Family Sharing ties up the entire library?!?!?

[moonwatcher]

I see this from the Family Sharing information:

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Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be played by one user at a time including the owner and even if they want to play different games.
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This is insane and totally defeats the purpose of family sharing.

I have a lot of games in my Steam Library. I have two PCs in the house, and two kids. One kid wants to play The Sims 3 on one computer, while the other kid wants to play Scrap Mechanic on my computer.

As soon as one kid gets on my computer with my Steam account, playing Scrap Mechanic, it boots my other kid off of her computer in the middle of playing The Sims 3!

What good is Family Sharing if it ties up the entire library?!?! I might as well only have one computer since only one kid at a time can play Steam games anyway!

This is an absolute deal breaker for me and I'll go back to buying physical media before I put up with this.

[Hodman]

The one who plays in the main account should do it in offline mode (as long as the game in the main account doesn't require an active internet connection for like an online mutiplayer mode).

[moonwatcher]

We tried this, but unfortunately Scrap Mechanic will not start when Steam is in offline mode.

This is an absolute deal breaker for me. I will 100% stop buying games for my kids using Steam because if they can't run the game while I am online or another kid is online on my computer it completely breaks the game.

We are not trying to play the same game at the same time, which I understand would not be allowed. It is ASININE that this is shared on a LIBRARY basis instead of a PER GAME basis.

I'm literally going to go over to Amazon and re-buy The Sims 3 using Digital Download so that she can play when she wants to because of this. And I will never buy another game for the kids using Steam again because family sharing is fundamentally broken.

[HLCinSC]

Messaggio originale di Pastafarian:

We tried this, but unfortunately Scrap Mechanic will not start when Steam is in offline mode.

This is an absolute deal breaker for me. I will 100% stop buying games for my kids using Steam because if they can't run the game while I am online or another kid is online on my computer it completely breaks the game.

We are not trying to play the same game at the same time, which I understand would not be allowed. It is ASININE that this is shared on a LIBRARY basis instead of a PER GAME basis.

I'm literally going to go over to Amazon and re-buy The Sims 3 using Digital Download so that she can play when she wants to because of this. And I will never buy another game for the kids using Steam again because family sharing is fundamentally broken.

Just keep in mind that most other major PC game services similar Steam have no or similar sharing policies.

[Aesthetic]

Messaggio originale di Pastafarian:

We tried this, but unfortunately Scrap Mechanic will not start when Steam is in offline mode.

This is an absolute deal breaker for me. I will 100% stop buying games for my kids using Steam because if they can't run the game while I am online or another kid is online on my computer it completely breaks the game.

We are not trying to play the same game at the same time, which I understand would not be allowed. It is ASININE that this is shared on a LIBRARY basis instead of a PER GAME basis.

I'm literally going to go over to Amazon and re-buy The Sims 3 using Digital Download so that she can play when she wants to because of this. And I will never buy another game for the kids using Steam again because family sharing is fundamentally broken.

Understand how Family Sharing works and that it was not intended for the use you're speaking of.

If they want to play two different games at one time, they can do so on their own accounts

[moonwatcher]

Just keep in mind that most other major PC game services similar Steam have no or similar sharing policies.

I'm not going to use another "game service" - I will buy a physical or digital copy of the game and abandon services altogether.

If they want to play two different games at one time, they can do so on their own accounts

The problem with this is I will have to buy the game again for each separate account. Not gonna happen.

The way it used to work in the old days is I'd buy the game on disc, install it on a computer, and then if I wanted to, I could uninstall it from one computer and install it on another.

Steam needs to understand that many households are now multi-computer, multi-user homes. I need a central repository of games (just like my closet holds all our board games) that any family member can make use of by checking out the game (just like going and getting a game out of the closet).

[Aesthetic]

Messaggio originale di Pastafarian:

Just keep in mind that most other major PC game services similar Steam have no or similar sharing policies.

I'm not going to use another "game service" - I will buy a physical or digital copy of the game and abandon services altogether.

You won't find any luck there. The Sims 3 requires Orgin to play

If they want to play two different games at one time, they can do so on their own accounts

The problem with this is I will have to buy the game again for each separate account. Not gonna happen.

The way it used to work in the old days is I'd buy the game on disc, install it on a computer, and then if I wanted to, I could uninstall it from one computer and install it on another.

Steam needs to understand that many households are now multi-computer, multi-user homes. I need a central repository of games (just like my closet holds all our board games) that any family member can make use of by checking out the game (just like going and getting a game out of the closet).

Steam only allows you to connect an account to one computer at a time, which is why Family Sharing ties up an entire library. Just try signing into your account on both PCs. Plus, games can only be activated once by their key and most now need to be online to have access to the game. It's as much as a technological limitation as it is publishers wanting more people to purchase their games and not just buy one copy and share it endlessly without others buying the game.

We can use the analogy of a living room media center only being in use for one purpose at one time. One of your kids wants to watch a certain movie, while the other wants to watch another type of movie. They can't watch both movies at once using the same TV and same dvd player but one of the kids can use another TV and dvd player to watch their movie. It's the same with multiple Steam accounts and their own library of games to play.

[HLCinSC]

Messaggio originale di Pastafarian:

Just keep in mind that most other major PC game services similar Steam have no or similar sharing policies.

I'm not going to use another "game service" - I will buy a physical or digital copy of the game and abandon services altogether.

That's not how it works. Basically a huge majority of all physical PC games released in the past 5-10years require the game to be activated on a service like Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc...

[moonwatcher]

Steam only allows you to connect an account to one computer at a time

This is not the scenario I described. We have two different accounts with two different computers.

Just try signing into your account on both PCs.

Actually, this used to work for me until quite recently. I only got into this family sharing stuff because we started getting errors that the account was already signed in.

We can use the analogy of a living room media center only being in use for one purpose at one time. One of your kids wants to watch a certain movie, while the other wants to watch another type of movie. They can't watch both movies at once using the same TV and same dvd player but one of the kids can use another TV and dvd player to watch their movie. It's the same with multiple Steam accounts and their own library of games to play.

Again, this is not the scenario I described.

To use your analogy, we have two TVs and two DVD players. But as soon as someone goes and takes a DVD off of the shelf of DVDs, suddenly no one else can take a different DVD off of the shelf full of DVDs. That is insane.

The shelf of DVDs is a shared library. You should be able to watch as many of them as you have TVs and DVD players.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Messaggio originale di Pastafarian:

I'm literally going to go over to Amazon and re-buy The Sims 3 using Digital Download so that she can play when she wants to because of this. And I will never buy another game for the kids using Steam again because family sharing is fundamentally broken.

"Origin account required for game activation and installation."

[moonwatcher]

"Origin account required for game activation and installation."

I don't have a problem with that.

[HLCinSC]

Messaggio originale di Pastafarian:

"Origin account required for game activation and installation."

I don't have a problem with that.

Just don;t activate any other games on that Origin account or you will run into the same problem you have with Steam.