Steam Family Sharing

Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Great idea but from what I was reading on the PC Gamer article comments it's not actually sharing games, it's sharing a library. So if I want to let you play Grid, you can play Grid no problem. And then I fancy playing Skyrim while you're on that... No no no.. It will apparently kick you off Grid even if I want to play Skyrim....

So it's great until you both want to play Steam games at the same time. From what I understand anyway...
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Oh right, maybe I misunderstood that. I thought you could play different games at the same time but not the same game. That's not as good as I thought then. Nevermind. I guess its not strictly allowed but you can kinda already do that, if you let someone else use your steam login...

CAN A FRIEND AND I SHARE A LIBRARY AND BOTH PLAY AT THE SAME TIME?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.
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Certainly seems as though you're right Grimezy... bit pants really. Good thing I wouldn't really have a use for it :)

EDIT: It is of course, still a 'Beta' Hopefully individual game loaning/borrowing will be allowed in the future!!!
 
bigben

bigben

Master Poster
Grimezy said:
So it's great until you both want to play Steam games at the same time. From what I understand anyway...
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Yep - from the FAQ on that page "CAN A FRIEND AND I SHARE A LIBRARY AND BOTH PLAY AT THE SAME TIME?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time."

edit: way too slow...

Quite good that it lets you borrow DLC as well though.

I also don't know anybody that plays PC, well one of my mates has a decent but he doesn't play any proper games on it. Oh, and another one of my mates won't play FPS games on his and only ever plays using either flight sim controls or an xbox controller.
 
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DeadEyeDuk

DeadEyeDuk

Superhero Level Poster
To be fair to them, having a full sharing feature, as in you can play one game while I play another, would drastically knacker their revenue. It would mean my brother in Leeds and I could buy 2 games, one copy of each, and each play one at the same time then swap.

In my mind that is just a step too far and not needed. You want the game, you buy it, simples :) Oh, your bro wants to try the game while you're at work? Sure, he can play it no problem. Seems like a nice compromise to me :)
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
DeadEyeDuk said:
In my mind that is just a step too far and not needed. You want the game, you buy it, simples :) Oh, your bro wants to try the game while you're at work? Sure, he can play it no problem. Seems like a nice compromise to me :)
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You can do this already though, just let them use your account...
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
The only reason I want to see game sharing on the PC is because my brother has games I wanna play that he doesn't play anymore but I can't use them as they're linked to his account already. Yes I could use his login but I'd rather have them on my own profile.. AND... I have games from like 10 years ago that I used to play on my dad's old Steam account which is long-lost now yet I can't play them on my current account... Even though they've been inactive for over 10 years... (you'd think common sense would play a part on Steam's part..). Fair enough they're games that I could pick up for £2 in the sales like Half Life 2 and stuff but that's not the point... They're sitting on my shelf gathering dust at the moment -.- I still own them, I just can't play them.
 
G

Gornlostor

Active member
I personally think it is a good idea, but you don't pair accounts you pair devices hence the name family sharing, because they are taking into account the fact that maybe a dad has a steam account and would let his son play his games as long as the son doesn't use the dads £1500 pc. So now the son can play the dads games on his own pc instead of his dads. At least that is wht I think they had in mind
 
Kalisnoir

Kalisnoir

Super Star
steaky360 said:
Risky maybe? I don't see how its more inconvenient as such? Maybe I'm missing something?
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Because you can't log into your account at all while the other person is on it otherwise it will disconnect them from steam. At least with library sharing you know when they are on it or not and you can just straight up go on your own game and it will present them with a timer to either quit or buy it themselves. Otherwise you either annoy them or have to contact them first.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Kalisnoir said:
Because you can't log into your account at all while the other person is on it otherwise it will disconnect them from steam. At least with library sharing you know when they are on it or not and you can just straight up go on your own game and it will present them with a timer to either quit or buy it themselves. Otherwise you either annoy them or have to contact them first.
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Yeah I see your point, it's certainly more of an inconvenience to the borrower compared to the proposed system. I guess the final word is technically its not allowed either (I've not read 'all' the T's&C's but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that you cant let someone else use your account). They could always log in using your details, then go to offline mode [that is definitely against the rules though :) - Don't try this at home] wouldn't get logged out when you logged in then. But I suspect Steam would get pretty mad if they found out :).
 
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