The Lost Art of Lans

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iGamer

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 19, 2007
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if you are old like me ( 20+ ) you can remember neighborhood lans once a week or more, now I am lucky if we get together once a month... and lan centers don't count..

Lan Parties were so fun back in the day, if we had issues we figured it out together, we wouold split the attenders up into two teams and shoot each other up in CS laughin and partyin the entire time..

Are Mini Lans starting to become a thing of the past? Wait don't answer that, I think I know the answer and I don't like the answer....

Comments? Questions? Flamers? Bring it!
 
In highschool me and my friends would lan it up at least once a month, now that we're all in college though we don't get to do it much =(


They are a tonnnn of fun though
 
Me and a couple buddies would LAN in high school every sunday night.. His mom worked nights so we all stayed over there and went into school the next tired as shit. Man it was fun.

We also installed Starcraft 2 on the Drafting computers in the back, and would sit back there and LAN durning school.

<3 lans.

Now there's a couple lans around me. 1 in southeast arkansas, and one in Northeast ark. Atleast 4-5 a year. I maybe make it to 1 or 2
 
Broadband killed the LAN party over here, that and consoles.
Everyone used to pile round a friends house at the drop of a hat with PC+monitor to play Quake 3 etc.
Now its gotten lazy with fast networked connections and many friends now exclusively use an XBox360 with voice.
Broadband has certainly reduced social gatherings.
 
yea, I think you are right Nenu, same here in the US. A lot of us have started playing together online instead of together. Our clan ( half of our clan are locals ) has a Ventrilo Server, so instead of gettign together for a leaders meeting, we all get in vent. Which is fine, but socializing in-person I'm starting to think is a thing of the past.
 
The only LAN/online gaming I've ever done was way back during Diablo. Five of us were running a small start-up at the beginning of the internet boom. We'd LAN Diablo at lunch and after hours, then fire up Battle.net over our 9600 baud modems from 10pm - 3am. Great fun it was. A few of us are considering reforming our band of adventurers for Diablo 3, but it'll never be the same as those glorious, marathon, caffeine and ephedra fueled gaming sessions in 1996.
 
Not only broadband for gaming, but broadband for filesharing, too. That was always important back in the day, but far less so now.
Also, I think a lot of it simply has to do with age. Less time for gaming, more responsibilities in life, real bills to pay, these are all factors in why I don't really game much anymore, and certainly no LANs, compared to every weekend years ago.
 
Vertigo Acid said:
Not only broadband for gaming, but broadband for filesharing, too. That was always important back in the day, but far less so now.
Also, I think a lot of it simply has to do with age. Less time for gaming, more responsibilities in life, real bills to pay, these are all factors in why I don't really game much anymore, and certainly no LANs, compared to every weekend years ago.
Click to expand...

ahh the proven sneaker net :D

and yea I do think it has to do with age as well, the guys that did it or getting too old to do it, and the majority of kids that could do it, are too lazy. :LOL:

Great post Vert!
 
I am still able to do LANs with my friends and coworkers every quarter. I know it is hard for some of them to have to move their WC rigs and get time off of work to attend. I also don't have a large house to host so I get to use a large work room with permission.

LANs are fun and great to have, however, I think having them as I have them now is keeping them special in their own way and not overdoing it.
 
LAN's were fun back in the day, but I have too many other important things going on to want to take apart my system and haul it somewhere for a short while to play.

Quakecon is the only one I even bother to think about attending.

Priorities change.
 
Funny you should mention LAN parties..small ones. I just had one in my garage. LOL. Me, my 15yr old son, 3 of his friends, my 45yr old brother, his 16yr old son and another buddy got together for a Friday-Saturday couple weeks ago. There were supposed to be a handful more, but last minute things came up and they couldn't make it. We played some CSS, Quake 3 Arena, and tore up some Diablo 2. Also took GRID for a spin. (I got a nearly 10 year old 97 Barb, w00t)

I'm 41 now, but STILL love to LAN. Earlier this summer we all got together at a local Gaming/internet Cafe and banged it out for a weekend. I go to a fairly big "local" LAN each June...about 100 or so peeps.

Hell if anybody here is local to me....Near Johnstown, PA (2 hours east of Pittsburgh) Lemme know...I'll get one together. Got room for about 15-20 players and my internet is plenty capable of that many. Sleeping is a bit tight, but you guys are tuff...floors and couches are prob fine, eh? Here is my garage all decked out from last LAN. Looks small in the pics. This is my addition, kinda my MAN CAVE. Its only 16x32. Don't worry, I got the main 30x40 garage just thru the doorway.







 
I never really got into the lan party scene. I was lucky enough to have arcades in my town almost all the way though high school graduation. In college we had a Lan in the dorms, it was kind of a Lan party, but we all played in our rooms and we'd yell down the hall to each other.

