Family sharing should allow 2 people using the same library at the same time

[Elvis]

Family sharing is a good idea, and is more and more normal in streaming programs. The sharing in steam is somewhat dysfunctional though, it should let 2 or three people use the library at the same time. Not being able to play the same time more or less defeats the whole purpose. The limitation should be not being able to play the same game on both library.

[«Gғм» Kid Of The Century]

And allowing groups of 2 or 3 people across the world to make a single shared account where to dump all of their games?

If I was a dev, I'd erase every game on Steam I've ever put in if they allow such thing. Might as well gift 2 extra copies for a single purchase, at least I wouldn't have to share my profit with Valve.

...Really though, this has been discussed to death so many times I can't remember. Go search them.

[Washell]

The purpose is to allow a family to have their individual achievements, savegames, and such on a shared (living room) PC. That purpose is not defeated by this limitation.

Disallowing a library to be played by two people at the same time is intentional to make communal purchases/accounts impractical and is unlikely to be lifted. The fact that this request pops up multiple times a week already proves it would cost Valve and the publishers on Steam a lot of money.

[Elvis]

«Gғм» Kid Of The Century の投稿を引用：

And allowing groups of 2 or 3 people across the world to make a single shared account where to dump all of their games?

If I was a dev, I'd erase every game on Steam I've ever put in if they allow such thing. Might as well gift 2 extra copies for a single purchase, at least I wouldn't have to share my profit with Valve.

...Really though, this has been discussed to death so many times I can't remember. Go search them.

This is easy to prevent, just prevent simultaneous access to library from different IPs/IP-ranges. It probably has been "discussed to death", because it is a useful feature people want. That is why it is popping up.

[Elvis]

Washell の投稿を引用：

The purpose is to allow a family to have their individual achievements, savegames, and such on a shared (living room) PC. That purpose is not defeated by this limitation.

Disallowing a library to be played by two people at the same time is intentional to make communal purchases/accounts impractical and is unlikely to be lifted. The fact that this request pops up multiple times a week already proves it would cost Valve and the publishers on Steam a lot of money.

Is it? Steam has said different things about the purpose, things like "share your games like a DVD" and so on. But anyhow, is it really relevant what the original purpose was? The suggestion doesn't get any better or worse by that.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Elvis の投稿を引用：

This is easy to prevent, just prevent simultaneous access to library from different IPs/IP-ranges. It probably has been "discussed to death", because it is a useful feature people want. That is why it is popping up.

A VPN or something like Hamachi can be used to fake playing from the same IP, easily.

It is discussed because it is what the consumer wants for themselves. If we go by what the developers want, then there would be no family sharing at all. The current system is the balance between what both want.

Remember, Valve has two sets of customer. Users and the developers.

Elvis の投稿を引用：

Is it? Steam has said different things about the purpose, things like "share your games like a DVD" and so on. But anyhow, is it really relevant what the original purpose was? The suggestion doesn't get any better or worse by that.

That has never been said. That was an assumption by users.

Yes, it is relivent what the purpose of family sharing is intended for. It is to allow one to share their library with out having to worry about someone else adding hours to their game, getting achivements for them and to allow some seperation between the shared game and various accounts.

Before Family Share, peope were using other's accounts (against the SSA), then people would complain about not being able to get achivements, because the other person had already gotten them. It also compromised the security of the accounts. There were a lot of "I was banned becaue my sibling used by account and posted bad words/insults! I want this reversed as I did not say these things!" and that has nearly vanished as well.

[Elvis]

Spawn of Totoro の投稿を引用：

Elvis の投稿を引用：

This is easy to prevent, just prevent simultaneous access to library from different IPs/IP-ranges. It probably has been "discussed to death", because it is a useful feature people want. That is why it is popping up.

A VPN or something like Hamachi can be used to fake playing from the same IP, easily.

It is discussed because it is what the consumer wants for themselves. If we go by what the developers want, then there would be no family sharing at all. The current system is the balance between what both want.

Remember, Valve has two sets of customer. Users and the developers.

Elvis の投稿を引用：

Is it? Steam has said different things about the purpose, things like "share your games like a DVD" and so on. But anyhow, is it really relevant what the original purpose was? The suggestion doesn't get any better or worse by that.

