Ok, this much closer to allowing me to have my desktop and my HTPC logged in to Steam at the same time...
Steam Family Sharing
21–30 of 123 posts
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#22... on closer inspection, it seems functionally equivalent to logging into steam on a friend's computer, except that you don't have to type in your password on their machine and you can kick them off easily. Considering how much trouble Steam has with phishing and accounts getting hacked, it's obviously a good idea to minimize any use-case where users are allowing others to get at their passwords. This kind of featur…
I have two machines with steam on it (desktop, laptop) and I get logged out of one if I use the other. Frankly I'm getting tired of it. (that and the "verifying installation..." window)
I'm hoping they will somehow figure out how to fix this soon, given this announcement. Obviously they can't let you have machines with your account all over the globe logged on at the same time, but if they let you have multiple machines logged on from the same IP address (thank you NAT) and still prevent you from playing a game on two machines at the same time, that should do it...
Personally, I have a desktop and an HTPC, which would seem like an obvious use-case they would want to target, given Big Picture mode! We're so close, what with remote libraries (on my NAS).
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wish they would fix this. Why should I not be able to have two separate games of mine running at once?
Because otherwise you could co-ordinate which games to buy with your friends so you can all share a single game library for single player games.
So, just like physical titles.
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#24I was really excited about this, but then I read the limitations...in particular:
>No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.
Damn. Probably should have expected this.
But, all in all, seems like a positive step forward!
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pre-Steam games weren't tied to an account, so this is just bringing that capability back.
'Pre-Steam'... My god, that makes 2003 seem that much longer ago... How can I be 23 and still feel like an old man? Makes one nostalgic for the days when games still came in boxes...
Last I checked (less than a minute ago), new games can still come in boxes.
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wish they would fix this. Why should I not be able to have two separate games of mine running at once?
Because otherwise you could co-ordinate which games to buy with your friends so you can all share a single game library for single player games.
If multiple users could be playing your game, you could also avoid all buying the same game for multiplayer. That seems reasonable for them to want to avoid.
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have two machines with steam on it (desktop, laptop) and I get logged out of one if I use the other. Frankly I'm getting tired of it. (that and the "verifying installation..." window)
I'm hoping they will somehow figure out how to fix this soon, given this announcement. Obviously they can't let you have machines with your account all over the globe logged on at the same time, but if they let you have multiple machines logged on from the same IP address (thank you NAT) and still prevent you from playing a game on two machines at the same time, that should do it... Personally, I have a desktop and a…
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - constrain it to a single IP and no sharing individual games. That would go a long way. Then again, you know some dedicated pirates will just VPN the damned thing.
Or at the very least give us a way to avoid keying in the password over and over again - I already logged in here, you can lock the steam account for use-from-elsewhere without forcing me to key in a password to unlock it. I might be annoyed that I can't share my library between my two machines at the same time, but at the very least I don't have to keep keying in PWs.
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because otherwise you could co-ordinate which games to buy with your friends so you can all share a single game library for single player games.
So, just like physical titles.
Yeah, which I'm thinking is what they want to avoid.
I think an element of this is the part where when you get kicked off it will prompt you to buy the game or quit. As a nice solution to lack of demos most games have. That's the thought my friends and I immediately jumped to.
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because otherwise you could co-ordinate which games to buy with your friends so you can all share a single game library for single player games.
So, just like physical titles.
Except that with physical titles it's pretty inconvenient to pass around disks all the time, so there's a natural limit to sharing. With the new kind of sharing, you could share your library with someone on the other side of the country without having to ship disks around. That is a subtle point lost in this debate and the debate around the Xbox One.
Re: Steam Family Sharing
#30If I am not wrong, this is what Xbox One wanted to do initially.
The Xbox One was originally to have applied digital distribution restrictions to physically distributed media. That is the problem that people had with it.
Had Microsoft simply restricted their program to their digitally distributed games -- which they are likely to loop back on -- I doubt anyone would have taken issue with it.