Decent idea, although the fact that an entire account is locked while the owner is playing the game makes it essentially useless.

And personally, I don't know anyone who really uses Steam like that anymore. The only Steam users I encounter are on forums like this.

While still not the same as DRM-free (which has no restrictions like this at all to think about), a small step to the right direction anyway. A bolder step would have been that both can simultaneously play the games from the same Steam account, as long as they don't play exactly the same game.

It would be even better if e.g. Origin introduced a similar system, as then it would make more sense to spread games over several services. E.g. if your friend is playing one of your Steam games, meahwhile you could be playing your Origin games. Or heck, even his Origin games. :)

Not that I see myself using this feature that much at least at this point, I don't have gamers as close friends, at least ones interested in similar games as me. But maybe someone I know might sometime want to try out a game from my Steam account on his PC, and I could let him.

In the end, I guess this is an advertisement system to Steam, they get more new users to whom to spam "You know, if you bought this game instead of playing your friend's copy, you wouldn't be kicked out whenever he logs in into his Steam account.".

Can region-restricted content be shared across regions?

No, any region restrictions will remain in place when lending or borrowing content.

Makes it a bit useless for people like me who's family is split over several countries >_> And really, Valve/publishers should not be dictating geographic limits on already purchased products, that restriction should purely be at point of purchase only. =/

The Family Sharing Beta has gone live.. and after reading the user's guide I can say that the feature is 100% useless. To share your library, you first have to log in to your account on your friends/family's computer.

"If another Steam user has installed a game on your shared computer, you can log into Steam on this device using your own account and send a sharing request. To do this, visit your library, where you’ll see your friend’s installed games. Select the Play button to launch a request form. Once sent, this will send an email message to the account holder."

... the FAQ says you can authorize them through email. No logging in needed.

That stuff you posted sounds like when someone wants to use -your computer with your games- with their account. :P

Nope, the email gets sent AFTER you log in. Logging in is required.

Can't say I consider that a bad thing. This is supposed to be friends and family. You shouldn't be sharing this stuff with people you wouldn't trust with your account info.
After reading the FAQ I'm not sure where you're getting your statements or whether I'm confusing the points behind them?

A friend can request a share for a game already installed in his computer. My question here would rather be whether he can send a request if the game is not installed on his computer as well. If that's the only way to allow share then I can see your point.

Ah well, me and my three other personalities will enjoy sharing games between ourselves.

Your lucky, my personalities do not get along. in fact I am afraid Larry intends to kill The Stranger whenever we fall asleep, so it is lucky we have Suzy Starmaker to keep us awake.

"Your Family Sharing privileges may be revoked and your account may even be VAC banned if your library is used by others to conduct cheating or fraud. We recommend you only authorize familiar computers you know to be secure. And as always, never give your password to anyone."

Glad they are thinking of VAC banning the original account owner as well, else this would just lead to people circumventing bans on their main account.

The user guide is pretty confusing. This is where I got it from.

"To request that another user’s installed games on your shared computer are shared with you:

If another Steam user has installed a game on your shared computer, you can log into Steam on this device using your own account and send a sharing request. To do this, visit your library, where you’ll see your friend’s installed games. Select the Play button to launch a request form. Once sent, this will send an email message to the account holder."

The user guide is poorly written. I'm surprised that they couldn't have explained it better in the amount of time they had before release. All I know for sure is that you need to log in to your account on your friends/family's computer to be able to share games with them. The beta was strictly meant for family though, I don't think they had any intention of remotely requesting/sharing libraries with friends that don't live with you.

Damn, no luck here :(

Aye, it seems that basically you can only allow people to play games you have previously installed on their system.

This'll still help me and the GF out a lot, it basically means she only needs to log in and install my game/games once and afterwards she can play them whenever I'm not using it (or perhaps Offline mode, I guess we'll see how that works)

Can't say I'm surprised or even sorry that remote sharing isn't in there. The amount of nonsense that would come from that would be enormous probably. Constant sharing requests by people, support flooded with 'friends' who got their accounts VAC banned by cheating on their shared games, people 'renting' their libraries.

My only regret so far is the need for the game to have been preinstalled.

I hope they change the idea that your account becomes 'locked' as long as someone is playing one of your games, the only game that should be locked is the one that is lent out.

In the end though I hope this leads to a demo system instead, that would be much better but likely reduce revenue to not be worth it for Valve.