If I buy a DVD copy of a game, I can play it for a while, then if Mr. Athena wants to take a look, I just give him the DVD and he can install & play it on his computer. We can’t play at the same time, because the DVD is required for it to start, but we can buy one copy of the game and both enjoy it, just not at the same time.
Is there a way to do this with Steam? I know we can have one Steam account and all the games tied to that account installed on multiple computers, but does it lock you down to one person logged in at a time? In other words, can I play my Steam-purchased copy of Amnesia at the same time he’s playing Steam-purchased Civ 5?
If not that, can we easily transfer games from one Steam account to another, and then back again?
Note, I’m not looking to do anything illegal or break copyright or anything like that. Just trying to figure out if this is a big drawback to buying games on Steam, or if there’s an easy way to share games much like we’d do with a DVD game.
Yes, only one person can be logged in at the same time. However, you can install all the games on one computer, then put it in offline mode and log in on the second computer then you can both play at the same time (even the same game if you really wanted).
I don’t know the legality of it, and it probably breaks some part of the EULA, but afaik they don’t really care that much about it unless you’re sharing your account with lots and lots of people or something like that. My friend and his wife have done this for years and have never had a problem. I suppose one day they might start tracking and banning people for it but I don’t think it’s very likely.
Alternately you could just buy two accounts and just log in to the one that has the game you want to play. This would be pretty inconvenient with more then two games though.
It sorta surprises me that Steam makes this so hard. I can see them saying “only one copy of a game can be running at a time. If you need more, buy more.” What happens if you’re a family with 2 or 3 kids? Are you really expected to shell out extra money so that kids can play games - DIFFERENT games - at the same time on separate computers? If little Johnny is playing Left 4 Dead, why can’t Sally be playing Call of Duty without jumping through the hoops described above?
technically yes, they expect every user to buy their own copy. which is quite reasonable imho, especially since it’s so easy to put it on offline mode for cases like yours - just don’t login!
on the scale of fairness, i think this is a good middle ground. on one end we have the DRM free books that you can copy freely, on the other are (were?*) the DRM songs that you can only own on one of your own multitude of devices. yup, if people were sheep enough to believe their propaganda, they would have you buying a copy for every device you own, lest you be labelled a thief.
they’ve probably changed it by now - i wouldn’t know cause that had put me off buying music ever since.