Frustration Over One-Year Limit for Steam Family Sharing

[𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇]

I wanted to express my frustration regarding the one-year limit on switching Steam Family Sharing accounts.

I’ve been trying to join another family for quite some time now, but I’m stuck due to the one-year waiting period after setting up my own family. This limitation feels overly restrictive, especially when gaming is meant to be a communal experience. It’s frustrating to know that I have to wait so long to make this change.

I believe there should be a more flexible approach that allows us to adapt to our gaming needs without such extensive waiting periods. Has anyone else faced this issue? Any suggestions or insights would be appreciated!

[ReBoot]

FAMILY sharing isn't meant to be a communal experience, it's supposed to be a FAMILY experience.

And you don't switch families every year. If your needs aren't aligned with what the feature is for, namely families, it's your needs that are the problem, not the feature. Adopt your needs!

[Pscht]

They don't HAVE to let you share.

[𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

FAMILY sharing isn't meant to be a communal experience, it's supposed to be a FAMILY experience.

And you don't switch families every year. If your needs aren't aligned with what the feature is for, namely families, it's your needs that are the problem, not the feature. Adopt your needs!

the problem is that this is my family, I just created my test family and got a year limit, and all of them can't join me because they also already have a limit

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

This limitation feels overly restrictive

By design. This is in direct response to the people who abused the previous version of the feature, and as such, is unlikely to be relaxed.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

FAMILY sharing isn't meant to be a communal experience, it's supposed to be a FAMILY experience.

And you don't switch families every year. If your needs aren't aligned with what the feature is for, namely families, it's your needs that are the problem, not the feature. Adopt your needs!

the problem is that this is my family, I just created my test family and got a year limit, and all of them can't join me because they also already have a limit

Well, yeah, a FAMILY sharing feature is supposed to work for families, not people across different families.

I mean, you can use the function the way you intend, yes. You have, however, to accept the consequences of the intended design which is intended for, well, real actual families.

Your gaming needs didn't dictate you to create a family with all your buddies creating own families. It's just that you now have to wait because people don't switch families often and this feature is intended for families.

[BJWyler]

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

FAMILY sharing isn't meant to be a communal experience, it's supposed to be a FAMILY experience.

And you don't switch families every year. If your needs aren't aligned with what the feature is for, namely families, it's your needs that are the problem, not the feature. Adopt your needs!

the problem is that this is my family, I just created my test family and got a year limit, and all of them can't join me because they also already have a limit

Then you probably should have read the information regarding the feature before creating family groups Willy nilly. The restrictions are in place for a good reason.

Now you have a year to ponder the mistake you made and educate yourself on how the system works. Life lesson learned.

[niralamart000]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

FAMILY sharing isn't meant to be a communal experience, it's supposed to be a FAMILY experience.

And you don't switch families every year. If your needs aren't aligned with what the feature is for, namely families, it's your needs that are the problem, not the feature. Adopt your needs!

stop using that weird excuse already, that's not how families work or any other family sharing in the market, they copied netflix which doesn't even follow it's policy.

[niralamart000]

Originally posted by BJWyler:

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

the problem is that this is my family, I just created my test family and got a year limit, and all of them can't join me because they also already have a limit

Then you probably should have read the information regarding the feature before creating family groups Willy nilly. The restrictions are in place for a good reason.

Now you have a year to ponder the mistake you made and educate yourself on how the system works. Life lesson learned.

i mean he can complain about the system, why are we acting like steam has given it's user base an ultimatum.

[niralamart000]

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

This limitation feels overly restrictive

By design. This is in direct response to the people who abused the previous version of the feature, and as such, is unlikely to be relaxed.

nothing to do with abuse, they changed it after netflix did it, previous family sharing worked fine except the fact that the one had to close his system. Degrading a service cause a few poor people couldn't buy games normally is a stupid move and goes against everything gabe built valve for.