After college, I became annoyed with the younger generation of gamers and have completely lapsed into single player mode. Damn kids need to stay off my lawn!! ;)
 
I have LAN's at my place about twice a month. Usually around 10 of us playing.
Sure we can all do it over the Internet. But ribbing in person is so much fun. Plus it gives us a chance to talk about our rigs and also help each other out.
 
very nice speed!

and Sig yea I totally agree,

I am actually scheduling one for the 20th. I can't wait!
 
LANs are where you want them to be, and if you look hard enough, you'll find one. There's a lot of games, and a lot of options. Granted, at one point, MMORPGs like Wow decimated the ranks of many clans, but LANs and LAN events aren't dead.

The overall environment has changed, but it's taking awhile for lan parties and lan events to either adapt or make a comeback. Plus, large event organizers have either become mismanaged or found other priorities in life.

It hasn't gone away, it's just changing.
 
yea I think you are right, but they do occur less often tham they did,

For me as a lan host, its the time it takes to set it all up then take it back down that keeps me from doing it more than once a month.
 
I totally agree. Even just 3 years ago I used to have 5-10 person LAN's playing Wolfenstien ET in my living room. Everyone but me had laptops. Even some Dell B130's which could barely play it. But we did, and we managed. And we loved it.

I really miss those days. It's just not the same playing split screen on 360's anymore. :/
 
I'm 30 and I actually just got back in to it.. but um.. not with computers. Computers require lugging around too much stuff. A few coworkers (we're all married/kids) and I get together every 3 months or so at someones house, bring our 360s, BBQ and drink for a 24 hour period.

Basically its our guys day/night out and we geek the shit out of it. Much easier to just bring a 360. One of my coworkers has like 10 LCDs at his place so we just bring our console and beer.

We usually have about 6-12 guys there. Wives come and pick our drunks asses up the following break of dawn.
 
I still LAN as often as I can. The problem is that most of my friends no longer do it. They are married and their wives do not allow them to escape for a weekend. -_- In some cases they less of a PC gamer than they used to be, and either don't play much at all, or play console games which have only made a significant appearance at one of our LAN parties in the alst two years. Finally, others simply don't game anymore or don't want to bother with it. Things as simple as having to ask for the day off from work prevent them from attending these events.

So now It's down to me and just a few others, down from our large groups that would get together as often as we could. Thankfully, there are some people in my area that still appreciate what LANs bring to the table and do their best to host them as often as possible.

http://www.lanpartynw.com/
http://www.dungeonlan.net/

I've tried to find people in Seattle or the Eastside that do the same thing, but so far I've had little luck. To me though, these experienes will always bring tu the best in a game, and it's the only way I can paly some of them.
 
Awesome Man! Good to see some people still keeping the LAN-ing alive! :D

I'm in nearly the same boat as you, as over half my closest gaming friends are now married, an dlike you said are less of a gamer than they used to.be.

I am hosting a small one for friends only sometime this week, its up on the air, as the 20 when I planned it, I'm ending up having to work that day. :(
 
My group tries to LAN at least once a year, but most of my friends have moved away, joined the military, had kids, etc etc, so our numbers have dwindled significantly. The pictures I have make for some great memories.

Now I have more computers than people! :(
 
LAN SEARCH PRO!!!!

Back in the high school days I use to lan a lot. Now, maybe once a year. and really it's just to leech.
 
I still LAN once a month, but it's a far cry from what it was several years ago. Most of the people I started LAN'ing with are long gone with a couple rare exceptions.

I make an effort to go to every LAN that I can and play games that maybe aren't my favorite just because everyone else is playing them and it's a total blast! This is really a shame that this part of the gamer culture is dying out. :(
 
Kind of started doing this at work with UT 99' and Quake II, but i think with what seems like more new games dropping dedicated servers, lans could be dying, except if people find ways to mod them.
 
We (thetexangamer.com) facilitate, attend, and/or cover at least one r two lans a month in Texas. We have a public events calendar and a list of all the lans, and lan centers that we know of.

LANing isnt quite dead around here :p
 
I've always wanted to start one up. Just not sure if any one would come around the Ohio area. My business was looking at it...we would need to get a different switch. We were looking at a gigabit, but was a bit expensive. Not sure if there would be a big difference between 10/100 and the gig, with a lot of people connected. I'm going with there is...

But hey, if someone was willing to help us through the initial stages (not really sure how to approach it) we would gladly start one up in Ohio. :D

Heck we even have the page on our website, completely empty! http://kandbtech.com/lanparty.html (website is under construction still ;))
 
I'm still getting together with a group once a month or so to do LAN parties. Here's the thread we have about it here at the [H]:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=778108&page=33

Sometimes we have a LAN party every month and sometimes a month or two goes by, but we always end up getting back together for some gaming fun.

I also have a smaller group that I get together with every couple of months and we play WoW together. We all started toons on the same realm, created a guild and play these characters only when we can get together. So far it's been a lot of fun. I don't know what I'd do without these occasional "Geek Weekends"... :cool:
 
Its a lost art that needs to be revived and it's up to those of us who still LAN game to do it. It's true gamers have lost touch with LAN gaming because they "think" broadband is a good replacement and new and upcoming gamers over the past (approx) 7 years don't know about LAN gaming. We need to educate them.

