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Rojhat 29 Jul @ 12:27pm
Family Alert
Hey everyone,

Me and my family, we share our games with Steam Family Share, which I love. It's a great feature.

But I have a suggestion. Sometimes my brothers will buy a game or two, and if I haven't spoken to them for a day or so, I have no idea that a new game is even in our library to try.

So, my idea is that when someone in the family buys a new game, it gets a little alert or maybe a "New Game in Library" showcase somewhere. This way we'd all know. It should be for unique games only, meaning if someone else in the family already owns it, it wouldn't trigger an alert.

This got me thinking about my second suggestion, which would be to have a proper "Family Screen." This is a bigger idea, but it would be really cool. It would be similar to how Netflix and other platforms have profiles for everyone.

On this screen, you could build out the family part of Steam. For example:

* See what everyone's playing: You could see a little card for each family member showing what games they play the most. I know we can already check profiles to see this, but it would be nice to have it all in one place visually. It would make it much easier if my brothers wanted to buy me a game, they could just look there and get ideas.

* A family activity feed: Maybe a small section on the screen that just shows what's going on. Things like "John just started playing Elden Ring" or "Sarah got a new achievement in Dave the Diver." Just a simple way to feel more connected.

* Find games to play together: This screen could be really smart and automatically show us a list of all the multiplayer or co-op games that we all own across our shared libraries. It would save us from having to cross-reference our games to find something to play together.

* A Shared Gifting Cart: Instead of just one person having to buy a big $70 game as a gift, what if the family could have a shared cart for a person's wishlist? Everyone could chip in $10 or $20 towards a game. It makes gifting expensive games a lot easier, and for Steam, it means they're more likely to sell those new full-priced games.
* A Simple Family Calendar: On the Family Screen, you could have a simple calendar to schedule a "game night." And here's the best part for Steam: if we schedule a "Racing Game Night" for Saturday, the calendar could pop up a little notice like, "Heads up, the Forza franchise is 50% off this week." It connects our family's plans directly to sales on the store, making it more likely we'd buy a new game for our event.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts on how to make a family share feature even better.
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Showing 1-15 of 15 comments
76561198407601200 29 Jul @ 1:03pm 
For shared gifting cart all involved can simply send giftcard funds to who ever will purchase the game.
#1
Nx Machina 29 Jul @ 1:23pm 
Originally posted by Rojhat:
So, my idea is that when someone in the family buys a new game, it gets a little alert or maybe a "New Game in Library" showcase somewhere. This way we'd all know. It should be for unique games only, meaning if someone else in the family already owns it, it wouldn't trigger an alert.

Would not work for games that cannot be family shared.

Originally posted by Rojhat:
* A Shared Gifting Cart: Instead of just one person having to buy a big $70 game as a gift, what if the family could have a shared cart for a person's wishlist? Everyone could chip in $10 or $20 towards a game. It makes gifting expensive games a lot easier, and for Steam, it means they're more likely to sell those new full-priced games.

Would not work as the purchase is unique to the person whose account it is due to the payment method linked to their account.

Send a digital gift card to fund it so they have the money to pay for it from their account.
#2
Rojhat 30 Jul @ 4:29am 
Originally posted by Nx Machina:
Originally posted by Rojhat:


Would not work for games that cannot be family shared.

Originally posted by Rojhat:

Would not work as the purchase is unique to the person whose account it is due to the payment method linked to their account.

Send a digital gift card to fund it so they have the money to pay for it from their account.

Will work. For the new game alert, it's simple. Steam already knows which games can't be family shared, so just don't send an alert for those games. If a game is sharable and new to our family, send the alert.
I would assume this joint table already exist as the family share library is already there.

For the shared cart, you're right you can't buy from someone else's account. But it would be solved like the Steam Wallet.

