Using 2 games I have licenced, simultaneously

[STARLORD]

Hi,

I have a large library of games, I also have a 5 year old son, he is autistic and fairly computer literate, literate enough to use steam to run games at least and type his name and few other things.

My plan was to let my son play things like agricultural simulator, and at the same time I could play borderlands, cs:go, that kind of thing.

So I tried the family sharing, gave him a steam account, shared my library, but if he plays agricultural simulator, I cant play borderlands, or anything else I own without bumping him out of the game he is playing.

So instead I tried just setting up my library for him to play on, which means he gets all the messages from my steam friends, but again only one computer can use my library simultaneously, even though the games are purchased separately.

So what is the deal, I have purchased a licence for these games, I am literally a meter from each computer that is running the games, and I am signing in my own credentials to run each game, I should be able to play them, and I should be able to play more than 1 separate purchase at the same time.

I have seen other threads on this with no answers, and everyone is confused, so to clarify, I own the games, I'm not looking to lend them outside of my house, and I don't want to play the same game simultaneously on 2 machines, I simply want to play different unrelated games, from within the same steam library, simultaneously on 2 machines. Short of starting my sons game and severing his internet connection before starting my game, I am unable to achieve this.

How can this blockage be justified?

[Merzbow]

Nguyên văn bởi DevoiD:

Nguyên văn bởi Wilracex_Ccs!:

Mmm really?

yes? You cant tell me 2K games would get their panties in a bunch if I wanted to play borderlands on my PC and I wanted my son to play United Independent Entertainment GmbH's agricultural simulator on his PC, both from my library. I think it is a bit stiff to lock my retail purchases down like that.

You really should stop complaining just because you're inconvenienced here. Read the licenses that you agreed to when joining Steam and the ones you agree to for the games you have bought. Also do actual research on family sharing. Like everyone here has mentioned, it is like this because there is potential for abuse. Someone with a lot of games could share their library with 5 other friends and they could all just use his library instead of ever buying a game again. If lots of people did that, then Valve would hardly get any money from it, so that's why only one person can use a library at a time. Valve won't just completely change how Family Sharing works because only a couple people who didn't even bother to do actual research on the matter is complaining.

[Darren]

Nguyên văn bởi Start_Running:

Nguyên văn bởi DevoiD:

yes? You cant tell me 2K games would get their panties in a bunch if I wanted to play borderlands on my PC and I wanted my son to play United Independent Entertainment GmbH's agricultural simulator on his PC, both from my library. I think it is a bit stiff to lock my retail purchases down like that.

Because you're not looking at the potential for abuse.

If you want to see the potential for abuse it's not hard. Even with a maximum of 5 people on family sharing means that we could have 1 account into which 5 people can buy games meaning that there is only 20% of the games being purchased by this group. Add in to the fact you can change people you are sharing with periodically you could split the games up a bit more and cycle people through allowing you to purchase even fewer games to give even more people full (albeit not at the same time) access to the games.

This is mostly a concern with single-player games obviously, but given those are the games I predominately play I don't want Steam putting more extreme measures on them (or reducing the amount of sales) because people want to share them instead of buying a copy for everyone that wants to play the game.

[Start_Running]

And if you think someone wouldn't be using it as a game rental service. you'd be sadly mistaken. Saw plenty of netcafe's in my country doing this with full retail games.

[lilcoffeebean]

As the primary account holder you can play your games in offline mode and your son will still be able to play the library you've shared with him as long as his account is online. So you can still play anything that doesn't require an active internet connection, while he plays whatever he wants/has access to. As far as the specific game you mentioned, I'm not sure which Borderlands you had in mind, but both 1 and 2 can be played in offline mode. Naturally that will disable co-op and the few other multiplayer game modes that the games have. CS:GO though wouldn't work, as an exclusively multiplayer game, it does require an internet connection.

If you're not sure how to start steam in offline mode you can check this faq https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-agcb-2555 It's not an overly complicated process though and might take you a minute or two.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

This isn't all one way. With DVDs and CDs you could lend them and someone else play with them without restricting you using different software. Having paid for something it seems ridiculous to the user that someone of their own household can't play with it unrestricted. However the potential for abuse is too large to use it unrestricted.

Two years down the line you'll be able to lie about his age, get him his own Steam account, and then have great fun playing TF 2 and Robocraft together - once you've lectured him on the silly people who use bad words he must never use. Especially in front of Mummy. And perhaps get Terraria for both of you.