That has never been said. That was an assumption by users.

Yes, it is relivent what the purpose of family sharing is intended for. It is to allow one to share their library with out having to worry about someone else adding hours to their game, getting achivements for them and to allow some seperation between the shared game and various accounts.

Before Family Share, peope were using other's accounts (against the SSA), then people would complain about not being able to get achivements, because the other person had already gotten them. It also compromised the security of the accounts. There were a lot of "I was banned becaue my sibling used by account and posted bad words/insults! I want this reversed as I did not say these things!" and that has nearly vanished as well.

It is not easy, it quite a hassle, you have to connect to eachother with vpn, only do it with one or two people, share the account details. It will likely be a minimal problem. If you want to pirate, there are much easier and more convenient options.

Yeah, and the "balance" is skewed so the feature is less useful. I am sure you could use the same argument against the refund policy too, but that worked fine.

No it is not relevant for the suggestion, even is it was not the original purpose, the suggestion still stands, and the whole purpose of a suggestion is to change how things are done.

[wuddih]

Elvis の投稿を引用：

This is easy to prevent, just prevent simultaneous access to library from different IPs/IP-ranges. It probably has been "discussed to death", because it is a useful feature people want. That is why it is popping up.

you meant that is easy to circumvent.

and this just comes up because the people requesting it exactly of the reason that they see a chance to make possible profit.

[Elvis]

wuddih の投稿を引用：

Elvis の投稿を引用：

This is easy to prevent, just prevent simultaneous access to library from different IPs/IP-ranges. It probably has been "discussed to death", because it is a useful feature people want. That is why it is popping up.

you meant that is easy to circumvent.

and this just comes up because the people requesting it exactly of the reason that they see a chance to make possible profit.

No, I meant prevent, it is easy to prevent illegal account-sharing, at least make it useless enough that it will be a tiny problem.

Are you trying to say that all the people requesting this feature wants it because they want to do account sharing with people other places?

[Tito Shivan]

Elvis の投稿を引用：

It is not easy, it quite a hassle, you have to connect to eachother with vpn, only do it with one or two people, share the account details. It will likely be a minimal problem. If you want to pirate, there are much easier and more convenient options.

Consider people already do far more complicated and risky things (Like letting a stranger to remote access their computers) for the sake of sharing games.

Don't underestimate the capacity of people to abuse the system, they'll surprise you.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Elvis の投稿を引用：

It is not easy, it quite a hassle, you have to connect to eachother with vpn, only do it with one or two people, share the account details. It will likely be a minimal problem. If you want to pirate, there are much easier and more convenient options.

Yeah, and the "balance" is skewed so the feature is less useful. I am sure you could use the same argument against the refund policy too, but that worked fine.

No it is not relevant for the suggestion, even is it was not the original purpose, the suggestion still stands, and the whole purpose of a suggestion is to change how things are done.

But there are many who do not want to pirate and it would be less risky as well. Also, you can't play multiplayer when you pirate a game, but you can if it is family shared.

It is very easy to set up a VPN in such a way as well as programs that do the work for you (Hamachi) and you would be surprised at how many are quite willing to hand over their account details to get free games. People are already sharing games with strangers for money, games they can't afford or regional restrictions. This would make the issue worse and be a security risk because of it.

It is one sided because it is not what you want it to be, not because it isn't balanced. It is working as it was designed to and many are using it just fine.

Elvis の投稿を引用：

No, I meant prevent, it is easy to prevent illegal account-sharing, at least make it useless enough that it will be a tiny problem.

No, it isn't easy to do. It would also hurt legitamate use of Family Sharing. If a collage student want to share with his brother at home, why prevent that by limiting it to the same IP/IP range? That is a legitamate use of Steam Family Share.

Elvis の投稿を引用：

Are you trying to say that all the people requesting this feature wants it because they want to do account sharing with people other places?

Some could be, yes. All? No. But there are many only looking to their own intrests and not thinking about why the system was designed the way it is or how the developer may view the system being changed in that way.

