WTB: Family Friendly Steam/Origin Keys

[LosOjos]

As you may already know (hell I've harped on about it enough!) I've built my daughter her first PC for xmas. Now, it's not a beast of a gaming rig but it's certainly enough to get her started and has plenty of headroom for upgradeability. I've completely blown my xmas budget (and then some!).

 

I want to load the machine up with a few games ready for her booting it up on xmas day. I've already created her a Steam account and loaded the recent Team 17 Humble Bundle on to it and I'm looking at what my best option is for getting her the Sims 3 (way too expensive on Origin, not too bad in shops but hanging on in case I can find anyone with a left over code from the Humble Origin Bundle...)

 

That's where you lovely, charming, handsome/beautiful fellow geeks come in

 

If anyone has any Steam/Origin keys for games that are either too kiddy for them or they just know they'll never play or don't have any younger relatives to give them to, I'd love to take them off your hands. I'm willing to pay of course, just name your price and I'll buy it if I can

 

My daughter is 10, but I will let her play certain ESRB 13+ titles if I've vetted them first or know someone who has.

[Mako]

Do you already own the Sims 3 on Steam?

[LosOjos]

Do you already own the Sims 3 on Steam?

 

I didn't know you could get it on Steam actually... I have it on my own Origin account, picked it up with the Humble Bundle a couple of months ago and she has been playing it on my PC via my account, but I'd like to get her a copy of her own so that she can still play it if I'm logged in to Origin playing something else

[Mako]

Well, the reason I asked is because Steam are introducing Family Sharing. So if you had the Sims 3 on your account, you could authorise your child to play that game on their account. The process is currently in beta, see: Steam Family Sharing

 

All the games you have installed, on the computer, on your account will appear when they log in to steam. They can then send you a request to allow them to play one of your games. It's on a per-game basis.

 

It saves having to buy multiple copies for each steam account, or if the computer is unlikely to be moved in a while. You could login to your steam account, download the game and authorise her to play it.

 

If you don't have the Sims 3 etc then no bother, but if you own any other games on your Steam account that you'd like her to play then you could go down this route. It's quite a good feature and I'm surprised that they've only just got around to this.

[LosOjos]

@Mako - oh cool I had heard about that but didn't know it had been 'launched' yet, I'll check it out. Unfortunately it won't help for Sims 3 but at least she'll be able to play some of the other games I have

[DMcGuigan]

Just a heads up:

 

I'm using the family sharing, and it's good, but not all it's cracked up to be. For example:

 

I'm the owner of the account, so I share my entire library with a friend, Player A.

 

Player A can now play any game I own, providing DRM doesn't say no, in which case they wouldn't see it.

Player A starts playing Worms, I want to play, so I load Worms too, they get 5 minutes before the get kicked off, or buy the game to continue playing.

Owner is playing Worms, Player A can't boot it as Owner takes precedent.

 

So far, all as we thought it would be...Then they hit you with the fun stuff.

 

You can only play ONE game PER LIBRARY.

 

Player A wants to play Worms, I come off it so they can. They're playing happily, I decide I want to play Shadow Warrior, different game, all should be fine.

5 minutes later Player A has been kicked out.

 

 

System works well (still in beta, invite only I believe), but only if you're willing to play something non-steam, my friends all have access to my account with 430 something games, while I play an MMO, or BF4. So if you want her to be able to play something, feel free to share the account, just remember she'll get kicked if you sign in.

[CAM]

Add Rikev on Steam and I'll see what I have in my inventory when I get home, will gladly accept trading cards as payment too...

 

I think I have a very old copy of Hoards in there, you play a dragon that goes round picking up treasure and breathing fire on stuff. Might have Portal too.

[LosOjos]

Add Rikev on Steam and I'll see what I have in my inventory when I get home, will gladly accept trading cards as payment too...

 

I think I have a very old copy of Hoards in there, you play a dragon that goes round picking up treasure and breathing fire on stuff. Might have Portal too.

 

Nice one, thanks if I add you under my own account, josh_wolf, would I then be able to send anything you send me over to her account afterwards?

 

I'm having to be very careful to only perform actions on her account when she's not at a PC, don't want an email pop up tipping her off to what I'm doing (I've been deleting all confirmation emails from her inbox so she never gets to see them)

[CAM]

Inventory items are traded like any other so should work.

[CAM]

OK, tradable games are Hoard, Portal 1 and Civ IV

[LosOjos]

OK, tradable games are Hoard, Portal 1 and Civ IV

 

Was a pleasure doing business with you sir, you just helped improve a little girl's xmas

[featured_spectre]

got a DOTA2 game if you want it

[LosOjos]

got a DOTA2 game if you want it

 

Thanks for the offer mate but I still have a few of those too

[LosOjos]

Anybody got any recommendations for games? Ones you've played that were good or ones you have younger family who enjoy them. Not saying I'll buy them necessarily, but I'm going to get some family to buy Steam vouchers so it'd be cool if I could recommend some games to little one

[mossj88]

Not what your looking for at the moment but the Humble Bundles have family friendly games every now and then... They had a Worms one last week and the donation you make goes to charity which isn't a bad thing either.

[LosOjos]

Not what your looking for at the moment but the Humble Bundles have family friendly games every now and then... They had a Worms one last week and the donation you make goes to charity which isn't a bad thing either.

 

Yeah I bought us both the Team 17 bundle earlier in the week