How to share Steam games

Share Steam games

Steam has become on its own merits one of the most popular video game platforms. We are many users who are on your network for different reasons, but I think I'm not wrong when I say that Linux uses it, among other things, because of how easy it is to find games compatible with the penguin system. As in the case of PlayStation and Xbox, Steam also has its social part, which greatly improves the user experience.

When I bought my first next-gen console, the best thing I did was play online with my contacts. We played Black Ops Zombies or different Call of Duty and I had a really good time. The downside was that those friends weren't physical, so they couldn't leave their games to me when they weren't using them (although I did get some DLC installed). This is something we can do with platform protagonist of this post and in this article we will teach you how to share the games from Steam thanks to the familiar option of the service.

How to install Steam on Ubuntu

Logically, we will first have to install Steam on our PC. The easiest way is by going to software center, search for "Steam" and install the package, since it is in the official repositories. If we have installed Flatpak in our team, I recommend installing your package because everything comes in it and is updated before the APT version. Considering that the Flatpak version has failed me, I recommend the APT version. We will only have to open a terminal and write:

sudo apt install steam

Steam allows you to share games with family and friends

The process for sharing Steam games is as follows:

  1. Before we can share the games, we will need to have the Steam Guard function activated. I had it activated by default, but we will check it by going to "Parameters / Manage Steam Guard Account protection".
  2. If we do not have it, we mark the second option.
  3. We go to the Family tab and activate «Authorize the family loan on this computer».
  4. In order to activate the function, we have to connect to our friend / relative's computer with our Steam account.
  5. Next, we will go to the Family tab and choose "Authorize this computer".
  6. Once the previous steps have been carried out, we exit from our account.
  7. Now it is the family member / friend who has to enter with their credentials.
  8. On his computer, he should see our games by now. We, from the Family tab, should see that your computer is authorized to use our games.

Limitations

Not having limitations would be too nice to be true. Of course there are limitations or else some users would do business. The limitations imposed are that only 5 accounts can access our games, which would make a total of 6. Can be used on up to 10 computers, so we could say that 10 could play the games of 1, but sharing accounts, which is not the best if we want to have a progress exclusively ours.

In order to access another user's games, it will be necessary to be connected to the internet. Also, something Valve calls "technical limitations" and licensing agreements, not all games can be shared, among which are especially the titles that require a monthly subscription.

What surely many people like least is that only one person can play a game at the same time. That is, if we are playing a friend's game and he enters the same game, we will "fall". The quotes mean that the game will show us a notice in which it will offer to buy the game or end our session. The owner will always have priority. I think that, with this in mind, the owner of a Steam library has to remember that it is and, if they think they can annoy a friend or family member, warn that they are going to enter before doing so. Nobody wants something to fail when they are about to kill an important "boss."

How to share Steam libraries

This is the one million question. Simply, it cannot be done, or not as we would like. To understand the reasons we have to understand how the service works: Steam is a streaming service, which means that we will not be able to enter if we are not connected to the internet. The moment we connect, everything is synchronized and what we would have shared stops serving. When installing Steam, a folder with the same name is created in our personal folder. The moment we download a game, the ".steam" folder is also created, which we could say is our library. This library knows which computer it has been on and which user it was, so when we take it to another computer the system will detect it and ask us to include it as allowed.

Given that the system detects that it is a different installation on a different computer And that he would ask us that the owner of the library allow us to use his games, it is much easier to use the option specially designed for it and save us all the hassle.

As we have explained, this is done on purpose. It is a way of "inviting" us to buy the games and it reminds us a bit of what games were like on their classic systems: when buying a cartridge / DVD, only the one who has it physically can play it. If we play it, like it and want it, we will have to pay for it or stop enjoying it when we return it.

How to make a backup

Taking the folder can help us to make a backup copy. A streaming game service should do the backups in the cloud, but I have seen that this is not the case, at least on Linux. It is something that I discovered while doing this tutorial: I had installed Steam in its Flatpak package and today it would not let me enter to take the screenshots, I have uninstalled the Flatpak version, I have installed the APT and the games that I had tried on this PC. they have disappeared. That is why I think that this can be used to make a backup copy of our own library: save the .steam folder and copy its content inside the new one that creates us after the new installation, but on our computer and with our own account.

Do you already know how to take advantage of this function to share the games with your friends on Steam?


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