Can another Steam account be bought?

AnastieByte · 25 Jul 2006 at 16:28

I advertised on another forum for an unregistered Half Life 2. I own the game on my main computer but want to play LAN style with my son via a wireless connection so presume I need a legot CD or DVD. Somebody said they would sell me a unregistered steam account that would mean I could just download a copy. Is the possible or not legit. I want to do it right

Raikiri · 25 Jul 2006 at 16:32

Download steam on your sons computer, set it up with his email rather than yours. Download HL2/CSS etc. via steam.

AnastieByte · 25 Jul 2006 at 16:43

You mean using the steam ID this person is selling?

Cronox · 25 Jul 2006 at 16:50

Steam accounts can be created for free. Don’t buy one.

AnastieByte · 25 Jul 2006 at 16:52

Oer my brain hurts

I already own HL2. I want to play LAN style against my son at Counter Strike Source on our second PC. I thought the only way to do this was to buy a second copy of HL2?

ScarySquirrel · 25 Jul 2006 at 16:56

Yeah, and you can do that through steam, setup a steam account for free for your son.

AnastieByte · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:03

I think I get it
1) Set up second steam acc in sons name
2) Buy and download HL2 etc from Steam

So someone wanting to sell me a key is not legit? as I would still need the game

DaveyD · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:11

As long as you are playing together offline, on a LAN, and not over the internet, you'll be fine for playing Counter-Strike: Source together using the same Steam accounts, so if that is all you want to do, all you need to do is log on with your Steam account on your sons PC and install CS:S on there. You do not need to buy a new copy of anything.

If you were to want to play online with him on a server with other people, then you would need another Steam account. You can buy a used version of Half-Life 2 fine, but you either have to make sure the seller is giving you the Steam account details for that version to go with it, OR, you contact valve, prove you own the game, and get the CD-Key transferred over to a new Steam account.

AnastieByte · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:17

DaveyD said:
As long as you are playing together offline, on a LAN, and not over the internet, you'll be fine for playing Counter-Strike: Source together using the same Steam accounts, so if that is all you want to do, all you need to do is log on with your Steam account on your sons PC and install CS:S on there. You do not need to buy a new copy of anything.

If you were to want to play online with him on a server with other people, then you would need another Steam account. You can buy a used version of Half-Life 2 fine, but you either have to make sure the seller is giving you the Steam account details for that version to go with it, OR, you contact valve, prove you own the game, and get the CD-Key transferred over to a new Steam account.

So:
1) Log into steam from his pc and download css again?

DaveyD · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:19

AnastieByte said:
So:
1) Log into steam from his pc and download css again?

Yes.

AnastieByte · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:32

Thanks will give it a go

bilston · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:49

or just install it on his pc, then copy all the gcf files across from the steam dir.

ScarySquirrel · 25 Jul 2006 at 17:54

Oh and i wouldn't suggest buying an account of anyone

DaveyD · 25 Jul 2006 at 18:00

ScarySquirrel said:
Oh and i wouldn't suggest buying an account of anyone

As long as you get the hard copy DVD and CD-Key and all of the account details, there's no problem with buying accounts, however if you buy JUST an account, you may down the line find games to vanish from your account, as the person you bought it off can then claim back his game by still owning it on DVD.

bledd · 26 Jul 2006 at 00:02

what you need to do..

on your 2nd pc, download steam

setup an account for your son, in his account go to the shop section of steam and buy HL2 (it'll be saved in that account forever then, even when you format it rememebrs what you have registered to your account)

you can create a steam backup on the HL2 copy on your pc, then restore it to your sons (it'll use his steamID etc, so will be able to play each other)..

:0

DaveyD · 26 Jul 2006 at 07:51

What's the point in spending cash on a new copy?

bledd · 26 Jul 2006 at 08:28

is it legal to use the same copy on two pc's at the same time?

DaveyD · 26 Jul 2006 at 09:56

bledd. said:
is it legal to use the same copy on two pc's at the same time?

As long as you're not playing on the net at the same time with it, it's fine. Even if you were attempt to play at the same time one of the users would be stopped due to duplicate Steam IDs.

Cronox · 26 Jul 2006 at 10:50

DaveyD said:
As long as you're not playing on the net at the same time with it, it's fine. Even if you were attempt to play at the same time one of the users would be stopped due to duplicate Steam IDs.

Not sure if I am misunderstanding something here but surely you can’t use the same CD key in two different steam accounts even if they are not both online at the same time? I would have assumed that when you try to verify the second one it will say that CD Key is already registered to another, is that not the whole point of having an online verification system?

Or are you suggesting that both systems are set-up to use the same steam account? Even in this case I believe the game will prevent you from joining a LAN server created by somebody using the same steam account/CD Key.

DaveyD · 26 Jul 2006 at 11:11

I'm talking about using the same Steam accounts on both PCs.

From experience, It has worked in the past, but not tried it in a while. I'm only suggesting it for LAN play, you can be logged onto the same account fine across PCs. if both machines are in offline mode, no authentication takes place at all, so there shouldn't be problems there.