Shared Games

[Rex Futuri]

My wife and I both play games, and usually the same ones. She recently bought Hitman Absolution and we were unhappy to discover that you are only allowed ONE SAVE. In order for her to play, she now has to delete my saved progress. Now, I understand that Steam is designed to protect games from unpaid circulation, but legally, a husband and wife share property. Whatever is mine is hers and vice versa. I would very much appreciate some sort of rectification of current operations to allow my wife and I both access to games we purchase. Or we'll have to stick to buying as many as possible for Xbox, because Xbox still allows multiple people to play a game. I wouldn't think it would be that hard to set up. Even Netflix now has multiple user settings. Shouldn't Steam be more savvy than Netflix?

[Spawn of Totoro]

You share property, yes. You do not own games on Steam though.

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

2. LICENSES

A. License Terms.

Steam and your Subscription(s) require the automatic download and installation of Software onto your computer. Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software for your personal use in accordance with this Agreement, including the Subscription Terms. The Software is licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Software. To make use of the Software, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.
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Not everything is shared, even when married. A car, for exaple, that is in her name, is still her car.

There is no law that states what belongs to one belongs to the other. Each can still have their own.

[Rex Futuri]

You're actually wrong. All property and even debt is shared. That is why, when you divorce, you must divide up everything. And my point is still valid. I don't care what Steam's policy is; I am saying it should be modified. Or my wife and I will go back to buying our games somewhere else. We will not buy a game twice just so we can both play it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

引用自 Endymion Rex：

You're actually wrong. All property and even debt is shared. That is why, when you divorce, you must divide up everything. And my point is still valid. I don't care what Steam's policy is; I am saying it should be modified. Or my wife and I will go back to buying our games somewhere else. We will not buy a game twice just so we can both play it.

No, not all property is. Ask a lawyer if you like.

You agreed to an SSA with out reading it. You should care. Again, ask a lawyer why. To agree to a binding agreement with out reading it is just foolish.

Have fun with your x-box. Btw, consoles are trying to be more like Steam's system. You may get another generation or two before you are in the same boat with no other path next time.

[aWildSkitty]

引用自 Endymion Rex：

You're actually wrong. All property and even debt is shared. That is why, when you divorce, you must divide up everything. And my point is still valid. I don't care what Steam's policy is; I am saying it should be modified. Or my wife and I will go back to buying our games somewhere else. We will not buy a game twice just so we can both play it.

Steam profiles are meant for one person only. Steam doesn't have to do anything, you were foolish enough to agree to the agreement without reading this and therefore bought this on yourself. Not everything is shared, my parents divorced and somethings my mum took, like her car because it was in her name. therefore it was her's and not my dad's. You divide everything in the house because it's necessary, not because of some binding law.

[ariba]

My God, you have it all wrong Endymin Rex.

[ KARR™]

Regardless of account sharing, isn't this a choice of the people that MADE the game?

If they only allow you one save slot, complain to them, rather than the store you bought it from (or platform you play it on).

Also:

引用自 Endymion Rex：

when you divorce, you must divide up everything.

Not really, been there done that. You don't have to divide ANYTHING up. Although good luck in dividing up your toaster and your TV.

[Serell]

As KARR said, it's the people that made that game that way, not Steam. You need to go complain to them. I know, it very much sucks, and It really bothers me that people make their games this way now. Now my brother and I have to decide who gets to play through a game first before the other.

[vrmlbasic]

What kind of game only allows ONE save slot? That's absurd. If I want to save every 2 seconds and retain each and every one of those saves then the only thing stopping me should be my disk space. Fail.

Can you copy each save to another folder and then "paste" back the save of whomever wants to play the game at the moment? I know it's obvious and clunky, and shouldn't have to be done. I just wonder if it would work, for future reference.

The quoted part of the Steam agreement doesn't appear to proscribe 2 people playing one copy of a game asynchronously. Is Valve really against that? I hope not.

[vrmlbasic]

Let me ask you a question: What competition does Steam have when it comes to modern games? I believe that the answer is none. I'd like to make it clear I don't like Steam, I consider it a necessary evil for playing recent games on PC, and that's putting it mildly. If I could avoid it, I would, but then I'd have to give up modern gaming; can you play Hitman:Absolution without Steam, short of piracy?

I don't believe that you can. Since there's no competition for modern PC games there's no "other company" for steam--valve--to fall behind. Clearly those "millions of gamers" who want to "OWN" their games, as opposed to renting them via steam, that you mention (assuming that they do indeed exist) are willing to "suck it up" and put up with the indefinite steam rental service. Again, it's not as though they have a choice, if they want to play modern games.

No company is surpassing Steam, at least no company that provides ownership for modern games. If you believe that such a company exists, please enlighten me as to its name.

[Spawn of Totoro]

引用自 Endymion Rex：

Ah, stupidity. None of you seems to have gotten the point. It isn't about what Steam's policy IS. It is about what would be best. The policy should be changed, because Steam will possibly suffer eventually for doing things as it does. As time goes on, companies must adapt, policies change.

