Steam Announces Limited Family Sharing

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.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

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?

Yes, either authorize locally, or have logged in to that computer and installed a game previously. For several years now you could see other games that had been installed from another account being logged in. With the new family sharing, you can now send a sharing request to the account that had originally installed the game.

momgamer wrote:
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?

Sharing is a one-way action, from a single account, to a single computer. Once it goes live, everyone that uses the family computer could individually authorize it for sharing and then you'd have a big buffet of games for anyone who logs in on that computer, either in the family or not.

momgamer wrote:
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?

Disclosure: I am answering without reading all replies!

No, I can't see his now, since his account is not a part of the Beta at this point. I would assume that once this is in full release, and were he to authorize my machine (ha! Of course I have his password, so I would do it myself) then yes, I would see his games.

Actually, you can see what it looks like now, even though my kids aren't a part of the Beta:

IMAGE(http://www.thesaidifamily.com/library.png)

This is from my Steam client, on a PC that has two of my kids accounts also installed (on different Windows Profiles)

Since they have not authorized my PC yet, I can't play their games.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

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.

Nope, it's the whole library. I can start Steam and my son can continue his game, but if I start an actual game, then he gets this message:

IMAGE(http://www.thesaidifamily.com/notification3.png)

(Sorry about the crop, we were testing this out using join.me, so I couldn't see his whole screen)

ClockworkHouse wrote:

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?

No, you have to login to YOUR Steam account on the PC that you wish to grant access. I was able to do this through join.me (or any other screen-sharing app). The concept is based on trusted machines, not users. I had to remotely login to my son's computer, login to Steam as myself, then grant access to his computer.

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.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

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?

Yes, either authorize locally, or have logged in to that computer and installed a game previously. For several years now you could see other games that had been installed from another account being logged in. With the new family sharing, you can now send a sharing request to the account that had originally installed the game.

This is accurate.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

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.

GOOD JOKE!

psoplayer wrote:
momgamer wrote:
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?

Sharing is a one-way action, from a single account, to a single computer. Once it goes live, everyone that uses the family computer could individually authorize it for sharing and then you'd have a big buffet of games for anyone who logs in on that computer, either in the family or not.

Actually, no. Sharing works on up to 10 devices, but only one at a time. My son was playing my games on his computer at a different house (and computer, obviously) than mine.

So, you can share your library with 10 devices, but only 1 of the 10 can use it to play a game at any given time? So we know what happens if sharee computer A is playing a game, and then owner O decides to play (A gets booted after 5 minutes) -- but what happens if sharee computer A is playing a game, then sharee computer B tries to play a game from O's library? Is it permitted, or does B get a message saying the library is unavailable, or does A get booted? My guess is the middle outcome.

merphle wrote:

So, you can share your library with 10 devices, but only 1 of the 10 can use it to play a game at any given time? So we know what happens if sharee computer A is playing a game, and then owner O decides to play (A gets booted after 5 minutes) -- but what happens if sharee computer A is playing a game, then sharee computer B tries to play a game from O's library? Is it permitted, or does B get a message saying the library is unavailable, or does A get booted? My guess is the middle outcome.

Your guess would be correct. B would get a denial message (assumed, from the FAQ and Group Discussions, but not actually tested yet) along the lines of "That library is currently shared to someone else". Keep in mind, Valve/Steam is not looking at this as sharing between multiple people, but sharing between machines that the primary account holder has access to. I will try to test this scenario, but it will probably be this weekend before that happens.

One other quick screenshot... This is what you (as the sharer) sees upon login if your library is in use by one of your sharees:

IMAGE(http://www.thesaidifamily.com/notification2.png)

Abu5217 wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

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?

No, you have to login to YOUR Steam account on the PC that you wish to grant access. I was able to do this through join.me (or any other screen-sharing app). The concept is based on trusted machines, not users. I had to remotely login to my son's computer, login to Steam as myself, then grant access to his computer.

That's... less than ideal. I was hoping it would be a friend-invite system with multiple verifications.

Deadmonkeys wrote:
Abu5217 wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

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?

No, you have to login to YOUR Steam account on the PC that you wish to grant access. I was able to do this through join.me (or any other screen-sharing app). The concept is based on trusted machines, not users. I had to remotely login to my son's computer, login to Steam as myself, then grant access to his computer.

That's... less than ideal. I was hoping it would be a friend-invite system with multiple verifications. :(

Yes, but reasonably fair... It is, after all, intended as a way to share games within a family/household.

Abu5217 wrote:

Keep in mind, Valve/Steam is not looking at this as sharing between multiple people, but sharing between machines that the primary account holder has access to.

Uh... wha-? This doesn't make any sense to me. If I already have access to the machine then I can already share it with other people.... even indefinitely in offline mode including in another country or whatever. There really isn't much point to this.

Why do they then specifically make it about sharing between people (because a person is an individual Steam account) if this is how you say it is in this sentence?

I don't really see why they have implemented this if there's a better workaround (even though not technically allowed) out there already... unless SteamOS machines can only play "online"...

The difference is that users on the "other" machines can be logged into their own Steam accounts, and therefore accrue their own achievements, and maintain their own cloud-based game saves, etc. If someone were to use your account, logged in offline, that person wouldn't get those benefits... and honestly, I'd be more worried about my own personal cloud saves getting overwritten/corrupted in this sort of scenario.

merphle wrote:

The difference is that users on the "other" machines can be logged into their own Steam accounts, and therefore accrue their own achievements, and maintain their own cloud-based game saves, etc. If someone were to use your account, logged in offline, that person wouldn't get those benefits... and honestly, I'd be more worried about my own personal cloud saves getting overwritten/corrupted in this sort of scenario.

