| vlad321 said: What about people sharing account information? What's stopping me from giving my friend my Steam account info and having him play the games as long as he wants, and even buy more games. Sure we can't play at the same time, but one of us is still getting the game for free. I realize that this would solve large scale pirating, but that may also mean that the pirates start off going small scale, just by sharing passwords. If every gamer shares his info with a friend then the game sales are effectively cut in half. If they share it with 2 friends then there will be more "pirated" games than legit ones. Truth is data is just 1's and 0's and your computer can't distinguish where those 1's and 0's have been at all or where they are coming from. Unless companies bundle a webcam and you are required to have it on while you play, or fingerprint/iris identification for the game to be played, I don't think piracy will be resolved. |
Would you give your buddy the keys to your Porsche? Go wherever, do whatever, don't care if you bring it back with an empty tank as long you don't wreck it or do anything illegal with it?
While that's very charitable of you, I'd have a hard time giving anyone open access to a user account who wasn't close family or a close friend. They can fool around on my PC when I'm not using it, but there's no benefit in having your account accessible on other people's PCs.
Can't access your individual library because said buddy has been logged on to your account on his computer playing TF2 for the past 8 hours? Thanks bud, but in the future, use your own account. "Shared accounts" only work if you're living in the same house/apartment, and even then, it still belongs to the individual who set up the account when said rooommate/buddy moves.
And from the other end (the shared user), where's the sense in adding games to someone else's individual account using your credit card info unless it's as a gift/favor? None.
Most game buddies need their own accounts anyway since you're presumably playing online games with them at the same time, even if it's in the same house. Even most married gaming couples do this.
