Sharing Steam games with friends and family

[Silent_Buddha]

not from what I heard
a quote from an article about ms's original policy

Yes, but even at the beginning you would be able to "gift" a game once. But there were a lot of restrictions on it. The person had to have been on your friends list for a month and that person wouldn't be able to gift it, although they could then take it to a retailer who could resell it and that person presumably would have been able to "gift" it once.

And if you decided to charge someone for your "gift" then Microsoft would never know.

As usual, restrictions based on Publisher requirements.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

Yes, the hipotetical Xbox One sharing system would've been better, but I don't fucking care because:
1 - It's not going to happen
2 - It's not on PC

As for the rest, #dealwithit .




Now, I just learned that only a select people will be able to participate in the beta through invite. Only 1000 users will get an invite.
Joining the Steam Family Sharing group doesn't mean we'll access the system anytime soon.

If anyone gets an invitation here, please tell about your experience.

Yep deal with the loss of innovation on the console side. But champion the same innovations on the pc side.

Broken logic of the internet age.

 

[Davros]

Champion ??
He's being negative about steam sharing

 

[Billy Idol]

Yep deal with the loss of innovation on the console side. But champion the same innovations on the pc side.

Broken logic of the internet age.

Innovation in the sense that PS3 has it since its launch and MS thought...hm, good idea....or what?

 

[scooby_dooby]

What do you mean with "game the system"?

By sharing user accounts.

So she can sign in upstairs, and play my Plants vs Zombies I bought 3 yrs ago, and I can sign in downstairs and play Borderlands.

We have to continually re-signin, and sometimes get annoying nag text that I've been "signed out of steam", but other than that it works fine.

I just wish I didn't have to play idiotic games to have the simple basic right to share, or lend, something I've purchased with another individual.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Why doesn't your wife just go offline when she logs in to play plants vs. zombies?

Then again, you still have alternatives:

1 - Buy the game in retail so you can swap discs, if available
2 - Buy the games through gog.com since they're all DRM-less and you can install as many times you want, if available
3 - You can always buy a copy of Plants vs. Zombies for her during some sales. That would be what, $2?



I think it's obvious that this sharing service is not for people to play several games from the same account at the same time.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Why doesn't your wife just go offline when she logs in to play plants vs. zombies?

Then again, you still have alternatives:

1 - Buy the game in retail so you can swap discs, if available
2 - Buy the games through gog.com since they're all DRM-less and you can install as many times you want, if available
3 - You can always buy a copy of Plants vs. Zombies for her during some sales. That would be what, $2?

I think it's obvious that this sharing service is not for people to play several games from the same account at the same time.

It's not about any specific title, it's about basic user rights and fairness.

I feel like digital media, should have the same inherent ownership rights as physical items.

And I'm not alone.The stated purpose of this initiative, is to respond to users, and allow us to share games as we would with traditional media:
“Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared,” explained Anna Sweet of Valve. “Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.”
http://store.steampowered.com/news/11436/

So, it's completely valid to discuss whether this initiative accomplishes the stated goal. And the answer is that it doesn't.

It's ridiculous. Hey can I borrow that book? Ya, but you need to take every book in my house too... wat? I can't imagine who thought this would be a good idea...

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Innovation in the sense that PS3 has it since its launch and MS thought...hm, good idea....or what?

People seem to ignore it completely everytime someone brings this up. There is nothing new in what MS wanted to do. We have been sharing games on 5 ps3 since PSN launched. No strings attached. People abused the system, myslef included, we formed groups of five to buy PSN games, DLCs,etc.

So, Sony brought down the number of systems to 2. Now one account can be shared between 2 PS3s and 2 PSVitas, no strings attached. And there is glitch to take the number of PS3s to 4.

