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Steam Family Sharing

store.steampowered.com

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Re: Steam Family Sharing

#71

Post by jiggy2011 »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #59
darkchasma wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like baby steps though. We really should have a way to loan games at the very least, and this still isn't really scratching that itch.

Why? Loaning digital bits literally makes no sense. That's nt a thing. It's not something the laws of physics allow. Loaning digital goods is a gibberish statement. I obviously understand the appeal. Who doesn't like free shit? If you want to "borrow" a game from a friend just pirate it. That at least saves the platform holder some bandwidth costs.

You can lend a license to use those bits in a specific way.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#72

Post by d0m »

zalzane wrote: post #34

Valve often talks about trying to provide a service that is more convenient than pirating, and this looks like another step in that direction. If I'm playing a pirated game and want to share it with a friend, it would involve getting them to torrent/crack it, or uploading it to a file sharing host. Using Valve's new program, sharing a purchased game is as simple as sharing it with them on steam. I'm curious as to wha…

Most old popular games come with a .exe that you can run without installing the game. Make for some real easy sharing in Lans. Valve making it almost as easy.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#73

Post by alanctgardner2 »

pekk wrote: post #53
amelim wrote: post #47

A brilliant move would be to offer discounts on purchasing a game if the lender kicks you off while you are playing. "Sorry we have to kick you off while you are playing, it looks like the owner wants to play game X right now. Purchase the game for yourself at 10% off and keep playing immediately!"

so a 10% markup on everything, which people have to circumvent by intentionally trying to play the game at the same time just in order to get the 'discount'?

Because Steam sales have driven the prices of games up by 50%. Oh wait, no, AAA games are still $60, but now Steam offers them at a reasonable discount after a few months to undercut the used-games market.

Getting kicked out is a point of friction, where a user could either start torrenting, or buy the game legitimately. If they can prove that a small discount improves conversions, I don't see why they wouldn't offer it. Steam is all about removing friction by offering discounts.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#75

Post by jiggy2011 »

flexd wrote: post #66
zalzane wrote: post #34

Valve often talks about trying to provide a service that is more convenient than pirating, and this looks like another step in that direction. If I'm playing a pirated game and want to share it with a friend, it would involve getting them to torrent/crack it, or uploading it to a file sharing host. Using Valve's new program, sharing a purchased game is as simple as sharing it with them on steam. I'm curious as to wha…

When it comes to that I like how it is with xbox 360 games. I can just lend my friend the disk and he can play the game. A PC game is not that easy, why is pirating a bigger problem on computers than consoles? Or is it so? I'm not entirely familiar with the numbers but since you can still swap used console games I'd imagine it's like that. I am glad Valve is doing something to improve this.

I think it's mainly because a console has the DRM mechanisms integrated on a hardware and OS level. Also consoles are designed to run only programs that have been approved by the platform owner which makes it significantly easier as a general purpose OS can't tell the difference between a pirate program and a program that is legitimately DRM-free.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#76

Post by criley2 »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #71
forrestthewoods wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Loaning digital bits literally makes no sense. That's nt a thing. It's not something the laws of physics allow. Loaning digital goods is a gibberish statement. I obviously understand the appeal. Who doesn't like free shit? If you want to "borrow" a game from a friend just pirate it. That at least saves the platform holder some bandwidth costs.

You can lend a license to use those bits in a specific way.

That's a new thing, a specific new thing defined by a license and is only synonymous to the concept of loaning a physical good, and only synonymous because the definition in the license intends to make it that way.

The fact is, lending requires scarcity. I would never in my life lend goods to a friend if I could provide an identical duplicate for basically zero cost. Why would I? I'm not bound by scarcity by choice.

Steam invents scarcity by limiting the number of "friends" to 10, and by enforcing a policy that will boot off friends ~five minutes after the owner logs in.

Real life doesn't need such machinations for the system of lending to work, which is why lending physical goods can never be the same thing as lending digital goods IMO.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#77

Post by jsmeaton »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #52
james4k wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Isn't this better than loaning? Or do you mean trading?

You can't play Game A when you've loaned your library to Friend so they can play Game B. This is a way to avoid telling people your steam password to "borrow" your account, not borrow a single game. This would have been very useful to me when, in University, my roommates and all played our games on the living room gaming PC. I can imagine this being useful for siblings to share a game library mostly bought by parents…

Hmm, you're right. I misunderstood this part:

> WHEN I AUTHORIZE A DEVICE TO LEND MY LIBRARY TO OTHERS, DO I LIMIT MY OWN ABILITY TO ACCESS AND PLAY MY GAMES? As the lender, you may always access and play your games at any time. If you decide to start playing when a friend is already playing one of your games, he/she will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

But I missed the implications in the FAQ directly above that:

> 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.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#78

Post by brownbat »

zalzane wrote: post #34

Valve often talks about trying to provide a service that is more convenient than pirating, and this looks like another step in that direction. If I'm playing a pirated game and want to share it with a friend, it would involve getting them to torrent/crack it, or uploading it to a file sharing host. Using Valve's new program, sharing a purchased game is as simple as sharing it with them on steam. I'm curious as to wha…

> trying to provide a service that is more convenient than pirating

Huh, I know the other content industries have to play that game, but here I thought the killer feature of legitimate software was "not a virus."

Oh, maybe not piracy so much as... resellers? GameStop?

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#79

Post by theandrewbailey »

VLM wrote: post #33
theandrewbailey wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I checked (less than a minute ago), new games can still come in boxes.

Well, I'll head right over to CompUSA and buy... oh wait. Maybe I can buy a boxed game from Amazon?

Yes, Amazon sells them. You can also walk into a Walmart and find boxes of console games.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#80

Post by jiggy2011 »

criley2 wrote: post #76
jiggy2011 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can lend a license to use those bits in a specific way.

That's a new thing, a specific new thing defined by a license and is only synonymous to the concept of loaning a physical good, and only synonymous because the definition in the license intends to make it that way. The fact is, lending requires scarcity. I would never in my life lend goods to a friend if I could provide an identical duplicate for basically zero cost. Why would I? I'm not bound by scarcity by choice.…

It's not that new, or at least not significantly newer than the idea of intellectual property overall. Even before DRM ,most software had licenses defining how it could be used, how many computers it could be installed on and whether the license was transferable. Steam is simply doing the same thing but using technical measures to enforce the agreements.
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