I want to get a gaming laptop but it doesn't come with an optical drive and i do not know what that is, i just want to play steam games and minecraft on it as well as download a couple of games from online..do i need one?
Like Luminary said, you're fine. Optical refers to a disc, cd, dvd, bluray. Steam is web based and so long as you have a decent internet connection most all games can be bought through steam and downloaded.