They could make a special wallet just for a specific gift. Say I see a $70 game on my brother's wishlist for his birthday. I can start a gift pot for it and put in $20. My other family members would see this and can then chip in their own money too. It's a way for all of us to "wallet" some cash together for that one thing. Once the pot hits the $70, Steam just buys the game and gives it to my brother automatically.
Last edited by Rojhat; 30 Jul @ 4:31am
#3
Rojhat 30 Jul @ 4:33am 
Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:
For shared gifting cart all involved can simply send giftcard funds to who ever will purchase the game.

I agree, you could do this, but, when was the last time you bought something physical such as a gift card? Some parts of the world don't have steam gift cards.
This way, family members could share the pain of expensive games.
#4
HikariLight 30 Jul @ 5:12am 
Originally posted by Rojhat:
Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:
For shared gifting cart all involved can simply send giftcard funds to who ever will purchase the game.

I agree, you could do this, but, when was the last time you bought something physical such as a gift card? Some parts of the world don't have steam gift cards.
This way, family members could share the pain of expensive games.
With Steam, you can send a digital gift card.
You don't have to go get a physical one.
#5
Nx Machina 30 Jul @ 5:21am 
Originally posted by Rojhat:
Will work. For the new game alert, it's simple. Steam already knows which games can't be family shared, so just don't send an alert for those games. If a game is sharable and new to our family, send the alert.
I would assume this joint table already exist as the family share library is already there.

Your suggestion is: So, my idea is that when someone in the family buys a new game, it gets a little alert or maybe a "New Game in Library" showcase somewhere. You did not take into account new games may not be available via Family Share, as you literally focused your suggestion on buys a new game.

Originally posted by Rojhat:
For the shared cart, you're right you can't buy from someone else's account. But it would be solved like the Steam Wallet.

They could make a special wallet just for a specific gift. Say I see a $70 game on my brother's wishlist for his birthday. I can start a gift pot for it and put in $20. My other family members would see this and can then chip in their own money too. It's a way for all of us to "wallet" some cash together for that one thing. Once the pot hits the $70, Steam just buys the game and gives it to my brother automatically.

I did not state buy from someone's account. I stated Would not work as the purchase is unique to the person whose account it is due to the payment method linked to their account. In other words you cannot have a shared cart due to a cart being for a specific account and the payment method used by that account.

The solution is: Send a digital gift card to fund it so they have the money to pay for it from their account.
Last edited by Nx Machina; 30 Jul @ 9:20am
#6
BJWyler 30 Jul @ 10:23am 
Originally posted by Rojhat:
Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:
For shared gifting cart all involved can simply send giftcard funds to who ever will purchase the game.

I agree, you could do this, but, when was the last time you bought something physical such as a gift card? Some parts of the world don't have steam gift cards.
This way, family members could share the pain of expensive games.
How about you all gather in the family room, take the cash out of your pockets and toss it all in a bowl on the table, and the family member who is buying the game takes the money to buy it.
#7
AmsterdamHeavy 30 Jul @ 10:34am 
I can see a good reason to not have that notification. As for the rest, most of it is already available in some way shape or form.

Person buys new hotness game. Alert notifies everyone. Person who bought the game now cannot play the new hotness because everyone else is glomming on to his recent purchase and you can no longer kick someone off of your game. I say this because you seem to think that not knowing someone bought something for a couple days is an issue. Let your "brother" enjoy their purchase ffs.

I mean, *I* dont share my library with anyone I dont trust implicitly. Seeing the uses cases of others laid out here on the forums though, that is a potentially large problem. Not that the actual mechanics dont work that way now, but an "Alert" would only exacerbate that.
Last edited by AmsterdamHeavy; 30 Jul @ 10:36am
#8
Rojhat 30 Jul @ 11:56am 
That's just a lazy way of thinking, the problem is easy to solve. There are a bunch of ways to handle it.

You could have a simple "hide from family" checkbox right before you buy. I get it, that's an extra click and sellers want less clicks because consumers are lazy, but it gives people the choice.

