this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Eh 'community' is like the least important reason why I use Steam. It's just easy to buy, organize, and play your games with friends with a minimum of fuss or resource strain on my PC. I'm sure some people are into the community features but at the same time I feel gaming C-level execs always think that is more important than providing a good, easy-to-use product.
In context it seems like the "play your games with friends" part of your comment is what they were getting at, and less about the forums and such. For me at least, that's a big draw. I've hyped remote play together a lot, but it's a huge reason I prefer steam. I can also share my library with several other people, so buying a game there is like buying it for a few of my friends too. I think that's the stickiness he's referring to.
Alright, I just have a knee-jerk reaction when any execs talk about 'community' that it's normally something I have no desire to engage with. However, I see what you mean in this context!
Reviews too! Steam has a frequently used and frequently useful user-submitted reviewing feature.
Reviews are a “community” feature, and it’s remarkably hard to build a review feature people want to use that is actually valuable.
I think that is more in line with the community aspect being quoted. The way people talk about Steam. The ease of jumping into games with friends, either through "Join Game" features, or private servers. The support for modding and hosting, especially with earlier Source engine stuff (Half-Life and Gary's Mod, etc).
It was more than just a launcher, and that changed the way the larger gaming community talked about/saw Steam.
Thats part of what "community" is.
Regardless, just because it's not your reason for using it doesn't mean it's not a major factor in why it's successful in general.
Yeah I get that from the other comments. I just don't consider playing games with IRL friends part of community but I get it. I was thinking more of the almost universally reviled community forums.