delivery Duo (2024-2024)
First appearing in the 2024 Spring Sale, The Delivery Duo made their first appearance with Delivery Girl and her Cat.

Steam, Valve games and other titles on the platform are protected by Valves anti-cheat called VAC.
VAC protects against botters, cheaters and anything else malicious in the Steam Ecosystem

If you aimbot, wallhack in Counter-Strike you'll receive a VAC ban on your account banning you from official matchmaking servers limiting you to either singleplayer or community servers depending on the game

Games such as Half-Life 2, Portal 1 for example don't have VAC since its only singleplayer. A game such as Half-Life 1 or Garry's Mod have VAC enabled despite featuring solo-play (Unless you join a VAC disabled server, but be wary of those)

When playing games on Steam your save games and data are stored within the Steam Cloud. Valves built-in data storage for your game saves that way you can delete the game or fresh install steam and games on a new PC and keep your saves between PC's. You can view/delete local game saves and view/download cloud stored files through the web browser here
https://steamhost.cn/account/remotestorage

Introduced in Summer of 2020, Steam Points is a digital-only currency only earned by buying games or being gifted them. Steam Points CANNOT be bought. There's a few ways to earn them and even more ways to spend them.

1. Purchase stuff on Steam
2. Create a guide, workshop addon, write a review, post a screenshot or discussion and other users can reward it with Steam Points, up to 6 thousand. When rewarded it takes two weeks fir the Points to be deposited.

Now there's quite a bit you can spend Points on including profile items, stickers, seasonal badges, chat effects, emoticons, showcases, keyboards and startup movies for steam deck. Each one costs Steam Points but you can find free stuff like Event items or the 20th Anniversary. Sometimes watching select streams can reward with free stuff

Next to the Screenshot feature is Recording allowing you to record clips, make highlights and share them however you want.

To opt-in simply [ ] and press F8 or whatever key you have bound and it should start recording. Simply press it again to stop. If you want full recordings of sessions you can have it record in the background.

On steam there is a plethora of games to try and enjoy to fit your gaming taste.

As someone who's been using Steam for over 20 years since I was 3, I have a pretty good idea of what's worth checking out and ignoring (anything designed for explicitly porn is a no-no) Some of these are biased as Valve is my favorite developer, but there are genuinely some good choices so lets just get into it.

Starting with the best genre (in my personal opinion of course) are some shooters that defined the genre and made it what it is
DOOM Series
Quake 1&2
Half-Life Series (Including Portal)
Metro Series
Team Fortress 2
Counter-Strike 2
Titanfall 2
Games to lose countless hours to and thats a good thing
System Shock 1 & 2
Thief Trilogy
Deus Ex GOTY
Prey 2017
Dishonored 1 & 2
Gloomwood
Ctrl Alt Ego
The 2nd best genre (Mostly due to Fallout and Elder Scrolls)
Fallout Series
Cyberpunk 2077
Elder Scrolls Series
Final Fantasy 7
Balders Gate 3
Mass Effect Trilogy
(Not my cup of tea but there's tons of fans for these types of games)
Sid Meier's Civilization
Age of Empires/Mythology
Halo Wars
XCOM
ENDLESS Legend
These aren't as bad as they are grindy but for those that like em, i aint judging. I'm a big Destiny fan myself
Destiny 2
Warframe
Elder Scrolls Online
Fallout 76
I like quite a few of these but some may find them boring
Alien Swarm Reactive Drop
Dungeon of The Endless
ENDLESS Dungeon
A personal favorite genre for the variety of cool games to experience
Abiotic Factor
Subnautica
The Forest
Terraria
Raft
Valheim
7 Days to Die
Unturned
Rust
Whether you like driving or flying it can be pretty fun with the right game or setup, be warry as some titles get delisted after a year (looking at you Forza and The Crew)
Asseto Corsa
Microsoft Flight Simulator
LEGO 2K Drive
Forza Horizon
Need for Speed
GRID
The Crew
Indies are the backbone of the gaming industry and without them innovation and creativity would be void
New Blood Interactive Anthology
Devolver Digital Games
Selaco
Little Kitty, Big City
Celeste
OneShot
Stanley Parable
Superliminal
Viewfinder
Among Us
Lethal Company
Deep Rock Galactic
Teardown
Golf It
Ghostrunner
Observer
Dread X
Iron Lung
Chasing Static
Cry of Fear
Slender The Arrival
Outlast
Supplice
Bat Blast!
CONSCRIPT
FUMES

Having Friends and being in Groups is an integral part of Steam. Friends are a great way to find new games, read reviews on games, find other friends through them and obviously people to play with. I mean c'mon you gotta have some Steam friends. Play some games, connect with people in-game and send them a friend request its that simple. Or if you want to add somebody you know IRL and hangout after Work, school or just on a lazy Saturday.