[ferferga]

I think that it would lead to more problems than solutions. I agree with Spawn of Totoro. Imagine, you just need someone who own the game, and you can play together with him, just because it's allowed. The actual system is really good, is one of the things that I think that works flawlessly, perfectly and does not need to change in Steam.

Just my opinion.

[Elvis]

Tito Shivan の投稿を引用：

Elvis の投稿を引用：

It is not easy, it quite a hassle, you have to connect to eachother with vpn, only do it with one or two people, share the account details. It will likely be a minimal problem. If you want to pirate, there are much easier and more convenient options.

Consider people already do far more complicated and risky things (Like letting a stranger to remote access their computers) for the sake of sharing games.

Don't underestimate the capacity of people to abuse the system, they'll surprise you.

I am sure a tiny amount would do it, there always are some people who do. But I think the problem would be tiny, pirating is much easier and more convenient.

[Elvis]

Spawn of Totoro の投稿を引用：

Elvis の投稿を引用：

It is not easy, it quite a hassle, you have to connect to eachother with vpn, only do it with one or two people, share the account details. It will likely be a minimal problem. If you want to pirate, there are much easier and more convenient options.

Yeah, and the "balance" is skewed so the feature is less useful. I am sure you could use the same argument against the refund policy too, but that worked fine.

No it is not relevant for the suggestion, even is it was not the original purpose, the suggestion still stands, and the whole purpose of a suggestion is to change how things are done.

But there are many who do not want to pirate and it would be less risky as well. Also, you can't play multiplayer when you pirate a game, but you can if it is family shared.

It is very easy to set up a VPN in such a way as well as programs that do the work for you (Hamachi) and you would be surprised at how many are quite willing to hand over their account details to get free games. People are already sharing games with strangers for money, games they can't afford or regional restrictions. This would make the issue worse and be a security risk because of it.

It is one sided because it is not what you want it to be, not because it isn't balanced. It is working as it was designed to and many are using it just fine.

Elvis の投稿を引用：

No, I meant prevent, it is easy to prevent illegal account-sharing, at least make it useless enough that it will be a tiny problem.

No, it isn't easy to do. It would also hurt legitamate use of Family Sharing. If a collage student want to share with his brother at home, why prevent that by limiting it to the same IP/IP range? That is a legitamate use of Steam Family Share.

Elvis の投稿を引用：

Are you trying to say that all the people requesting this feature wants it because they want to do account sharing with people other places?

Some could be, yes. All? No. But there are many only looking to their own intrests and not thinking about why the system was designed the way it is or how the developer may view the system being changed in that way.

Less risky in what way? Sharing your account with stranger is way more risky than downloading something from the internet.

Is the game sharing really a big thing today? And if it is, aren't the gameshareres already doing it, so the problem won't really increase all that much.

That is your opinion of balance, I don't find it especially balanced that you are lossing rights to use you had before. And I am using it "Just fine" as it is today, but that doesn't mean the system could be way better.

Besides, family sharing is already a thing with streaming services, it seems to work just fine.

No it wouldn't, because they would be in the same situation as today, only one person can use the library at a single time. They are just as prevented from playing different games on the same account today.

Yeah, as a consumer, the interest of the consumers is higher on my list than the interest of developers, which pretty consistently opposes changes when they can. But the system would be no more consumer friendly than it was in the time of the physical disc.

[76561198001062896]

Elvis の投稿を引用：

Tito Shivan の投稿を引用：

Consider people already do far more complicated and risky things (Like letting a stranger to remote access their computers) for the sake of sharing games.

Don't underestimate the capacity of people to abuse the system, they'll surprise you.

I am sure a tiny amount would do it, there always are some people who do. But I think the problem would be tiny, pirating is much easier and more convenient.

You seriously under-estimate the length some ppl would go to abuse a
system.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Elvis の投稿を引用：

I am sure a tiny amount would do it, there always are some people who do. But I think the problem would be tiny, pirating is much easier and more convenient.

Not, it is higher risk. Why pirate if you can get a legit copy by exploiting the system?

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions

Browse through there and see how many are trying to share games with strangers or have other share with them. And that is with these restrictions in place. It would be far worse with out them.