STEAM COMMUNITY 101

So, you’ve created a Steam account, installed a few games, and maybe played a few matches. But are you getting the most out of the Steam Community? Is your friend list as empty as the head on Paris Hilton’s shoulders? If so, then here are a few tips to help you on your way to becoming a top class Steam socialite.

This guide assumes that you’ve created a Steam account and are able to log onto the main Steam window. If you haven’t done so yet, I suggest visiting this link and then coming back to this guide. Otherwise, read on.

Getting Started

First and foremost, make sure your in game overlay is on. The in game overlay allows you to access the functions of the Steam Community without alt-tabbing out of a game. This will make following the rest of this guide much simpler and faster.

To do this, go to your steam window, and click File > Settings:



Then, click the In-Game tab, make sure "Enable Steam Community In-Game" is checked, and set a hot-key to bring up the overlay in your Steam games. I recommend using a combination of shift/ctrl/alt + key (I use the default, shift+tab, but use whatever you're most comfortable with).



Making New Friends (and then killing them)

So, now that you’ve got your overlay enabled, what do you do with it? Well, the primary use for the overlay is adding and communicating with friends while in game, whether you’re connected to a server or not.

Say you were playing a couple rounds on one of the TTP servers (because why on earth would you play on any other servers?) and wanted to add some of the people you're playing with to your friend's list. Hit your overlay hotkey(s) (in my case, shift+tab) to bring up the overlay, and click "Friends" in the bottom right.



Then, click the "Add Friend" button.



On the next screen, if you know the account name or email address of the person you want to add, simply enter it in the blank field, click next, and then click done. If you don't (and most of the time you won't), click "View list of users recently played with".



Here, you have the option to search through a list of people you are either currently playing with, or have recently played with in the past. Click the appropriate tab at the top, find the name in the list below, then click "Add Friend", and you're done.



Congratulations, you're now slightly more popular than you were before! :9

If you want to chat with your new found friends, simply make sure your overlay is still up and your friend window is open, right click their name, and click “Send Message.”



Also, note you have a few other options here. One of the primary ones you’ll find useful is the “Join Game” option. This allows you to instantly connect to the server your friend is playing on, as long as there is a slot open.

Keep in mind that your friend list functions exactly the same in either overlay mode or through the Steam app itself (which can be brought up by clicking the community tab, and then clicking the “Friends” button at the bottom). So, even if you only have the Steam window open, and want to join your friend in a game of CS:S or TF2, all you have to do is right click their name, click “Join Game”, and Steam will launch the program and automatically connect you to the server your friend is on.

Favorite Servers

Note: The following section mainly applies to Valve games, as non-Valve games will have a slightly different type of server browser. The basic concepts should be the same, however.

So, now that you’ve got yourself some new friends, it’s time to find some nice servers to play together on. But since scrolling through the massive list of servers that pops up to find a particular one can be annoying, to say the least, so you’ll want to start adding servers to your Favorites tab. There are a few ways you can do this.

The first way is to simply click on "Find Servers" at the TF2 main menu screen, find the server you want, right click it, and click add to favorites.



However, this isn’t always convenient. Say you were playing on a server the night before, and for whatever reason can’t remember the name of it. Ok, ok, everyone knows you were drunk, but we’ll just assume you have a bad memory. To remedy this, click the “History” tab, which will show you a list of servers you’ve recently played on, and (hopefully) one of the names might seem familiar to you. Right click it, click add to favorites, and you’re done.

What if you want to add a server to your favorites that you’re currently playing on? Not a problem. Hit the escape key, bring up the “Find Servers” window if it isn’t already up, click the “Favorites” tab, and click “Add Current Server”.



The last way to add a favorite server is handy when one of your friends tells you about a kick ass server he’s playing on, but it’s currently full and you can’t join it, but want to remember it for later. Simply bring up the “Find Servers” screen again, and click the “Friends” tab. This will show you a list of all the servers people from your friends list are currently playing on. Simply find the right one, right click it, click “Add to Favorites”, and you’re done!

SteamIDs, Account Names, and Aliases, Oh My!

You’ve probably heard these words tossed around before, and might have wondered what they meant. Well, I’m not going to tell you.

Ok, fine, I’m going to tell you.

SteamID

Your SteamID is a “unique numeric identifier” (according to Steam’s official site). What this means is your account is assigned a unique number, sort of like a credit card number. Finding out what yours is requires a bit of fiddling, so bear with me.

First, launch any Valve game. Click “Options”, then the “Keyboard” tab, then the “Advanced” button.



Check the box marked “Enable Developer Console”, click apply, and then click OK.

Now, join a game, or create your own, and hit the console hotkey (default is ~, the squiggly guy next to the 1 key). Once the console is up, type “status” (without the quotes) and hit enter. You’ll see something like this:

STEAM_0:1:1234567

That is your SteamID. Several stat tracking sites require this to show your stats, so you might want to write it down for future reference. Contrary to popular belief, giving out your SteamID number does NOT give someone access to your account, so don’t worry if a stat tracking site shows your SteamID.

Account Name

This one is fairly simple; it’s the email address you used to register your account with. Note that you can have a different email as your primary email address, in case Valve needs to contact you and/or spam you with newsletters, but you CANNOT change your account name.

To change your contact email, click the “Community” tab, then the “Settings” button, and then the “Change Contact Email” button.



Type in your email, confirm, click OK, and you’re done.

Alias

This is basically what people will see you as whenever you’re playing on a server. You’ll set this initially when you create your Steam account, but it can be changed at any time. Simply bring up your Friends window (either by clicking the “Friends” button on the Steam app or in game via the overlay), click View > Settings…



Then simply type in whatever name you want to show up in servers as.



And there you go! Your friend list will remain the same, and you’ll still show up on your friends’ friend list, albeit under your new name.

Now what?

So, now you know how to easily add friends, favorite servers, and change some basic account settings. Where do you go from here? Why, the TTP servers, of course! You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy… Oh, wait. No, the TTP servers are full of great people who are willing to help new and old players alike, so if you have any other questions, well, go bother them!

-Graves