People imagining that MS would let you do that on 10 systems when they have seen it being abused by people all over is just wishful thinking or just ignorance about the sharing on PSN.
Sony has found a good soultion for PS4, in the sense , that you can play your games on any PS4 as long as you are signed in, like steam, but you can authorise ONE ps4 where every account will be able to play games bought on your account, making it your family PS4. Liberating and limiting in one stroke.

Lets not derail the thread though.

I cam looking for news about the Steam OS Valve seems to have announced. What is the deal with it? Can it be installed on all PCs? Is it a Windows replacement full fledged OS? Is there any link to a proper announcement?

 

[Malo]

I cam looking for news about the Steam OS Valve seems to have announced. What is the deal with it? Can it be installed on all PCs? Is it a Windows replacement full fledged OS? Is there any link to a proper announcement?

We're discussing it over here in the console forum

 

[joker454]

People seem to ignore it completely everytime someone brings this up. There is nothing new in what MS wanted to do.

C'mon guys ps3's sharing was not the same, everyone knows that. I owned a ps3, and there was no easy way for me to share stuff with family unless they signed into my account on their machines, that's not a good implementation of family sharing at all. Valve's idea has it's limits, but I can understand them wanting to start small at first and go from there.

 

[Billy Idol]

C'mon guys ps3's sharing was not the same, everyone knows that. I owned a ps3, and there was no easy way for me to share stuff with family unless they signed into my account on their machines, that's not a good implementation of family sharing at all. Valve's idea has it's limits, but I can understand them wanting to start small at first and go from there.

What is the problem???

You make a common account (psn allows arbitrary number). Takes 5min to communicate the details.

If it is your family, put in your credit card info an everyone can use it. Buy games and play them together.

?

 

[Davros]

so then anyone logged into that account can just buy games and they get put on your card or are the details not saved ?

 

[Billy Idol]

so then anyone logged into that account can just buy games and they get put on your card or are the details not saved ?

If you want to...yes

If not, put in a password (and better don't tell anyone)....than you are safe of course!

But Joker talked about his familiy...

 

[joker454]

What is the problem???

You make a common account (psn allows arbitrary number). Takes 5min to communicate the details.

If it is your family, put in your credit card info an everyone can use it. Buy games and play them together.

?

It's not the same for a whole host of reasons. What happens when they are logged in with my account and they get chat requests from friends of mine? Or what if my niece decides to buy 30 games? Or what if my account gets banned because Sony saw that my account was being used in different countries via ip? Or what if I don't want to make a separate shared account because I want to earn achievements on my proper main account? Or what if they lend their ps3 to a friend and now that friend has all my account details? Or what if I don't want them affecting my cloud save files? It's a kludge, definitely not the same thing.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Give ur account info to ur family. They sign in once, download the game they wanna play. Change the password. They can keep playing till eternity on their own account. Sharing can't be more open than this.

I am sure u can trust your family for one sign in !wh would Sony ban ur account for singning in from a different country ? People can't travel or have family in other countries? I have a brother in the US and we recently shared CSGO on his Us account. Its normal.

You will earn trophies on whatever account u want to play on. Simply shows people have no idea what PSN sharing is like. There are no restrictions as long as the account on which the game was bought exists on ur ps3. You don't even have to sign in once u have dowbloaded it once.

@Davros: No. You delete the billing info before giving ur credentials to someone else. So, no , they cannot buy games, even by mistake.

 

[joker454]

I am sure u can trust your family for one sign in !wh would Sony ban ur account for singning in from a different country ? People can't travel or have family in other countries? I have a brother in the US and we recently shared CSGO on his Us account. Its normal.

That's not the intent of their sharing, the intent was to allow multiple ps3's in the same house to share the games. That's how it was told to us when they added the feature, not so that people across countries could share games. This got abused so they had to drop the limits on it because given the opportunity to abuse something, people will abuse it.

You will earn trophies on whatever account u want to play on. Simply shows people have no idea what PSN sharing is like. There are no restrictions as long as the account on which the game was bought exists on ur ps3. You don't even have to sign in once u have dowbloaded it once.

