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So this feature seems to be target to family sharing PCs? I really hate Steam's family sharing. It seemed a great idea. I could purchase some games for kids on

So this feature seems to be target to family sharing PCs? I really hate Steam's family sharing. It seemed a great idea. I could purchase some games for kids on my account and they could play on their separate PC. I fully expected that I can't run same game on two PCs if I purchased just a single license. What I totally didn't expect was that if kid is playing any single game from my library, I can't play anything else on my PC! Two entirely different games, with two full paid licenses can't be played at the same time. This policy moved Steam from "oh it's so convenient" to "ugh, I won't purchase anything ever again on the Steam". Yes, I could create a new account but then I'm locked out form all the games I already purchased. Now if I'm buying a game the first thing I'm looking is if there's is a non-Steam version.

techaqua 4y ago
make you kid another account? i family share with my friends just fine reading you post again. i think you use family sharing wrong. > Yes, I could create a new account but then I'm locked out form all the games family sharing needs multiple account
xboxnolifes 4y ago
This happens for any game that requires you to be online. So I'll note that it shouldn't be a problem if it's a single player game.
rstupek 4y ago
I can play if I'm in offline mode without an issue when my son plays on his computer. Have you tried that?
- jamroom 4y ago
  Yeah this is what you do - "restart in offline mode". I have my kids do this and we can all play whenever.
- goosedragons 4y ago
  That only helps in the scenario somebody wants to play offline. If one person wants to play CoD: Black Ops online while the other plays Halo MCC online you can't.
  - cypress66 4y ago
    Nah this is a steam offline mode, which is independent from your internet connection and the games ability to use the internet.
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photoGrant 4y ago
No it seems to target having the game on your PC then wanting to install it on your Steam Deck.
chaostheory 4y ago
Why not just disable Family Share instead?
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  If you grant someone Family Sharing access, and then revoke it, you can't grant it again for 90 days. This is presumably to prevent it from becoming Friend Sharing. The issue is without family sharing, you can't share games. But with it enabled if you both own a certain game, it gets confused and only 1 of you can play it at a time.
  - YokoZar 4y ago
    Specifically, if I own game X and you own game Y, then with sharing I can play your Y while you play my X at the same time. But if I buy game Y, and play it, steam will then prevent you from playing my game X at the same time.
    - chaostheory 4y ago
      Wait, this scenario is real and they haven’t fixed it yet?
  - chaostheory 4y ago
    Well, grujicd considers Steam Family Share to be so broken that he no longer wants to buy games on Steam. That’s fair. What doesn’t make any sense is why he just doesn’t disable it if he hates it so much?
    - grujicd 4y ago
      I guess I hate it because I believed marketing term "family sharing" and did not realize it's "family sharing with caveats and significant limitations". With that incorrect belief I bought a number of games for both kids and myself before I realized full impact of these limitations. What's worse, even with hindsight I'm not sure how a parent should organize 2-3 accounts to allow all what "family sharing" implies. And consider that kid now plays some Mario game but in a year or two would play Wolfenstein, so it's not easy to separate by "my" and "their" games.
eatsyourtacos 4y ago
[flagged]
- paulryanrogers 4y ago
  > And you sound exactly like the kind of person who would just take advantage of this and ruin it for the rest of us- since you are already complaining about something free. They said they wanted to share among their family. Your interpretation assumes more aggressive and less reasonable behavior. My guess is that while such friend sharing is a risk, it's unlikely to be from families like the poster above. In fact I doubt such sharing would widespread since many folks want trophies and trading cards in their own accounts. Consider also that with disc media family and friends can pass around games. That didn't ruin gaming before digital allowed publishers to lock up reasonable consumer rights.
- grujicd 4y ago
  > And you sound exactly like the kind of person who would just take advantage of this and ruin it for the rest of us- since you are already complaining about something free. This is a bit harsh if not straight offensive. I reckon you don’t have kids, you’re building your Steam library for yourself? In my opinion, I had a perfectly valid expectation that if I paid full licenses for 2 different games, I’d be able to play both of them at the same time on two PCs. You know, like in old CD/DVD days. Steam was supposed to be superior to that, not inferior? Sure, some games can work in offline mode, but not all of them. > they implement something that ONLY HELPS and you never want to buy from them again. Once you make a mistake to purchase some games for kids using your existing account, you can’t go back. Family sharing doesn’t help you any more, it creates problems. I can’t buy Flight Simulator on Steam just for myself, even if it won’t be ever shared with kids. They’ll kick me out if they want unrelated game from a library. Few days ago we had a family meeting to decide how to purchase Hogwarts Legacy, talking into consideration which kid plays which games on which accounts, should it be Steam, Epic, on kids account or mine… It felt bizare. I bought it on Epic at the end. Not that Epic is better in this regard, it’s just that kids have separate accounts there from the start. Notice that we want to play on single computer, no sharing whatsover, fully priced $59 license, but there’s still a risk it won’t work if other kid plays let’s say Among Us on another PC. Should we create a new account for new game? Will we be banned? I even wanted to buy it on DVD for these reasons but it was not an option. How is this user friendly? This is a cautinary story for future parents, or for those whose kids will be gamers in a year or two.
