How do I change my offline name on the mac?

Question

I want to change my offline name in MineCraft on my mac.

I have only found ways to change it on Linux and Windows. Is there any way I can change my offline username on my mac?

Asked by user1079160

Answer

You can do it, but not through the Minecraft launcher. Open TextEdit and make sure it's in plain text mode. If it isn't, choose "Make Plain Text" from the Format menu. Then enter the following text:

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft
java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp "bin/*" -Djava.library.path="bin/natives" net.minecraft.client.Minecraft "YOURNAMEHERE"

Replace YOURNAMEHERE with the name you want, but keep it in quotes. Now save your file, and make sure you uncheck the box that says "If no extension is provided, use '.txt'." Save the file as launcher.command (you can call it whatever you wish, just make sure it ends with .command).

Now in order to make this launchable with a double-click, open up Terminal and type sudo chmod 777 and then drag and drop your file on to the Terminal window. Then press Return. It will prompt you for your password, which you should enter. You can now close Terminal.

The file will now be executable, so you can run it by double-clicking. It will open Minecraft in offline mode with the custom name. If you ever want to change the name, right-click the file and choose Open With > TextEdit. You can then edit the name and save the file, and it will use the new name.

Answered by Jake King

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How can you install Steam games offline?

Question

My main computer that has Steam installed on it does not have an active Internet connection. I do not want this computer to have access to the Internet, but I really would like to be able to play some of the games I bought with Steam.

How can I install and play a Steam game if I don't have the Internet on my machine? Can I simply download the game on another computer with Steam, copy the local game files to a flash drive, and copy the game files to my other computer's Steam directory?

Answer

You cannot install a Steam game offline. It needs to connect to the Steam servers the very first time to confirm you own the game.

If you do not want to redownload the game, go online, click install, let it go as far as where it starts downloading, close Steam completely and copy the files from the SteamApps folder on another machine, then launch Steam again. However, this process still requires a internet connection on first play.

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Is there any way to start Steam in offline mode without logging in first?

Question

I recently find myself needing to start Steam in offline mode rather frequently (my wife is hogging my account to play Plants Vs. Zombies, and most of what I play doesn't really need to be online).

I was wondering if there is some way to launch Steam in offline mode without first logging in (and selecting it from the menu), since that usually beats the purpose.

While I know that killing my network connection before launching Steam is an option, I am looking for a more "civilized" way, such as a command line switch or something of the sort.

Answer

While Steam is starting up, you can hit "Cancel" and it will allow you to start offline mode from there. (I believe if you uncheck automatic sign-in you won't have to hit Cancel, but I'm not sure if that's still true for the current version). Apparently you may also be able to edit steam.cfg to do this: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16112412&postcount=8

Edit: I can confirm that creating/editing steam.cfg (in the same directory as the steam executable) with the following lines works:

BootStrapperInhibitAll=enable
ForceOfflineMode=enable

If you want to manage this with a command-line parameter, you could create a script to do something like the following (Windows .bat file):

IF "%1"=="offline" (
    IF EXIST steam.cfgx (
        rename steam.cfgx steam.cfg
    )
) ELSE (
    IF EXIST steam.cfg (
        rename steam.cfg steam.cfgx
    )
)
start steam.exe

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Why doesn't ESRB rate online games?

Question

Take a game like GTA IV. Why don't they give the same rating for playing on-line?

The online play is as violent as the offline play. I could understand a lower rating if you can't visit prostitutes and nude dancers in online mode. (I don't know if these "features" are accessible online.)

Take a game like Modern Warfare 2. There's no difference between playing online and playing offline. In my opinion, this game should be rated offline and online with the same rating.

Not that I'm not criticizing the violence in the game. I just want to understand why online gaming is not rated.

Answer

The ESRB doesn't rate online play because there is no way to predict what you'll hear and see online: theoretically, they'd have to rate every game with online play as AO because every game could potentially have content they'd rate that way. (Conversations about "graphic" sex, for example, or people exposing themselves on their webcams.)

The ESRB site explains it this way:

Online Rating Notice

Online-enabled games carry the notice "Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB." This notice warns those who intend to play the game online about possible exposure to chat (text, audio, video) or other types of user-generated content (e.g., maps, skins) that have not been considered in the ESRB rating assignment.

It isn't very helpful, but it's probably a precaution against legal action (for not warning people that gamers might say bad words online - there have been lawsuits filed for similarly frivolous reasons before).

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How can I play SMP when minecraft.net is down?

Question

Since minecraft.net is down or at least badly reachable, is it possible to play multiplayer offline? I know I can log in as one "Player" with the server setting online-mode=false, but the second offline player connecting kicks the first one because of the identical name. Can this be circumvented? As Tyr comments, renaming the first connected player (or the second before connecting) would probably do the trick.

Answer

The way to do this, is to have a server. Have the server set "online-mode" in it's server.properties file to false. Then start the minecraft client without authenticating it.

You can do that via typing this into "run":

java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp "%APPDATA%\.minecraft\bin\*" -Djava.library.path="%APPDATA%\.minecraft\bin\natives" net.minecraft.client.Minecraft "yournamegoeshere"

The only downside of this is that anyone can log in with any name. But the upside is you do not need any third party programs, many of which are illegal.

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How to play SMP when minecraft.net is down?

Question

Since minecraft.net is down or at least badly reachable, is it possible to play multiplayer offline? I know I can log in as one "Player" with the server setting online-mode=false, but the second offline player connecting kicks the first one because of the identical name. Can this be circumvented? As Tyr comments, renaming the first connected player (or the second before connecting) would probably do the trick.

Answer

The way to do this, is to have a server. Have the server set "online-mode" in it's server.properties file to false. Then start the minecraft client without authenticating it.

You can do that via typing this into "run":

java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp "%APPDATA%\.minecraft\bin\*" -Djava.library.path="%APPDATA%\.minecraft\bin\natives" net.minecraft.client.Minecraft "yournamegoeshere"

The only downside of this is that anyone can log in with any name. But the upside is you do not need any third party programs, many of which are illegal.

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Does Steam work through Tor or a VPN?

Question

I talked to Steam Support about Steam Offline. I have been told:

You can set up your Steam account to run in offline mode prior to connecting to your school's network […] you must allow Steam to complete necessary updates in order to enable Offline mode (you must establish a temporary connection to the internet for this reason).

So, I can't go offline while offline. I must remember to go offline while online, or I'm gently caressed. I don't always have this luxury, however.

I've tried using my mobile's internet connection for this purpose. However, much to my surprise, Steam now fails to connect through that as well. Why, thank you so much, Wind.

I'm thus left with two possibilities to enable offline mode while offline:

• A VPN, or
• The Tor network.

Does Steam work through either them? I just need it to connect to the network for long enough to realize that there are no updates, after all, and that it's okay to let me play my games.

Answer

A VPN takes over the entire OS' connection. It is program-independent. As such, a VPN will work.

Tor is more doubtful, because I don't think Steam supports a SOCKS proxy out of the box. There are programs out there that force a certain program to go through a SOCKS proxy though (which I couldn't find on a quick Google. I'll have a look around).

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Can you play Magic The Gathering: Tactics offline?

Question

I've seen it's got a single player campaign and the SE Downloader has an option that says "Game mode: Live" or something like that. Is it possible to play this game with no connection?

Answer

From my understanding of MTGT you have to have an internet connection to log in, and you must maintain this connection or you will be kicked off.

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