Turning 12yo nephew may get gaming PC Bday/Xmas, how to handle "his" account?

[TGS]

Can his parents make a Steam account on a new email so that the games they or I gift him will always be his? Something that lets his games remain his would be the best outcome, he's not an only child.

...or does it have to be a parental account. They don't game or have a gaming PC other than the one gifted. The parents do handle the accounts on phones/consoles and the like, so they are used to doing the necessary oversight routine.

I will show threads replies to his parents so they get the info.

[Crazy Tiger]

The parents can set up an account with your nephew, yes. Kids are allowed to have accounts, the 13 year old stuff is related to data collecting and such. Family View is especially there to help parents put a bit more control on the kids account.

That said, having a sit with the kid and talking things through will help them immensly as well. Walk through all the settings and the like, explain what they are for and why certain settings are set as they are.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 Black Blade：

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

OP is talking about games for their nephew to play, not having two people both use the same copy of the game. There's no cheaping out by purchasing fewer copies of the game; it's not piracy.

The games could be bought on the Steam account of a parent/guardian, and Family Share them to the nephew, but then tha would cause problems when the parent/guardian wants to play their own games (not to be confused the ones they bought for their nephew) because Steam Family Share is an unnessary pain in the butt. This problem is avoided if the games are DRM-free, and it's still one copy being bought and played by just the nephew anyway.

As for the nephew having their own account, that does give them more latitude to access their games, which would at least partly solve the issue above, though there are still some other drawbacks (e.g. forced updates, being spammed with advertising in the game library) resulting from having stuff stuck on their Steam account. Some potential problems (e.g. the social features of Steam and the ability to purchase games/microtransactions) may be mitigated to varying extents by using Family View (itself protected by just a four-digit PIN), but not all.

I'd frankly recommend parents/guardians/whoeveristheresponsibleadult just provide children with the raw game installers/archives/files than be routed through third-party launcher clients. And buying games DRM-free will provide the parents (et al.) those installers/archives/files that can be downloaded to the child's computer.

To be fair, third-party launcher clients might be unavoidable for some games. But for parents concerned about how their children will be interacting with games, it's useful to note that access to just the game is a more focused and easier-to-oversee arrangement than access to a launcher that launches the game and does various other things.

But are you talking about buying a game for them on the parant account or the kids account? (pretty sure GOG at least also has a limited age)
Becouse if its not the kids account, there not suppose to get the game from someone else, as I said before

Over all its the same, be Steam or GOG the parant has to make an account for the kid, then the kid can play on there own account, as long as the care taker accept it its fine (GOG and Steam)
The rest you got Family view
You welcome to say that GOG is better, but not on "advantages" it dose not have, Steam and GOG on who allowed to access and kids account I belive are the same stance, Only GOG in all cases dose not block you breaking it, as much as Steam in some cases

Can check on GOG when I get back home, if nothing else jumps to take my time

It's not "getting the game from someone else" when the game was bought for the child in the first place but just put on the parent's account for the purchase.

It seems you're treating the link between the account and a specific person who is the account holder as some sort of ideal to uphold rather than just a legal convenience of defining who's responsible for it. In reality, people aren't sticklers for this, especially within households, especially with parents letting children play their games (which is arguably more "not supposed to happen" than even this situation where OP is talking about buying games dedicatedly for the child, because there that's two people playing the same game as opposed to just one person (the child) playing the game). And both GOG and Steam recognize this, GOG with their noting that their games can be installed in unlimited capacity throughout one's household and Steam with their outright catering (with Family View) to parents who let children play the parents' accounts' games. The only difference is that Steam has Family Sharing only because it needs a technical solution to get around DRM, whereas GOG by virtue of being DRM-free doesn't need anything like that.

In any case, I already observed that buying games DRM-free has benefits beyond just not needing to worry about buying games on the "wrong" account, such as not having the parent depend on something like Steam's Family View PIN to keep the account secure.

[Black Blade]

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

It's not "getting the game from someone else" when the game was bought for the child in the first place but just put on the parent's account for the purchase.

It seems you're treating the link between the account and a specific person who is the account holder as some sort of ideal to uphold rather than just a legal convenience of defining who's responsible for it. In reality, people aren't sticklers for this, especially within households, especially with parents letting children play their games (which is arguably more "not supposed to happen" than even this situation where OP is talking about buying games dedicatedly for the child, because there that's two people playing the same game as opposed to just one person (the child) playing the game). And both GOG and Steam recognize this, GOG with their noting that their games can be installed in unlimited capacity throughout one's household and Steam with their outright catering (with Family View) to parents who let children play the parents' accounts' games. The only difference is that Steam has Family Sharing only because it needs a technical solution to get around DRM, whereas GOG by virtue of being DRM-free doesn't need anything like that.

