spouse

Hi. I'm just curious, do I really have to purchase two copies of a game in order for my wife to play? There are a few games I have bought that only allow for one player to play through, no options for other profiles, and of course if she signs in with her own steam account she doesn't have the game. Would it work to install the games on a second partition, or a second user account? An example of my problem would be Sonic Generations. I bought it because I thought it was a game my wife and I could both enjoy. Once I started it I realized there is no options for other saves, it just has auto saves. This means if my wife wanted to play after me, she would have no idea where to go as all the areas I've played would be opened, she would have nothing to accomplish and nothing to play for. I've been with steam for years and I've ridiculed people for playing their games on a crippled computer like the xbox or ps. Now I'm starting to feel like I'm wrong, whats the point of buying games from steam when my family cant play them?

[s1234567890m]

AFAIK its one account per person, i dont think the idea is to let multiple poeple play it

[Alshain]

I'm not sure how the rules of the Steam system apply to spouses (legally, whats yours is hers and I don't think Valve can go against that since it is law).

You can't really install on a different partition with steam. I see three ways to make this work, the first two involve turning off steam cloud. The first way is to find where the game save file is on your hard drive and manage it manually. The second way to make this work would be to install it on separate computers and disable steam cloud. You still would not be able to play at the same time. The other option is to wait till you finish the game and start over for her.

Obviously this won't work for multiplayer games. In that case you must have two copies, which is true for retail games too.

[PieceOfMind]

Maybe you could find where the savefile is, back it up and then delete it from the save folder. Then whenever your wife and you want to switch profiles you swap in/out those savefiles.

I don't have the game so I don't know if that would work. If it's an online sort of profile, maybe it won't.

[TimmyLordOfHell]

Here is what I do: I have a brother who occasionally plays on my account as well. For games with only 1 save, you can navigate to the save folder. A Google search should find you the location if needed. Rename the save game to something else. For example, maybe add _yourname after it. Then when you boot up the game, it will have to start a new save. Just rename the file you want to use to whatever the save file originates as, and it will load that save instead. It is a little tedious, but it works

Ex. For VVVVVV, i navigate to Users/<username here>/Documents/VVVVVV The save file starts as Saves. I changed mine to Saves.me, and my brother's save (currently active) is just left as Saves. If i want to play, I just rename his folder and change mine to "Saves".

I hope this helps

[HazySarkany]

Originally Posted by kleverbluejones

Hi. I'm just curious, do I really have to purchase two copies of a game in order for my wife to play? ...

I don't think it's the platform's fault. Some games do support multiple profiles, some don't, but that's the decision of the developer. Steam is just delivering it to you.


You should probably check the forums for games you are interested in, or check the demos, and find which ones support multiple profiles before buying them.

That being said, I think you should take a moment, and count your blessings. Having a spouse is the greatest blessing of course, but having one that lets you play games, and plays games herself, is like hitting the lotto. Go buy her some flowers or something!

And get her her own steam account and in the upcoming Christmas Sale get a good source-based game to go with it (Portal 2?) Then you can not only play the free-to-play games coop, and maybe some Portal 2 coop, but you'll be able to play a bunch of free source mods.

Then buy her some indie bundles! Next week there's another one at Indie Royale, and there should be Humble Bundle 4 soon.

For the really expensive games, I see what you mean, but there are a *lot* of really good deals on Steam games through the sales and the various indie bundlers. For the ones you like to play together, you might consider buying two copies.

[gNatFreak]

If you have two hard drives, you could install Steam and the game on each hard drive. I figure that would work (if you turned off the Steam Cloud for one hard drive (or both, to be safe)).

[CTRL ALT DEL !]

I don't think Valve have an issue as long as you aren't handing the account around or hiring it out.

Also do you think Valve can see if it's you or your missus/kids playing?

Find the game saves / move them / play a new game / swap them / play the old game / repeat as required.

(turn off steam cloud for that game or this doesn't work)

[wazups 2x]

I doubt Valve cares if it's someone that's living in the same household as you.

[thePyro_13]

They can't tell or care for such a small number of users.

While it is against the TOS, their aren't going to be any repercussions. Just don't start any support queries with "Me and my spouse share an account and..."

As far as saves go, it depends on the game. A good start would be separate user accounts(for Windows/Mac, not Steam), as most games place their saves in per user folders. Good luck!