Or, Steam could do it automatically, so games tagged as "adult" just don't send an alert. You could even make it work exactly like hiding games from friends does now. It's not a hard problem to fix.
Last edited by Rojhat; 30 Jul @ 11:58am
#9
Rojhat 30 Jul @ 12:02pm 
Originally posted by HikariLight:
Originally posted by Rojhat:


With Steam, you can send a digital gift card.
You don't have to go get a physical one.
I had no idea you could buy digital gift cards. that does solve the issue. as someone could just buy a digital gift card send it to the user their wallets now have the funds.
#10
Rojhat 30 Jul @ 12:13pm 
Originally posted by Nx Machina:


Your suggestion is: So, my idea is that when someone in the family buys a new game, it gets a little alert or maybe a "New Game in Library" showcase somewhere. You did not take into account new games may not be available via Family Share, as you literally focused your suggestion on buys a new game.

Of course. That's obvious. If a game can't be shared, it doesn't show up in the family library. If it doesn't show up in the family library, it doesn't trigger the alert.

The alert is for new sharable games. That was the whole point.

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

I did not state buy from someone's account. I stated Would not work as the purchase is unique to the person whose account it is due to the payment method linked to their account. In other words you cannot have a shared cart due to a cart being for a specific account and the payment method used by that account.


The solution is: Send a digital gift card to fund it so they have the money to pay for it from their account.


Think of it like this: Family member 1(on their steam acc) starts a fundraiser for a $70 game and puts in $20. The rest of the family can then see this and chip in their own money. You could have a little meter that shows the goal, like $20 / $70, and even see who gave what to the pot. Sure you could argue, well if family 1 leaves the family share, the other lose. Well, nothing in life is perfect.

And yes, we can send gift cards now. Just because one way to give funds exists doesn't mean we can't have a better, more social way to do it.

Edit, it would be even better, if there was a family wallet and any family member could do what we said above. this wallet can buy to any family members, and then chose where the game goes.
I understand that you already can gift games to X person.


Last edited by Rojhat; 30 Jul @ 12:19pm
#11
BJWyler 30 Jul @ 3:03pm 
Originally posted by Rojhat:
That's just a lazy way of thinking, the problem is easy to solve. There are a bunch of ways to handle it.

You could have a simple "hide from family" checkbox right before you buy. I get it, that's an extra click and sellers want less clicks because consumers are lazy, but it gives people the choice.

Or, Steam could do it automatically, so games tagged as "adult" just don't send an alert. You could even make it work exactly like hiding games from friends does now. It's not a hard problem to fix.
Or you could just walk into the next room and tell your family you bought the new game. No real need for Steam to announce it.
#12
Haruspex 30 Jul @ 4:07pm 
I just have the "All Games" shelf sorted by the date they were added to the library. That way any new games are right there front and center. Can't miss it that way.
#13
Rojhat 31 Jul @ 3:38am 
Originally posted by BJWyler:
Or you could just walk into the next room and tell your family you bought the new game. No real need for Steam to announce it.

Sure, but what about people who don't live under the same roof anymore?
Some might have started there, but then left.
The goal is quality of life, fleshing out the family sharing feature.
#14
BJWyler 31 Jul @ 5:52am 
Originally posted by Rojhat:
Originally posted by BJWyler:
Or you could just walk into the next room and tell your family you bought the new game. No real need for Steam to announce it.

Sure, but what about people who don't live under the same roof anymore?
Some might have started there, but then left.
The goal is quality of life, fleshing out the family sharing feature.
Frequently asked questions

Who can be in a Steam Family?

While we know that families come in many shapes and sizes, Steam Families is intended for a household of up to 6 close family members.

To that end, we expect the requirements for participating in a Steam Family to change over time as we monitor its usage and add requirements to keep usage in line with this intent.
That being said, it's not the issue you think it is if you don't know someone bought a new game for a couple of days. And if it is, well, there is this marvelous - almost magical - technology called the telephone that offers things like speech and text.
#15
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Date Posted: 29 Jul @ 12:27pm
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