gaming Steam Family Sharing

[Chacobos 160]

So recently Steam revealed the idea Microsoft scrapped of family sharing. With it friends and family can share games and earn their own achievements. Good idea? Let me know in the comments!

http://www.gamespot.com/news/valve-reveals-steam-family-sharing-6414331

[QuirkyUsername 1,576]

A nice idea and sounds like it has its benifits but it does sound easily exploitable say what can steam do to stop me saying you're my brother/sister short of demanding a birth certificate.

[Passion 3,489]

You'd be surprised how little personal data is needed to validate whether two people can know each other or not. I believe that steam, just like other great companies, is data hoarder and they actually maintain quite a large database. More then that, they may simply introduce this system for users who have made at least one purchase or something like that, to make sure they'll have public records of given person. These are just a few possible solutions, still, that's not the case in the thread.

 

I generally find it a nice idea, although it'll most probably belittle their income a bit. I mean, I was planning to get myself Skyrim for example, but now I'll just connect my acc with one of my friends and will simply play it when he's working. So yeah... Not sure if you're doing yourself a good or bad thing, dear Steam. I believe they're taking a bit of risky step in here. The system MIGHT prove itself to be hard to control. It MAY bring a lot of potential customers from different platforms. But at once I have no idea how much cash will they loose on people deciding, like me, to forfeit their purchase on the account of playing for free from friends.

 

EDIT: Side, important note I've forgotten. Steam is actually experiencing a little issues, since their competition, such as EA's Origin, are starting to keep up with them slowly. So they must introduce new policies and take on risky decisions to keep themselves at the lead, until they have the advantage.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Khajiit

[LowfatEnvelope 335]

A nice idea and sounds like it has its benifits but it does sound easily exploitable say what can steam do to stop me saying you're my brother/sister short of demanding a birth certificate.

I think they label it as family/close friends because it is possible to be banned from the service (not Steam itself I don't think) depending on what the person does with your games (like stuff other than play them normally). You can keep track of family better than strangers.

 

IMO this sounds like a really cool feature and could prove useful in getting friends to buy games you're super into. I'm doubting it will backfire as from what I understand the entire library can only be used by one person at a time, making it likely impractical to use the system to let someone you know play to their hearts content (provided you actively use your account). I'm assuming that's what they're banking on anyway.

[HunterTSN 1,444]

My little sister already uses my Steam account to play Portal and Skyrim, It would be really nice if they made it possible for her to log in on her own computer and not kick me off mine. I don't really have a problem with her playing them, but it gets really bothersome when I have to log back in every hour or two just to get notifications. 

[Mand'alor Dash 2,225]

I'm probably going to use the hell out of this. My entire family games on the same computer, so being able to share our libraries and keep our saves separate would be just what the doctor ordered.

 

As for how it benefits Valve, if it brings in new customers and gives them a taste of the service, it's invariably going to lead to more sales in the long run. Steam isn't the only game in town, and they do need to differentiate themselves from services like Origin, Amazon, or GOG if they're going to stay in the lead.