S.x.

[Start_Running]

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

This isn't all one way. With DVDs and CDs you could lend them and someone else play with them without restricting you using different software. Having paid for something it seems ridiculous to the user that someone of their own household can't play with it unrestricted. However the potential for abuse is too large to use it unrestricted.

There are restrictions on most things you buy physically. I mean you can't play a cd at a gathering of more than 20 people. The actual number varies from region to region but yeah that's it. Same thing for screening a DVD. The whole questiopn is before now there was no actual way for the rules to actually be enforced.

It's like that Tea Tax situation in america. It wasn't that the crown so much as levied new taxes on the colonist but rather that they decided to start collecting the taxes the colonists should have been paying the whole time. Only reason they let it slide is that back then the cost of collecting and conveying the tax money was more trouble than the taxes were worth.

[Merzbow]

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Two years down the line you'll be able to lie about his age, get him his own Steam account, and then have great fun playing TF 2 and Robocraft together - once you've lectured him on the silly people who use bad words he must never use. Especially in front of Mummy. And perhaps get Terraria for both of you.

S.x.

That has to be one of the cringiest things I've ever read, and I've read Minions fanfiction

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Two years down the line you'll be able to lie about his age, get him his own Steam account, and then have great fun playing TF 2 and Robocraft together - once you've lectured him on the silly people who use bad words he must never use. Especially in front of Mummy. And perhaps get Terraria for both of you.

S.x.

That has to be one of the cringiest things I've ever read, and I've read Minions fanfiction

Seeing you're a member of 4chan I seriously doubt that.

S.x.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

That has to be one of the cringiest things I've ever read, and I've read Minions fanfiction

Seeing you're a member of 4chan I seriously doubt that.

S.x.

Wow, you're a member of a group so bad Steam won't even let me say its name.

S.x.

[Merzbow]

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

That has to be one of the cringiest things I've ever read, and I've read Minions fanfiction

Seeing you're a member of 4chan I seriously doubt that.

S.x.

Keep in mind that they aren't just places like /b/ where all the bad stuff is. I only browse the worksafe threads because you can have some fun there. The fitness and advice sections helped me get into shape and many others

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Seeing you're a member of 4chan I seriously doubt that.

S.x.

Keep in mind that they aren't just places like /b/ where all the bad stuff is. I only browse the worksafe threads because you can have some fun there. The fitness and advice sections helped me get into shape and many others

So you're like the people who read "Playboy" for the celebrity interviews and travel articles ?

I mean how difficult is it to find fitness advice on Google - other than the million sites that pop up when you search "Fitness Advice".

S.x.

[Merzbow]

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

Keep in mind that they aren't just places like /b/ where all the bad stuff is. I only browse the worksafe threads because you can have some fun there. The fitness and advice sections helped me get into shape and many others

So you're like the people who read "Playboy" for the celebrity interviews and travel articles ?

I mean how difficult is it to find fitness advice on Google - other than the million sites that pop up when you search "Fitness Advice".

S.x.

It's not just about porn and a bunch of weird fetish stuff, 4 chan is for pretty much anything. Am I not allowed to browse the fitness and advice sections because I can Google it?

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

So you're like the people who read "Playboy" for the celebrity interviews and travel articles ?

I mean how difficult is it to find fitness advice on Google - other than the million sites that pop up when you search "Fitness Advice".

S.x.

It's not just about porn and a bunch of weird fetish stuff, 4 chan is for pretty much anything. Am I not allowed to browse the fitness and advice sections because I can Google it?

No it's just that most users access it for child porn, drug dealing, and other criminal activity. So you could, but why would you ?

S.x.

[Merzbow]

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

It's not just about porn and a bunch of weird fetish stuff, 4 chan is for pretty much anything. Am I not allowed to browse the fitness and advice sections because I can Google it?

No it's just that most users access it for child porn, drug dealing, and other criminal activity. So you could, but why would you ?

S.x.

It's clear you've never been there, because all that stuff is rare and usually gets removed fast

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Nguyên văn bởi Coolieli:

Nguyên văn bởi gallifrey:

No it's just that most users access it for child porn, drug dealing, and other criminal activity. So you could, but why would you ?

S.x.

It's clear you've never been there, because all that stuff is rare and usually gets removed fast

My police friends say otherwise.

S.x.