make family sharing 1 per game owned.

[Dutchgamer1982]

when I family share my 100+ games it can happen I am playing say civ 4 while somebody else I shared with want to play my aoe2..

It annoys me like crazy that in order for that to work I must exit my game, relaunch steam in offline mode.. for that friend to be able to play a completely different title than I am currently using.
and for a third person to play sat my morrowind copy at the same time is impossible.

proposal :
- me playing another game in my library should not prevent family shared people to play another game in my library..
-change 1 online playing user per steam account to 1 online playing user per game copy on an account.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Family sharing isn't meant to share games with friends, it's in the name. It's meant to be shared with family. It's a means for say a parent to get games for their kids, without giving kids access to account/payment details.

[Wolf Knight]

you want to make it easier to rent your library to others? not going to happen. they set up family share the way they did for a reason.

you share the library, not a game. you dont get to pick what game, so you have to make sure you trust the person/persons you are sharing with.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

It annoys me like crazy that in order for that to work I must exit my game, relaunch steam in offline mode.. for that friend to be able to play a completely different title than I am currently using.

See, you don't have to do that; you could also, I dunno, gift the title to your friend so that they can play it for themselves. One user per library, simple.

Not to mention what the others said: family share, not "friends", you might want to be careful with that.

[Yzal]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

family share, not "friends"

[nullable]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

proposal :
- me playing another game in my library should not prevent family shared people to play another game in my library.

You say "it shouldn't" because that would be convenient to you. But you need to ask yourself why Valve implemented Family Sharing as is. And once you understand that, how are you going to address the needs and concerns of Valve and publishers?

Family sharing is a compromise to give you some utility, but not an open door to help you and your friends to avoid buying games.

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

-change 1 online playing user per steam account to 1 online playing user per game copy on an account.

Well again, they current design was implemented on purpose, wanting it to change is fine, but how do you address the reasons for the original implementation?

[Nx Machina]

It is Family Sharing as agreed with the dev, pub who can revoke it at any time.

Secondly complain to Epic, CDPR, Rockstar, Blizzard, EA who do not have Family Sharing on their platforms.

[The End]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

change 1 online playing user per steam account to 1 online playing user per game copy on an account.

Nahh, not going to happen, that would make it easy to make a business out of renting out access to games.

[Washell]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

It annoys me like crazy that in order for that to work I must exit my game, relaunch steam in offline mode.. for that friend to be able to play a completely different title than I am currently using.

Then don't do it. The arrangement I have with my friends is that we're not going to jump to hoops to facilitate the other. If they start playing and I get kicked of, or vice versa, tough luck.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by <Insert Kazoo Circus Music Here>:

Family sharing isn't meant to share games with friends

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Not to mention what the others said: family share, not "friends", you might want to be careful with that.

Originally posted by Lazy Dog:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

family share, not "friends"

https://store.steampowered.com/oldnews/11436
"Steam Family Sharing, a new service feature that allows close friends and family members to share their libraries of Steam games"

"Steam Family Sharing is designed for close friends and family members to play one another's Steam games while each earning their own Steam achievements and storing their own saves and application data to the Steam cloud. It's all enabled by authorizing a shared computer."

https://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing
"Steam Family Library Sharing allows family members and their guests"

"Is there a limit to the number of devices or friends I can authorize to share my Library?
Yes. You may authorize Family Library Sharing on up to 10 devices at a given time, and for up to 5 accounts that may then use your game library on any of your authorized computers."

"Can all Steam games be shared with friends and family?
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."

It is for friends and family. It does mention close friends, but key point is that it is not limited only to family members (also not limited to one household - it is account based, not location based)

[Ettanin]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

It is for friends and family. It does mention close friends, but key point is that it is not limited only to family members (also not limited to one household - it is account based, not location based)

Nomenclature aside, FLS is designed to be used on shared systems.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by Ettanin:

Originally posted by Nebsun:

It is for friends and family. It does mention close friends, but key point is that it is not limited only to family members (also not limited to one household - it is account based, not location based)

Nomenclature aside, FLS is designed to be used on shared systems.

Regardless, people can have multiple shared systems

"Sometimes the games I’ve been given access to are unavailable for me to play. Why?
Shared games are only available on devices that have been authorized by the account holder. Shared games will be unavailable on even an authorized device when the account holder’s library is currently in use on another computer."

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

It annoys me like crazy that in order for that to work I must exit my game, relaunch steam in offline mode.. for that friend to be able to play a completely different title than I am currently using.

Currently, the only way to do what you wanted is to buy each game on a different account then share the library with each game.. high effort low reward.

We are lucky to have it in the first place, so either get your friend to buy the game if they play it a lot or put up with what you currently do

[Dutchgamer1982]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

Originally posted by Ettanin:

Nomenclature aside, FLS is designed to be used on shared systems.

Regardless, people can have multiple shared systems

"Sometimes the games I’ve been given access to are unavailable for me to play. Why?
Shared games are only available on devices that have been authorized by the account holder. Shared games will be unavailable on even an authorized device when the account holder’s library is currently in use on another computer."

