Family Sharing, 5 minutes per session?

[ｘＳＫ ΛＹＮＥ]

I absolutely love the idea behind this, as do many, however I have one "problem" if I may?

I shared my library with my Brother, as did he with me. We both have 120 or so games so it wasn't really needed, but we both had some we each wanted to play/try and wanted to try out new Steam features and discuss issues or thoughts together.

We decided to automatically jump into a game I shared with him (Ace of Spades) to see how Family Sharing worked and any bugs etc that needed sorting we could report back. When he started the game he got "ShadowRiven needs their game back, you have 5 minutes remaining".

At first, we thought it was just if we both ran the same game, which makes perfect sense if he's playing the game I shared with him which I'm playing at the same time and vice-versa. But then I played one of his without him on it, this time I got the warning.

Is anyone else getting this? I know it is currently in the BETA stage(s), but 5 minutes is a tad too little to beta-test a feature of any sort.

[tmwfte]

Only one person can use a library at any given time.

[ｘＳＫ ΛＹＮＥ]

Originally posted by tmwfte:

Only one person can use a library at any given time.

So in a sense, it's pretty much the old "letting him signing into my account and downloading my games", but this is faster and won't sign me out, however, I can't play my games whilst he's using my library otherwise only one person is satisfied.

[Black_Blade]

Originally posted by ShadowRiven:

So in a sense, it's pretty much the old "letting him signing into my account and downloading my games", but this is faster and won't sign me out, however, I can't play my games whilst he's using my library otherwise only one person is satisfied.

not 100%
First of all he has his own cloud saves.. so it will not over save yours
Second he has his own acivments
also if he is using your library and you want to play if you login it will give him a warring for a time to buy the game or leave it... then it will kick him out so you can keep playing

Also he has his own friend list and all that and not need to use you one

[ｘＳＫ ΛＹＮＥ]

But as far as playing the game, it's the same, only one person can enjoy it at a time.

In my opinion, it should be; if both users play the same game then the user using the shared library has to find another game to play. An hour game time p/game (that way they're not getting free games without paying) p/day (each game can be played an hour each day). Then, if I jumped on Euro Truck Simulator at the same time as my Brother, he would have to find something else to play for an hour.

Because everyone frequently use their libraries, I can't really see this working like imagined unless they made some tiny changes such as what I listed above. Families should be prepared for sibling fights over Steam libraries. I have 4 siblings, can you imagine trying to get all of them on the same library via different PC's haha

[Kargor]

Each library can only be used once -- thus, you and your brother cannot be playing games from the same library at the same time.

Whether a login to the owning account counts as a "use" of the library -- no idea yet.

Originally posted by Black Blade:

First of all he has his own cloud saves.. so it will not over save yours

Of course, that's still a problem with some games. I just had the case where a game was saving in the installation directory instead of the user profile, so when the computer is shared there's a lot of chances to screw up the cloud saves. Luckily, I realized this right away ("I just ran it for a few seconds on this box, so I'll play it safe and use the cloud save to resolve the conflict").

[ｘＳＫ ΛＹＮＥ]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Each library can only be used once -- thus, you and your brother cannot be playing games from the same library at the same time.

Whether a login to the owning account counts as a "use" of the library -- no idea yet.

He can be logged in at the same time, it wasn't until he started up DoTa 2, that's when I got the message. He's set to snooze currently, I can install a game and come back to confirm if you wish?

[Ş ĭ [Ł] Σ ň T ™]

Gus Will Help U 4 Sure

[ KARR™]

It doesn't matter if they are logged in. If you are playing one of their games, the second they want to launch ANY game, you will get the warning and eventually kicked out.

Family sharing is for sharing games so people can play them when you are not, without you needing to log into their account, not a license to allow up to 10 people to play someones games whenever they want for free.

[APerfectCircle]

Originally posted by KARR:

Family sharing is for sharing games so people can play them when you are not, without you needing to log into their account, not a license to allow up to 10 people to play someones games whenever they want for free.

Yes this, I thought it would be used more in the instance where small children can't pay for their own games and their parents are cooking dinner or something

[ｘＳＫ ΛＹＮＥ]

Originally posted by KARR:

Family sharing is for sharing games so people can play them when you are not, without you needing to log into their account, not a license to allow up to 10 people to play someones games whenever they want for free.

But they are playing whenever they want for free.. If I'm asleep, he can play up to 8 - 12 hours some times absolutely free on at least 100 games. We're not using it to share $1,800 for free, we simply both went into a game to see what would happen, we then discussed it and I posted here to gather more information.

I don't live with them, so my PC isn't accessible by anyone else apart from myself, we were seeing how it would play out if people started using the feature like that.

Because, I think we can all agree, once it goes public, people would start forums about renting their library. This is what we were testing against for instance.

[Ze_God]

om nom nom

[Black_Blade]

Ok sorry i got a little confuse on what you saying now XD
What you mean with the hour and all that? i just really did not understand it

[urvi]

This family sharing system from steam is just the worst thing ever. Heres why, once you buy the game you can play on it its yours. ONLY 1 PERSON CAN PLAY ON IT. so if your friend want to play he need to buy another one. But lets saysthats been a long time and you dont wanna play this game, you still purchased the game so the game is still yours in your library you have the right on this copy since you paid for it. Then steam block this system, its like the game is not yours anymore but steam property and you just play on theyr game. Before steam people were using CD, and when someone got bored of playing the same game he just selled it or gave it to someone else, why??? cause theres still gonna be ONLY 1 PERSON PLAYING ON IT. Its your game, your CD however you gave it to someone so he could play. I says as long as they dont try to play the same game they should be able to play each other game without having a warning of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[ｘＳＫ ΛＹＮＥ]

Purchasing a game through Steam (or any other online vendor, i.e: Origin) does not make it yours to own, you are simply borrowing a digital copy of the game. You own no rights as far as ownership to the game(s) in your library, best example of this is; When Steam eventually shuts down, then your entire library goes with it.

I originally posted this when Steam's sharing was in it's early stages, since then it has grown on me and I think it is a fantastic addition to the service.



Also, if a moderator could lock this? That'd be amazing! :) it's an old post that doesn't require more discussion.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥♥♥ Fizzmix:

This family sharing system from steam is just the worst thing ever. ...

Not exactly sure what your problem is?

It's EXACTLY how Steam worked all the time. DRM might not better mankind or anything like that, but at the end the day, Steam is one of the better solutions compared to other alternatives that publishers have tried, or are still trying.

As Family Sharing goes -- yes, it sucks. Big time. However, it's pretty much the same "scope" as account sharing, which means there's a good chance that most publishers aren't disabling it.

A family sharing that benefits customers by resembling how CDs/DVDs worked might be extremely nice and all that -- but it will also be entirely useless when almost every publisher will be hitting the "disable" checkbox on their Steam configuration tools.

And, well, Steam wants make some money too. I don't know how much they are selling, or whether are reasonably profitable, but they won't try very hard to establish features that kill off sales.