I remember the first time I noticed my Steam profile was cluttered with a plethora of achievements. I had been deeply engrossed in various games, and while I was proud of some of my accomplishments, others felt too personal to share. It was around this time I began to feel a growing discomfort with the idea of others seeing every single achievement I earned. It seemed like a good idea to find out how I could make certain achievements private on Steam.
The realization came during a heated gaming session when a friend of mine, who was also a fellow gamer, pointed out that he could see all of my achievements, including some I wasn’t particularly keen on broadcasting. It was a jarring moment. I started wondering if there was a way to hide these achievements from my public profile. After a bit of research and trial and error, I found a solution that worked for me, and I’ll walk you through the steps I took to achieve this.
The first step in hiding achievements on Steam involves understanding the privacy settings associated with your profile. To start, I logged into my Steam account and navigated to my profile page. From there, I clicked on the “Edit Profile” button, which took me to the profile settings area. It was here I hoped to find a solution to my problem.
I found the “Privacy Settings” tab, which was where the magic was supposed to happen. Under this tab, there were various options for controlling who could see my profile, my friends list, and my game details. To address my concerns about achievements, I needed to dig a little deeper into these settings.
In the “Privacy Settings,” I noticed a section specifically for “Game Details.” This section allows you to control who can see your game library, your achievements, and your playtime. For my purposes, I wanted to make my achievements private, so I adjusted the setting for “Game Details” to “Private.” This effectively hid my achievements from everyone except myself. It was a simple yet effective measure to keep my accomplishments out of the public eye.
After making these changes, I wanted to ensure that they were applied correctly. I logged out of my account and then logged in using an incognito browser window. This allowed me to view my profile as others would see it. To my satisfaction, my achievements were no longer visible to anyone other than myself. This was exactly what I was aiming for, and it felt like a small victory in regaining control over my personal information.
However, I also wanted to make sure that the changes I made didn’t affect my ability to share achievements with friends if I chose to. I wanted a balance where I could keep my achievements hidden from public view but still share them selectively with people I trusted. To achieve this, I looked into Steam’s friend privacy settings.
In the same “Privacy Settings” tab, there was an option for “Friends List.” By setting this to “Friends Only,” I ensured that only people on my friends list could see certain aspects of my profile. This allowed me to maintain a level of privacy while still enjoying the social aspects of Steam. If a friend wanted to see my achievements, they would still be able to do so if I decided to share them.
The final step in the process was to familiarize myself with how these settings interacted with community awards. Steam community awards, which are often given for specific contributions or milestones in the Steam community, can be particularly personal. I wanted to ensure that these awards were also kept private. To do this, I repeated the same process, adjusting the settings for community awards to match my privacy preferences. I discovered that setting my “Game Details” to “Private” also applied to community awards, which meant that they were effectively hidden from everyone except me.
In conclusion, the journey to hide achievements and make community awards private on Steam was a straightforward but enlightening experience. By adjusting my privacy settings, I managed to keep my achievements hidden from public view while still retaining the ability to share them with friends if I wished. It was a simple process but one that made a significant difference in how I managed my personal information on Steam. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I highly recommend taking the time to explore your privacy settings and make adjustments according to your preferences. It’s a small step that can provide a lot of peace of mind.