Why can't my son play Spore while I play Stellaris?

[tsteele93]

I have a Steam account and two children. I purchased Spore on Steam. I purchased Spore Galactic Adventure. He is playing Spore GA on his computer.

I also purchased Stellaris on Steam. I want to play Stellaris.

Steam tells me I cannot do this.

I'm an old fart, but this reeks of everything that we said would be wrong with cloud gaming and such.

WHY can I not play Stellaris while my son plays Spore GA? I saw some thread here about something similar where some apologist player said something stupid like, you couldn't play two games at the same time IRL so why should Steam let you do that here? Or, "its to keep people from stealing and taking advantage of Steam." Someone else said something about abuses on "Family Sharing," I assume referring to Apple which I have and use family sharing and do not abuse it and it seems to work fine.

All that said, my question: Can I REALLY NOT PLAY two different games that I legally purchased on two different computers in my house at the same time?

If that is the case, then I'm pretty sure this just presents a pretty strong sell for buying from Amazon and not dealing with this nonsense.

Please someone tell me that I'm just doing it wrong and there is a way to do this, or lacking that, please tell me why I shouldn't just buy games on Amazon and install them on my computers and play them when and how I want to play them? I'm kinda frustrated right now as you can probably tell... ;-)

Signed,
Old Fart Gamer

[Crystal Sharrd]

Go into Offline Mode.

[Zefar]

Steam was made for one user at a time. Family share will allow you to share games more easily but you both can't play the games at the same time. There might also be restrictions that you can't be online either for family share to work.

The reason this DRM feature is in place is so that people can't make a large game share group with others.
It's just how Steam has worked since the start and it's most likely never going to change.


Buying from Amazon won't change much if the game uses Steam which most PC games do these days unless it's for Origin or Uplay. Because then you need to register the game onto that service and all of those services have the same protection feature.

Your best bet is to make a new account for your two kids or one account for them if they only have one PC and then have the games for them on that account.

[Icaniam]

Hi tsteele93, the problem is that you can only use your account on one computer at a time. to play at the same time, you would need to create a separate account for your son and purchase those games for his account. You would them need to login on your separate accounts.
Hope this helps.

[Forcen]

Steam family sharing is very weird, it's incredibly generous in most cases, you can share any game with anyone across any PC and they can play it on their account and get their own achievements and saves and all that stuff.
This in itself is useful but in addition to this you can do this with no restrictions on who you share with and where they play the game. You can share all your games with friends and relatives across the world without problems.

Say what you want about old school games but sending discs across the nation to friends who wants to play them a pretty slow alternative at best.

The downside is as you said, every steam account are made to play one game at a time.

The weird thing is that family sharing didn't always exist, sure some people borrowed others accounts but this was against the rules and inconvenient even on the same PC.
People wanted something that let you play other peoples games on a shared PC and this is what they got. Now everyone could share on the same PC but with the added benefit of no restriction on IPs and that stuff.

It's basically sharing one PC but that PC could be any PC.

[ReBoot]

Imagine Steam Family Sharing as the console that sits under the TV in your living room: Everyone in the household can use it, but two people can't play different games simultaneosly. Well, SFS has the big advantage of not being locked to a specific living room, I share with my sister who's about 200 km away. Still, it works just like that console under the family TV.

[tsteele93]

I don't really understand the logic of any of this. I grew up buying games on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM or downloading them. I downloaded the game and could install it on every pc in my house. In theory, I shouldn't play it on two at a time because that would require two copies.

I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to play two different games that I purchased legally. My son should be able to play spore while I play stellaris. That isn't weasely, it isn't sneaky, it isn't illegal or unethical.

It is common sense.

You mention having two or three accounts, but I have a 10 year old son and a 9 year old daughter. It is insane for me to have to create accounts for them.

I can't believe we let this be the future of gaming. What happened to raging against the machine and punishing developers who tried to screw us with horrible DRM schemes. This is the worst possible case scenario and we accepted it? Well, I didn't - like many parents, I fell off the map of the gaming world while my kids were very young, and then started back in again when they got old enough to play along with them.

It seems incredibly counter-intuitive to me that I cannot play Stellaris while he plays Spore. I cannot imagine any scenario where anyone is being treated unfairly or being ripped off by that. I purchased both games legally, I own licenses to both games, and I can't let my kids play them.

Also, if I get them their own accounts, I have to rebuy any games I purchased already.

