Valve has been busy re-jigging the Steam Community tab of late, and the results of those endeavours can now be enjoyed by a select few who’ll get access to the beta version. If you were one of the first 50,000 people who earned the ‘Pillar of the Community’ badge in Steam (for doing things like joining groups and linking your account to Facebook), then a beta invite should be heading your way.
You (and, later, everyone) will be able to mess around with the following new Community features:
“Game Hubs – Every game on Steam now has a Game Hub, which provides a quick way for users to browse the best of a variety of content as rated by the community at large. Each Game Hub also includes a game-specific discussion area where players can talk about their favorite Steam games.
Group Updates – Player-created groups have been redesigned so it’s now easier to see what a group is all about and who is participating in it. Groups now also include public and private discussion areas where they can remain in touch with their own communities.
My Content Updates – The content you’ve created now lives in one central place with new viewing options including an “image wall” layout that showcases your top-rated content. Also new is the ability to mark screenshots, videos, and workshop items as Favorites to save or share with friends.
Friend Activity – The new feed makes it easy to view, rate, and comment on the content and activities of your friends in a visually-rich and interactive presentation. Players can also broadcast game-specific status updates to start a conversation with their friends, directly in the activity feed.”
The Team Fortress 2 ‘game hub’ is actually available to everybody right now, as an example of how those work. You can read more about the upcoming changes, here.
