Why can't you just play LAN without buying a game twice?

[Arlae Nova]

This evening me and my brother wanted to play a Campaign on Rome total war 2. But then we came to the conclusion that you need to buy a game twice if you want to multiplay with a friend, even with lan. I think lan is a great way to play with 2 players, but if you need 2 games, it's like giving 60 euro's too the makers, without anything in return. I think the makers want to gain money with this mechanisme, but I ain't gonna buy this game twice, nobody would ever do such stupid thing. So i suggest that if you play with lan, multiplayer should be free. Anybody agrees????

[Forcen]

Steam is not really made for being logged into two users at once so you should have seen this coming. This is just how modern games are, like it or not.

There are some exceptions, Starcraft 2 had a feature like this added recently. http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/buy-now/spawning

[Stimpix]

There are also a few Steam titles which allow for "hot seat" multiplayer, so you and a few friends can play them even on the same computer.

[Persephone Sapphora]

It's a game developers choice if they want more than one user to play the same game. Honestly, you've answered your question anyway. They want you to buy two copies, developers and publishers are not a charity services.

[Arlae Nova]

Yeah, but I think they only make their community rage at them with this. I really don't want to log in with 2 players on 1 account, just want to play this with my brother, he has an account too. I just think it isn't a smart choose to do it this way, and maybe even find exceptions or something like that. I think they would like some comment that says yes or no, so they can adjust there games on it. And, are you gonna buy 2 games to play multiplayer? I don't think so...

[Arlae Nova]

btw, yes, starcrafts spawning is exactly what i mean.

[Legendary old man]

I do not agree. I am shocked you think this is wrong as it is a common practice that has been going on for years. You have 2 people wanting to play with each other so you need 2 copies of the game. Why would they make it so everyone could play free if they play on LAN? Just dumb.

Starcraft spawning is about the last game to offer this and that was over 10 years ago. Blizzard no longer does that. No one does.

[Arlae Nova]

Do you REALLY think that buying stops if we can play on lan. You still need 1 game, so there is the provit. And yes, i think games 10 years ago were better. They thought about how to make you happy with a game and making provit, not only the provit part.

[Legendary old man]

Originally posted by memyselfandY21:

Do you REALLY think that buying stops if we can play on lan. You still need 1 game, so there is the provit. And yes, i think games 10 years ago were better. They thought about how to make you happy with a game and making provit, not only the provit part.

Say 100 people want to play on LAN, they all play free? Ya, pirates love games you don't have to crack. 5 minutes of thinking and you could figure out why they don't do it. It is the same as giving a crack with the game.

[Forcen]

Originally posted by memyselfandY21:

And, are you gonna buy 2 games to play multiplayer? I don't think so...

Yes, that is how modern multiplayer games work. If your brother wants to play a new multiplayer game with you between two computers he would obviously have to buy his own copy. This is not weird. I can't think of any games on Steam that allow one copy lan play like that, how would it even work?

Starcraft 2 was like this for YEARS before they added spawning as a nice bonus.

Don't act like this was a missing feature that they expected to have in games like this.
If this is something that you want you are expected to ask the devs nicely to add on top of their reasonable structure. Not groan because you want another person to play the game for free at the same time as you.

[Arlae Nova]

Originally posted by Forcen:

Originally posted by memyselfandY21:

And, are you gonna buy 2 games to play multiplayer? I don't think so...

Yes, that is how modern multiplayer games work. If your brother wants to play a new multiplayer game with you between two computers he would obviously have to buy his own copy. This is not weird. I can't think of any games on Steam that allow one copy lan play like that, how would it even work?

Starcraft 2 was like this for YEARS before they added spawning as a nice bonus.

Don't act like this was a missing feature that they expected to have in games like this.
If this is something that you want you are expected to ask the devs nicely to add on top of their reasonable structure. Not groan because you want another person to play the game for free at the same time as you.

But that doesn't mean it is a good structure. That is the whole problem with modern day society. You get something like steam that says that this is the only way things work, but you can easily do it different. And I don't want to let him play the game for free, I want to have fun. So, can you only criticize me, or can you step out of your rusty thinking manners, getting too an idea how to fix this, because I don't like to spend my money on an already bought game (my brother doesn't like it either), and i bet you doesn't like that either. Yes, a friend has to buy the game for himself, but somebody in your family, living in the same house.... What would you do, just let him buy the game for his own, or get a cracked???

gl and hf in your next game.

[Legendary old man]

Originally posted by memyselfandY21:

But that doesn't mean it is a good structure. That is the whole problem with modern day society. You get something like steam that says that this is the only way things work, but you can easily do it different. And I don't want to let him play the game for free, I want to have fun. So, can you only criticize me, or can you step out of your rusty thinking manners, getting too an idea how to fix this, because I don't like to spend my money on an already bought game (my brother doesn't like it either), and i bet you doesn't like that either. Yes, a friend has to buy the game for himself, but somebody in your family, living in the same house.... What would you do, just let him buy the game for his own, or get a cracked???

gl and hf in your next game.

