LAN Parties: Dead?

[Flash1969]

I still get together with a few friends of mine for small lan parties. You can't duplicate that feeling of fragging someone that is literally 10 feet away from you.

 

[Veliko]

LAN partys are a ballache to setup. Console players can play split-screen gaming in some cases which means they get all the fun of social gaming without the hassle.

 

[Bateluer]

LAN partys are a ballache to setup.

Not really. There's some ground work and planning that needs to be done before hand, but its not bad and its part of the fun. I'd think it'd be easier to set up today with Steam, GoG, and the ability to build a decently powerful yet tiny LAN box, or even a gaming laptop.

Switches and network gear are far cheaper today than they used to be as well.

As others have said though, its the social aspect of LAN parties that made them so fun. Today's kids don't know how to interact with other kids outside of Facebook and texting.

 

[Veliko]

Not really. There's some ground work and planning that needs to be done before hand, but its not bad and its part of the fun. I'd think it'd be easier to set up today with Steam, GoG, and the ability to build a decently powerful yet tiny LAN box, or even a gaming laptop.

Switches and network gear are far cheaper today than they used to be as well.

As others have said though, its the social aspect of LAN parties that made them so fun. Today's kids don't know how to interact with other kids outside of Facebook and texting.

I think you will find that people who went to LAN parties in the past were just as lacking in social skills as some of the kids of today are.

Broadband and voicecoms are widespread now so there is less need to organise LAN parties. Online play gives you, say, 85% of the experience for 10% of the effort.

 

[Jabberrwocky]

I was asking the same question to my self yestereday. Are LAN parties dead? IMOP, not exactly.

I know are a hard core group of people who still setup a party every January (titled "Lanuary") and October (titled "Dorktoberfest"). They have been doing so for as long as I have known them (6 years).

On the other hand, when I have planned my own, I have found that I get bogged down in the pre-event setup, which often carries into the event, and we would seemingly always have at least one person who just couldn't get their machine to connect to the network properly.

Honestly, the most fun I have had playing on a LAN, was back when I was a kid and my father had four 486 computers setup on a network in our home. I have some very fond memories of Quake, Warcraft 2, and Duke Nukem.

 

[jpeyton]

Then you're missing the point. LAN parties are about getting together with friends, playing games side-by-side, staying up late, eating pizza, talking trash, and generally shooting the shit.

What you're describing is a sleepover. Gaming with friends in a small group setting is fun.

When I think of LAN parties, this is what I imagine:

And it's generally a waste of time. 20% gaming, 80% annoyance.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Always wanted to go to a huge lan party

Of course i would be the guy towing around the biggest case ,with no fear cause i used to tow around up 3 fleet of stairs a fully loaded antec 1200 that weighed a ton,its a bit of a hassle to game with 1 buddy or two...but for a huge lan it would be sweet.

If some people think these are sorta dead,it could be cause of the console generation,the fact people spend more on a gpu then on a console blows some peoples mind,no one i know personally will ever understand why i would spend $600 on a gpu,so yes it could be a dead generation.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

LAN Parties: Dead?

lan parties...dead

i had tons of fun in small-medium lans, but nothing like the monster pictured above. i've been to magic tourneys like that, but 100 degrees cooler and prob fewer girls.

 

[abaez]

A bunch of my friends I've known since H.S. and we had lan parties ALL the time back then.

As we've gotten older, things have slowed down. Everyone is getting older/having kids/etc. We all still hang out in the same IRC channel everyday, but now we only have one lan a year in San Diego in a hotel ballroom and everyone flies in and just hangs out and plays games for the weekend.

 

[Anteaus]

Lan parties are still worth it for the social aspect. Sure, there were technical benefits to a lan party early on, but at the end of the day it was about talking smack, eating pizza, drinking beer and complaining about how long it's taking the one jack monkey who didn't patch his games to get the latest files. Even if you're piping through broadband, the rest holds true. The best ones I ever attended were 4 or 6 players.

