Other people are more educated about this topic than I am, but I would like to make sure it is known.
As long as New World is installed on a PC mutliple Steam accounts can use the same purchased copy using Steam’s Family Sharing.
What is worse, multiple accounts can use the same purchased copy at the same time due to New World being ran on AGS servers and not Steam’s. This is done by using a few work arounds and being “offline” for steam but being logged into New World.
People have been doing this since launch. All it takes is an email and a new Steam account to have another character on one server. There is no need for bots to have pirated cd keys when this is available to abuse so easily.
My reading of the last FAQ entry on the Steam Family Sharing page is that the primary account can be banned:
Will I be punished for any cheating or fraud conducted by other users while playing my games?
Your Family Library Sharing privileges may be revoked and your account may also be VAC banned if your library is used by others to conduct cheating or fraud. Additionally, VAC-banned games cannot be shared. We recommend you only authorize familiar computers you know to be secure. And as always, never give your password to anyone.
Surely Steam knows if a banned account was using a game purchased by the account or belongs to the ‘parent’ of a family account?
Well first off New World doesn’t use VAC. Second this all depends on how AGS bans or deals with bots. If they are just banning the Steam account then you just have to switch to another.
If they ban the cd key, then yeah that would be more effective, but how long does it take for that to happen? Im sure they can track the cd key of everyone but do they actively do it. Also if they did, they would see multiple characters on the same server with the same cd key anyway.
I will mention any if you go to any spawning new area and check out the bots sprouting up, they usually come in group. Usually they have a prefix followed by gibberish. bot123, bot124, bot125 etc. That doesn’t really prove anything but it is something to note.
When it comes down to it, this is a potentially open gate that can be fixed by getting Steam to flip a switch, disabling Steam Family Sharing. This is actually pretty standard for games of this genre.
EDIT: lol I just had to edit my post because I was talking about amazon accounts instead of steam accounts. Made no sense.