Steam Groups are a great way to meet friends but more importantly connect with people with the same interests or to be caught up on news, events, updates etc.
To join a group you can search for it and then either join or request to join based on the type of group

There are many types of Groups on Steam. Some vary from Hubs for communities, Curator groups, event groups or just for you and friends to have somewhere to hang. Groups are public regardless if you need permission to join so don't go and start posting heinous or NSFW stuff in them

You can create one pretty easily if you wish and even associate certain games to it. Some public groups i recommend joining right away are Steam Client Beta and SteamDB. The steam client beta will allow you access to early Steam updates and info on whats new to the platform. SteamDB, like the website will update you on certain things like playercount peak and other updates

So get out there and join a group and make some friends and connect with the wider Steam community! or create your own and invite everybody you know! the world is yours...or atleast to some extent

is a major part of the platform and some would say the heart of Steam. From the artwork, guides, reviews, workshop content and more..community content plays a big role in Steam's evolving and growing playerbase. You can view content from community members just about anywhere.

Goto a games hub and from there you can view guides, discussions, artwork, reviews, workshop content for just about any game on the platform.

Afterall, besides the platform being ran by Valve, its the community that makes it what it is

On Steam you can press F12 to take a screenshot and F8 to start recording, or whatever hotkey you have set. Screenshots and Recordings are saved via the Media Manager that you can view on each games page in your library or by clicking "View" at the top right of steam and selecting "Recordings and Screenshots".

From here you can view, share or delete whatever screenshots and clips you may have taken whether its a funny screencap or a funny moment in a game. Sharing is super easy and fast. If you wish to publish a screenshot you can add a title, disc and even spoiler warning it if you wish and it will push it to your Activity feed, games library page and be viewed at any time from your profile. You can also send it directly to a friend or groupchat if you wish.

It's not the most impressive feature but it adds alot when using Steam

Steam features many hidden things and one of them is hidden games that you can play with appid.
Back in the day Chess was built in with chat but those were the Steam Green days and since has been removed. With a trick using appid you can install free hidden games such as Codename Gordon and 8-Bit Bayonetta. Spacewar is a secret game but is ideally used to test Steamworks API for developers. It does still feature a game and some achievements

There's two ways
1. Install them from SteamDB
2. Type the install link in your browser
ex: steam://launch//(appid)
This DOES NOT work for paid games but does for free and demos

Here's a list of available hidden games
Codename Gordon
Spacewar
Bayonetta ZERO


Credit

Not a big thing but if you want EVERY FREE PACKAGE[steamdb.info] on Steam then here you go

Steamworks and the Steamworks API is what developers use to publish their games on Steam

You can enroll in the Steamworks program if you have a game or product you wish to publish/sell no the Steam Storefront here

Hosted and ran by xPaw, SteamDB is a total database tracker for all things Steam including playercount, sales, price comparisons, future sales, appid, tracking a games development or update history etc. It's only in your browser but is highly recommended if you use steam regularly. Augmented Steam is a 2nd browser extension that goes beyond databases and enhances your Steam experience even further such as more price info, wishlist exporting, extra settings and options on certain pages. I actually made a video on this that you can see here


SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/
Augmented Steam: https://augmentedsteam.com/
xPaw: https://x.com/thexpaw

Consider dumping tokens to help track games better aswell!

Congratulations you're not a dummie anymore!

Thats about it! Now you are caught up to PC speed so go out there and enjoy your Steam Gaming experience!

(I will still be updating this guide as time goes on)

2018 - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/1697194621363928453?l=swedish&utm_campaign=DonanimHaber&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=DonanimHaber
2019 - https://steamhost.cn/news/group/4145017/view/1697229969004830849
2020 - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/2961646623386540827#:~:text=This%20has%20led%20to%20new,21.4%25%20increase%20over%202019).
2021 - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/3133946090937137591#:~:text=2021%20was%20successful%20even%20in,even%20more%20than%20playtime%20did
2022 - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/3677786186779762808
2023 - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/4031353003322171824
2024 -
https://steamhost.cn/news/app/593110/view/4149575031735702628
https://steamhost.cn/libraryupdate
https://steamhost.cn/news/app/593110/?emclan=103582791457287600&emgid=4605582245626919823
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/games/593110/announcements/detail/4530150757095178611
https://steamhost.cn/gamerecording
https://steamhost.cn/news/app/593110/view/4696782040345941641
2025 -
https://steamhost.cn/news/app/593110/view/529834914570306831