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

It annoys me like crazy that in order for that to work I must exit my game, relaunch steam in offline mode.. for that friend to be able to play a completely different title than I am currently using.

Currently, the only way to do what you wanted is to buy each game on a different account then share the library with each game.. high effort low reward.

We are lucky to have it in the first place, so either get your friend to buy the game if they play it a lot or put up with what you currently do

lucky??
-> steam started as DRM on retail bought pc games.
-> retail bought pc games before steam could be 2d hand sold, and also given away or lended, as their ownership was tied to the fysical medium they were on.
-> steam already showed their colours from the getgo when they refused to unbind retail bought copies from accounts despite the customer law clearly still stating for those copies the eula that was fysically included with them is valid.. and any "I agree" button pressed since is not.

**it is a clear example how "piracy protection" is misused to take rights away from paying customers.

-> steam actually during sales is on average 15% more expensive in it's prices than retail copies are. (for those games still actually having fysical copies now... granted)

so if we pay the same and even more than what we used to do for games that had the very right to 2d hand trade and lend out your copies (a thing still present in equally prices console versions of those same titles on pc mind you)..
-> than we should also havce those rights today.

-----------------------
but that moral part aside :
->
by steams own rules.. it is not legally allowed to create and own multiple accounts yourself.
so while technically true.. you could just make a new account for each game.. that would not only be a massive amount of unwanted work.. it would validate steam from banning all those accounts.
**
(and you could not even acces yourself all your games either.. as the limit of people to family share with is 10.. you still would need to log out and log into another account.. to play another title in your library.. so it would still be a mayor hassle)

It is ment to be shared amongst family and friends, got that.
-> they don't want us to share with strangers online.. (while morally I cannot see why not.. I am fine with that limitation) -> usually it means I fysically have to log in on their pc with my steam account for it to activate sharing on theirs.. I am fine with that limitation.

-> the maximum of 10 people I see a bit more problematic.. a person can easely have more relatives and friends than that.. but again not the issue here..

-> it is not that weird for the parents to own say 100 games.. and have like 6 pc's in their house. than a couple of friends want to loan one of their games.. and some of their kids want to play some of them too..
-> all fine there..

you saying "they should just buy their own copies" that is not sharing is it??
under the older retail customer laws the right of ownership was with the fysical medium that could be transfered, and it is long due lawmakers adapt these laws to the digital era, but untill that it would suit one of the largest corporations out there to lead by example not by greed.
So sharing being a (temporal) transfering of ownership should happen here too.
->
if only 1 person is allowed to play online at any time any of the 100+ games one ownes.. that is basicly NOT sharing at all->
that is just 1 owner being allowed to acces his library from 10 different devices de facto.


so to make it truelly family SHARING.. than it makes only sense for each of these people sharing to play online a game from the same account, provided they are not demanding to play the same game..

I cannot believe why so many people are defending corporate greed.
->
it used to be the norm to just lend out copies of your pc games and ofcourse every copy could only be played by 1 person at a time.
->
piracy protection or digitalisation should not be an excuse to take that away.

and while I was glad when family sharing was added.. in it's present form it is utterly useless for larger library people.
-> so with all due respect..
***you already have a limit of need to be fysically at a pc to activate family sharing to prevent misusage
**you already have a limit of 10 people to family share with at one time to further limit exploitation
->
than can we at least allow 10 people to play online a game from the same account provided it is not the same game?
If not.. remove family sharing alltogether for it is pointless as it is now.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

by steams own rules.. it is not legally allowed to create and own multiple accounts yourself.
so while technically true.. you could just make a new account for each game.. that would not only be a massive amount of unwanted work.. it would validate steam from banning all those accounts.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/71EA-CDCE-FB5C-82B3
"you must create a separate Steam account"

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD#SteamCMD_Login
"Note: For security reasons it is recommended that you create a new Steam account just for your dedicated servers."

There is nothing in the ssa preventing someone from creating multiple Steam accounts
https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

**you already have a limit of 10 people to family share with at one time to further limit exploitation

It's actually 5 accounts, but 10 devices - so you could share the library with at max 5 other people at one time

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

If not.. remove family sharing alltogether for it is pointless as it is now.

Other people find it useful even if you do not - no reason to remove it just because 1 person doesn't like how it works.. as said before, we are lucky to have it since it is not something that was necessary to implement.

[The End]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

by steams own rules.. it is not legally allowed to create and own multiple accounts yourself.

That is factually wrong, you are allowed to have all the accounts you want.

[Spongman]

yeah, the way valve want you to do this, obviously, is have one account per game. that way, you can:
- control which games are shared with which family members (something you can't do with family sharing)
- allow different family members to play different games at the same time (something you can't do with family sharing)

it's a complete pain in the neck to have to switch accounts each time you want to play a different game, but it's not as broken as the Steam Family Sharing feature.