Making Steam Account Games Available To Immediate Family

[iasttraining]

Back in the old days, if you had multiple computers in a family and multiple games, your family could play the games freely (I am not even talking about multiplayer, although you also could pull the CD out of the player while the game ran [for a lot of games] and do multiplayer that way). Steam sells the rights to these games, but it is not physically possible to play multiple different games in one house right now, which is not at all the way it should be or used to be.

My proposal is that steam makes changes to their system to be similar to netflix (obviously not the same, but a better concept imho) and make it so Steam accounts can be shared over the same WIFI (private family WIFI's, not public).

This would then allow a family with multiple computers to utilize all the games on one account. As it stands right now, Steam is stealing money (again, this is my personal opinion) by restricting game access and forcing families to have multiple Steam accounts and then forcing the purchase of multiple copies of the same games to be utilized by said families.

I honestly am not sure how this has not yet been created into a lawsuit since it seems extremely underhanded.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Making Steam Account Games Available To Immediate Family

Back in the old days, if you had multiple computers in a family and multiple games, your family could play the games freely (I am not even talking about multiplayer, although you also could pull the CD out of the player while the game ran [for a lot of games] and do multiplayer that way). Steam sells the rights to these games, but it is not physically possible to play multiple different games in one house right now, which is not at all the way it should be or used to be.

My proposal is that steam makes changes to their system to be similar to netflix (obviously not the same, but a better concept imho) and make it so Steam accounts can be shared over the same WIFI (private family WIFI's, not public).

This would then allow a family with multiple computers to utilize all the games on one account. As it stands right now, Steam is stealing money (again, this is my personal opinion) by restricting game access and forcing families to have multiple Steam accounts and then forcing the purchase of multiple copies of the same games to be utilized by said families.

I honestly am not sure how this has not yet been created into a lawsuit since it seems extremely underhanded.

Person sharing goes offline while 1 person borrowing plays online.

[iasttraining]

You don't see how stupid that is??? Multiple computers. Family gaming nights. One at a time gaming would result in maybe 2 people getting to play AT BEST in the limited time that i get with my family. Stupid comment.

[Tanoomba]

You're looking at it as though every PC counts as its own "console", so different people should be able to access games from your library on multiple machines simultaneously. But it would be more apt to think about the Steam account itself being the "console". Only one person can use the account at a time, just like one person can use a console at a time.

I don't really think your complaint has the legal clout you suggest, as you certainly agreed to the rules when you created your account.

[iasttraining]

Consoles minimally have multiple controllers. But that's not my point. Classic gaming with CD's made it viable to game on multiple devices. Steam still sells the EXACT same legal rights to the games, but as its own platform. That in itself makes sense that a family should still be able to share in the experience.

[Washell]

There's no technically possible solution to limit sharing to a single household that can't be easily dodged and enable sharing with people on different continents. It's not that they don't want to do, it's that's there is no feasible way.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Consoles minimally have multiple controllers. But that's not my point. Classic gaming with CD's made it viable to game on multiple devices. Steam still sells the EXACT same legal rights to the games, but as its own platform. That in itself makes sense that a family should still be able to share in the experience.

Please tell me a game that was on CD that would run on multiple computers simultaneously with a single CD to share between them.

[Jessie]

Just make 1 account for each game you buy - then use family sharing to use the game on your main account. That is the only way you can use any game without disrupting the others.

[Jessie]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Please tell me a game that was on CD that would run on multiple computers simultaneously with a single CD to share between them.

Quake 3 - the CD was only required to launch the game, it could then be ejected without causing the game to close.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Jessie:

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Please tell me a game that was on CD that would run on multiple computers simultaneously with a single CD to share between them.

Quake 3 - the CD was only required to launch the game, it could then be ejected without causing the game to close.

Cool.

Good thing there are exceptions like that in Steam if you launch the exe directly without Steam open.

[HikariLight]

How would Steam know if the users your sharing with are your family? It is easy to lie on the internet. And the developers are the ones who decide if a game can be shared, they would like to make money, so that is why there are limits to the library sharing.

[Prof.Jackie]

The solution to your problem if you are really interested in one and this is mot just some made up scenario to rant, is simple.
It's called gog.com

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Back in the old days, if you had multiple computers in a family and multiple games, your family could play the games freely (I am not even talking about multiplayer, although you also could pull the CD out of the player while the game ran [for a lot of games] and do multiplayer that way). Steam sells the rights to these games, but it is not physically possible to play multiple different games in one house right now, which is not at all the way it should be or used to be.

My proposal is that steam makes changes to their system to be similar to netflix (obviously not the same, but a better concept imho) and make it so Steam accounts can be shared over the same WIFI (private family WIFI's, not public).

