Valve announces Steam Family Sharing

Here's the FAQ: (updated...again)

Family Sharing FAQ
I want to try this! How can I join the Family Sharing Beta?
To express interest in beta participation, join the Family Sharing Group on the Steam community. The Family Sharing beta will begin in about a week, when a thousand Steam accounts from this group will be granted access to share their Steam libraries. You’ll know you’ve been selected when you receive an email from Steam inviting you to try out the new feature.

How do I enable Family Sharing on my computer?
Family Sharing is enabled in one of two ways: You can either locally enable sharing in Account Settings, with Family Sharing & Devices, or remotely respond to a user’s Steam request to share your previously installed games via email.

Is there a limit to the number of devices I can authorize to share my Library?
Yes. A Steam account may authorize Family Sharing on up to 10 devices at a given time.

Can I share specific games, or do I have to share my whole library?
Libraries are shared and borrowed in their entirety.

Can all Steam games be shared with friends and family?
No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared among friends and family.

Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

When I authorize a device to lend my library to others, do I limit my own ability to access and play my games?
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.

Sometimes the games I’ve borrowed are unavailable for me to play. Why?
Borrowed games are only available on computers that have been authorized by the lender. A borrowed game will not be available on a computer running an OS unsupported by that game. Borrowed games may also be unavailable if the lender’s library is currently in use on another computer.

Who owns the DLC and in-game content associated with a borrowed title?
A borrower will have access to the lender’s DLC, but borrowers may not purchase DLC for a base game they don't own. Any player may purchase, trade, earn, or otherwise acquire in-game content while playing a game, but in-game items cannot be shared between accounts. These items remain associated with the account that purchased or acquired them, whether borrowing or lending the base game.

Can region-restricted content be shared across regions?
No, any region restrictions will remain in place when borrowing or lending content.

Will I be punished for any cheating or fraud conducted by other users while playing my games?
Your Family Sharing privileges may be revoked if your library is used by borrowers to conduct cheating or fraud. We recommend you only authorize familiar computers you know to be secure.
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Wait. I totally just give people my pw and send them the email verification code whenever they want to use my library.

I guess this is more convenient?

 
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panzerfaust said:
Wait. I totally just give people my pw and send them the email verification code whenever they want to use my library.

I guess this is more convenient?
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I don't really see the benefit here either. Only one person can access the shared library at a time... so, if two people are sharing the library, one can play a game from said library while the other can start up Steam and access the store and whatnot but cannot play a different game form the shared library.

 
Looking at the FAQ, the updates to said FAQ, and then reading the official responses in the thread there: If I can't right-click on a friend in my list, tell it to share my library, and then proceed to play one of my games while they play one of my other games = totally fucking useless to me.

I can understand if they want to put a 'one other person at a time' limit and a 'not the same game at the same time' limit and even some type of 'you can only add/remove/change a friend once every 30 days' limit but what's been outlined is pretty much shit for a lot of situations.

The best option is still to abuse offline mode and this will just be another attack vector for that abuse.

 
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Vinny said:
I don't really see the benefit here either. Only one person can access the shared library at a time... so, if two people are sharing the library, one can play a game from said library while the other can start up Steam and access the store and whatnot but cannot play a different game form the shared library.
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I would actually get quite a bit of utility from a feature like this. I do acknowledge that I am definitely a fringe case. I have an enormous collection of games for a broad array of different systems. While I enjoy using Steam, it is not my only gaming solution. And I have a few siblings who might really get a kick out of some of my Steam library games. I would love to be able to share some of my Steam games with them.

 
Richard Kain said:
I would actually get quite a bit of utility from a feature like this. I do acknowledge that I am definitely a fringe case. I have an enormous collection of games for a broad array of different systems. While I enjoy using Steam, it is not my only gaming solution. And I have a few siblings who might really get a kick out of some of my Steam library games. I would love to be able to share some of my Steam games with them.
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The thing is, you could have done that anyway, without this sharing feature. Valve allowed people to share Steam profiles. You could give your login info to someone and they could log into Steam with it, and access your entire library. I've been sharing my library with my brother for the last 3-4 years now and never had any issues.

The only thing you couldn't do using the old method is have two people logged into your account at the same time. That's about the only thing this new features now allows, but... it's pretty pointless since two people can't play at the same time.

 
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Vinny said:
You could give your login info to someone and they could log into Steam with it, and access your entire library. I've been sharing my library with my brother for the last 3-4 years now and never had any issues.
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Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but I don't give out my log-ins for systems like this anymore. I let one of my brothers use my World of Warcraft account for a while, but it seriously compromised the security. These days I don't "share" my personal log in information with anyone, for any reason. As a person's digital footprint becomes more culturally significant, it's no longer a good idea to allow other people access to your profiles. Imagine someone running wild on your Facebook account.

So while you might be comfortable giving someone else access to your Steam account, I'm not. Also, Steam doesn't allow you to log in to two machines simultaneously from the same account. So having someone else logged into my account elsewhere means that I wouldn't even be able to access the store.

This new functionality is a great way for Valve to convince a lot more people to sign up for Steam accounts, and gain exposure to the Steam service. And once you're hooked into the service, dropping money into it becomes that much easier. It's nefarious, but its also effective.

 
Richard Kain said:
Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but I don't give out my log-ins for systems like this anymore. I let one of my brothers use my World of Warcraft account for a while, but it seriously compromised the security. These days I don't "share" my personal log in information with anyone, for any reason. As a person's digital footprint becomes more culturally significant, it's no longer a good idea to allow other people access to your profiles. Imagine someone running wild on your Facebook account.

So while you might be comfortable giving someone else access to your Steam account, I'm not. Also, Steam doesn't allow you to log in to two machines simultaneously from the same account. So having someone else logged into my account elsewhere means that I wouldn't even be able to access the store.

This new functionality is a great way for Valve to convince a lot more people to sign up for Steam accounts, and gain exposure to the Steam service. And once you're hooked into the service, dropping money into it becomes that much easier. It's nefarious, but its also effective.
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You're definitely right about the log in information security. You never really know what's going to happen or who could screw you over.

And I already mentioned that you couldn't have two people logged in simultaneously in my last post as an issue with the old method. That wasn't an issue for us, but if you spend a lot of money on Steam, then yeah, it would definitely be an issue.

 
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The problem is that the wording of the FAQ is completely ambiguous as to how your account credentials will be applied to someone else's system.

...or remotely respond to a user’s Steam request to share your previously installed games via email.
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OK so remotely respond probably means via the Steam friends system.

Previously installed games could mean games that you have installed previously on your machine or it could mean games that you have previously installed on their machine which would mean that all of your account credentials were/are already on their machine which is highly insecure.

Via email I take to mean using a form of the Steam Guard email verification codes but, again, how exactly that applies your account credentials to their machine is unknown.

What this needs to be to be successful is a system which mimics physical game sharing/lending but with some fair safeguards and restrictions. What they've outlined here really isn't sharing at all but rather remote access which shuts off as soon as the owner plays anything on Steam. It's a half-ass approach to sharing and some would even argue that it isn't sharing as per the definition of the word.

 
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panzerfaust said:
Wait. I totally just give people my pw and send them the email verification code whenever they want to use my library.

I guess this is more convenient?
Click to expand...
Well giving out your pw isn't something a lot of people want to do, even for friends. And this way, it seems that you can be logged into your own account while playing a borrowed game, so you have access to your own cloud saving, achievements, friends lists, and whatever else. Plus I'm not sure what the activation limit is for a Steam account, but this way you don't have to actually activate your account on the other computers.

And yeah, the convenience thing of course.

 
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