Are you allowed multiple accounts for family sharing purposes

[FullMetalPanic]

So here is the deal. I'll be celebrating my birthday for friends next week. I have 4 PC's lying around (2 running Ryzen AM4 and 2 running a 4th and 6th generation i5 and i7 respectively). Am I allowed to make 3 extra accounts and turn on family sharing on the 3 other PC's. This will only be used in my own home and I won't be letting people borrow the additional accounts/PC's. If people enjoy themselves I will maybe host this kind of thing a couple of times a year probably.

Anyone know if this is frowned upon by Steam or don't they really care? I don't want to risk my account if this isn't allowed.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by FullMetalPanic:

Are you allowed multiple accounts for family sharing purposes

So here is the deal. I'll be celebrating my birthday for friends next week. I have 4 PC's lying around (2 running Ryzen AM4 and 2 running a 4th and 6th generation i5 and i7 respectively). Am I allowed to make 3 extra accounts and turn on family sharing on the 3 other PC's. This will only be used in my own home and I won't be letting people borrow the additional accounts/PC's. If people enjoy themselves I will maybe host this kind of thing a couple of times a year probably.

Anyone know if this is frowned upon by Steam or don't they really care? I don't want to risk my account if this isn't allowed.

They should all have their own accounts that you can add to your Steam Families group.

[Ogami]

Should be no problem. I have an entire second Steam Family just of other accounts of mine so i dont need to jump between accounts all the time.

[MrSteel300]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by FullMetalPanic:

Are you allowed multiple accounts for family sharing purposes

So here is the deal. I'll be celebrating my birthday for friends next week. I have 4 PC's lying around (2 running Ryzen AM4 and 2 running a 4th and 6th generation i5 and i7 respectively). Am I allowed to make 3 extra accounts and turn on family sharing on the 3 other PC's. This will only be used in my own home and I won't be letting people borrow the additional accounts/PC's. If people enjoy themselves I will maybe host this kind of thing a couple of times a year probably.

Anyone know if this is frowned upon by Steam or don't they really care? I don't want to risk my account if this isn't allowed.

They should all have their own accounts that you can add to your Steam Families group.

:winterbunny2023:

does it work like they won't be able to play the main account games if he starts playing?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by MrSteel300:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

They should all have their own accounts that you can add to your Steam Families group.

does it work like they won't be able to play the main account games if he starts playing?

Ability to play a family member’s game simultaneously, even if another game is being played.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/054C-3167-DD7F-49D4

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by MrSteel300:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

They should all have their own accounts that you can add to your Steam Families group.

:winterbunny2023:

does it work like they won't be able to play the main account games if he starts playing?

In the current released Family Share, you can only share the library, not separate games. Accounts borrowing games have to remain on-line.

The new Family Share, part of the Steam Beta, allows multiple people to use the same library, through not the same game.

Originally posted by FullMetalPanic:

So here is the deal. I'll be celebrating my birthday for friends next week. I have 4 PC's lying around (2 running Ryzen AM4 and 2 running a 4th and 6th generation i5 and i7 respectively). Am I allowed to make 3 extra accounts and turn on family sharing on the 3 other PC's. This will only be used in my own home and I won't be letting people borrow the additional accounts/PC's. If people enjoy themselves I will maybe host this kind of thing a couple of times a year probably.

Anyone know if this is frowned upon by Steam or don't they really care? I don't want to risk my account if this isn't allowed.

Assuming released client, it won't work as only one can use the library at a time.

If using the new Beta Family Share, you won't be able to play the same game, so would (imho) defeat the purpose of having several computers set up.

Best to let them use their own account(s) on the computers, if they already have them.

If you don't game about playing specific games together, then it should be fine. Keep in mind that there is a one year cool down when leaving the family group in the beta.

[Kargor]

Also, keep in mind that the new family stuff has a limited number of "slots". Thus, by adding 4 accounts to your family already, it's going to be almost filled up (don't remember whether it's 5 or 6 members in a family). And yes, while accounts can be removed, there's a massive cooldown on such actions.

So, it's kind of a long-term commitment.

Also, even with the new family sharing, you cannot use this for multiplayer: you still cannot just buy one copy of a game, and then everyone will be able to play it at the same time (which would be a requirement for a multiplayer-session...). You would, basically, make a LAN-party where everyone has to play a different game...

[Nx Machina]

You can have multiple accounts for your own use BUT you are not allowed to have others use your accounts.

https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement

C. Your Account

You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve.


You get them to create their own account on your other three PC's and then join your Steam Family group.

[FullMetalPanic]

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

You can have multiple accounts for your own use BUT you are not allowed to have others use your accounts.

https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement

C. Your Account

You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorised by Valve.


You get them to create their own account on your other three PC's and then join your Steam Family group.

This seems to actually pertain to actual account sharing (having one account for use by multiple people) or selling of said account. It's a bit overly broad mayhaps? I'm not sure what the difference would be between every PC having their own account and them logging into their own account and then being put on the family sharing. I wanted to do it this way to not set expectations of them being able to be in Family Sharing indefinitely so wanted to use my own account(s).

It also raises the question...if I install a couch co-op game, like Duck Game, and I have 4 people playing is that also them using the account? If you take it in the broadest sense ...kinda sounds like it.

Also the accounts would be under my control, in use on my PC's and no passwords are shared.

I did not want to bother Steam Support with this but maybe I should just to be sure.

EDIT:

I went to the Steam Support page for family sharing and found this.

"Steam Family Library Sharing allows family members and their guests to play one another's games while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam Cloud."

"and their guests" is in there.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by FullMetalPanic:

EDIT:

I went to the Steam Support page for family sharing and found this.

"Steam Family Library Sharing allows family members and their guests to play one another's games while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam Cloud."

"and their guests" is in there.

" while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam Cloud."

And what you are proposing is not them on their account, but them on your other accounts.

Hence why I suggested they use their own account. You can help them set up accounts when they are over, if they do not have one already.

You also don't seem to be looking at the key points being pointed out about how sharing works.

Originally posted by FullMetalPanic:

It also raises the question...if I install a couch co-op game, like Duck Game, and I have 4 people playing is that also them using the account? If you take it in the broadest sense ...kinda sounds like it.

Different situation. I will underline the relevant part.

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

C. Your Account

You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve.

Now, you asked if it was allowed, the answer is: No, it is not.

That said, are they really going to do anything about it or even find out? First part, not likely. Unless you do something wrong or something does wrong, you are unlikely to receive any issues. Second, yes, as you already asked and in their own discussions.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

You get them to create their own account on your other three PC's and then join your Steam Family group.

It very much depends on who "they" actually are.

I have to assume that the "VAC bans through family sharing also kill the account providing the game" is still in effect on the new system, so that's generally a no-go when it comes to family sharing. I might still share with my parents, if the need comes up, but that's about it.

Also, the new sharing system (don't know about the current one) has massive cooldowns to prevent family-hopping... so unless "they" are a fixed group, that hopping will just cause problems for everyone involved.

So yes, if I wanted to provide an option for guests to play some videogames at my place, I would set up Kargor-Guest-1, Kargor-Guest-2 etc. accounts and use these for them.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

At least bans don't carry across all users in the sharing group like it was in the old sharing.