I've been LAN gaming forever. Our group of 25 still do it regularly. LAN gaming while it has diminished isn't dead. It just needs a kick in the pants. Host a LAN party yourself if you can't find one. With the right game you only need 4 to 6 for a good time. LAN gaming is still way more fun than Online play and its much easier to pull off these days due to LCDs and sff or aluminum cases. Us old timers remember the haydays of 19" crts and big biege pc cases yet we still did it because it was worth it! :)
 
actually I had planned to do one tonight, but work screwed that up for me.....

Its rescheduled for two weekends from today. (Dec 4th )
 
it's always the same problems; everybody works, nobody wants to take apart and bring their rigs, nobody feels like playing any contemporary games either.

Back in highschool it was all dick waving to see who could run far cry or ut2004 the best, and we'd play those games till 6 the next morning. I think the last lan i went to was my going away party that my friends threw (i moved out of the country a couple months back) and all we did was play L4D, Quake3, worms Armageddon and C&C3 for all of 2 and a half hours then get drunk.

I don't know what point I was trying to make with that, but lan parties are just hard to justify anymore versus just a regular one when we can all game with each other at home. Or maybe games just suck so much now that we cant get excited about them the same way we used to, who knows.
 
samduhman said:
Us old timers remember the haydays of 19" crts and big biege pc cases yet we still did it because it was worth it! :)
Click to expand...

19" CRT? I had a 22" CRT when I went to the first LAN party with the group I LAN with now. Everyone made fun of me and on the way home the damn thing flipped over and busted a couple gouges into my door skin of my new car. Ordered a 19" LCD the next day and haven't looked back...lol!

JinxyBoi said:
it's always the same problems; everybody works, nobody wants to take apart and bring their rigs, nobody feels like playing any contemporary games either.

Back in highschool it was all dick waving to see who could run far cry or ut2004 the best, and we'd play those games till 6 the next morning. I think the last lan i went to was my going away party that my friends threw (i moved out of the country a couple months back) and all we did was play L4D, Quake3, worms Armageddon and C&C3 for all of 2 and a half hours then get drunk.

I don't know what point I was trying to make with that, but lan parties are just hard to justify anymore versus just a regular one when we can all game with each other at home. Or maybe games just suck so much now that we cant get excited about them the same way we used to, who knows.
Click to expand...

It's different for everyone I guess. To me, there's no comparison between getting together with a group of friends and having a LAN party and playing online multiplayer. I'd take the LAN party any day. Not only do we get to show off our rigs (mine is now a nice gaming laptop so it's more portable), but we get to sit and BS together, grill out or have pizza together and generally have one heck of a good geek time... :p
 
wtburnette said:
It's different for everyone I guess. To me, there's no comparison between getting together with a group of friends and having a LAN party and playing online multiplayer. I'd take the LAN party any day. Not only do we get to show off our rigs (mine is now a nice gaming laptop so it's more portable), but we get to sit and BS together, grill out or have pizza together and generally have one heck of a good geek time... :p
Click to expand...

That's the main reasons I have them about twice a month. In fact, I have am having one today. :)
 
My friends and I used to do a few lan parties a year back during high school but it has slowly declined more and more. Now we pretty much don't. Everyone has different schedules with college and stuff. The few that do "group in person to game" now do that with consoles. I think part of the reason is also lack of games. We don't all buy all the same games anymore. In the past it was like "what are we doing to play?" and someone would pipe in "why BF2 of course!!" and that would be that. Doesn't seem to work like that anymore.
 
JinxyBoi said:
it's always the same problems; everybody works, nobody wants to take apart and bring their rigs, nobody feels like playing any contemporary games either.

Back in highschool it was all dick waving to see who could run far cry or ut2004 the best, and we'd play those games till 6 the next morning. I think the last lan i went to was my going away party that my friends threw (i moved out of the country a couple months back) and all we did was play L4D, Quake3, worms Armageddon and C&C3 for all of 2 and a half hours then get drunk.

I don't know what point I was trying to make with that, but lan parties are just hard to justify anymore versus just a regular one when we can all game with each other at home. Or maybe games just suck so much now that we cant get excited about them the same way we used to, who knows.
Click to expand...


good point, whatever it was...lol :p
I knwo most of the guys I know are looking forward to Bad Company 2, and then BF3 in a year or two.
 
yup, broadband killed the neighborhood LANs. The new gen never figured out how to do LAN parties and the old gen is busy with school and/or work these days. :(
 
GLSauron said:
yup, broadband killed the neighborhood LANs. The new gen never figured out how to do LAN parties and the old gen is busy with school and/or work these days. :(
Click to expand...

Agreed. When we were all on dialup, a lan was special.

Now....its only a slight step up from the average 10mb cable connection. :(
 
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