Big Boy Question: If Library Sharing still sucks What is the Point of Steam Deck?

[DVLOS]

Steam Deck.

Cool.

Right now I have a HELL of time with playing my OWN games on different computers. I have 2 kids. 3 computers. 2 laptops and let's say I toss in the Steam Deck into the mix.

Cool.

My kid says hey I want to play undertale. No prob kid. On his/her account or not, shared off my libary. Whatever.

I go to the patio. Bust out my spanky new Steam Deck. I go to play....

Oh no. I can't see it knocks of my kid. Or my kid knocks me off!

Sad trombone... what is the point of a Great Game Boy that still only locks you into playing One Gameboy at time? I mean with 2,300 games in my library why can't I play 1 separate game on each system that I own? I want to play Steamworld Dig on my Steam Deck. While my kid plays Civ 6 on the PC and someone else plays Slay The Spire on the laptop.

The way things are setup right now... It's not possible.

[Zekiran]

They need their own accounts with their own games, and can use whatever device they have access to.

This is not a Steam Deck problem it's very clearly a you issue.

[DVLOS]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

They need their own accounts with their own games, and can use whatever device they have access to.

This is not a Steam Deck problem it's very clearly a you issue.

What exactly was the point of this post? Do you think that's how mobile/portable games work?

If I buy 5 Switches and 5 games. Each of my Nintendo Switches can play 1 of my 5 games. The other 4 switches do not shut off and say ERP NERP Wait please one at a time only brah.

I understand that I bought ONE seat license to a game. I should be able to use that ONE seat at ONE time from my library. If I have another machine, on my LAN. I should be able to use that ONE seat on ANOTHER game on my OTHER machine at the same time on the LIBRARY that I own.

Now I know most gamers are like a single kid, but there are a lot of households with MORE THAN ONE KID. I will not buy the same game 17 times to play on my machines the SAME game. That is ludicrous.

We won't even get into mobile gaming. My Apple account... I have an iPhone, Watch, 2 iPads, and an AppleTV. I can play THE SAME GAME on all devices AT THE SAME TIME not to mention I can share my library to my family members (thats another 6 ipads and 4 iphones) we could ALL be playing the same ONE game on ALL devices.

That's the competition. Usually companies try to one up each other offering something better than the competition.

[DVLOS]

Not to mention this is 2021. Where streaming services register TVs and devices. They usually allow a minimum of 5 devices. So you can have ONE account. Stream shows to 5 devices. At the same time. Rampant account abuse should not be much of an issue these days.

I'm asking if Valve has such plans. Can I register my Steam Deck device, with a computer or two, and not have the Library Sharing issue? That would be keen.

[ShelLuser]

I don't see the big problem here... 2 people cannot use the same Steam library at the same time, the Deck never changed this. If 2 people want to play a game at the same time then they need to own that game, even in the same household.

My gf and me love Minecraft, so... we both have a Minecraft license. Same applies to GTA, Elite Dangerous and some other games which we both happen to like.

Zekiran is fully right here, just because you don't feel like paying for a game doesn't mean that there's an actual problem. It's not. You want someting you pay for it, this dates back to times even before currency and economies were invented.

[DVLOS]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

I don't see the big problem here... 2 people cannot use the same Steam library at the same time, the Deck never changed this.

You know I understand how Steam has ALLOWED their system to work. The truth is two people COULD play off the same Steam library at the same time IF they wanted to allow it. See the above examples.

You then proceed to use the SAME exact example with two players playing the SAME game I avoided because it is not UNLIMITED SEATS per license you buy. It is ONE seat per license you buy I get that. If I wanted to play Steam-Minecraft as an example, multiplayer, I know that I need TWO Seats.

Now. Same example NIntendo Switch, I could buy 5 Switches. One physical copy of Splatoon. How many people can play Splatoon? One. If I owned a Digital Splatoon. A physical Mario. A Physical Zelda. A digital Whatver game or two. Then each of my Switches can be playing SOMETHING.

It's 2021 man. I order Amazon Fire Sticks/Cubes or Iphones and they come registered to me already. I can play share and stream whatever across all my devices at the same time. Watch Prime Movies on all my devices at the same time.

I know games are different but they are also not as prohibited on Playstations Xboxes Apple Android and Nintendo devices. Only Steam runs off this archaic super restrictive methodology and I know its born from paranoid publishers who were super reluctant with selling PC games -- again a mentality from 1999-2001 that should be long forgotten by now.

[DVLOS]

Originally posted by GT500:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

I don't see the big problem here... 2 people cannot use the same Steam library at the same time, the Deck never changed this.

It is not a technical issue, they can totally allow it if they wanted to allow it. The problem is that the moment they do, people will share their steam library with all there friends so their friends will not need to buy the games.

By only allowing one user to play at a time makes it annoying enough to discouraging sharing abuse.

Again this is 2021. They could register devices to your account. I would like to AT LEAST with Steam Deck play some games while other games are played on my PC.

[GT500]

Lol, your reply was fast, I think I may have misquoted and by the time I removed my post you replied

I agree with your thought, as it is annoying. If my kids want to play any game I am not playing, they cant. I feel it should just lock the the games being played, but I understand why they do not allow it. To prevent sharing to friends

[DVLOS]

Originally posted by GT500:

Lol, your reply was fast, I think I may have misquoted and by the time I removed my post you replied

Sorry -- It's the first instant replies seemed more intent on defending Valve's policy than actually wrapping their heads around how things are today.

I get it, and protecting the devs is important. Sure. However, give customers what they want (within reason) as well. Other companies are able to... this really shouldn't be such a hard ask. Oh well next year when thousands of people have Steam Decks and PCs and someone wants to use their computer while they are on the Steam Deck ... they'll see.