This would then allow a family with multiple computers to utilize all the games on one account. As it stands right now, Steam is stealing money (again, this is my personal opinion) by restricting game access and forcing families to have multiple Steam accounts and then forcing the purchase of multiple copies of the same games to be utilized by said families.

I honestly am not sure how this has not yet been created into a lawsuit since it seems extremely underhanded.

There has been no lawsuit because when you buy a game, any game, in any format (for example cartridge, cassette, floppy, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or digital only) you are only actually getting a single user license for that game. This is how it was right from the start.

IF a company allows you to do what you want, consider it a bonus, most will not allow it.

You can do it with Netflix because they allow you, for now. They are cracking down on password sharing and they are starting to allow people to add more accounts to theirs for a small fee. So its possible being able to run 1 account on a number of computers could be coming to and end. Though I don't know if they allow more than 1 computer at a time to use an account, I don't have Netflix so I can't try it.

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Consoles minimally have multiple controllers. But that's not my point. Classic gaming with CD's made it viable to game on multiple devices. Steam still sells the EXACT same legal rights to the games, but as its own platform. That in itself makes sense that a family should still be able to share in the experience.

PCs can also have multiple controllers and can have 2 or more people playing in a single game at once... if the game is designed for it. Just like consoles, if a game is not designed for 2 players locally, then you can't play with 2 players locally.

Originally posted by Prof.Jackie:

The solution to your problem if you are really interested in one and this is mot just some made up scenario to rant, is simple.
It's called gog.com

This is not actually a solution, because if GOG catches you doing what the OP wants to do not only could their account be locked, but they could end up being sued for piracy.

And yes they have warnings for that somewhere, I forgot exactly where.

[iasttraining]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Consoles minimally have multiple controllers. But that's not my point. Classic gaming with CD's made it viable to game on multiple devices. Steam still sells the EXACT same legal rights to the games, but as its own platform. That in itself makes sense that a family should still be able to share in the experience.

Please tell me a game that was on CD that would run on multiple computers simultaneously with a single CD to share between them.

Thats not what I am talking about. I am talking about access to the totality of games so the whole household can play their favorite games together. That said, me and my brothers used to use 1 age of empires II CD across 3 computers. Sometimes it would glitch out and stop working, but sometimes it worked well.

[iasttraining]

Originally posted by Jessie:

Just make 1 account for each game you buy - then use family sharing to use the game on your main account. That is the only way you can use any game without disrupting the others.

You do realize how amazingly outrageous this idea is right?

[iasttraining]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Back in the old days, if you had multiple computers in a family and multiple games, your family could play the games freely (I am not even talking about multiplayer, although you also could pull the CD out of the player while the game ran [for a lot of games] and do multiplayer that way). Steam sells the rights to these games, but it is not physically possible to play multiple different games in one house right now, which is not at all the way it should be or used to be.

My proposal is that steam makes changes to their system to be similar to netflix (obviously not the same, but a better concept imho) and make it so Steam accounts can be shared over the same WIFI (private family WIFI's, not public).

This would then allow a family with multiple computers to utilize all the games on one account. As it stands right now, Steam is stealing money (again, this is my personal opinion) by restricting game access and forcing families to have multiple Steam accounts and then forcing the purchase of multiple copies of the same games to be utilized by said families.

I honestly am not sure how this has not yet been created into a lawsuit since it seems extremely underhanded.

There has been no lawsuit because when you buy a game, any game, in any format (for example cartridge, cassette, floppy, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or digital only) you are only actually getting a single user license for that game. This is how it was right from the start.

IF a company allows you to do what you want, consider it a bonus, most will not allow it.

You can do it with Netflix because they allow you, for now. They are cracking down on password sharing and they are starting to allow people to add more accounts to theirs for a small fee. So its possible being able to run 1 account on a number of computers could be coming to and end. Though I don't know if they allow more than 1 computer at a time to use an account, I don't have Netflix so I can't try it.

Originally posted by jonwessmart:

Consoles minimally have multiple controllers. But that's not my point. Classic gaming with CD's made it viable to game on multiple devices. Steam still sells the EXACT same legal rights to the games, but as its own platform. That in itself makes sense that a family should still be able to share in the experience.

PCs can also have multiple controllers and can have 2 or more people playing in a single game at once... if the game is designed for it. Just like consoles, if a game is not designed for 2 players locally, then you can't play with 2 players locally.

Originally posted by Prof.Jackie:

The solution to your problem if you are really interested in one and this is mot just some made up scenario to rant, is simple.
It's called gog.com

This is not actually a solution, because if GOG catches you doing what the OP wants to do not only could their account be locked, but they could end up being sued for piracy.

And yes they have warnings for that somewhere, I forgot exactly where.

I am not talking about multiple people playing the same game. I am talking about multiple people in my household playing multiple games at once. I have a license for them, my family should be able to benefit from it outside of one person at a time using my steam account.