 

[coloumb]

They still exist - just not as common as before back when "most of us are now old" days - during apple 2, commodore 64, etc and dial-up crap. Today you may find 1 or a few held each year by the same group/friends.

The last Lan party I went to was at the San Jose Convention Center - back when Quake 2 was "the lan" game to play - the same place they held the GDC every year [back when Unreal was being shown off].

However, once high speed network access was made available to homes - LAN parties died down significantly... plus "I'm getting too old for that crap"

 

[Railgun]

Then you're missing the point. LAN parties are about getting together with friends, playing games side-by-side, staying up late, eating pizza, talking trash, and generally shooting the shit.

Unless your high-speed broadband internet connection can really accomplish all of that, LANs are here to stay. It's also a bit damning to hope for the death of a wholesome social activity which many of us still enjoy.

+a googol

LAN partys are a ballache to setup. Console players can play split-screen gaming in some cases which means they get all the fun of social gaming without the hassle.

They're super easy to setup. As mentioned, 8-24 port switches are cheap these days. They don't need to be fantastic. In 99% of cases, they don't even need to be gig. 100Mb works fine.

It' s been a while since I've done one. As my rig is now a large box of a case, it would be a bit cumbersome to move around, but I've done similar things before. I used to drag my 21" CRT with me too.

While online is definitely a convenience, the whole point is the social piece of it as mentioned above. While being holed up in their room is the current theme of the new generation, yelling into a headset and everyone talking over each other gets really old really fast. Being able to throw a pizza slice at someone and have it land flat on their monitor...

They're not dead, they still happen. In reality, the last one I did was probably two or so years ago. I'm 36. But I'm a bit old school like that I suppose. I've done my fair share of online too. Ventrillo or whatever is a nice tool to have (I'm more PC than console when it comes to online), but there's a certain aspect to a proper LAN party that makes it great.

 

[Doppel]

They're an anachronism, no real point to them now and haven't been for a while. Back in the day when broadband wasn't around much they were a necessity but as mentioned those people now have wives and kids and no time to spend all saturday at such a thing.

 

[heymrdj]

Not really. There's some ground work and planning that needs to be done before hand, but its not bad and its part of the fun. I'd think it'd be easier to set up today with Steam, GoG, and the ability to build a decently powerful yet tiny LAN box, or even a gaming laptop.

Switches and network gear are far cheaper today than they used to be as well.

As others have said though, its the social aspect of LAN parties that made them so fun. Today's kids don't know how to interact with other kids outside of Facebook and texting.

It's not really the networking, or anything computer related, that makes it a pain. Believe me, I know, I administrated about 130 of them in Georgia in the last 5 years. It's power mostly. Followed by tables, and then heating and cooling.

Power wise, it's not easy to find a place (most houses won't do it) that has the proper receptacles. Have you priced 15A extension cords lately? Copper is going up continuously and 15A heavy duty cords and strips can easily run 200-300$ to feed a decent room.

Tables is another issue, you have to have places everywhere for these rigs to go, and places like party central rentals and the like are not cheap. You'll need chairs as well unless you tell everyone to bring their own collapsible. We generally ran out of saturday/sunday college cafs.

Finally, 30 or more high power gaming rigs in one or a couple rooms puts major strain on AC systems. And you need to have a contingency plan I've seen AC systems freeze up because it's 90+ outside and they simply can't handle the cooling needs of the room. How do you keep the party going when ambient in the room is breaching 100?

Like was said in the thread online gives 80% of the experience for 10% of the energy. I love LAN parties, I'll always attend them, mainly because I love pc gaming. BUT it needs to be understood that a LAN with friends is simple, that's ok and it can be done easily. But anytime you start an *actual* LAN party, you'll be playing more time as host/admin than you will any game/"party" time.