In any case, I already observed that buying games DRM-free has benefits beyond just not needing to worry about buying games on the "wrong" account, such as not having the parent depend on something like Steam's Family View PIN to keep the account secure.

Thing is there not diffrent, beside how you pick to view them

Can I share games with others?

Your account and games are for your personal use only. If you want to share them, you can always buy a gift for that person. The DRM-free nature of our service means that we trust you that this will not be abused.

Only part GOG talks about sharing ouside legal

3.3 Your GOG account and GOG content are personal to you and cannot be shared with, sold, gifted or transferred to anyone else. Your access to and use of them is subject to GOG’s rules which are set out here, as updated or amended when necessary.

Your GOG account and content are for you only – there are rules about how to use them (see opposite).

You may think there two separte things but the games are tied to an account, not to a person
If GOG wants to ban you, they will lock your account not hunt you legaly down

Your not suppose to give your account to be used by your kids, if you let them play a game on your account, its personal, if you give them to use the account to acceess a game you broke the agreement they have with you
One is Allow, one is give
There not the same, even if they seem so

In no place I can find is GOG talking about buying games on an account sepated from the account it self, as its not as much as I can tell

GOG dont have family sharing, and they will not block you from doing it, but they also will not block you sending the game off to a friend
So where is the line? Where is share ok, and when its not?

Many games on Steam are DRM free, so can I send them to family to play? or is that also not ok? what you think?

Yes some of it is legal, but without the legal you can just send it to everyone no?

[Corona Varus]

Don't let him use your credit card or you'll become the "mom's credit card" meme.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 Black Blade：

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

It's not "getting the game from someone else" when the game was bought for the child in the first place but just put on the parent's account for the purchase.

It seems you're treating the link between the account and a specific person who is the account holder as some sort of ideal to uphold rather than just a legal convenience of defining who's responsible for it. In reality, people aren't sticklers for this, especially within households, especially with parents letting children play their games (which is arguably more "not supposed to happen" than even this situation where OP is talking about buying games dedicatedly for the child, because there that's two people playing the same game as opposed to just one person (the child) playing the game). And both GOG and Steam recognize this, GOG with their noting that their games can be installed in unlimited capacity throughout one's household and Steam with their outright catering (with Family View) to parents who let children play the parents' accounts' games. The only difference is that Steam has Family Sharing only because it needs a technical solution to get around DRM, whereas GOG by virtue of being DRM-free doesn't need anything like that.

In any case, I already observed that buying games DRM-free has benefits beyond just not needing to worry about buying games on the "wrong" account, such as not having the parent depend on something like Steam's Family View PIN to keep the account secure.

Thing is there not diffrent, beside how you pick to view them

Can I share games with others?

Your account and games are for your personal use only. If you want to share them, you can always buy a gift for that person. The DRM-free nature of our service means that we trust you that this will not be abused.

Only part GOG talks about sharing ouside legal

3.3 Your GOG account and GOG content are personal to you and cannot be shared with, sold, gifted or transferred to anyone else. Your access to and use of them is subject to GOG’s rules which are set out here, as updated or amended when necessary.

Your GOG account and content are for you only – there are rules about how to use them (see opposite).

You may think there two separte things but the games are tied to an account, not to a person
If GOG wants to ban you, they will lock your account not hunt you legaly down

Your not suppose to give your account to be used by your kids, if you let them play a game on your account, its personal, if you give them to use the account to acceess a game you broke the agreement they have with you
One is Allow, one is give
There not the same, even if they seem so

FYI, I emphasized how GOG and Steam are "not diffrent" [sic]. Steam indicates that your account is personal to you (click on the link to the SSA at the bottom of the page and do a Ctrl+F for "personal"), but outright make note of the possibility of people sharing their account with their children here.

Meanwhile, GOG makes it clear they expect you to be able to stick your games all over your household: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001942753-FAQ-Downloads-and-streaming?product=gog

Yes. We do not limit the number of installations or reinstallations, as long as you install your purchased games on computers in your household. So yeah, if you've got a render-farm in the basement, you might actually break the world record for the number of legal Witcher installations in one household. However, if you think about installing your game on a friend's machine or sharing it with others then please don't do it, okay? The same principle applies to movies - you're free to watch them anywhere you want, with anyone you want, as long as you don't share them with people who haven't purchased them.

Both companies understand that families that live together don't have these artificially hard boundaries as to who can or can't partake of entertainment.

And if you read the snippet I posted from GOG's FAQ, you'll notice that you actually can share a movie in the sense that you can watch it with a friend (or even "anyone you want"), but just don't let them walk off with their own copy of it. If they want to enjoy it on their own they should have to buy it for themselves. And that is quite sensible.