[mldb88]

Originally posted by niralamart000:

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

By design. This is in direct response to the people who abused the previous version of the feature, and as such, is unlikely to be relaxed.

nothing to do with abuse, they changed it after netflix did it, previous family sharing worked fine except the fact that the one had to close his system. Degrading a service cause a few poor people couldn't buy games normally is a stupid move and goes against everything gabe built valve for.

This is blatantly false. They changed it to be more beneficial to actual families using it and easing up on some restrictions like limiting to one person being able to be gaming at any given time, but implemented others to prevent abuse such as account leasing. It has nothing to do with people being poor, it addressed things that people have been asking to be implemented for ages.

[𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇]

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

This limitation feels overly restrictive

By design. This is in direct response to the people who abused the previous version of the feature, and as such, is unlikely to be relaxed.

why should we suffer because of people who abused the system. Tech support can't even manually remove the time limit when needed.

[𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇]

Originally posted by niralamart000:

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

By design. This is in direct response to the people who abused the previous version of the feature, and as such, is unlikely to be relaxed.

nothing to do with abuse, they changed it after netflix did it, previous family sharing worked fine except the fact that the one had to close his system. Degrading a service cause a few poor people couldn't buy games normally is a stupid move and goes against everything gabe built valve for.

I think everyone should start complaining, it should definitely help if there are enough people

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

Originally posted by niralamart000:

nothing to do with abuse, they changed it after netflix did it, previous family sharing worked fine except the fact that the one had to close his system. Degrading a service cause a few poor people couldn't buy games normally is a stupid move and goes against everything gabe built valve for.

I think everyone should start complaining, it should definitely help if there are enough people:aushrug:

And what about those of us who this doesn't negatively impact..?

[mldb88]

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙𝕮𝖔𝖇:

Originally posted by niralamart000:

nothing to do with abuse, they changed it after netflix did it, previous family sharing worked fine except the fact that the one had to close his system. Degrading a service cause a few poor people couldn't buy games normally is a stupid move and goes against everything gabe built valve for.

I think everyone should start complaining, it should definitely help if there are enough people:aushrug:

Nope, it won't, especially if the changes are due to people abusing the system in the past. Read up on how the system works before just fiddling around with it blindly, like most people do, problem solved. The only people I see complaining about this are the handful that dive in head first and just start doing stuff without even looking at how it works, or the ones that had been abusing the old system (and even admitted to it sometimes before editing the condemning evidence out of their own post in the process). Most people are actually happier with the updated system considering how few and far between the complaints are relatively speaking.

[Piston Smashed™]

Originally posted by niralamart000:

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

By design. This is in direct response to the people who abused the previous version of the feature, and as such, is unlikely to be relaxed.

nothing to do with abuse, they changed it after netflix did it, previous family sharing worked fine except the fact that the one had to close his system. Degrading a service cause a few poor people couldn't buy games normally is a stupid move and goes against everything gabe built valve for.

Actually people abusing the system is a very big part of the reason. Gabe also created Steam in part besides allowing games to be updated more easily to combat people abusing the previous system.

People would share game codes allowing them to play games using copies or downloaded files. One of the games used was Half Life where people would share the codes which would then allow them to play the mod Counter-Strike. With the release of Steam and Counter-Strike 1.6 the sharing of codes was eliminated as the code for Half Life could only be used on one account and not by many people like before. This was always in Gabe's thought's because he took Counter-Strike from being a mod to being a stand-a-lone game (CS 1.6) in its own right, one which he wanted to sell.

This stopped people from being able to share games, especially those which required online play because they were tied down to an account. Ever since Steam started people have wanted to share accounts/games and have used every excuse from my goldfish wants to play to my dog has a poker night and they want some gaming while they eat pizza.

Steam has given you a way to play shared games which is more than fair considering but it will never give you the access you or others want because people WILL abuse the system and regularly do, as can be seen by the those selling access to the games in their accounts, all of which don't like the year restriction because it affects their ability to sell access.