Multiplayer, No CD required

You are breaking the law by doing this.

That said, just download no-cd cracks for the games you want to play like this.

So I should have some milk and cookies ready this Sunday. You know for the FEDS. Seriously thank you. I should have thought, before I posted.

I know the stoolies that work for the games/music company will call everyone a pirate that even talks about this. And no - the FBI isnt visiting anyone.

But I think its a good question. I enjoy having friends/family come over and we all enjoy playing various games together. I do have a number of PC's and some games seem to allow this and others want you to spend $50 per PC - which is ridiculous for an hours worth of playing.

I think it would be good PR for the software companies to allow say 4 people to play together with one key as long as you are on the same subnet - no routing and the one valid key must be on the subnet (this keeps you from playing it when you leave). This would expose others to that game who had not bought it but might buy it. I would even accept fewer maps or restricted gameplay, no ranking, etc.

Having said that there are several ways legal or not.
Some sites post keys from people who no longer play the game
Some sites post NO CD cracks
Some sites post modified server hacks that do not check for any keys
A lot of demos allow you to host a limited network playable version

But I would say write the games developers and ask that they allow us to play a limited number of friends on the same subnet.

My 2 cents

Actually, legality depends on the EULA, and your local laws.

On a more practical matter, some deliberately put weak copy protection on lan games, because it's very difficult, can cause problems to implement, doesn't affect a lot of people (proportionally). A few companies see an advantage in a "lan party advertisment" effect.

There are also quite a few homebrew/indy game developers who explicitly allow for this sort of thing.

Have you tried America's Army, that game is 100% free, the only game i can think of is old Wolf-ET, unless you want some MP demos to try.

If the game uses PunkBuster i wouldn't use a no-cd crack, sometimes pb will detect them and cause your key to be banned.
I would do what septic said.

Worms World party is a great LAN 2d sidescrolling game of total destruction.

Dawn of War is a great RTS LAN game. It has three expansions, so you might want to ignore them or wait until you can get all of them in one $50 package.

Counter Strike is a great LAN FPS.