Steam Announces Limited Family Sharing

The kicking people out is the stick to get people to actually buy the game. Don't want to get kicked out, go buy it.

But... ! What if I'm busy with his Saints Row, while he's busy with my Oblivion?

I stand corrected indeed.

Valve brought STD's to Steam.

oMonarca wrote:

But... ! What if I'm busy with his Saints Row, while he's busy with my Oblivion?

So far the theory is that might work and one of the few benefits of this.

shoptroll wrote:

I'm assuming the lack of mention of trading cards in the FAQ or announcement means you probably don't get them from playing shared titles. Valve isn't that consumer friendly

Unless, they add a restriction to trading cards where you can only trade/buy/sell/craft the cards for games you actually own.

You need to buy the game anyway to unlock the first sets of cards. You can buy cards off the market for a game you don't own, and still craft badge for it.

It sounds like, as others have said, that "account swapping" is the "upside" of this (if you're in the camp of looking for how to get games cheaper, not using the system for family or friends. No judgement, and you could use this with "friends" here on the site. Lots of people here seem like really great people and close friends, so there's that.).

I'm interested in using this as a gateway to get my younger brother (22) into gaming on the PC, that way he might have a catalog already there for him, if he ever gets a decent PC (like I've bugged him about 100 times!!). Sounds like a step towards getting in front of what Microsoft pulled back on as well...

In terms of the Steambox this would make a bit more sense if they allowed you to declare a master system / computer for your account (how Microsoft and Sony do it) where any account could access any game at any time.

Hah! Now I can play all of those games that I gifted to my nieces - excellent

Le0hart85 wrote:

I'm interested in using this as a gateway to get my younger brother (22) into gaming on the PC, that way he might have a catalog already there for him, if he ever gets a decent PC (like I've bugged him about 100 times!!). Sounds like a step towards getting in front of what Microsoft pulled back on as well...

This is probably the main idea Steam has behind it, to get as many new players as possible. Also doing it this way they will not need to increase their systems, as their peek players will remain the same. Most probably the number of users online will be more even and closer to the max therefore having a better utilization... meh I am starting to talk like a manager.

It is a more elaborate version of a game demo.

I'm excited for this. As the 'core' gamer of the house this means I can buy games and finish them. Then; my partner can try them out and play them when I'm done instead of me buying a 2nd copy. This will open up my gaming budget.

FYI - I just got accepted to the Family Sharing Beta. I will keep you all posted.

Ooh, can't wait to hear about it.

Yeah, I got my invite email too. Haven't messed with it yet.

Well, the first thing that is clear may take some air out of the collective excitement balloon. From the FAQ:

Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

So, you share your entire library. If someone is playing your library on their authorized device, as soon as you start playing any game in your library, they have 5 minutes to save and quit before they are booted off.

I realize that this limits the sharing quite a bit, but it still offers value. For instance, my kids can play from my library when they get home from school. I do most of my gaming after they have gone to bed, so it's not a huge deal.

As soon as I get home and get this all setup, I will keep you posted about other things...

IMAGE(http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Insects/Common%20Water%20Strider/waterstrider.jpg)

LiquidMantis wrote:

IMAGE(http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Insects/Common%20Water%20Strider/waterstrider.jpg)

It's buggy?

You're dipping your toes in?

It shouldn't even be possible!?! ?

Your account is hacked?

I'm confused.

Skimmer

Atras wrote:

I'm confused.

Tanglebones wrote:

Skimmer

Yup. This has been the single most discussed aspect of the sharing feature in all the threads talking about it.

Tanglebones wrote:

Skimmer

EvilDead wrote:

Your the OP and that has pretty much been the discussion of the whole thread!

LiquidMantis wrote:

Yup. This has been the single most discussed aspect of the sharing feature in all the threads talking about it. :D

Yeah, yeah, but I haven't been in the thread for a while, so I thought that I would lead with this, and... and...

(Walks away with head down in shame)

IMAGE(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ii2CDmLdj0Q/Tc1ntgyjZ2I/AAAAAAAAGhc/n0hkD9HnqKQ/s640/person_ashamed1.jpg)

Abu5217 wrote:

Well, the first thing that is clear may take some air out of the collective excitement balloon. From the FAQ:

Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

So, you share your entire library. If someone is playing your library on their authorized device, as soon as you start playing any game in your library, they have 5 minutes to save and quit before they are booted off.

I realize that this limits the sharing quite a bit, but it still offers value. For instance, my kids can play from my library when they get home from school. I do most of my gaming after they have gone to bed, so it's not a huge deal.

As soon as I get home and get this all setup, I will keep you posted about other things...

You're the OP and that has pretty much been the discussion of the whole thread!

LiquidMantis wrote:

IMAGE(http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Insects/Common%20Water%20Strider/waterstrider.jpg)

Abu5217 wrote:

(Walks away with head down in shame)

IMAGE(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ii2CDmLdj0Q/Tc1ntgyjZ2I/AAAAAAAAGhc/n0hkD9HnqKQ/s640/person_ashamed1.jpg)

You can double this up for me since I did a "your" instead of "You're" and was quoted before I could correct!

EvilDead wrote:

You can double this up for me since I did a "your" instead of "You're" and was quoted before I could correct!

Ya know, I was going to point that out, but figured it would only come across as sour grapes. SO, this one is for you!

IMAGE(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ii2CDmLdj0Q/Tc1ntgyjZ2I/AAAAAAAAGhc/n0hkD9HnqKQ/s640/person_ashamed1.jpg)

Ok, info that hasn't already been posted in the thread:

My test case is that my son lives with his mom and has his own Steam account and computer. So, I used join.me to connect with him from work, then logged into Steam with my account. Opted into the Beta which caused a Steam restart, and his system pulled down the Beta client. Once Steam was back online, I had to go into a new menu item, Manage Family Sharing and Devices to authorize his computer. Once that was done, I logged out and he logged into his own account. Underneath the listing of the games in his library was my library in full. He started to download a game with no issues. When I get home we will test what happens when a) I log into Steam and b) when I start to play a game.

So far seems pretty straightforward.

Is there any distinction between his own library titles and your shared ones? Or is it all just in one big list?

Yes, there is distinction. My games show up under his, in a separate section labeled "Abu5217's Games"

As an aside, I can see that this would be a hell of a way to enable other Goodjers. Using any sort of remote access tool (assuming of course there is a level of trust) one can very easily authorize someone else's machine. There is a limit of 10 machines that can be authorized to access one library, but maintaining those machines is very easy within the Steam Client or on the Steam website.

Abu5217 wrote:

Yes, there is distinction. My games show up under his, in a separate section labeled "Abu5217's Games"

That's cool. I know they can handle having two people's accounts with different games on the same machine - found that out when I bought a used computer. I wonder what it's going to look like with 10 people's libraries in there.

I'm assuming that you can also see his, and borrow from him if you want. Right?

I'm pretty sure it's specific games that can be exclusively played on one machine at a time, and not the entire shared library.
Let's hope Abu confirms my suspicion.

Wait, you have to authorize their computer locally? I couldn't just pull up my Steam client and give, say, momgamer shared access to my library even though I'm in Waggleland and she's in Long Story?

psoplayer wrote:
momgamer wrote:

I'm assuming that you can also see his, and borrow from him if you want. Right?

No, he would also have to grant shared access to his account for that computer from his side, and he would have to be in the beta to do that.

Okay, that makes sense for now. But once it hits the wild he should be able to do that. Right?