News - Steam Family Sharing released for all users

[Jonj1611]

If I'm aware of the general (and vocal?) dissatisfaction about the way that this has been done, then surely Valve are too? In which case, (naive mode on), surely there will be some incentive to go back to the drawing board and "do it right"? Here's hoping.

I am going to hope with you, lets get a candlelight vigil going

[shaithis]

Playing with this, I am not seeing how to add someone to share with? I can share on my home network... but I dont see any option to add a user to the list.

This is my other big issue with it in it's current form....

You actually have to login with your steam account on the persons PC that you want to share with.
No remote sharing enabling (probably an over-the-top security measure as they don't trust themselves)

Quite annoying that you might have to dry/fly hundreds or thousands of miles to login or go against their EULA and give out your details.

[kellyharding]

its an interesting addition. they're probably facing restrictions from other developers etc to put some of those limits in place i'd guess.

[crossy]

On the other hand, I'm going to agree with your general point - IF Valve had implemented SFS properly then it would have been a definite plus point for SteamOS/Box, assuming that Steam doesn't differentiate between the Windows version of a title and a Linux variant (so if you buy a title you get single-concurrent play use on any platform it's supported on).

Just tried this - installing Steam on my Ubuntu12.04-running laptop. And to my surprise, when I launched Steam and logged in (then had to authorise access to my library on that laptop) the client offered me the chance to download Linux versions of titles I'd got in my Windows library - where those existed of course. At no extra charge - so it looks like you ARE licensed for cross-platform, at least on those titles I tried.

Nice!

[Jonj1611]

Thats a nice touch

[FRISH]

This is not a good idea in my opinion, you will be quite disappointed when you log on to play a game just to find out you have to stop the other people playing who are sharing your library, hows that good?

This could have been a great idea if anyone you are sharing your library with could play games at the same time, the games you paid money for!

Now before anyone jumps in, I am not talking about playing the same game, I understand the restrictions there but for instance, if my daughter wants to play Lego Batman and I wanted to play Civ 5, we can't, because that is not allowed, and they are saying sharing with up to 5 accounts!

My god, why, when no one can play at the same time, family arguments begin here!

From the FAQ :-

Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?

No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

What about sharing a real copy? If you're loaning a game to someone else you may have to wait another day to get it back. I don't see why sharing should be any different, at least both of you can easily play at different times and if someones playing when you want to, you can just tell them to get off, unlike something you can do with real copies.

[Jonj1611]

Sorry your example makes no sense, certainly into the point I was making which was family sharing, I bought several games for my daughter to play, if she is playing those games on steam then I cannot play what I want to, and its unlikely I would want to play the game I had bought her anyway.

Secondly and lets go by your example, if you physically lent a copy of a game to someone you aren't then going to sit at home not playing anything you own because your physical copy has been lent out are you, which is exactly what steam does, someone starts playing a game and you cannot play any other game until either you stop them playing or you wait until they have finished.

Or do you think it is just the game you have lent someone? Its not just that one game, its ANY game, for instance, someone starts playing Alien Breed from my library, I cannot play any game I own until that person has finished, whether its the same game or a different one.

[DeViLzzz]

I still don't see the point of this. With many games having multiplayer and people wanting to play together you are going to need more than one copy. Sometimes what Valve is doing here works and other times who cares.