knome 4y ago
>policy moved Steam from "oh it's so convenient" to "ugh, I won't purchase anything ever again on the Steam" Ha. Even without family sharing Steam is still the best platform for game purchases. Family sharing not being what you want hardly invalidates the rest of the platform. I always saw family sharing as something for a family that shares a single PC, letting the family only have to purchase one copy of the game for the household.
- infogulch 4y ago
  It's an irritating policy because it illuminates the fact that you don't actually own the games. If you actually owned two games you could play them on two separate systems, while being logged out of steam.
  - xeromal 4y ago
    It's pretty obvious whenever you purchase a game and you have to accept the steam "subscriber" agreement. FWIW, I think steam is the lesser of many weevils so I deal with it.
- bombolo 4y ago
  Games on CD allowed you to play on LAN with 1 CD for 3-4 players. It was actually a documented feature. How is this better than it was?
  - batch12 4y ago
    I wont argue it is better, but you can do this with some games on steam using offline mode if the game supports other methods of multi-player outside of steam.
  - hypertele-Xii 4y ago
    I need neither a CD drive nor to store tons of plastic slabs with easily-scratching discs inside, nor to swap discs just to play a different game. Nor to go downtown to buy new ones. It's a lot better in many ways, even if not specifically in sharing.
CharlesW 4y ago
> I really hate Steam's family sharing. This is something that Apple gets really right, and that Valve and Microsoft (I don't have experience with Sony or Nintendo family ecosystems) get really wrong. I can't even buy multiple copies of a co-op game on the family Steam account that the family can use to play together.
- goosedragons 4y ago
  Doesn't Apple's family sharing have a big problem with IAPs not being shared? So maybe you get the base game (but maybe not if it's an IAP on a free title) but not the expansions? The consoles all have a pretty similar system at this point. You get a master console where it can play everything offline/online and any user account can access anything the account set the console as master owns and then you can log into another console and use everything the account owns while online. There might be minor differences among platforms but that's the jist of it. It's kinda bad for Nintendo Switch with the second system being a handheld though. Still better than Steam's. In the good ol' days Sony allowed you to have 5 PS3s and there was no difference but it got abused so they cut it to two.
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    > Doesn't Apple's family sharing have a big problem with IAPs not being shared? It's up to the developer as of iOS 14: https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sharing-allows-subscriptions-in-app-purchases https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sha... > The consoles all have a pretty similar system at this point. Not on Xbox, which is my primary gaming device. Here's how the "home console" feature works today: > "Xbox home console is an existing feature that allows you to share games and content with other people who sign in to your home console with their profile. However, it’s limited to that device, so friends and family must sign in to the console you identify as your home Xbox to access those benefits." On the bright side, something new called "Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family" is coming. It provides an Apple-like experience for games on Game Pass, which is a good start: > "When you share with Friends & Family, the primary account holder and up to four additional members each get their own unique access to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits, regardless of what device they play on. All the people you invite can play at the same time, even the same game." https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/manage-subscriptions/xbox-game-pass-friends-family-faq https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/ma...
MikeSchurman 4y ago
This seems like a "me too" comment, but I agree on family sharing being fairly poor for most (IMO) families. I still love steam, but I was really excited to share my library of 300 games with my son who just got a steam deck (like I could easily do if I had hard-copies), but no. We have to take turns playing (different games). Now we need to be creative whose account owns which game when making purchase. Also kind of frustrated any time I see someone complain about this, there is a horde of people saying "you're wrong and greedy, steam is awesome". I realize doing this the "right" way might be impractical from a licensing standpoint (or people cheating the system). It still pales in comparison to hard-copies though in this regard.
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techaqua 4y ago

