... on closer inspection, it seems functionally equivalent to logging into steam on a friend's computer, except that you don't have to type in your password on their machine and you can kick them off easily.
Considering how much trouble Steam has with phishing and accounts getting hacked, it's obviously a good idea to minimize any use-case where users are allowing others to get at their passwords. This kind of feature will probably save Valve money in the long-run.
Still, doesn't match what I hoped. I was hoping to see a way to share a few games on a machine within the same house, so I could have my set-top machine and my desktop machine divvy up the console-style and pc-style games without constantly having to re-log-in.
I have two machines with steam on it (desktop, laptop) and I get logged out of one if I use the other. Frankly I'm getting tired of it. (that and the "verifying installation..." window)
I'm hoping they will somehow figure out how to fix this soon, given this announcement. Obviously they can't let you have machines with your account all over the globe logged on at the same time, but if they let you have multiple machines logged on from the same IP address (thank you NAT) and still prevent you from playing a game on two machines at the same time, that should do it...
Personally, I have a desktop and an HTPC, which would seem like an obvious use-case they would want to target, given Big Picture mode! We're so close, what with remote libraries (on my NAS).
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - constrain it to a single IP and no sharing individual games. That would go a long way. Then again, you know some dedicated pirates will just VPN the damned thing.
Or at the very least give us a way to avoid keying in the password over and over again - I already logged in here, you can lock the steam account for use-from-elsewhere without forcing me to key in a password to unlock it. I might be annoyed that I can't share my library between my two machines at the same time, but at the very least I don't have to keep keying in PWs.
Perhaps the logical protocol is store the password at all times, but demand the end user type it in 10 times. After that, if he's still not reacted by changing the password, simply start using the memorized password without demanding login info.
Obviously it would be stupid to actually store the password locally for security reasons, but the actual implementation of asking the steam servers for a token of some sort and then presenting the token in place of the password would work just as well. May as well time limit the token and demand you log in every six months.
Worse still, I use auto-generated PWs from my password safe and they are not memorable. Mix that with the fact that I have a Win8 desktop and Mac laptop AND the fact that the Mac steam client DOES NOT ALLOW PASTING. You get the idea.
Alternatively, only allow one game to be played at a time. Not ideal- I can't have family play one game on one computer, and myself play another game on another computer- but a step.
On a fairly frequent basis, I have two machines in my house attempting to login to Steam from different IPs; My laptop is often connected to work VPN. Simply limiting it to public IP address is a good step, but doesn't solve all use cases.
The problem is that then large groups of people could route their traffic through a vpn and spoof Steam into thinking that everyone's on the same home network.
I just wish my SO could play The Sims 3 on the laptop in the living room while I'm playing Civ 5 on my desktop in my home office. I ended up having to buy her a copy on Origin so we could game at the same time.
Considering how much trouble Steam has with phishing and accounts getting hacked, it's obviously a good idea to minimize any use-case where users are allowing others to get at their passwords. This kind of feature will probably save Valve money in the long-run.
Still, doesn't match what I hoped. I was hoping to see a way to share a few games on a machine within the same house, so I could have my set-top machine and my desktop machine divvy up the console-style and pc-style games without constantly having to re-log-in.