Sharing a steam account

[b0redom]

Hi All,
I've got kids who are just starting to get into PC gaming, and they've discovered my steam account which has a LOAD of games in it. Is it really not possible for them both to play a different game at the same time?

I really don't want to have to buy multiple copies of the same game on different accounts. When they're likely not to be even playing the same things....

Cheers....

b0redom

[Output]

I was going to suggest that Steam Family Sharing sounded like what you were looking for, but unfortunately according to the FAQ it says that you can't have both play at the same time as it has to be only one person accessing at a time.

[b0redom]

Yeah that's what I found. I was messing around with a spare PC I have knocking around and fired up Elite Dangerous and it disconnected another PC running Limbo. Don't get me wrong, if they were both playing the same game that's fair enough, but I've got around 2-300 games and I am _not_ rebuying them all on a 2nd account!

[Output]

I agree that it doesn't make sense to limit it like that, especially considering it's supposed to be called "Family Sharing", but I guess they probably decided it would encourage more people to do exactly what you don't want to do.

[Ferral]

In your case I would maybe set one of the machines to have Steam in offlline mode, you only have to have it connected every few weeks just for verification, then have the other machine online and all should be fineprovided the offline user is just playing single player stuff.

Offline mode is way better than it used to be, when I last moved I had no internet access for around 2 weeks, before I moved I set it to offline and all was fine.

[b0redom]

Interesting. Is there a limit to how many machines you can have in offline mode? I've got 3 kids and only one being able to have 2 players (including me) may lead to fighting.

Honestly I can't believer it's this much of a ball ache. Even Apple are less restrictive than this!

[Ferral]

I would say start Steam up on 1st machine then stick it into offline, then same again with second machine and finally third. Not sure about how many on offline mode as never needed to do it on more than just my machine. As long as you don't have more than one machine connected online you should be ok.

Another thing that is worth looking into, especially older titles is GOG, you can install their games on as many of your machines as you want and they are DRM Free, you don't have to use the client and can download the installers via your browser.