This is pretty much it. In my personal situation, 3 of my 4 kids have their own Steam accounts. They have access to 5 different computers (some at my home, some at their mother's). All of the accounts are installed on my primary computer and the kid's primary computer at my house. If I have a game that they do not, they would have to log in as me to play it, and the saves/achievements etc. are on my account, which is less than ideal (for me).

With this sharing, they can login to their account and play my games (as long as I have authorized the computer that they are using and am not currently playing a game). It works for me because they can play my games while I am still at work, and should they have a game that I am interested in, I can play their games (once Sharing is out of Beta and they have authorized my PC) when they are in bed.

Of course I could already do this now, as I have access to all of their accounts/passwords, but I would still have to login as them and perhaps mess up their saves.

I realize that this is not the robust sharing plan that we may have hoped for, but it is a sharing plan, and, at least for me, does have value. Especially since, until now, there was no way at all to share games between accounts. The Steam Group discussions are rife with people complaining that "it's not like consoles, where I can grab a disk off the shelf and give it to my friend for them to use whenever they want." That's correct, it's not. But we have never had that option in the Steam space before.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I can see this being a great enabling tool within our own community. Let's say that I have a game that merphle is interested in, and that we both trust each other implicitly. Merphle could setup a join.me, teamviewer, whatever session and invite me in. I could login to Steam on his (her? sorry, I don't know) PC and authorize it. Then merphle could play the game as long as they want (and as long as I don't want to get back to Saint's Row!). Now merphle can make an informed decision as to whether or not they want the game. Short of having some sort of demo available, we have not had that option before. As an added bonus, should merphle decide to purchase the game, it's already downloaded and installed, so all save progress is maintained.

TL/DR; It's a step. Perhaps too small for some, but it is a step.

merphle wrote:

The difference is that users on the "other" machines can be logged into their own Steam accounts, and therefore accrue their own achievements, and maintain their own cloud-based game saves, etc. If someone were to use your account, logged in offline, that person wouldn't get those benefits... and honestly, I'd be more worried about my own personal cloud saves getting overwritten/corrupted in this sort of scenario.

That's fair enough. I don't care about achievements and I don't use cloud saves (I only have one PC). So you can probably see where I come from.

It certainly makes sharing a lot less useful for me, but I'm sure it'll be handy for some.

Abu5217 wrote:
momgamer wrote:
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?

Disclosure: I am answering without reading all replies!

No, I can't see his now, since his account is not a part of the Beta at this point. I would assume that once this is in full release, and were he to authorize my machine (ha! Of course I have his password, so I would do it myself) then yes, I would see his games.

Actually, you can see what it looks like now, even though my kids aren't a part of the Beta:

IMAGE(http://www.thesaidifamily.com/library.png)

This is from my Steam client, on a PC that has two of my kids accounts also installed (on different Windows Profiles)

Since they have not authorized my PC yet, I can't play their games.

What does Grid View look like? Is there a drop down on the top like All Games/Recent/Installed ?

Cragmyre wrote:

What does Grid View look like? Is there a drop down on the top like All Games/Recent/Installed ?

I am not sure, but I will certainly check and post a screenshot when I get home tonight.

Cragmyre wrote:

What does Grid View look like? Is there a drop down on the top like All Games/Recent/Installed ?

Cragmyre,

Yes, the drop down is always present. In the base Grid View you don't see the shared games, but in the drop down you can choose the games of others on your system.

My Library
IMAGE(http://www.thesaidifamily.com/grid.png)

My son's Library
IMAGE(http://www.thesaidifamily.com/grid2.png)

All of the other filters are available as well (Installed Games, All Games, etc)

Seems they sent a new batch. I just got in.

Tho, one question, to authorized the computer, can you authorized the computer through a web page?

EDIT : Just tried with my linux box for sharing, and you can revoke from a webpage, you can't authorize. You need to log in Steam itself.

Oh well. It's a nice addon feature so far.

Manach wrote:

Seems they sent a new batch. I just got in.

Tho, one question, to authorized the computer, can you authorized the computer through a web page?

EDIT : Just tried with my linux box for sharing, and you can revoke from a webpage, you can't authorize. You need to log in Steam itself.

Oh well. It's a nice addon feature so far.

Correct. You can de-authorize from the Steam website or client, but in order to authorize you need access to the PC you are authorizing (either physically or through a remote connection, although the jury is still out on whether or not the latter violates the SSA)

Just got my invite today!

I'm also in. I hope they don't mind that my "family" member lives on the opposite side of the earth in Brazil.

Looks like everyone who was in the Steam group for this beta was accepted. I've experimented with it, works pretty well. I had her logged in with her account playing my copy of Spelunky. I logged in and started playing Chivalry. I only received a brief popup like when someone sends you a Steam message in the bottom right corner, when I brought up the Steam menu there was no indication that I needed to log out within the next 5 minutes.

Wouldn't she be the one getting the warning, not you?

Duoae wrote:

Wouldn't she be the one getting the warning, not you?

I worded it wrong. I was describing her computer's messages while I was on my computer in Chivalry.

mrwynd wrote:
Duoae wrote:

Wouldn't she be the one getting the warning, not you?

I worded it wrong. I was describing her computer's messages while I was on my computer in Chivalry.

So was she booted from the game after 5 mins? Seems like an omission to not tell to save up?

nm