while it has a few key perks that have people excited, the new Steam Families game-sharing feature is much more specific, and thus restrictive, as to what constitutes a "Family," isn't it?
whereas before you could share your library with whatever five people you liked enough, the new system only lets you inter-share your games with a single group of five other people who are all sharing with each other, too. basically, what had been diverse Steam "polycules" will now be broken up into insular, disconnected islands.
library sharing that previously looked like a wildly flowering node map is now curtailed to small nuclear-style hubs of no more than six points. moving between these groups is discouraged via harsh 365-day cooldowns that begin the day you join a Family. while you can leave the current Family at any time, until that ticks down you cannot join another. (the old system let you change whom you granted access as desired.) and of course, you can only be in one Family at any given time.
this is quite a winnowing down of sharing possibilities, in my opinion. i am sure this new lack of flexibility regarding who you share with (and when) meets Valve's business objectives better than the old, more open-ended system. Valve also states that it may restrict family membership requirements further in the future:
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, as we monitor the usage of this feature, we may adjust the requirements for participating in a Steam Family or the number of members over time to keep usage in line with this intent.
perhaps a more academy oriented person can channel this coming change into commentary on queer vs. normative notions of family, which is sort of what's tickling my brain here. i see that most people seem happy about this change because only locking up a game being shared has less friction than locking up an entire shared library. but to enjoy that benefit you have to lock yourself into a much more fixed definition of "family" and who you're allowed to share with, and so far that is just not sitting 100% well with me.
edit: an additional restriction that is causing a lot of friction on the Steam Families forum is that all members of a Steam Family must be residing in the same country. as some posters are pointing out that is very restrictive and just does not accommodate the circumstances of many modern families. (there is also some concern that Valve is ultimately angling to define a "Family" as people living under the same roof, but i think that is mostly speculation so far.)
