I’ve been a Steam customer for a very long time, having spent a few thousand dollars over the years with them. Like many of you, I’ve got a (small?) group of games that I bought and barely-if-ever played, and I’m cool with that. As they say, piracy is a service problem, and Steam is just… easy.
That was until I bought my Deck. Suddenly, I had two devices on which I could play my games: my proper gaming rig upstairs and my Deck is plugged into the TV downstairs.
I also however, have a kid that likes video games, so sometimes I let her play a few games on the TV… and that’s where everything breaks down. If she’s playing Lego Marvel on the Deck, my copy of Dyson Sphere Program flakes out upstairs with a warning that “someone else is playing a game, so this game will have to shut off” or some nonsense like that.
I’m suddenly face to face with the fact that I don’t actually own my games and those few thousand dollars weren’t spent on what I expected. It’s… enraging to put it gently.
I can appreciate that there would be an attempt to prevent me from playing the same game on two devices (though I think that’s bullshit too), but to prevent me from playing two different games on two different machines when both are legally purchased running on my own hardware.
k1ck455kc@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
This is a problem that Steam Family Share exists to solve.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
It doesnt solve this in the slightest. Steam and game publishers can always take your games away without prior notice.
NoXPhasma@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You never own any game, unless you code it yourself. You might hold a CD in your hands, but the game is still owned by someone else. You only have the right to use it as noted in the license you agreed by purchasing it.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You’re totally correct. The reason you’re getting downvoted is because that seems tangential to the problem you mentioned, which already has a solution (Family Sharing).
But yes, the world needs strong digital ownership laws yesterday.
TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, but that problem has literally nothing to do with the Steam Deck.
k1ck455kc@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Fair, with steam i thing most people got into it years ago before “ownership” was even a concern, back before online games were so frequently shutdown soon after release. Its a good thing GOG and Sailing the 7 Seas are an option for preservation, not that it helps with online only games.
Now i still invest in steam because of its convenience. As soon as it becomes more cumbersome to use, i am done. Tbh if 3rd party app stores/secondary drm become more common i will probably stop investing in them. Its already a big issue that stops me from buying games…(Think denuvo)
Consoles are already to the point where its near impossible to own your game. Xbox overpriced their consoles so we dont buy them and just invest in gamepass. Not to mention their consoles dont work without online accnt. Playstation requires online activation for a disc drive to work with their new consoles. Nintendo doesnt even put 3rd party switch 2 games on the cartridge anymore.
I feel you, but steam is definitely the lesser of the evils here letting you use it on almost any hardware you want, even if you cant avoid the (for most games)
Ulrich@feddit.org 18 hours ago
You’re being needlessly pedantic. It solves OP’s problem of playing their library in multiple rooms simultaneously.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Technically: Yes. Legally: Doubtful.
Publishers can choose to no longer run servers but to remove games from the accounts without compensation, would be legal trouble.
When Sony axed Concord, all buyers got a full refund for a reason and that reason isn’t that Sony is such a caring company.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I don’t see how family share solves anything, I looked it up a few years ago, and it seemed pretty useless.
What exactly does family share do that is actually useful?
Master@lemm.ee 2 days ago
It lets you play a game on your account while someone else plays a different game from your account. Its literally the solution for ops issue.
Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 2 days ago
They updated it in September:
nous@programming.dev 2 days ago
They changed it recently where you can have two members of a family able to play two different games at ones (or rather number of copies of the game at once).
But that requires different accounts even if one account owns all the games.