Steam family beta

[Mercutio]

Well, looking at this, pretty much everyone got a beta key over the last couple of days? (If not, I certainly did, same with my g/f who...isn't exactly a prime steam users).

The question is though, does this give limited access to the entire account or does it allow 2 people to be playing different games on the same account? I _THINK_ as I understand it this is just an official version of lending your mate your steam account with less security problems?

 

[SkeeterUK]

From what i remember when they were talking about it is that you can let x person have access to your collection of games and they are allowed to play them providing your not playing it at the time. So you could be playing civ5 and your x friend could be playing something like cod mw from your library at the same time afaik.

 

[arknor]

"to use your game library while you are not playing"
means playing anything?

 

[gareth170]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3784-QLBM-5731
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions/0/648811126417092378/

 

[Columbo]

"to use your game library while you are not playing"
means playing anything?

Yep, pretty much pointless then imo.

Can the user I am sharing with play my games if I am playing a different game?
No. Only one user may use a shared library at a time. If another user is playing a game from your library, and you start to play ANY game from your library, they will be given five minutes then kicked from the game. If you are playing ANY game from your library, and another user attempts to play ANY game from your library, they will be blocked from playing until you finish playing.

 

[Teaf]

Yep, pretty much pointless then imo.

Yeah, got into the Family Sharing Beta a while ago, and this rule killed it for me. It just makes the whole thing pointless. I shared my library with my sister but since I play a lot of games the majority of the time she wanted to play she couldn't as I was.

 

[Witcher1979]

Yeah better of sticking your friends/family members machine in offline mode then they can play all your games, although only single player.

 

[Matteysan]

Seems completely pointless to me.

Might as well have separate accounts, what if two of the same family want to play completely different games. Queue family arguments

 

[Scotteh]

Yeah, rather have multiple accounts then no arguing/getting kicked off during playing.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

I really thought this was steams answer to the german lawsuit regarding digital goods and resale. A way of them appeasing customers, it sounded great, let my mates borrow my games when I wasn't using them, just like a console....

Can the user I am sharing with play my games if I am playing a different game?
No. Only one user may use a shared library at a time. If another user is playing a game from your library, and you start to play ANY game from your library, they will be given five minutes then kicked from the game. If you are playing ANY game from your library, and another user attempts to play ANY game from your library, they will be blocked from playing until you finish playing.

Makes it utterly pointless IMHO

All they needed to do was add in a token or something that allowed "x" people to load "x" software from your library. I fully understand not allowing libraries to play multiple copies of the same game at once, but to allow only one game from one library at any one time seems daft.

Hope the EU lawsuit wins over and we see some changes