I have a number of games in steam that I share with my son through the Steam Family Library Sharing feature, but select games have a setting by the developer that restricts the game from being shared. Currently, Farthest Frontier does not show up in my shared library when my son views it on his computer. Do you intend to add this game to enable sharing with the family or are you going to require a separate license for each user?
Libraries can only be access by one person at a time, so if I am online on steam and using my library to play any game, then the entire library is locked and other users can’t use it. I find this ridiculous as they should at least be able to use other games, but that isn’t how Steam works. Games that can be played offline can only be played offline by the owner so others who share it have to be online. This at least allows me to play at the same time (offline) while he plays a game online.
I think while FF is in early access, enabling the family sharing feature now will give you more testers and you can change that setting later should you wish to. By then, you’ll get enough people hooked in on just the time they had access to buy it for themselves anyway.
Having periods of free access or limited schedules of shared access (like November through January) could be a nice business strategy as well.
No, it wouldn’t. Because the instant they took it away there would be a huge outcry of “We could do it before, why can’t we do it now?!?!? Why are you making us pay for something we have been playing for months?!?!”
If it were announced then there would be no outcry as this type of feature is at the discretion of the developers, always. For example, Star Citizen will be having another free fly event beginning this week on Thursday. People will be able to play it for free, and this free play time is for a limited time only. There will be no public outcry that they should be able to keep on playing for free forever.
Soneone posted have sold over 200,000 early access copies I believe so I don’t think they need more testers if that is correct.
No point in having free access periods if the game is in early access in my opinion. If someone tries it out and have a poor exeprience because of bugs then they may not buy it in the future. I’m sure free weekends may appear after the game is finished.
My son is able to play Farthest Frontier through “Family Library Sharing”. I just need to be offline while he does.
I guess that from Steam’s viewpoint, a “family” member can be anyone (since they don’t verify). So by forcing the buyer (me) to go offline when the other member of the family (my son) plays proves that we can communicate and are certainly in-deed family.
It’s stupid from our point of view because we bought a game and would like our family to benefit from it (I play Farthest Frontier, my son should be able at least to play “Into the breach” at the same time). But it can make sense if you take their point of view.
So I guess “family sharing” is “on” for FF. And I hope it stays so because the only other solution … I’d rather avoid.
Yeah, I get that and I’m pretty sure I mentioned all that when I said “the entire library is locked and other users can’t use it.” Anyway, his Steam account was created when he was a minor, and of course he turns 21 next month and yet he still can’t access GTA5 or a few other games in my library I think because they connect through some third party service like Rockstar. I’m coming to the conclusion though that since some of you are saying FF can be shared, maybe he just isn’t checking his steam account on the same machine I already approved for use last time I was there. He got a new laptop and if he was trying to use that, he might not have access. He does still share my KSP game though as I see it when I log in to Steam and it shows him using it so he’s on a machine that I approved. He lives with his mother on the other side of the country so it’s not easy to update all his hardware with my account without being there in person.