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If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game. Other family members are n

If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game. Other family members are not impacted. I understand why, obviously, but this is going to get acrimonious quickly.

Rinzler89 2y ago
Seems totally fair to me. Don't loan your games to people you can't vouch for. It creates and preserves a circle of accountability. Similarly how you wouldn't loan your car to a friend who doesn't have insurance. If you do it it's on you if he bins it.
- Larrikin 2y ago
  Pretty much every single child thinks cheats are the greatest things ever when they first discover them. Usually you discover how boring and easy they make the game fairly soon after, but you still try them out.
  - seba_dos1 2y ago
    Sure, but it's the parent's responsibility to teach the child to use such cheats in single player games to not ruin the experience for others in the process.
  - guappa 2y ago
    The tf2 cheaters have been at it for several years.
Trucont 2y ago
I feel like this might be a big deterrent for users that might add random friends or people online as a means of expanding their libraries instead of keeping it in their immediate family. Probably a nice side-effect from Valve's perspective. It would definitely suck to be banned because of your young child experimenting with cheats or something along those lines.
- jsheard 2y ago
  Per-account bans would also be easily exploited by those who do want to cheat - buy a game once, make five smurf accounts, add them all to a family, and get six fresh starts for the price of one. Any loophole like that absolutely would be abused.
  - red1reaper 2y ago
    Maybe it would be better if it worked by a system of strikes? Like if one of the accounts that you are sharing cheats, that account gets banned and yours get a strike, this strike means you and the other accounts that use your copy are more closly and harshly monitored but you can still play, if another cheat is detected in that copy then you get a ban. This would give breath room for parents to explain to their kids that they should not cheat without leaving that much leeway for cheaters themselves.
    - cmeacham98 2y ago
      That would require every single game/anticheat to implement a "closely monitored" feature, and also still effectively halves the price of the game for cheaters. Additionally, this only benefits people who share their game with cheaters - just don't do that. If you can't trust someone won't cheat with your copy of the game, they probably aren't a close family member.
    - schmorptron 2y ago
      Or maybe at least to allow users to restrict certain games from being shared?
duxup 2y ago
If feel like it is completely normal for any kind of sharing to have these kind of rules. It keeps people from using "don't blame me, family member did it" as an excuse / cover for cheating. I used to moderate a busy gaming forum, that excuse is baked into that community sadly.
thefz 2y ago
> I understand why, obviously, but this is going to get acrimonious quickly. Nah, I agree with it. It's sort of like private trackers invites, if an invitee is misbehaving, both the invitee and the inviter will be punished for it. It's enforcing an honor system between peers.
- duxup 2y ago
  I was just thinking how I wish that was the case on reddit, but for submissions. Some magic where if you submit some article that is BS, deceptive rage bait, or just not up to whatever the subs standards are ... you as the submitter take the hit somehow. It wouldn't be foolproof, but forums sometimes are inundated by users who love to post / submit stories and it chances the atmosphere of the forum from thoughtful to ... whatever low effort tweet is out there getting attention.

Rinzler89 2y ago

Seems totally fair to me. Don't loan your games to people you can't vouch for. It creates and preserves a circle of accountability. Similarly how you wouldn't loan your car to a friend who doesn't have insurance. If you do it it's on you if he bins it.

Larrikin 2y ago
Pretty much every single child thinks cheats are the greatest things ever when they first discover them. Usually you discover how boring and easy they make the game fairly soon after, but you still try them out.
- seba_dos1 2y ago
  Sure, but it's the parent's responsibility to teach the child to use such cheats in single player games to not ruin the experience for others in the process.
- guappa 2y ago
  The tf2 cheaters have been at it for several years.

Trucont 2y ago

I feel like this might be a big deterrent for users that might add random friends or people online as a means of expanding their libraries instead of keeping it in their immediate family. Probably a nice side-effect from Valve's perspective. It would definitely suck to be banned because of your young child experimenting with cheats or something along those lines.

jsheard 2y ago
Per-account bans would also be easily exploited by those who do want to cheat - buy a game once, make five smurf accounts, add them all to a family, and get six fresh starts for the price of one. Any loophole like that absolutely would be abused.
- red1reaper 2y ago
  Maybe it would be better if it worked by a system of strikes? Like if one of the accounts that you are sharing cheats, that account gets banned and yours get a strike, this strike means you and the other accounts that use your copy are more closly and harshly monitored but you can still play, if another cheat is detected in that copy then you get a ban. This would give breath room for parents to explain to their kids that they should not cheat without leaving that much leeway for cheaters themselves.
  - cmeacham98 2y ago
    That would require every single game/anticheat to implement a "closely monitored" feature, and also still effectively halves the price of the game for cheaters. Additionally, this only benefits people who share their game with cheaters - just don't do that. If you can't trust someone won't cheat with your copy of the game, they probably aren't a close family member.
  - schmorptron 2y ago
    Or maybe at least to allow users to restrict certain games from being shared?

duxup 2y ago

If feel like it is completely normal for any kind of sharing to have these kind of rules. It keeps people from using "don't blame me, family member did it" as an excuse / cover for cheating. I used to moderate a busy gaming forum, that excuse is baked into that community sadly.

thefz 2y ago

> I understand why, obviously, but this is going to get acrimonious quickly. Nah, I agree with it. It's sort of like private trackers invites, if an invitee is misbehaving, both the invitee and the inviter will be punished for it. It's enforcing an honor system between peers.

duxup 2y ago
I was just thinking how I wish that was the case on reddit, but for submissions. Some magic where if you submit some article that is BS, deceptive rage bait, or just not up to whatever the subs standards are ... you as the submitter take the hit somehow. It wouldn't be foolproof, but forums sometimes are inundated by users who love to post / submit stories and it chances the atmosphere of the forum from thoughtful to ... whatever low effort tweet is out there getting attention.