make you kid another account? i family share with my friends just fine reading you post again. i think you use family sharing wrong. > Yes, I could create a new account but then I'm locked out form all the games family sharing needs multiple account

xboxnolifes 4y ago

This happens for any game that requires you to be online. So I'll note that it shouldn't be a problem if it's a single player game.

rstupek 4y ago

I can play if I'm in offline mode without an issue when my son plays on his computer. Have you tried that?

jamroom 4y ago
Yeah this is what you do - "restart in offline mode". I have my kids do this and we can all play whenever.
goosedragons 4y ago
That only helps in the scenario somebody wants to play offline. If one person wants to play CoD: Black Ops online while the other plays Halo MCC online you can't.
- cypress66 4y ago
  Nah this is a steam offline mode, which is independent from your internet connection and the games ability to use the internet.

deleted 4y ago

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photoGrant 4y ago

No it seems to target having the game on your PC then wanting to install it on your Steam Deck.

chaostheory 4y ago

Why not just disable Family Share instead?

squeaky-clean 4y ago
If you grant someone Family Sharing access, and then revoke it, you can't grant it again for 90 days. This is presumably to prevent it from becoming Friend Sharing. The issue is without family sharing, you can't share games. But with it enabled if you both own a certain game, it gets confused and only 1 of you can play it at a time.
- YokoZar 4y ago
  Specifically, if I own game X and you own game Y, then with sharing I can play your Y while you play my X at the same time. But if I buy game Y, and play it, steam will then prevent you from playing my game X at the same time.
  - chaostheory 4y ago
    Wait, this scenario is real and they haven’t fixed it yet?
- chaostheory 4y ago
  Well, grujicd considers Steam Family Share to be so broken that he no longer wants to buy games on Steam. That’s fair. What doesn’t make any sense is why he just doesn’t disable it if he hates it so much?
  - grujicd 4y ago
    I guess I hate it because I believed marketing term "family sharing" and did not realize it's "family sharing with caveats and significant limitations". With that incorrect belief I bought a number of games for both kids and myself before I realized full impact of these limitations. What's worse, even with hindsight I'm not sure how a parent should organize 2-3 accounts to allow all what "family sharing" implies. And consider that kid now plays some Mario game but in a year or two would play Wolfenstein, so it's not easy to separate by "my" and "their" games.

eatsyourtacos 4y ago

[flagged]

paulryanrogers 4y ago
> And you sound exactly like the kind of person who would just take advantage of this and ruin it for the rest of us- since you are already complaining about something free. They said they wanted to share among their family. Your interpretation assumes more aggressive and less reasonable behavior. My guess is that while such friend sharing is a risk, it's unlikely to be from families like the poster above. In fact I doubt such sharing would widespread since many folks want trophies and trading cards in their own accounts. Consider also that with disc media family and friends can pass around games. That didn't ruin gaming before digital allowed publishers to lock up reasonable consumer rights.
grujicd 4y ago
> And you sound exactly like the kind of person who would just take advantage of this and ruin it for the rest of us- since you are already complaining about something free. This is a bit harsh if not straight offensive. I reckon you don’t have kids, you’re building your Steam library for yourself? In my opinion, I had a perfectly valid expectation that if I paid full licenses for 2 different games, I’d be able to play both of them at the same time on two PCs. You know, like in old CD/DVD days. Steam was supposed to be superior to that, not inferior? Sure, some games can work in offline mode, but not all of them. > they implement something that ONLY HELPS and you never want to buy from them again. Once you make a mistake to purchase some games for kids using your existing account, you can’t go back. Family sharing doesn’t help you any more, it creates problems. I can’t buy Flight Simulator on Steam just for myself, even if it won’t be ever shared with kids. They’ll kick me out if they want unrelated game from a library. Few days ago we had a family meeting to decide how to purchase Hogwarts Legacy, talking into consideration which kid plays which games on which accounts, should it be Steam, Epic, on kids account or mine… It felt bizare. I bought it on Epic at the end. Not that Epic is better in this regard, it’s just that kids have separate accounts there from the start. Notice that we want to play on single computer, no sharing whatsover, fully priced $59 license, but there’s still a risk it won’t work if other kid plays let’s say Among Us on another PC. Should we create a new account for new game? Will we be banned? I even wanted to buy it on DVD for these reasons but it was not an option. How is this user friendly? This is a cautinary story for future parents, or for those whose kids will be gamers in a year or two.

