Show passive players as AFK

[FIREFLY]

FATURE REQUEST for the Friend List in Steam Client:
- User status should not always be "playing game" if the player is passive.

Why is this feature necessary?:
- I started a game and fell asleep. My friends thought I was playing a game all night.

Benefit:
- User satisfaction (Steam wants to remain the best client out there, right?).

How I imagine it:
- If I start a game, and suddenly leave it (AFK) to go watch a movie or because I fell asleep, then the users status in the Friends list should show "AFK" instead of "Playing a game".

Please Steam - do it for all us faithful gamers around the world.
Yours Sincerely: Lasse Ronnenberg

[Aachen]

You can already set your status to “away.”

[Darren]

The problem with your request is that the game has got the input focus it would be difficult at best for Steam to determine you haven't done anything for awhile.

Even if it did you might not need to do something (long cut scene) leading to a fair amount of unnecessary toggling.

[Count_Dandyman]

Because Steam doesn't know if you are active or not only that the game is running for it to do what you want they would have to put some very intrusive spyware on your system to let them know everything that is happening on your system.

[Zekiran]

You started a game.

That means the system only knows that the game is running. The system isn't monitoring YOU, only YOUR ACCOUNT.

Since the account was in fact logged into a game, .... why would it ever say anything else unless you specifically tell it to say offline or away?

[Crazy Tiger]

This is easily solved. Go to bed earlier.

[Gwarsbane]

Or if you are going to go watch a movie...

"hold on a sec, I left the game running, I need to shut it down."

Of if you suddenly feel tired and head off to bed...

"hold on a sec, I left the game running, I need to shut it down."

See simple as that.

Steam has no way to know if you are doing anything in the game or not.

[wuddih]

Count_Dandyman님이 먼저 게시:

Because Steam doesn't know if you are active or not only that the game is running for it to do what you want they would have to put some very intrusive spyware on your system to let them know everything that is happening on your system.

except it does know, since ages.

since the new chat Steam will display ZzZ[i.imgur.com] next to the name after a while of no user input, regardless if someone is in a game or whatever.
before this also happend and you were set to away and snooze, just the in-game status was always forefronted.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

wuddih님이 먼저 게시:

Count_Dandyman님이 먼저 게시:

Because Steam doesn't know if you are active or not only that the game is running for it to do what you want they would have to put some very intrusive spyware on your system to let them know everything that is happening on your system.

except it does know, since ages.

since the new chat Steam will display ZzZ[i.imgur.com] next to the name after a while of no user input, regardless if someone is in a game or whatever.
before this also happend and you were set to away and snooze, just the in-game status was always forefronted.

Was just going to type this. i have people on my list in this status all the time.

[vgvolts]

ok

[FIREFLY]

If Steam would display a Zzz in my friend-list (when I have been passive for 30 minutes in a game) then people would not say "Aha! We saw you were playing all night!". And I almost always turn my PC off for the night. But there are just situations where you are too far from a save-point and too tired to go on.

It is true we can change status manually, but that is a poor arguments for not improving Steam. Or would you also argue that "People should just learn to use Skype" rather than the developers adding a chat feature and a friends list?

The 'answer' that "Steam cannot monitor you once you are in a game" does not convince me. I am pretty sure every PC has a timer that starts when the mouse or keyboard goes idle - it is in the hardware. How else will a PC know when to enter hibernation mode? Or how would you be able to Alt-tab out of a game if the keyboard was not constantly monitored outside of the active process. Steam should have no trouble detecting how long the input devices have been idle, even when it is running in the background.

Having now dismissed your arguments against this feature request, I cannot see why anyone would not want to add more features to Steam. It serves a purpose for some players. Maybe even for you, one day.

[FIREFLY]

Crazy Tiger님이 먼저 게시:

This is easily solved. Go to bed earlier.

It is true we can change status manually, but that is a poor arguments for not improving Steam. Or would you also argue that "People should just learn to use Skype" rather than the developers adding a chat feature and a friends list?

[FIREFLY]

Gwarsbane님이 먼저 게시:

Or if you are going to go watch a movie...

"hold on a sec, I left the game running, I need to shut it down."

Of if you suddenly feel tired and head off to bed...

"hold on a sec, I left the game running, I need to shut it down."

See simple as that.

Steam has no way to know if you are doing anything in the game or not.

It is true we can change status manually, but that is a poor arguments for not improving Steam. Or would you also argue that "People should just learn to use Skype" rather than the developers adding a chat feature and a friends list?

[FIREFLY]

Darren님이 먼저 게시:

The problem with your request is that the game has got the input focus it would be difficult at best for Steam to determine you haven't done anything for awhile.

Even if it did you might not need to do something (long cut scene) leading to a fair amount of unnecessary toggling.

I am pretty sure every PC has a timer that starts when the mouse or keyboard goes idle - it is in the hardware. How else will a PC know when to enter hibernation mode? Or how would you be able to Alt-tab out of a game if the keyboard was not constantly monitored outside of the active process. Steam should have no trouble detecting how long the input devices have been idle, even when it is running in the background.

[FIREFLY]

Count_Dandyman님이 먼저 게시:

Because Steam doesn't know if you are active or not only that the game is running for it to do what you want they would have to put some very intrusive spyware on your system to let them know everything that is happening on your system.

I am pretty sure every PC has a timer that starts when the mouse or keyboard goes idle - it is in the hardware. How else will a PC know when to enter hibernation mode? Or how would you be able to Alt-tab out of a game if the keyboard was not constantly monitored outside of the active process. Steam should have no trouble detecting how long the input devices have been idle, even when it is running in the background.

[FIREFLY]

Zekiran님이 먼저 게시:

You started a game.

That means the system only knows that the game is running. The system isn't monitoring YOU, only YOUR ACCOUNT.

Since the account was in fact logged into a game, .... why would it ever say anything else unless you specifically tell it to say offline or away?

I am pretty sure every PC has a timer that starts when the mouse or keyboard goes idle - it is in the hardware. How else will a PC know when to enter hibernation mode? Or how would you be able to Alt-tab out of a game if the keyboard was not constantly monitored outside of the active process. Steam should have no trouble detecting how long the input devices have been idle, even when it is running in the background.