I can totally see how people rationalize bad behavior against the publishers and developers and distributors of games. I'm incredibly disappointed in the answers here. I'm also very surprised that this is just accepted and "the way it is."

I can't change what is done. But I'll definitely adjust my buying habits. I don't know much about how gaming has changed in the Steam/Valve era, but when and where I can, I will try to find ways to buy copies of games that give me maximum playability rights to the games I purchase a license to use. How disappointing. :-(

[Snapjak]

Originally posted by tsteele93:

I don't really understand the logic of any of this. I grew up buying games on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM or downloading them. I downloaded the game and could install it on every pc in my house. In theory, I shouldn't play it on two at a time because that would require two copies.

I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to play two different games that I purchased legally. My son should be able to play spore while I play stellaris. That isn't weasely, it isn't sneaky, it isn't illegal or unethical.

It is common sense.

You mention having two or three accounts, but I have a 10 year old son and a 9 year old daughter. It is insane for me to have to create accounts for them.

I can't believe we let this be the future of gaming. What happened to raging against the machine and punishing developers who tried to screw us with horrible DRM schemes. This is the worst possible case scenario and we accepted it? Well, I didn't - like many parents, I fell off the map of the gaming world while my kids were very young, and then started back in again when they got old enough to play along with them.

It seems incredibly counter-intuitive to me that I cannot play Stellaris while he plays Spore. I cannot imagine any scenario where anyone is being treated unfairly or being ripped off by that. I purchased both games legally, I own licenses to both games, and I can't let my kids play them.

Also, if I get them their own accounts, I have to rebuy any games I purchased already.

I can totally see how people rationalize bad behavior against the publishers and developers and distributors of games. I'm incredibly disappointed in the answers here. I'm also very surprised that this is just accepted and "the way it is."

I can't change what is done. But I'll definitely adjust my buying habits. I don't know much about how gaming has changed in the Steam/Valve era, but when and where I can, I will try to find ways to buy copies of games that give me maximum playability rights to the games I purchase a license to use. How disappointing. :-(

Look at buying games on gog.com then, as buying on Steam or games that require Steam means you're buying it for one person and one account.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by tsteele93:

I don't really understand the logic of any of this. I grew up buying games on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM or downloading them. I downloaded the game and could install it on every pc in my house. In theory, I shouldn't play it on two at a time because that would require two copies.

The problem is that you're comparing two entirely different types of systems

1) the first is physical sharing. This requires physical proximity and his ultra-high friction.

2) the existing system is purely digital. This has ZERO friction. You can share you library with your 'son' that exists anywhere in the world. You can share with your 'family' of 15 people globally with zero friction.

Thus the system has to take into account the fact that you can share your games with anyone in the world in under 5 seconds. It has to take into account there is no way to guarantee users are in the same LAN because VPNs and other network technologies can easily replicate 'LAN' behavior. This is also problematic in that many apartment complexes or other large bulidings NAT all customers behind their networks. This means EVERYONE is a 'family member' in that scenario, which would also apply to schools or other public areas

The existing system with its restrictions already is beign abused. Think of the abuse that would occur if it allowed you to share games one at a time

Think of how tempting your account would be to hijackers. They could hijack your account and 'rent' games out. This now becomes MUCH more appealing because you can more easily rent out to more people on a per-day basis before the account is recovered. Rinse-lather-repeat for more money.

[Tev]

By the way OP, having tested this just now.

You can click [CD Key] on Spore on your Steam -library and just add that on Origin.
https://i.imgur.com/usxCbFc.png

EDIT: Same applies for Spore GA.
https://i.imgur.com/UIQbUZd.png

Have your kid play it there instead.

In the future, I'd suggest making your kids their own Steam -accounts and setting up Steam Family View for them. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5149-EOPC-9918

[999999999]

Originally posted by Teutep:

By the way OP, having tested this just now.

You can click [CD Key] on Spore on your Steam -library and just add that on Origin.
https://i.imgur.com/usxCbFc.png

Yeah, Spore keys are redeemable on Origin if purchased from or added to Steam. Origin does that with some of their games.

[tsteele93]

I don't mean this to be insulting or condescending, but I'm an admitted old fart. I lived through the entire birth of the PC. My first computer at home was a 80286 PC. It was light years better than the XT that preceeded it, so I guess that I wasn't in the VERY first wave, but I was there for the beginning of PCs in homes.

History lesson. Back then, Microsoft Word was $399. Excel was $399. Etc...