knome 4y ago

>policy moved Steam from "oh it's so convenient" to "ugh, I won't purchase anything ever again on the Steam" Ha. Even without family sharing Steam is still the best platform for game purchases. Family sharing not being what you want hardly invalidates the rest of the platform. I always saw family sharing as something for a family that shares a single PC, letting the family only have to purchase one copy of the game for the household.

infogulch 4y ago
It's an irritating policy because it illuminates the fact that you don't actually own the games. If you actually owned two games you could play them on two separate systems, while being logged out of steam.
- xeromal 4y ago
  It's pretty obvious whenever you purchase a game and you have to accept the steam "subscriber" agreement. FWIW, I think steam is the lesser of many weevils so I deal with it.
bombolo 4y ago
Games on CD allowed you to play on LAN with 1 CD for 3-4 players. It was actually a documented feature. How is this better than it was?
- batch12 4y ago
  I wont argue it is better, but you can do this with some games on steam using offline mode if the game supports other methods of multi-player outside of steam.
- hypertele-Xii 4y ago
  I need neither a CD drive nor to store tons of plastic slabs with easily-scratching discs inside, nor to swap discs just to play a different game. Nor to go downtown to buy new ones. It's a lot better in many ways, even if not specifically in sharing.

CharlesW 4y ago

> I really hate Steam's family sharing. This is something that Apple gets really right, and that Valve and Microsoft (I don't have experience with Sony or Nintendo family ecosystems) get really wrong. I can't even buy multiple copies of a co-op game on the family Steam account that the family can use to play together.

goosedragons 4y ago
Doesn't Apple's family sharing have a big problem with IAPs not being shared? So maybe you get the base game (but maybe not if it's an IAP on a free title) but not the expansions? The consoles all have a pretty similar system at this point. You get a master console where it can play everything offline/online and any user account can access anything the account set the console as master owns and then you can log into another console and use everything the account owns while online. There might be minor differences among platforms but that's the jist of it. It's kinda bad for Nintendo Switch with the second system being a handheld though. Still better than Steam's. In the good ol' days Sony allowed you to have 5 PS3s and there was no difference but it got abused so they cut it to two.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > Doesn't Apple's family sharing have a big problem with IAPs not being shared? It's up to the developer as of iOS 14: https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sharing-allows-subscriptions-in-app-purchases https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sha... > The consoles all have a pretty similar system at this point. Not on Xbox, which is my primary gaming device. Here's how the "home console" feature works today: > "Xbox home console is an existing feature that allows you to share games and content with other people who sign in to your home console with their profile. However, it’s limited to that device, so friends and family must sign in to the console you identify as your home Xbox to access those benefits." On the bright side, something new called "Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family" is coming. It provides an Apple-like experience for games on Game Pass, which is a good start: > "When you share with Friends & Family, the primary account holder and up to four additional members each get their own unique access to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits, regardless of what device they play on. All the people you invite can play at the same time, even the same game." https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/manage-subscriptions/xbox-game-pass-friends-family-faq https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/ma...

MikeSchurman 4y ago

This seems like a "me too" comment, but I agree on family sharing being fairly poor for most (IMO) families. I still love steam, but I was really excited to share my library of 300 games with my son who just got a steam deck (like I could easily do if I had hard-copies), but no. We have to take turns playing (different games). Now we need to be creative whose account owns which game when making purchase. Also kind of frustrated any time I see someone complain about this, there is a horde of people saying "you're wrong and greedy, steam is awesome". I realize doing this the "right" way might be impractical from a licensing standpoint (or people cheating the system). It still pales in comparison to hard-copies though in this regard.

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