引用自 Black Blade：

In no place I can find is GOG talking about buying games on an account sepated from the account it self, as its not as much as I can tell

Of course purchases are associated with an account; account features allow for tons of functionality with managing purchases, both from the store's standpoint and from the customer's standpoint.

But if Daddy buys a game meant for his daughter Sarah and just happens to put that purchase on his account, that doesn't mean either Daddy or Sarah become a dirty pirate if Daddy lets Sarah play it.

Heck, maybe you could make the argument that if both Daddy and Sarah play the same game (separately, not just sharing in the experience together) then that makes the game dev/publisher lose out on one potential sale of the game. However, in OP's case, the games are only for the child, so this argument can't even apply here, because there's no lost potential sale at all, no matter whose account it's on.

引用自 Black Blade：

So where is the line? Where is share ok, and when its not?

Keep your stuff at home. Don't give friends who don't live with you their own copy of the game.

And heck, I'd even say that family members who don't live with you should get their own copy of the game. It'd work this same way if you had a physical game disc lying around, after all. Either they take it with them when they move out (and you don't have it anymore), or they get their own.

引用自 Black Blade：

Many games on Steam are DRM free, so can I send them to family to play? or is that also not ok? what you think?

Given that Steam already expects you to be letting family members play your Steam games (not just the DRM-free ones either!) and even provides a feature catering to such an arrangement...yes.

[Kargor]

Always make separate accounts, unless you're absolutely sure about what you're doing.

[Black Blade]

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

FYI, I emphasized how GOG and Steam are "not diffrent" [sic]. Steam indicates that your account is personal to you (click on the link to the SSA at the bottom of the page and do a Ctrl+F for "personal"), but outright make note of the possibility of people sharing their account with their children here.

Meanwhile, GOG makes it clear they expect you to be able to stick your games all over your household: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001942753-FAQ-Downloads-and-streaming?product=gog

Yes. We do not limit the number of installations or reinstallations, as long as you install your purchased games on computers in your household. So yeah, if you've got a render-farm in the basement, you might actually break the world record for the number of legal Witcher installations in one household. However, if you think about installing your game on a friend's machine or sharing it with others then please don't do it, okay? The same principle applies to movies - you're free to watch them anywhere you want, with anyone you want, as long as you don't share them with people who haven't purchased them.

Both companies understand that families that live together don't have these artificially hard boundaries as to who can or can't partake of entertainment.

And if you read the snippet I posted from GOG's FAQ, you'll notice that you actually can share a movie in the sense that you can watch it with a friend (or even "anyone you want"), but just don't let them walk off with their own copy of it. If they want to enjoy it on their own they should have to buy it for themselves. And that is quite sensible.

Yes you can install in as many places as you like, you can also install games from Steam (that don't have limited installs) anywhere you like in or out of your household
It dose not say don't let them walk off, it says don't share them, you welcome to play with them, let them play while you are there, you cant how ever just let them use it as they wish or the like, same as your not going to watch a different movie, while your friend is watching one of your movies, that is more share then doing it with them, at least that is what I see in the FAQ, even that I assume most don't follow that

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

Of course purchases are associated with an account; account features allow for tons of functionality with managing purchases, both from the store's standpoint and from the customer's standpoint.

But if Daddy buys a game meant for his daughter Sarah and just happens to put that purchase on his account, that doesn't mean either Daddy or Sarah become a dirty pirate if Daddy lets Sarah play it.

Heck, maybe you could make the argument that if both Daddy and Sarah play the same game (separately, not just sharing in the experience together) then that makes the game dev/publisher lose out on one potential sale of the game. However, in OP's case, the games are only for the child, so this argument can't even apply here, because there's no lost potential sale at all, no matter whose account it's on.

Ok first if you already buy it on Daddy account, you beat what the user even ask for (keep the game owned by the kid)
Second of all no reason to do it, as again you welcome to open it as long as the parents agree
Third and most importantly, legally you are breaking it there, and honestly as said in point 2, that is pointless, to begin with, second your giving access to someone to your games, as there on your account, this is how the agreement simply works from there legal docs

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

Keep your stuff at home. Don't give friends who don't live with you their own copy of the game.

And heck, I'd even say that family members who don't live with you should get their own copy of the game. It'd work this same way if you had a physical game disc lying around, after all. Either they take it with them when they move out (and you don't have it anymore), or they get their own.

mm.. don't know about that, I am sure that will fit well for your suggestion in the past, but honestly at least by me, my sister is in study, I study before that living in the dorms there, and the like, most my family are not in the same household as me, and on that I really prefer the way to allow sharing of games easily

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

Given that Steam already expects you to be letting family members play your Steam games (not just the DRM-free ones either!) and even provides a feature catering to such an arrangement...yes.