Air quotes copyright of Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap

 

[Bateluer]

It's not really the networking, or anything computer related, that makes it a pain. Believe me, I know, I administrated about 130 of them in Georgia in the last 5 years. It's power mostly. Followed by tables, and then heating and cooling.

Power wise, it's not easy to find a place (most houses won't do it) that has the proper receptacles. Have you priced 15A extension cords lately? Copper is going up continuously and 15A heavy duty cords and strips can easily run 200-300$ to feed a decent room.

Tables is another issue, you have to have places everywhere for these rigs to go, and places like party central rentals and the like are not cheap. You'll need chairs as well unless you tell everyone to bring their own collapsible. We generally ran out of saturday/sunday college cafs.

Finally, 30 or more high power gaming rigs in one or a couple rooms puts major strain on AC systems. And you need to have a contingency plan I've seen AC systems freeze up because it's 90+ outside and they simply can't handle the cooling needs of the room. How do you keep the party going when ambient in the room is breaching 100?

Like was said in the thread online gives 80% of the experience for 10% of the energy. I love LAN parties, I'll always attend them, mainly because I love pc gaming. BUT it needs to be understood that a LAN with friends is simple, that's ok and it can be done easily. But anytime you start an *actual* LAN party, you'll be playing more time as host/admin than you will any game/"party" time.

Air quotes copyright of Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap

Most of the LAN parties I went to were less than a dozen people and we only had issues with power once. Tables weren't a problem either, wasn't exactly expensive to pick up some cheap ones from Walmart. Cooling wasn't a factor, Michigan in the winter. We just cracked a few windows.

I can see how organizing a major LAN party would be a hassle, but that'd be any large event. And then you're just talking about things that are more time consuming than difficult.

Modern Internet speeds and voice chat completely misses the point of a LAN party and doesn't even fall into the same ballpark as a LAN party.

 

[Zap]

No, LAN parties are not dead.

PDXLAN is still selling out 500 gamer events.

These next few events are closer to me than PDXLAN (which I have attended) and I've either been to them, am planning to go to them or have met the people who run them.

GBLAN is having their annual large event this coming May, and they also have smaller monthly events.

.LAN is having their annual event at the end of April.

I was told by one of their organizers that KNFE will have their next LAN probably in a month.

PONG is having their next LAN in a week.

And of course who can forget AWOL LAN? Last one sold out 142 seats in a week. Next one got sold out in something like 4 days. For those who have never been to a LAN, read on and weep.

I was at AWOL 19 last month. Yes it got hot in there, and probably smelled a bit funky by the end. Still, 142 seats, lots of cool computers, held in a fun center with huge arcade, rock climbing wall, indoor electric go karts that are faster than any gas go karts I've driven, laser tag, bowling, indoor water park... all kinds of stuff going on if you get tired of the LAN.

Speaking of the LAN... lots of gaming going on from classic stuff to online stuff. There were Starcraft II and League of Legends tournaments for online gaming (I think dual 100Mbps business class cable connections were used, ping was fine) plus Counterstrike and Team Fortress 2 for LAN goodness. I even saw people playing random stuff on the LAN like Blur, Pirates Vikings and Knights, Trackmania (there was a tournament too, on a custom track), etc.

My friends and I teamed up for some of the tournaments. We lost really badly at League of Legends, but got second place in Team Fortress 2. Not bad for a bunch of friends who rarely play TF2. Winning team was... an actual "team" that plays competitively.

Some friends entered the Trackmania and Minecraft (scavenger hunt) tournaments. I think one got 2nd in Trackmania, and another actually won Minecraft. Maybe. Don't quite remember. I entered the old school UT2004 FFA tournament (37 entrants) and actually won it using nothing except the shield gun! People were so pissed at me, haha.

This all would already be an epic LAN party already, even without mentioning the girl I met there who got drunk and made out with me. She's pretty hawt AND she's a gamer too, plays mostly TF2 and goes to LANs as much as I do.

