Enforce time limit on steam

[SirOfMyNothing]

Since I am on GNU/Linux,I was used to live without games.
It was easy to focus in work and such things until Valve began porting their games and other publishers did the same.

As I like the idea of more software and better coming to GNU/Linux (even with DRM, which i don't like much), i've bought a few games.

In the beggining(few months ago) It was great, i played a game from time to time and there was no problem. But now I am getting seriously addicted to some games and spend like 6/7 hours a day which i cannot spend. I have much more important things to do, which i am lefting undone.

Since my self-control is bad, I would like to know if there is any way to enforce a time limit on the steam daily/weekly usage.

[zounce]

I believe if you go into settings there is "family view" but not sure if that allows time limits, it should if it doesn't though.

[SirOfMyNothing]

It doesn't allows such thing. Just allows to exclude some games from being played, and restrict store/community access..

[zounce]

Originally posted by SirOfMyNothing:

It doesn't allows such thing. Just allows to exclude some games from being played, and restrict store/community access..

Then then there is no official way, try and find a mod maybe?

[SirOfMyNothing]

I don't know where to look taking my OS into account.
Can i get banned for such "mod's"?

[Hextravert]

Even if there were a way to set a restriction, your sheer lack of willpower and/or addiction will get the better of you and cause you to bypass it one way or the other.

Parental control thingies can't possibly be effective when they are self administered.

At the end of the day, this is indeed a matter of self-control.

Originally posted by SirOfMyNothing:

Since my self-control is bad, I would like to know if there is any way to enforce a time limit on the steam daily/weekly usage.

[SirOfMyNothing]

Originally posted by Hextravert:

Even if there were a way to set a restriction, your sheer lack of willpower and/or addiction will get the better of you and cause you to bypass it one way or the other.

Parental control thingies can't possibly be effective when they are self administered.

At the end of the day, this is indeed a matter of self-control.

You're absolutelly right, I could bypass it easily.
But at least would have to think twice before playing after the time runs out.
It would be something else other than the system clock telling me that i am screwing up.

The clock only tells "dude, look, you've already played an hour more than what you can", and that is easily bypassed by "oh, cmon, just one more game can't do any bad!"
But thinking that way, the "oh, cmon, just one more game can't do any bad!" would also work with any parental controls.

HEEELPP MEEE!

[:ekoe]

You could always make a script to close steam with the terminal command

steam steam://ExitSteam

So if you just want a continuous block of game time you could just have the above execute after so much time

But if you want to actually measure game time, I'm not sure how you could do that

[SirOfMyNothing]

Originally posted by spacelike:

You could always make a script to close steam with the terminal command

steam steam://ExitSteam

So if you just want a continuous block of game time you could just have the above execute after so much time

But if you want to actually measure game time, I'm not sure how you could do that

Yes, i can do that.
Will that command instantly make steam exit? It would be dangerous to do so since it would also quit multi-player games (and I'm pretty sure that the other team members would not be happy if i quit during a game).

Maybe if i made a script which would draw an overlay with the amount of time remaining, and then quit after time ends. It could run on cron and check constantly if i am alowed (by myself) to play, otherwise quit steam

Sounds like a retarded idea, but might work xb

[SPIFF]

try going for a walk outside next time you want to sit down and play a game and you will feel better for it

[adamballah]

OK. I struggle with this also. Here is what you do.
1. Create a new shortcut on your desktop.
2. Label it shutdown
3. Once created right click and select properties.
4. In the target window paste this code: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 900
5. Then apply, then OK.

This is a command Prompt to shut down your PC after so many seconds. Change it by clanging the number of seconds after /t
Once executed you can not stop it so set it for 30 mins or so and it will let you know 10 mins before shutdown.

Enjoy!

[brontozyablik]

Originally posted by adamballah:

OK. I struggle with this also. Here is what you do.
1. Create a new shortcut on your desktop.

I understand how to create a shortcut for a particular app but I don't understand what do you mean by creating a new shortcut in general.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Steam for China has a similar feature to help prevent gaming addiction.

[Heeby-Jeeby]

Originally posted by adamballah:

OK. I struggle with this also. Here is what you do.
1. Create a new shortcut on your desktop.
2. Label it shutdown
3. Once created right click and select properties.
4. In the target window paste this code: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 900
5. Then apply, then OK.

This is a command Prompt to shut down your PC after so many seconds. Change it by clanging the number of seconds after /t
Once executed you can not stop it so set it for 30 mins or so and it will let you know 10 mins before shutdown.

Enjoy!

This is pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

[Quibus Maximus]

I've used a simple kitchen timer in the past, just to make me aware another hour (or whatever) had passed.

There are several programs to manage pc time and/or prevent RSI.
Some of these come with features that either block certain software or shut down your pc after you reach your daily limit.
These can help to at least make you aware, but they can be bypassed and in the end it will still be up to you to set boundaries and live by them.

[deepfake]

Is this part of Steam yet?

It's very easy to do on Android. Maybe Windows 11 has a digital health app now?