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Noob questions regarding Steam Family share

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Warmachine007

Hey guys, I was thinking of setting up Steam family share to let one of my friend (he is new to steam & doesn't own much games) play the games that I own.
Now, I have a few questions/concerns:-

(1) If he does something stupid with his account & gets himself banned from steam, will it affect mine too( i.e. will my account be also banned)?

(2) If he gets his account hacked, will mine be also at risk?

(3) Will he be able to play all the games I own?

(4) Will the free to play games like Loadout,Blacklight Retribution,etc. which are linked with steam accounts use my account when family share is enabled or will it require him to link his own account?

(5) Lastly, is there any risk to share my games??

9 years ago

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24 Comments
SleepyCat
  1. Yes, you will be held fully responsible for his actions. If he cheats in a VAC-protected game, your account will receive a VAC ban.
  2. Yes, if the hacker starts playing your games for some reason, see above. No if the hacker simply wants access to his inventory.
  3. Yes, unless you reside in different regions and some of your games are "play-locked" to your region only.
  4. No idea
  5. Possible VAC ban (see #1) is the only risk I'm aware of. Plus, in order to share you have to log into your account using his computer.
9 years ago
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SleepyCat

3 - Forgot that some games are excluded from family sharing - notably, games that use an extra DRM service and games that have the "excluded from Family Sharing" tag.

9 years ago
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Warmachine007

So, basically VAC ban is the only ban that steam does & that's thing that I should be worried about while sharing games right? or does Steam permanently bans accounts too (so, that in order to access Steam again you will have to make a new account).

He is completely new to PC gaming & steam stuff...I'm teaching him the things he should not do, that's why I need this info...so, I can let him know how to keep his account safe & mine too

Edit:- Thanks for the list :)

9 years ago
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SleepyCat

VAC ban is not the only ban possible. There are trade bans and community bans, but they are not related to family sharing. A VAC ban would prevent you from playing a game using a VAC-protected server. It does not prevent you from using your account or playing other games.

9 years ago
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Warmachine007

I see, so only VAC ban is the only ban that's applicable on family shared accounts....so, all I need to tell him is to not use any hacks/cheats & not to modify any gamefiles & to never click on any suspicious links, right?

9 years ago
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Saint
(Junior Moderator)

Hi Sleepy, do you have an official source for point 1 ? Not that I'm doubting your words, but I'd like to read some statement from Valve.

9 years ago
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Sooth

http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

Will I be punished for any cheating or fraud conducted by other users while playing my games?
Your Family Library Sharing privileges may be revoked and your account may also be VAC banned if your library is used by others to conduct cheating or fraud. Additionally, VAC-banned games cannot be shared. We recommend you only authorize familiar computers you know to be secure. And as always, never give your password to anyone.

9 years ago
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Saint
(Junior Moderator)

Thank you !

9 years ago
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ShandyAndy

For point 3, you can choose which games you make visible to users via family share - it's what I do at home. I don't incldue games with 12+ certificates as my eldest son is only 6.

9 years ago
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Warmachine007

Oh, we can select the games we want to share? Nice :) I thought the full library was shared

9 years ago
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ShandyAndy

Whilst you can choose which games are shared if anyone is playing one of those games and you play ANY game in your library they will be kicked out. Only one player can play a game in your library at any one time.

9 years ago
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NeverOnline

Point 3. If (s)he is in a different location/PC etc..your library will be locked while he's playing, ie you won't be able to play your games while he is using your library

9 years ago
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Wahlues

I had such an experience, and if you play someone's game and they start playing their game themself, you have a notification that you should leave the game, and after... half an hour, I think, you exit the game automatically.

9 years ago
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MarvelousMax

I believe it's just 5 minutes.

9 years ago
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Wahlues

Ah, maybe it's 5 minutes, I played a year ago x)

9 years ago
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maestroit

does this apply to the whole library or just the game being played in that instant? if my friend want to play game X from my library, and I want to play game Y, I can't?

9 years ago
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NeverOnline

Last time I checked (couple months ago) it was the whole library. You just cannot both play (online) at the same time a shared library, that's the gist of it.

9 years ago*
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Saint
(Junior Moderator)

For point 3, he will be able to play any game of yours that is not excluded from family sharing (it's a publisher's choice).
If you are playing something, he cannot plays anything from you. If he plays a shared game and you start playing something on your side, he will be kicked from his game.
Useful tip: while your friend cannot play your games in offline mode, you can use offline mode on your side, and your friend will be able to play your games at the same time. Tested with my brother who lives in a different location.

9 years ago
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m3rc

Oh ok...sorry for hijacking but...

So Family Sharing can be done from geographically different locations then?
Different continents even or...?

9 years ago
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FrozenShiver

Yes, I have tested this out.

9 years ago
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Aeshma

Yeah my friend and me are in different cities and we can play each others games while other one is not playing anything. But it requries password sharing.

9 years ago
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MarvelousMax

Or teamviewer.

9 years ago
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Aeshma

Oh yeah i didn't think about that. I will keep that in mind thanks.

9 years ago
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BloodHood

3.Multiplayer games like CS:GO can't be played in such way
4.Free games will have different accounts(tried with Dota2)

9 years ago
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