Let your family member play the game you bought. You just can not both play it at the same time with one copy. Please name me one PC game made in the last 10 years that allows people to play the game for free on LAN.

You want something for free basically. Try to understand the concept of one game copy per person.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's been this way ever since games started using CDKEYs for the most part.
I remember older games that were popular where if u tried to play LAN using the same CDKEY, it wouldn't work. And we're not talking about games that used a game client, required internet, or had drms. Back in the day, the CDKEY was the DRM. But again if u waited a while after game release and patches, most games had some sort of work-around so you could change the CDKEY and/or not be required to have the game disc in the drive to play, etc.

Since games are digital and we have the drive space not to require a disc to play, etc. Well digital drm has to be managed in such ways as we see now. It may change down the road, but overal u will probably continue to see the current forms of DRM that we have now. As a means to help combat piracy. It's like any fight, it's not about winning or losing all the battles, it's putting the odds in your favor (i.e. the game developer) so you win the war. Is what they do right now perfect, no. But nothing will be.

Now when u buy a game, registering/activating it means giving it a permanent tie to an email account. As well as other forms of DRM. So to say it's wrong for each person to have their own copy of a game in order to play Online MP or LAN is just foolish.

Now there is nothing stopping u from letting a trusted friend or family member perhaps play a game you own, or vice versa. But again that is a security risk, and allowing for such conduct only make the game owner's account vulnerable.

Steam is working on a legit Sharing feature for games. There will of course be rules and guidelines for how it works, but again at least it would perhaps give u a chance to try a game your friend owns already, or vice versa. Which I think we should have had a long time ago. Especially with the pure laziness on the part of how some game makers handle overall projects and QC. Most game makers are willing to simply set a deadline and then push out something by that deadline. If it has bugs they try their best to fix them as time goes by. I think this is foolish on their part and it's downright greedy. It would be like selling you a car with all these advertised advances and features, but not find out until after you buy the vehicle that half the features do not work properly or as advertised, but given some sort of promise that they will be addressed in the near future.

I would honestly, must rather see a product pushed back while they work to get it right for release day. What we also should have more of from game makers is hands-on Alpha/Beta testing. With the public testing a product on so many system config variables and OS' as well as driver versions for the various hardware, you could see a much higher QC overall. Thus bugs and things that need improvement could be found and seen by the public interest, thus the game maker could have a much wider range of information to go on to help narrow down the means to fix certain issues. All before that final release date.

[Arlae Nova]

ah, finally, somebody that does have an opinion. Yes, more beta testing would be great. I was thinking about a program that casts 10 euros, where you only can receive multiplayer games or something like that. So, somebody has bought a game, and you buy that program. The other guy with the game itself goes multiplayer and connect his account to that program. The only thing the program does is recieving the multiplayer game via lan (it can't host one of its own or does something else) and then let you play the game in multyplayer. Something like nintendo did with there DS's (they actually did this for free). That would be awesome already, but i think we just have to move to that Sharing feature steam is working on. That is with the same principle, but then for free. I agree that it's foolish to say that it's wrong that everybody needs a game, a friend has to buy the game for himself, but a brother that lives in the same house is something else. My brother only plays it when i play, my friend does play it much more often.
Hopefully steam comes fast with Sharing, would be great!

gl and hf with all your games!

[ReBoot]

Except for Blizzard spawn option, games have been like that since like ever. Two players on two separate PCs->two purchases. Unless you pirate.

[Legendary old man]

Originally posted by memyselfandY21:

ah, finally, somebody that does have an opinion. Yes, more beta testing would be great. I was thinking about a program that casts 10 euros, where you only can receive multiplayer games or something like that. So, somebody has bought a game, and you buy that program. The other guy with the game itself goes multiplayer and connect his account to that program. The only thing the program does is recieving the multiplayer game via lan (it can't host one of its own or does something else) and then let you play the game in multyplayer. Something like nintendo did with there DS's (they actually did this for free). That would be awesome already, but i think we just have to move to that Sharing feature steam is working on. That is with the same principle, but then for free. I agree that it's foolish to say that it's wrong that everybody needs a game, a friend has to buy the game for himself, but a brother that lives in the same house is something else. My brother only plays it when i play, my friend does play it much more often.
Hopefully steam comes fast with Sharing, would be great!

gl and hf with all your games!

Why would a company want to lessen their profit? Good luck talking them into cutting revenue. If you want 2 people to play at the same time buy 2 copies. Problem solved.