Valve Debuts Steam Community Features

Steam creator Valve has announced the official launch of the Steam Community, its latest service update for its PC game download service that creates a social network of users with friends, logs of favorite and most played games, and customized groups for players to join. The service's open beta was launched in August of this year, with the ability to create a Steam ID and accompanying personal profile with avatar and favorites, a friends list that shows who among added peers are online and available to chat and game, groups that can be formed around common interests, and user statistics display. The beta and now final version has also integrated instant messaging, text and voice chat features and an event scheduler to coordinate, track and view upcoming multiplayer matches. The Steam community features are accessible within the client itself, or from within any game in Steam's library. Certain features, such as the user's Control Panel, Friends List, and Groups pages, may be accessed and managed using any web browser.