4/5: Big lan party
 

http://cellar.org/2002/biglanparty.jpg

For those who don't know -- which probably means everyone older than, say, me --

A "lan party" is where gamers get together at a common location to play multi-player networked games. People bring their own system and plug in when they arrive. Tyipcally the group could number anywhere between 3 and 50 people, but the number is typically limited by the resources at hand, since obviously everyone needs power and space and a network.

The party shown was the largest ever in Britain, with over 900 players, and was held at a racetrack. Price of admission was L70 (over $100 US).

Has anyone here ever been to a lan party? Anyone ever hold one? We're seeing the birth of a new phenomenon here... the practice has only been around for a few years.

Yeah, I've been to one. Going to another one or two this year as well. Lanaholics in Chicago is a pretty popular one, but the mother of all lan parties is Quakecon. You can guess what that's about :)

Basically the idea is to get together and beat someone's ass, then get up, walk over to their computer, and rag on 'em some more. The latency of LAN is another big factor as well - it's much more even than internet play. Plus, it's good to get out every once in a while and see other people. That's what makes lan parties the good time that they are.

That's NOTHING. I can't seem to find it, but I once saw a photo that looked like thousand of city lights. It was, in fact (you guessed it) thousands of monitors at some giant LAN Party - it might have been Assembly. 4 thousand monitors is an awe inspiring sight. :)

I've been to one, back in the Quake days (before Quake II). It was fun. I was a modem player at that time, and I was disconcerted to find that I played worse on the lan than I did on a modem: all my reflexes were conditioned on that 250 ms lag. The guys who were used to playing over fast connections, though, were awsome, rocket jumping all over the place, doing all kinds of things that I simply couldn't do over my connection. In deathmatch, they had me for lunch. :p

Yea, been to plenty, but small house-based ones not bi g pay-for ones except for a couple of counterstirke clan wars (with serious prizes)
Small ones are good because its safe to open up your comptuer so you can all leach stuff off each other =D

In the UK that happens at most LAN Parties anyway. :) Smaller ones at someones house are the best though, agreed. You get to know everyone and they're more relaxed. At big ones you know one or two people there but apart from that you might as well be playing online against strangers, not to mention staying in a room with smelly people, nothing but the floor to sleep on and no fridge to keep beer in! :)

The LAn Party in the photo was Insomnia 7 (i7). Been to the third and it sucked, I can't imagine a larger one being any better, quite the opposite. Power outages, surly staff, no file sharing allowed whatsoever, not much sleeping space, way too expensive (70 pounds is a joke, I pay 20 tops for much better LAN parties) I might as well have just stayed at home.

what kind of lag is experienced at a LAN party?

depends on game and server but its all one big LAN, usually pure 100mbit so buggar all really.

Probably under 10 ms for everyone there!

At one of my previous jobs, circa 1997, we used to play Duke Nukem almost every day, after the end of the work day. What a ton o' fun... you hope for a workplace like that.

LANs are a Blast
 

I play CounterStrike on a regular basis, in fact have my own CS server that hosts about 16 players on a regular basis.

The geographic locals and I have gotten together to hold a LAN to play all our favorite games; CS, Diablo, MechCommander, you name it.

There is a whole different dynamic to multiplayer games when you jam everybody into a confined space, and go at it.

Jokes tend to have a bigger impact when you can hear the laughter at them; success in fragging your opponent is so much more sweet when you can hear the cursing from down the table.....

My business partner had the sweetest deal going, during the final days of the closure of the ISP Call Center he worked for, there wasnt a whole lot to do, so he (and several co-workers) ended up playing CS about 40-45 hours a week (and getting paid doubletime for it, the punk.)

If you ever have the chance, and the inclination, I highly recommend it.

I hate to A) dredge up a nearly year old post and B) post such a large image, but I had this URL kicking around in my "Funny bookmarks" and thought it would make an interesting addition.

I've been catching up on the cellar iotds... Haven't been here in.. ages. :)

http://www.fragapalooza.com/photos/f...up/setup09.jpg

Moments later, Zeke hit his monitor's power switch, and the building went completely black. There then echoed a chorus of hateful, agonized shrieks of frustrated rage as dozens of multiplayer games were abruptly terminated, followed shortly by sounds hinting at barbaric acts of violence and bloodshed.

Man, that sounds like a killer concept for a first person shooter...we could call it GeekWars or something.

Lan Party web site.


and another one

A couple of sites with lots of info..