Steam is already at the forefront of the industry. Other companies are following Steam's example.

What is best for you or for Steam? Steam does a great job of balancing users want and need with their own as well as their other customers, the Publishers and Developers.

Your lack of any kind of understand besides your own wants is quite apparent.

引用自 Endymion Rex：

Eventually, people are going to do a large sum of their game purchases online. And they will be faced with the question of whether or not they want to pay to rent a game or to own it whole. Now, if Steam still offers the services as it does, any other company that sells a game without making you pay full price per user is going to have the advantage. I understand the policy as it stands, but that policy could very well make Steam fall behind another company.

New flash! They already are! Consoles are moving toa simlar system as Steam. They will start locking games to accounts at some point too. It just happens slower because there are so many generations of consoles to go through. They are stagnent with the way they do things for 5-10 years at a time.

Reas the TOS form old games before Steam. They had the same thing bout you not owning the software, can not share it, loan it or rent it out. You could transfer ownership my giving the game and everything you bought with it, that was it, as long as you remove the compy from your computer.

Developers want full price per a user. Any company that tries to force them to do otherwise will find them selves with no product to sell.

引用自 Endymion Rex：

The point is, people like myself, my wife, and the millions of other gamers that buy their games want to OWN them, not rent them through a proxy like Steam. If you pay $60 for a game, you should not have to go through a vendor to access it. Steam already has a large number of detractors, and that will only grow as gaming becomes even more digital. It would seem that, the way Steam operates, lending you a game for a single user, that the prices should be set accordingly, or the game opened up. If only one person can play the game, and only through Steam, then you are not purchasing the whole game, only renting space within it. I sincerely doubt Steam will be able to continue to operate in this fashion for much longer. It would make more sense to change now than to wait until it is surpassed by other companies.

The never owned their games. The IP on them always belonged to someone else. You were always paying for the media the game was on and the rights to play it as per the TOS of every game you never read the TOS on.

Steam will be able to keep this up because it is where the industry is heading. Don't like it, don't play games or learn to make your own.

引用自 Endymion Rex：

So please, stop posting about the user agreements. It is irrelevant to the point.

The SSA is relevant. Just because is proves others points and not your own does not mean you can dimiss it.

If you want to have an adult conversation, then do so. I suggest taking a buisness class before you do, so you understand how the industry realy works.

[Serell]

引用自 vrmlbasic：

What kind of game only allows ONE save slot? That's absurd. If I want to save every 2 seconds and retain each and every one of those saves then the only thing stopping me should be my disk space. Fail.

Most modern games for the PC only have one save slot. Ah, I remeber when there were different save slots that made things easier. Every game I can think of on my old Gamecube had at least 4 save slots for the whole family. Now again, this isn't Steams fault. The developers need to design their games with multiple save slots. The thing is, when people think of the PC, they get this picture in their mind that people don't share it :/

[vrmlbasic]

Ah, see I thought of "save slots" as number of saves total, but you're telling me that a save slot can hold a greater-than-one number of saves and is like a "profile"?

So if I were to play Hitman:Absolution (unlikely as steath games aren't high on my list; bad Splinter Cell memories) I could indeed have more than one save at a time?

Asked Another way, is it like Deus Ex: Human Revolution regarding saves?

[ManiacMal]

Ha, everyone missed the obvious zing, those two are sharing "a save slot". Oh ho! I'm here all night people!

[Serell]

引用自 vrmlbasic：

Ah, see I thought of "save slots" as number of saves total, but you're telling me that a save slot can hold a greater-than-one number of saves and is like a "profile"?

So if I were to play Hitman:Absolution (unlikely as steath games aren't high on my list; bad Splinter Cell memories) I could indeed have more than one save at a time?

Asked Another way, is it like Deus Ex: Human Revolution regarding saves?

Oh, I think I've got it wrong. Yes, I'm thinking of different profiles that categorize your saves. Games do have multiple save slots, but don't have profiles, which makes it harder for multiple people to play, because they have to look at all the saves to see which one is theirs.

[aWildSkitty]

引用自 vrmlbasic：

What kind of game only allows ONE save slot? That's absurd. If I want to save every 2 seconds and retain each and every one of those saves then the only thing stopping me should be my disk space. Fail.

Can you copy each save to another folder and then "paste" back the save of whomever wants to play the game at the moment? I know it's obvious and clunky, and shouldn't have to be done. I just wonder if it would work, for future reference.

The quoted part of the Steam agreement doesn't appear to proscribe 2 people playing one copy of a game asynchronously. Is Valve really against that? I hope not.

It's something you should probably get used to, this is the way the industry is heading, not just Valve. A steam user account is meant for one person meaning that they don't have to accomodate to people who want to share accounts, and why would they? It loses them money on sale, not that it's their choice anyway, it's the publisher's/developers's decision on how many save files a game will have.