You know what we did? EVERYONE stole them. Someway or another, people stole them. Only big companies that could not afford the lawsuits paid for the licenses (seats) for programs like that and even they did some sneaky stuff to try and limit the costs.

Meanwhile, stupid software companies tried every form of DRM known to man to try and stop piracy and we were educated about how piracy was not a victimless crime, etc...

But it didn't matter. No one had that kind of money so they stole it. And back then $399 was like $999 now.

THEN, over time something happened. Software companies started pricing their software at fair prices. $99 for Word and $99 For Excel and pretty soon it was $99 or so for Office.

Guess what happened? People started paying for the software. It turned out, in a psychologists wet dream of studies, that people have a sense of fairness and rightness and know when they are getting screwed and will play fair when they are treated fairly - but they will play dirty when they are treated unfairly.

Over time, bad DRM was punished harshly, even recently this was the case - and most of it worked out fairly.

I don't know what some of you are talking about with the problems that Steam faces with sharing, but I find it hard to imagine that there aren't ways to spot the blatant cheaters. How exactly is Netflix still in business? Using the logic I've been hearing, they shouldn't be in business! But they are...

Regardless, I've been working on it and I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE THE ORIGIN LINK and I've been trying to see if I can use the Paradox Launcher as well. Perhaps there are legal workarounds to some of this that will work.

A few closing comments to some of the other responses:

You can quote TOS but no one reads the ridiculously long and legalese TOS. We expect things to work in a common sense manner that is fair and reasonable. Defending Steam is fine and good for you if your situation is such that it all works for you. But I'm just letting Steam and others know that there are some of us who find this unfair and unworkable.

As I said, I'm an old fart. I have stupid disposable income compared to the average young kid who is saving up for this game or that game. So Steam can do whatever they like, but they already have me VERY disgruntled and they have inspired me with ZERO TRUST that they have my best interests at heart. That is ABSOLUTELY going to affect my spending unfavorably. So, they/you can tell me why I'm wrong all day long. But I'm not buying more games through Steam until I can figure out how to resolve the problem without me having to RE-BUY games for my kids or until I can find a way to play my games while my kids play their games.

Anyway, THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the folks who gave me tips on how to possibly solve the problem right now. I will make sure in the future that anything I buy can be launched from the Origin or Paradox store and I won't buy anything that doesn't look like it can be played independently of another game. Happy New Year!

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by tsteele93:

You know what we did? EVERYONE stole them. Someway or another, people stole them. Only big companies that could not afford the lawsuits paid for the licenses (seats) for programs like that and even they did some sneaky stuff to try and limit the costs.

Hence why it has become the way it is. It is the past actions of users that helped shaped the current standard.

Originally posted by tsteele93:

So Steam can do whatever they like, but they already have me VERY disgruntled and they have inspired me with ZERO TRUST that they have my best interests at heart.

Trust goes both ways. In the past, people were trusted to be honest and follow their agreements when buying and installing software. As you have already stated, that didn't happen.

After that, it was something hard to enforce until modern systems using accounts and DRM came about in order to fight such theft.

I suggest reading the Steam Subscriber Agreement you agreed to with the creation of you account and with every purchase.

I share my library with my 8/yo and my wife (each with their own account and family sharing) and we have not ran into any issues. We purchase multiple copies of games when on sale, especialy multiplayer, and if one of us uses a game so much that it starts to impact the rest, we purchase the extra copy since there is obviously a need for it.

I don't know how old you have to be to be an "old fart" but I have been gaming on PC since we had a Tandy 1000 in the house.

Also, this isn't cloud gaming, it is digital distrbution.

[tsteele93]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

Originally posted by tsteele93:

You know what we did? EVERYONE stole them. Someway or another, people stole them. Only big companies that could not afford the lawsuits paid for the licenses (seats) for programs like that and even they did some sneaky stuff to try and limit the costs.

Hence why it has become the way it is. It is the past actions of users that helped shaped the current standard.

You got a very different message out of the scenario (and left out part of the story) than I was sharing. The point I made was that when software sellers sold their product for what people considered a fair price ($99) they decided that they would rather shell out a hundred bucks and get the manual (as a Tandy user, I suppose you remember when we got those with software) discs and the feeling of having done the right thing - but at $399 rationalization was easier - people couldn't afford $400 for it so they just stole it.

My overlooked point was that once the arrangement was seen as fair, the users largely stopped stealing and started paying.

There will always be an element who will steal no matter what you do - but when you attempt to try and squeeze those people who want to play fair in your misguided attempts to control everyone and everything, you actually end up alienating customers.

