Steam Workshop: How to Access Steam Workshop, What It Is
Steam is one of the biggest game-oriented digital distribution platforms in the world, with tens of millions of daily accesses. It offers gamers the perfect place to get the latest games, and it also helps gaming developers publish their titles and gain recognition.
However, there are other sides to Steam that many users aren’t aware of, such as the Steam Workshop.
What is the Steam Workshop?
Integrated into the Steam client, the Steam Workshop is a tool that is powered exclusively by the Steam gaming community, allowing both developers and regular users to upload and download Steam-compatible content, such as mods, maps, skins, and more.
The Steam Workshop is completely free to use, and the only real restriction associated with it is your imagination and your gaming library.
How to Access Steam Workshop?
As you know, downloading games and software via Steam is only possible if you have the Steam client installed on your PC.
Well, this restriction doesn’t extend to the Steam Workshop, as it can be accessed from both the Steam client, as well as the Steam website via a web browser.
However, if you choose to access it through your browser, you need to be logged in first.
Can anyone add content to the Steam Workshop?
Long-story-short, anyone can add content to the Steam Workshop, as long as they have a Steam account, and they sign the binding agreement with Steam that will appear every time you want to upload new content.
The only true limitation in terms of creating and uploading content for the Steam Workshop is whether or not the game even supports mods, but that’s something that is easy to find out.
Is the content on the Steam Workshop any good?
As mentioned before, the content from the Steam Workshop can be added by both developers of a game, as well as players.
This makes it so that the content varies in size and quality, although that doesn’t mean that user-created content should be disregarded.
In fact, some even turn a profit through the Steam Workshop by creating top-notch content and selling it.
The thing about premium content is that it too can be refunded, following the same refund policy that Steam applies to its games as well.
Fortunately, those of you that are on a tight budget can also opt for free content, which is quite abundant anyway.
Where is Steam Workshop? How do I use it?
In the example below, we will be using a Steam favourite called DotA 2, and we will show you how to download community-created custom maps:
- Launch your Steam client, or go to the Steam homepage on your web browser
- Go to the Community Hub, and select Workshop from the drop-down list
- Search for the DotA 2 Hub in the Find Hubs search bar
- While in the DotA 2 Hub, go to the Workshop tab
- If a game you are looking for lacks the Workshop tab, it means that it lacks mod support
- Look for an item that you wish to at to your base game, and press Download
- If you don’t currently have the base game installed, the button will be listed as +Subscribe instead
- If you don’t currently have the base game installed, the button will be listed as +Subscribe instead
Once you’ve downloaded the custom content, it will become available in-game from its corresponding section, depending on the type of content (skins, custom maps, etc).
Just like your typical Steam game or software, you can leave reviews and rate the workshop items, as well as read other users’ reviews.
Rating is important for Workshop items because, just like with the base game, it will affect its popularity, and the way it will be suggested and how it will appear in search queries.
How do I remove a Steam Workshop item?
- Go back to the DotA 2 workshop tab as you did in the previous solution, and click on the Browse button
- From the drop-down list, click on Subscribed items
- Look for the custom content that you want to remove, and hover your mouse over the Subscribed button
- Press the Subscribed button to unsubscribe from it
Is the Steam Workshop worth it?
Since using the Steam Workshop is completely free, we recommend that you do give it a try since you never know what fun content the community may have created.
Besides, since Steam Workshop content is the gaming equivalent of fanfiction, there is no limit to what you can upload or download from it, as long as the content falls under Steam’s community guidelines.
Additionally, even the paid content can be refunded if you’re not happy with it, so there’s really nothing to lose if you decide to give it a go.
CONCLUSION
All in all, the Steam Workshop shows great potential for hosting interesting content, so might as well take advantage of it.
Have you ever tried any custom content from the Steam Workshop?
If so, let us know what did you find interesting in there by telling us all about it in the comments section below.
