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Steam Family Sharing

store.steampowered.com

41–50 of 123 posts

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#41
post #6

... 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 just wish my SO could play The Sims 3 on the laptop in the living room while I'm playing Civ 5 on my desktop in my home office. I ended up having to buy her a copy on Origin so we could game at the same time.

[deleted]

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#42

Earlier 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…

The problem is that then large groups of people could route their traffic through a vpn and spoof Steam into thinking that everyone's on the same home network.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#43
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Perhaps the logical protocol is store the password at all times, but demand the end user type it in 10 times. After that, if he's still not reacted by changing the password, simply start using the memorized password without demanding login info.

Obviously it would be stupid to actually store the password locally for security reasons, but the actual implementation of asking the steam servers for a token of some sort and then presenting the token in place of the password would work just as well. May as well time limit the token and demand you log in every six months.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#44

If 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.

I seem to remember Half-Life 2 having similar distribution scheme.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#45

Earlier 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…

On a fairly frequent basis, I have two machines in my house attempting to login to Steam from different IPs; My laptop is often connected to work VPN. Simply limiting it to public IP address is a good step, but doesn't solve all use cases.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#46
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…

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.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#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!"

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#48
post #33

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?

I bought Portal in a box. I put the CD-ROM in and it prompted me to download Steam.

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#49
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…

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.

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

Re: Steam Family Sharing

#50
post #49

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.

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

because you can't play other games from your library while someone else is using your account on, say another computer
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