[Chompman]

Originally posted by GWTW-DVLOS:

Not to mention this is 2021. Where streaming services register TVs and devices. They usually allow a minimum of 5 devices. So you can have ONE account. Stream shows to 5 devices. At the same time. Rampant account abuse should not be much of an issue these days.

I'm asking if Valve has such plans. Can I register my Steam Deck device, with a computer or two, and not have the Library Sharing issue? That would be keen.

What services are you talking about that allow 5 at the same time?

Netflix 1-4 based on your payment plan.

Hbomax - 3 devices.

Amazon prime - 3 devices but only 2 can be watching the same show at the same time

Disney+ - 4 devices

Youtube tv - 3 devices

Hulu - 2 devices

Also what other game service has something like family sharing besides steam?

You have to remember that a lot of game devs / publishers prefer this restriction to sell more games and if steam ignores them then they will disable family share on their game as that's their choice.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by GWTW-DVLOS:

Originally posted by GT500:

It is not a technical issue, they can totally allow it if they wanted to allow it. The problem is that the moment they do, people will share their steam library with all there friends so their friends will not need to buy the games.

By only allowing one user to play at a time makes it annoying enough to discouraging sharing abuse.

Again this is 2021. They could register devices to your account. I would like to AT LEAST with Steam Deck play some games while other games are played on my PC.

You're looking at this from a console perspective. There is nothing stopping you from doing exactly this as long as the PC and the Deck are using separate Steam libraries.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Originally posted by GWTW-DVLOS:

Originally posted by Zekiran:

They need their own accounts with their own games, and can use whatever device they have access to.

This is not a Steam Deck problem it's very clearly a you issue.

What exactly was the point of this post? Do you think that's how mobile/portable games work?

If I buy 5 Switches and 5 games. Each of my Nintendo Switches can play 1 of my 5 games. The other 4 switches do not shut off and say ERP NERP Wait please one at a time only brah.

I understand that I bought ONE seat license to a game. I should be able to use that ONE seat at ONE time from my library. If I have another machine, on my LAN. I should be able to use that ONE seat on ANOTHER game on my OTHER machine at the same time on the LIBRARY that I own.

Now I know most gamers are like a single kid, but there are a lot of households with MORE THAN ONE KID. I will not buy the same game 17 times to play on my machines the SAME game. That is ludicrous.

We won't even get into mobile gaming. My Apple account... I have an iPhone, Watch, 2 iPads, and an AppleTV. I can play THE SAME GAME on all devices AT THE SAME TIME not to mention I can share my library to my family members (thats another 6 ipads and 4 iphones) we could ALL be playing the same ONE game on ALL devices.

That's the competition. Usually companies try to one up each other offering something better than the competition.

What's the point of your post? You're applying a use that isn't what is intended in the first place. You're not the first person who thinks they should be allowed to just freely share their library with no restrictions and you won't be the last.

[DVLOS]

Originally posted by Chompman:

Netflix 1-4 based on your payment plan.

Hbomax - 3 devices.

Amazon prime - 3 devices but only 2 can be watching the same show at the same time

Disney+ - 4 devices

Youtube tv - 3 devices

Hulu - 2 devices
Also what other game service has something like family sharing besides steam?

I think GoG lets me play Gwent on one machine and cyberpunk on another.

Also thanks for listing the policies of these accounts. As mentioned they allow more than one stream at the same time.

I would think that Steam Deck device should not have to require its own separate purchase of a title to play on that portable device. Especially in single player games.

Why can't I play Slay the Spire on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ while someone else plays Terraria on the PC? Different games same library. My machines. One purchase.

Sorry even if I approach it with a console point of view it still makes a modicum of sense.

If it was Xboxes, on two tv's with one account. I can still play a different game on each at the same time. Especially if its two different discs. (Although I think Microsoft lets me play separate games at the same time off a digital library)

[DVLOS]

Originally posted by Damp Wizard Sleeve:

What's the point of your post? You're applying a use that isn't what is intended in the first place. You're not the first person who thinks they should be allowed to just freely share their library with no restrictions and you won't be the last.

Who said that it was not intended this way? Way back in the day, if I bought two PC games on DVD I could play one game on one PC and the other on my other PC. I didn't have a troll bot come up and shove the other one off. I just had to insert the DVD to do the piracy check and I was off.

That was the single seat single license idea that was supposed to move over to the digital environment.

Steam lets me share libraries. I can let a friend play my game while I take a trip to Europe anyway. Hell I can put my Steam account on Offline and play half my library anyway. While said friend they are trying to prevent from playing games via one purchase beats the other half.

IMHO Steam Deck devices should change that.

[Chompman]

The problem is family share is easy to abuse otherwise where people can sell access to the family share plan thus less copies of games are sold.

The game devs / publishers will not want that and this won't change because of how game licenses work right now.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by GWTW-DVLOS:

Also thanks for listing the policies of these accounts. As mentioned they allow more than one stream at the same time.

Yes, but depending on your subscription plan. It's comparing apples and oranges, you can share them but only because you're paying for that service. A basic Netflix subscription doesn't allow for this, only if you get a higher subscription and even then you're limited (2 or 4 devices, but only if those devices are used in the same household).

In comparison to Steam you get a free account, and only pay once for the game. Also, family sharing is allowed with people outside your direct household. But with a limit; one user per library.

We probably have to agree to disagree here but from my point of view Steam is already pretty lenient in comparison. And Steam is still a company dedicated to selling games, so... I don't see them expanding on the family sharing function even further.