mechmouse: What infurates me, is that Steam didn't used to be like this. It used to let me and the wife play different games at the same time.
MorningStar33: What *exactly* stops you from doing it now?
Steam does and the SSA.
Cut and pasted from another thread
Steam will only let 1 game per account be played at anytime. have 100 game and one person is playing 1 of them the other 99 are locked out.
The only way around it is to use the main account in offline mode. Then the other person can play using SFS.
Which means 2 of the 100 games can be played (it actually allows you to both play the same game which runs counter to the idea of protecting the publishers license).
The problem here is there are 7 of us.
So the next solution is to forget SFS and for everyone to use the main account in offline mode.
Which is a little annoying and for me a constant reminder that VALVe's restriction is unfair and very daft. Its daft because instead of ensuring 1 license can only be used on 1 machine at a time, offline mode allows abuse of licenses.
For the first 5 years, this wasn't the case.
I used Steam online on both mine and wife's computer at the same time, with us both playing different games at the same time.
Not only that it was a permitted action according to their SSA.
Then after 5 years and pumping hundreds of pounds in to my account, they changed Steam and the SSA.
Even to this day under the SSA you're not allowed to let someone else use your account, though there is a caveat for VALVe to grant that permission. If you followed the SSA strictly you couldn't create an account for a minor and let them use it, or apply the family view (kiddie lock) onto the account of the 13+yo child and even let friends play with you on local multiplayer games such as rayman.