I'm too old and lazy to deal with the viruses and hassles of stolen software. I just won't have it if it doesn't seem fair.

Someone mentioned consoles. It was an interesting analogy. I have a Wii U, PS3 and Xbox One. I have games for all three. I can play any of the games I purchased while my son plays another game on a different console downstairs.

If we want to get picky with the analogy, I could buy two xbox ones and we could do EXACTLY what we CANNOT DO here on Steam. I could buy "Spore" for xbox one (or whatever game) and Stellaris (or whatever) and we could both play those games at the same time. But in Steam's misguided attempt to try and keep some people from cheating, they are very clearly keeping me from using the software in a very reasonable, legal, ethical and logical way.

Had I purchased CD/DVD Roms of the games, we could play the two different games at the same time on two different computers.

I suggest reading the Steam Subscriber Agreement you agreed to with the creation of you account and with every purchase.

I share my library with my 8/yo and my wife (each with their own account and family sharing) and we have not ran into any issues. We purchase multiple copies of games when on sale, especialy multiplayer, and if one of us uses a game so much that it starts to impact the rest, we purchase the extra copy since there is obviously a need for it.

You are missing the point - I don't need an extra copy of a game. We aren't playing the same game. We are playing two completely different games that I purchased - or at least we would like to do so.

I think that it is great that it has worked FOR YOU. I'm always amazed at the number of people who come to the defense of the companies because it works for them.

I suppose that is human nature.

I'm not asking you to agree with me. I'm not even asking Steam to agree with me. I was asking if it really worked in such a restrictive and illogical manner AND if there was a way to get it to work logically - the way it would work if you had actual copies of a game and didn't want to open accounts for 8 year olds.

[quote}

Also, this isn't cloud gaming, it is digital distrbution.

No, digital distribution would be me buying a game and downloading it (distribution) and playing it when and how I wanted to play it. This is NOT distribution. It is almost anything BUT. I suspect you cannot even play some of these games if the internet is down or steam is down. If you cannot play a game because someone else is playing a DIFFERENT game, then it hasn't been distributed to you - it has been turned on for you when they want to and turned off for you when they want to.

I'm glad you enjoy having multiple accounts for your family members. Steam is perfect for you.

I don't think that we will be using it very much the way it is set up.

Or more accurately, I will try to use it like a brick and mortar store to shop, and then if I want to buy, I will attempt to purchase in some other way that doesn't require me to ask permission to play a game I paid for and doesn't check to see if my kids are playing another game that I paid for in another room on another computer and tells me I can't play the game I paid for because they are playing a different game that we paid for on a different computer.

Age doesn't really have anything to do with it. Consoles don't work this way either. If I have two consoles (same as having two pcs) and two games, I can play them both at the same time with my kids playing one game and me playing another in another room.

Apple is even better. I'm a PC guy personally, but I use the ipad and iPhone and family sharing there doesn't even care if you use the SAME app or game as someone else in your family at the same time. They certainly don't stop you from playing one game because someone else is playing a different game.

It boggles my mind that it would be any other way.

I wouldn't even be on here debating, but I don't have anything else to do right now because my kids are playing spore right now. SMH

[Godis]

Totaly agree with Steele93. It is a problem a real one.

[Forcen]

First of you are allowed to be unhappy about this, I guess I would be to if I bought games for someone else on my account not know this would be a problem.
At least now you know and you got away with workaround for the game you bought your kid which is great.

Still, please understand that Steam didn't start being more permissive before. Steam started out as a one account online at a time only thing, your account and all games tied to it are yours and yours alone since they are tied to your identity in online games and that stuff.
This made sense when Steam basically had about 10 games that valve made themselves.

Now there are thousands of games on Steam so Steam went generous in one direction but not others. Instead of xbox one does it where you can only have one console that others can use your games on Steam lets you share to 10 other computers to 5 other accounts. Xbox also only lets you change what console is sharable 3 times per year and Steam.
Steam also doesn't really care if they aren't family members, you can just go to your friends house and they can play all your games when the library isn't used.

This isn't just a toggle they can flip and they don't feel like it, it's tricky to get this right. It can't just be total freedom since that will be abused.
If you have ideas how games could be shared in a reasonable way to you then share it with valve and us. They lurk these forums.
Maybe make a new thread on the suggestion forums or search for one and present alternative solutions.

What would be reasonable to you but how would it stop users from never buying games for themselves ever and share one account between two people forever since they can play two games at once?