Steam sharing beta. Exactly what it says on the tin - by Phatose
Jason Moyer on 13/9/2013 at 15:06
I dunno if it's just me or if there's a mass reading comprehension failure happening (not here, but everywhere I've read about this), but it seems pretty clear that this is meant for sharing games across multiple accounts ON THE SAME COMPUTER.
(Not that I won't immediately share my account with as many people as possible, mind you)
Al_B on 13/9/2013 at 21:15
That's not the interpretation I get from reading the link Phatose posted:
Quote:
As the lender, you may always access and play your games at any time. If you decide to start playing when a friend is already playing one of your games, he/she will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.
That certainly implies that it's can be used for sharing between different computers in locations remote from each other.
Fafhrd on 13/9/2013 at 22:05
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I dunno if it's just me or if there's a mass reading comprehension failure happening (not here, but everywhere I've read about this), but it seems pretty clear that this is meant for sharing games across multiple accounts ON THE SAME COMPUTER.
UP TO 10
DEVICES CAN BE AUTHORIZED.
The 'buy it or get kicked off' functionality makes ZERO sense if this is only meant to be used on a single PC. If I want to play one of my games on my computer while somebody else is playing on my computer the first thing I'm going to do is KICK THEM THE FUCK OFF OF MY COMPUTER. Steam doesn't need to be a middleman in that situation.
Jason Moyer on 13/9/2013 at 23:42
It *can* work the way people are describing, but that's clearly not the intention:
Quote:
Share your computer?
Now share your games too.
Steam Family Sharing allows close friends and family members to play one another's games while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam cloud. It's all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.
Am I the only person who sees that when they go to the beta page? Right at the very beginning of the description of what Steam-sharing is? I'm pretty sure the idea is "if multiple people share a device, everyone can access all the Steam games installed on that device." Sure, I can tell Steam that Dethtoll's PC is one that we share so that he can access Brutal Legend when he's up late at night with Jack Black withdrawal, and ok it works, but it's obviously not the situation Valve are trying to create here.
And the "boot people out of a shared account if the owner is accessing it" thing makes total sense, because they're not trying to create a service where people send each other free games to play. It makes sense if you're trying to create a barrier to people using the same account on different devices at the same time.
Fafhrd on 14/9/2013 at 05:56
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
It makes sense if you're trying to create a barrier to people using the same account on different devices at the same time.
That barrier already exists. Two devices already can't be logged in to the Steam client at the same time.
Jason Moyer on 14/9/2013 at 10:19
Right, the difference now is that people using the same computer can access a shared library instead of having to log into the same account and overwrite each other's achievements/saves/cards/etc.
N'Al on 14/9/2013 at 10:38
I like how this topic is entitled "exactly what it says on the tin" yet no one - myself included - seems to really know how this thing's going to work. ;)
Al_B on 14/9/2013 at 10:44
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
Right, the difference now is that people using the same computer can access a shared library...
The emphasis is very much on sharing your library - or gaining access to someone else's library. There's nothing that seems to suggest that it's about creating a common shared library.
henke on 14/9/2013 at 11:14
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
It *can* work the way people are describing, but that's clearly not the intention
jason moyer pls
Who cares what the
intention is? Both Valve and it's customers know what this
can and
will be used for: borrowing games from your friends.
bleaksand on 14/9/2013 at 13:11
Hmmm ... interesting.
If this sharing-beta works the way I think it will, then I'm going to have some very pleased friends.
Most of my gaming time is confined to Fridays and Saturdays, which leaves open a lot of weekday evenings!
(It would also solve the dilemma of friends [relatively] new to steam insisting on game recommendations while not knowing their own genre preferences or PC specs!)
UPDATE: Woah! The lender could also get account-banned if the lendee gets up to some monkey-business?!? THAT's something to consider!