The account earns the achievements, in other words others would be unlocking achievements for me on the same games we play, that's how it used to work when I had a ps3. That's not acceptable, to me anyways.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

That's not the intent of their sharing, the intent was to allow multiple ps3's in the same house to share the games. That's how it was told to us when they added the feature, not so that people across countries could share games. This got abused so they had to drop the limits on it because given the opportunity to abuse something, people will abuse it.

Yes,thats why I said that its highly unlikely MS would allow something similar on thier ecosystem as it has already been widely abused. But still, for a family, it is very easy and liberating to play games bought in one account by all accounts.

The account earns the achievements, in other words others would be unlocking achievements for me on the same games we play, that's how it used to work when I had a ps3. That's not acceptable, to me anyways.

No,no. See, lets say I bought a game in account X. All accounts on 2 ps3s can play the game and will earn trophies in their respective accounts, not in account X. Account X will earn trophies only when u play in account X. No one else will unlock ur trophies.
PSN store did not exist for my country whenI bought my first ps3, hence I had to make a EU account to play. Later, we got the PSN store and I made an account to buy games from there. Even today, I buy games from my local psn account while I play all my games on my EU account as it has all my friend list, save games and trophies.

 

[Billy Idol]

Yeah, Renegade already explained everything. No problem with IPs, I share with my buddy in another country in Europe, no problem with him downloading 30 games when he is drunk, because of the password which I changed, all games in my download list are immediately available to him...takes 5 clicks to start downloading, is legal as Sony allows it, once on the system, can be played with every PS3 account, hence no interference (there are very few exceptions, where the publisher don't allow PSN share), all trophies and save games etc on you own personal gaming account...he got mine account, I got his which basically doubles our games (although he lately only plays PC and let me buy all games, as he knows that I am addicted to gaming)...but nobody stops you from making a common sharing account to make a clear cut between the games you want to share...takes another 5 minutes and an Email address to set it up.

In fact, I think that PS3 has the most open sharing system up to date. And that it showed, as this is exactly the reason why Sony had to restrict it from 5 down to 2.

If you check the facts, PS3 sharing even now with two, is exactly what you need for your nieces to enjoy gaming your games without paying and without interrupting your own gaming

Steam sharing in contrast to this seems extremely limited imo.

 

[joker454]

Ok but ultimately that wasn't the intent, that's from Sony themselves. It'd be like saying sure I share games with friends, we all just buy one disc, duplicate it and we all play it, no harm done. That's not what Sony had in mind with their initial account sharing feature even though that's how it ended up being used until publishers started asking Sony wtf?!? At that point they couldn't kill the feature entirely without mass backlash so they just chopped it down to 2. Plus sure I want to share games with my niece, but believe it or not I do have other friends I want to share with as well so just 2 is too limiting. Finally I want it to all work automatically and as intended, I don't want to putz around with it, I have zero tolerance for anything that doesn't just easily work anymore. Microsoft's idea was great but it's dead and buried so I don't even want to waste cycles on it anymore. Steam's idea is limited, but at least it's a first step. I mean sure you have been able to share games ps3 style on steam for years now. Just make a Steam account per game, and pass that around to friends, i believe you can authorize 3 machines per steam account. Presto, game sharing for ages now even before the ps3 came out, except that's not how it was intended to be used although I'm certain many people do.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

But ps3's system was meant for sharing with family. There was no other intent. We are sharing with randomn people, yes exploiting it, but it offers an unontrusive and easy way of sharing with our family/friends.

Wish steam would make it this simple, that once i have installed my games on a Pc, they would work on that pc irrespective of the account. Thats how it is on the ps3, but only allowed on 2 systems. There are number of games I bought during steam sales for my niece but couldn't give them to her as her pc isn't connected to the internet. Lately , I bought all the humble bundles which had those games so that. I could get DRM less or standalone versions to install on her pc.