I assume this is about Family View at the start and Family Sharing later
This goes back to the first area, it's about sharing and doing with, is it personal use, or there use, I will admit completely its very grey on there, but from my understanding Family View has 2 places to work
1. You create an account for a young one, and want to block them from accessing things you may not want them to access
2. You work somewhere and let your kids play some of your account games in that time, you are giving them to play the game so you got a clear head from the small kids (under legal age to really own an account mostly)
That is at least how I seen it so far

I don't think its about allowing free rain and access to the account

[dr2d2]

You can filter out adult only games on steam.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 Black Blade：

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

FYI, I emphasized how GOG and Steam are "not diffrent" [sic]. Steam indicates that your account is personal to you (click on the link to the SSA at the bottom of the page and do a Ctrl+F for "personal"), but outright make note of the possibility of people sharing their account with their children here.

Meanwhile, GOG makes it clear they expect you to be able to stick your games all over your household: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001942753-FAQ-Downloads-and-streaming?product=gog

Both companies understand that families that live together don't have these artificially hard boundaries as to who can or can't partake of entertainment.

And if you read the snippet I posted from GOG's FAQ, you'll notice that you actually can share a movie in the sense that you can watch it with a friend (or even "anyone you want"), but just don't let them walk off with their own copy of it. If they want to enjoy it on their own they should have to buy it for themselves. And that is quite sensible.

Yes you can install in as many places as you like, you can also install games from Steam (that don't have limited installs) anywhere you like in or out of your household
It dose not say don't let them walk off, it says don't share them, you welcome to play with them, let them play while you are there, you cant how ever just let them use it as they wish or the like, same as your not going to watch a different movie, while your friend is watching one of your movies, that is more share then doing it with them, at least that is what I see in the FAQ, even that I assume most don't follow that

It doesn't say "don't let them walk off" but it does say that your household is okay but you shouldn't give your purchased products to friends.

And see that's why I'm saying that Steam should do something similar -- if the person is actually at home, then they'll (likely) be on the same IP address, and if they're not, they'll (likely) not be on the same IP address.

引用自 Black Blade：

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

Of course purchases are associated with an account; account features allow for tons of functionality with managing purchases, both from the store's standpoint and from the customer's standpoint.

But if Daddy buys a game meant for his daughter Sarah and just happens to put that purchase on his account, that doesn't mean either Daddy or Sarah become a dirty pirate if Daddy lets Sarah play it.

Heck, maybe you could make the argument that if both Daddy and Sarah play the same game (separately, not just sharing in the experience together) then that makes the game dev/publisher lose out on one potential sale of the game. However, in OP's case, the games are only for the child, so this argument can't even apply here, because there's no lost potential sale at all, no matter whose account it's on.

Ok first if you already buy it on Daddy account, you beat what the user even ask for (keep the game owned by the kid)
Second of all no reason to do it, as again you welcome to open it as long as the parents agree
Third and most importantly, legally you are breaking it there, and honestly as said in point 2, that is pointless, to begin with, second your giving access to someone to your games, as there on your account, this is how the agreement simply works from there legal docs

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here, sorry.

引用自 Black Blade：

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

Keep your stuff at home. Don't give friends who don't live with you their own copy of the game.

And heck, I'd even say that family members who don't live with you should get their own copy of the game. It'd work this same way if you had a physical game disc lying around, after all. Either they take it with them when they move out (and you don't have it anymore), or they get their own.

mm.. don't know about that, I am sure that will fit well for your suggestion in the past, but honestly at least by me, my sister is in study, I study before that living in the dorms there, and the like, most my family are not in the same household as me, and on that I really prefer the way to allow sharing of games easily

Admittedly, my idea would inconvenience those people who are able to make use of Family Sharing to share games despite being far apart and somehow also coordinate their schedules to not play at the same time. Though I don't think it's an unreasonable restriction -- particularly given that if a family member is far away then you wouldn't be able to share the same piece of physical media with them.

引用自 Black Blade：

引用自 Quint the Alligator Snapper：

Given that Steam already expects you to be letting family members play your Steam games (not just the DRM-free ones either!) and even provides a feature catering to such an arrangement...yes.

I assume this is about Family View at the start and Family Sharing later
This goes back to the first area, it's about sharing and doing with, is it personal use, or there use, I will admit completely its very grey on there, but from my understanding Family View has 2 places to work
1. You create an account for a young one, and want to block them from accessing things you may not want them to access
2. You work somewhere and let your kids play some of your account games in that time, you are giving them to play the game so you got a clear head from the small kids (under legal age to really own an account mostly)
That is at least how I seen it so far

I don't think its about allowing free rain and access to the account

Well, you shouldn't give someone else free reign to access anything on your account, even if that someone else is your child. And Family View can help restrict what they can access.

The "feature catering to such an arrangement" I was thinking of is Family View, but Family Sharing can also fit into the same wording.

[SLG]

Steam might not can verify your age form your account, but topics like this can.