So, no LAN parties are not dead. Far from it. And they're a great place to meet gamer chicks. :awe: At least, at AWOL LAN, where probably 1 in 10 of the gamers there are of the fairer sex.

 

[Wardawg1001]

I went to a LAN party with some friends of mine a few weeks ago. It was kind of annoying. We spent about 3 hours getting everyone there, setting up a room, a couple routers, tables, etc. Then everyone just got too drunk to play anything.

 

[Bateluer]

What you're describing is a sleepover. Gaming with friends in a small group setting is fun.

When I think of LAN parties, this is what I imagine:

Wait . . . why are there women in this picture? And why aren't these idiots fully dressed?

 

[Veliko]

They're super easy to setup. As mentioned, 8-24 port switches are cheap these days. They don't need to be fantastic. In 99% of cases, they don't even need to be gig. 100Mb works fine.

On what planet is setting up a LAN party 'super easy'?

While online is definitely a convenience, the whole point is the social piece of it as mentioned above. While being holed up in their room is the current theme of the new generation, yelling into a headset and everyone talking over each other gets really old really fast. Being able to throw a pizza slice at someone and have it land flat on their monitor...

The reason people do that is because it really is 'super easy'.

 

[Bateluer]

On what planet is setting up a LAN party 'super easy'?

If I could get a dozen people who'd actually show up, I have everything I need to set up a LAN party. Plenty of cabling, a 100M 24 port switch, extension cables, etc. Only concern would be cooling. Only need people to bring their computers.

 

[Dankk]

On what planet is setting up a LAN party 'super easy'?

I guess it depends on the number of people you have playing. If it's a small group of ~10 friends like I do, then yes, it is super easy. A 10-port switch, some network cables, and a few tables aren't exactly difficult to set up.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I wish there were more local LANS ... I do LAN with buddies still, play new games...had one last weekend, BF3, MW3, LoL, and WoW were the main games.

We are LANNING for D3 too

 

[videogames101]

Always wanted to go to a huge lan party

Of course i would be the guy towing around the biggest case ,with no fear cause i used to tow around up 3 fleet of stairs a fully loaded antec 1200 that weighed a ton,its a bit of a hassle to game with 1 buddy or two...but for a huge lan it would be sweet.

If some people think these are sorta dead,it could be cause of the console generation,the fact people spend more on a gpu then on a console blows some peoples mind,no one i know personally will ever understand why i would spend $600 on a gpu,so yes it could be a dead generation.

I feel you man, I'm still dragging around my 1200 to LANs - my buddy's attic events are the worst, 3 flights of stairs...

Totally worth it, and I haven't dropped it once in the ~4 years I've had the case, and I can't even count how many LANs I've been to over that time.

 

[Veliko]

I guess it depends on the number of people you have playing. If it's a small group of ~10 friends like I do, then yes, it is super easy. A 10-port switch, some network cables, and a few tables aren't exactly difficult to set up.

I am seeing a lot of 'ifs' here. Nothing about a LAN party is 'super easy'.

It requires time, organisation and planning. That is not 'super easy'.

Jumping online requires about a tenth of the effort and fits the description of 'super easy'.

 

[Dankk]

I am seeing a lot of 'ifs' here. Nothing about a LAN party is 'super easy'.

It requires time, organisation and planning. That is not 'super easy'.

The 'organization and planning' for my LANs involve sending a text message: "Hey guys, LAN this Friday at 6:00. See you there."

Friday rolls along, people bring their laptops over to my place, we fire up Counter-Strike and maybe grab some pizza. That's it. Honestly, the hardest part of a LAN for us is probably deciding what game to play. The rest is trivial.

Again, keep in mind this is for a small group of 8 or 10 people. For massive events that include dozens of players, I would agree with you, but for my LANs there's no effort involved that's relatively easy to do. I'm sorry if your experience is otherwise.