so? achievements are easily the least significant part of the game anyway. besides they can see what they are to unlock(people usually look it up anyway), and know roughly when they've earned it even if the game didn't tell them with a little popup
multiple save games I already do even on games that aren't intended for it. just hide one save in a folder and drop the 2nd one in its place to switch
Comment has been collapsed.
With this you don't need to give your password to other members of your family. They each have their own stats, achievements and saved games without the need to move files around.
Comment has been collapsed.
so why did this need its own thread? This reads like(and basically is) a reply to the other. just disembodied and flung over here for some reason. without reading the other thread nobody knows what you're replying about anyway...so whats it doing out here?
additionally yore point doesn't even make sense. if this is the intended use(play your account on a single steam console) why the option to enable more than one device with it? And if you can then in this context the limit still makes exactly as little sense as ever.
If I have two consoles and a game library can't my brother play pickman while I've got zelda? I don't need to take all the games away from him including pickman to play zelda on the other tv...so naturally in this context(in your context. in the console context) I've got two steam consoles and a game library, so one of them is a doorstop 50% of the time?
Comment has been collapsed.
The only problem is that you can't play together with them when sharing the game.
Comment has been collapsed.
That isn't the intended audience for this feature.
Consider this - I have a steam library of about 340+ games. I also have a friend that has a steam library of 300+ games, many of which I would like to play, but I don't want to add to his gaming hours and achievements. I do have access to his Steam account right now. Now, this friend of mine is currently under training in the army, and will be away for many months, so I could use his library without being kicked out of a game mid-session.
I am also a sparse gamer. I play for about half an hour to an hour a day. The very same friend of mine that I mentioned above would also like to play a lot of games I bought in bundles and cheap sales while he was away.
This type of sharing, although not the preferred method of sharing, still works for a lot of people.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, obviously it work for alot of people, but the problem here is that it isn't ideal for the majority as the majority of people have pretty much the same play hours, the best choice would be sharing with people who really far from your time zone, but you won't find that many people with that close friends that live so far from their time zone.
Comment has been collapsed.
Add to that their policy on your account being banned from sharing your library if someone else cheats using your shared library. e.g. - You lend someone your library, they cheat in CS:Source using your library, you get banned from sharing your library. So you wouldn't really want to share your library with someone who is too distant from you for you to smack them in the face if they cheat using your library.
I can see your point. Maybe they took all this into consideration, and don't really want too many people sharing their libraries. Maybe they want only families and people who would otherwise just be using the same account to share libraries this way.
Comment has been collapsed.
Sharing with just your family would feel similar to like having one PC in your whole house and you need to take turns in playing.
Comment has been collapsed.
That's not the point of this feature. The point is to allow other family members to access your games without having them use your account (which is against the TOS).
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, maybe, but that doesn't help either way. :(
Comment has been collapsed.
Doesn't help piracy? No of couse it doesn't. They didn't desing these features to allow you to play games for free without buying them.
No matter what they add to the service in the future, you will never be able to play the same game as someone else from the same library. There was one copy bought, only one copy will be run at the same time.
Comment has been collapsed.
What piracy? what you talking about? I meant that it doesn't help me feel better about it.
Comment has been collapsed.
that isn't what anybody is talking about. its not playing the same game at the same time. its how it kicks you off when your family member you're sharing with trys to play a different game. different game different license. same drm kicking you off for all of them without differentiating 2 people trying to play skyirm and 1 person trying to play skyrim while the other is playing dishonored.
edit- huh, actually that was what he was talking about lol
Comment has been collapsed.
I guess they're just getting ready for the steam box ^^
Comment has been collapsed.
You're right, this is just another step to shorten the gap between PC and console gaming.
Other than the ability to resell purchased games, there isn't much difference anymore.
To those whining about the limitations, can you share the same game with a friend on a console and play with them? Only one of you will have the physical disk and as such, it's not possible. You might find the being blocked from your entire library while sharing a bit extreme, but they pretty much have to. Given the chance, people will abuse the system and look for ways to pay as little as possible. If they allowed you to access your library while sharing, it would be very easy for 10 people to share one account and simply never play the game at once.
Comment has been collapsed.
"To those whining about the limitations, can you share the same game with a friend on a console and play with them? Only one of you will have the physical disk and as such, it's not possible."
but can you share 2 different games on 2 consoles if one person owns both of them? not on steam apparently/allegedly.
