Lan party - Copy Steam directory???

[Dark omen]

Hi there everybody,

now on friday I'm having a small Lan party with 3 of my friends. I just found out that I will be the only one who has already bought a copy of Half Life 2.

Because I don't have an internet connection on my computer, I'm used to play in offline mode, and I noticed that I could play HL2 without the DVD.

So I was wondering if it would work if I copied whole my Steam directory to each pc in the Lan network, and then played HL2 DM together? But then again, I don't know if that's legal. Because the last thing I want to find out is that my key or account is disabled by Valve because of this.

So my question is: am I allowed to do this, and, if so, will it work?

 

[Flamin-h]

Try using the "Back up hl2" feature, install steam on your friends comps, then extract the back up (should install automaticaly to the right directory). I have done this, and experienced a small problem with joing servers online at my friends place. But its probably your only hope.

Copying Steam is going to be a big task, backing up hl2 and css will also take about 45mins.

 

[Dark omen]

But are you allowed to do this? Don't you have the risk then that your account will be disabled?

 

[v1p3r]

Just install Steam on every computer and go to your Steam/SteamApps folder and copy all the GCF files to your friends computers in the same place.

Then load all the computers into offline mode on your account and you will be able to play LAN.

Just remember to log them out of your account when you're done

 

[Krofinzki]

I'm having the same situation here. LAN, but I'm the only one who bought HL2. I really really don't want my account to be disabled and yet I want to play some.. cause I bought it...

Is there any way for us all to play online?

 

[Dark omen]

On line will be a problem I think: that's the whole thing where STEAM is about: to make sure that no two persons can play with the same key and STEAM account. I don't know exactly how STEAM works, but my guess is that when you go online with STEAM, it checks your account and key, and verifies if someone else is using it or not.

When everyone is playing offline, STEAM isn't able to check that, so I think you should be able to play a LAN offline with the same key and account, but a 100% sure I'm not. That's why I started this thread.

 

[Bud_Weiser]

You know to be honest, I would'nt try it. Would it be worth it to loose your Steam account over?

*shrug*

I would just tell them to go get a copy if they want to play. I mean come on, it's not THAT expensive. I bought mine at Best Buy for under $50.

 

[Dracarys]

It's not technically legal; they need to get their own copies.

 

[Dumb Dude]

How could he lose his steam account? He plays offline, so I wouldn't see how Vavle would know about it all. Of course I could be wrong.

 

[Washuu]

They can't check things like this. Ofcourse it is fine, I've always felt that playing on LAN with the same copy just for an instance ( no single player, no online play ) is fine.