Comment has been collapsed.
If they allowed you to access your library while sharing, it would be very easy for 10 people to share one account and simply never play the game at once.
For example, me and nine other people split on every game and pay $6 each for brand new releases. Since we're paying 1/10th of the price, we could split on 10 different games for a total of $60, the cost of one game. With a selection of 10 brand new AAA games, you should hopefully be able to find one that isn't in use and the fact that people work and attend school, should make it even easier as chances are, not everyone would be online at once.
So rather than receiving $600 from each person for a total of $6000, they've received $600 and the only downside is that you might have a night or choose one of the 9 other AAA games if someone is already playing the one you want.
Comment has been collapsed.
In that case, replace $6 with $20 in my reply and everything still stands. Publishers already whine about piracy on the PC and how they don't make enough money so I can't see them allowing anything that could potential lose them money.
For all we know, it could be a technical limitation that is preventing us from having multiple people using the same library at once and will be changed in the future. Either way, I'm not going to complain because I personally didn't think they'd do this at all so I'm already shocked and pleased.
Comment has been collapsed.
You don't need to explain me this shit, I expected something else for Steam 10 years anniversary not this kind of shit.
Comment has been collapsed.
The whole idea doesnt affect me on the slightest since I never intended to share my account with anyone, regardless whether if there is any family sharing option or no, not interested. If someone wants to play a game they will need to bloody buy it, end of the story
Comment has been collapsed.
Brace yourself, the begging so you borrow your games to random people is coming.
Comment has been collapsed.
I can't share games with my friends because they play while I'm playing as well so I can't even play TF2 while I share, let's say Tomb Raider.
For the people saying "nyanyanya this is supposed to let you share your games with your family" then why do you think you can give access to your library via email? That's right, to allow you to share your library with people far away from you.
The current limitation makes the whole thing pointless, my friends are asleep while I'm not playing to it's freaking useless to me but whatever...
Comment has been collapsed.
As I explained, the thing isn't pointless. It's very useful for a particular purpose, which is using Steam PC as a console.
As for sharing via e-mail, yes, it has limited usage scenarios. It does have them though. I think I'll revise the post to talk about this.
Comment has been collapsed.
inb4 people complaining that they can't enter giveaways on Steamgifts because they've played someone else's copy of the game and now it shows some playtime on their account. It will be free weekend complaints all year long.
Comment has been collapsed.
1,038 Comments - Last post 11 minutes ago by sensualshakti
0 Comments - Created 12 minutes ago by sensualshakti
43 Comments - Last post 22 minutes ago by ZPE
9 Comments - Last post 24 minutes ago by Sh4dowKill
1,950 Comments - Last post 44 minutes ago by Lessmessino
6 Comments - Last post 46 minutes ago by quijote3000
710 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by xargu
1,848 Comments - Last post 41 seconds ago by lext
528 Comments - Last post 53 seconds ago by DanteHalfDemon
172 Comments - Last post 4 minutes ago by Shurraxxo
9 Comments - Last post 5 minutes ago by Sh4dowKill
29 Comments - Last post 6 minutes ago by xxxka
7 Comments - Last post 11 minutes ago by chairmankao
16,885 Comments - Last post 24 minutes ago by MjrPITA
Steam Family Sharing is meant to let a Steam PC be used a console. Big Picture was the first step towards that, but a real console needs to allow several people to play on it, each with their own achievements, etc.
Enter Steam Family Sharing. It does exactly that. It lets you buy games on one account and share it with a device. Note that the FAQ talks about devices. That device is your console, where people can play the games on the account that's sharing.
In this context, there's less reason to complain about not being able to share on a per game basis. It's all meant to be shared on the same PC anyway, that's what it's been designed for.
Also, my plan for world domination, eh, I mean, how to get the most out of Steam Family Sharing.
I plan to open a couple of new accounts. While I can't get over the limitation of only one person playing on my current library, if I put new games I'll buy into another account, it will be possible for me and another person to play my games at the same time as long as they're from different accounts.
The second good thing about this is that sharing is "personal use". I have a lot of Humble Bundle duplicate keys which I won't give because it's against HB's terms. However I can add them to a new account and share it with whomever I want, which means that the keys can find some use.
Comment has been collapsed.