Do Lan Parties happen any more?

SOAREVERSOR said:
IMHO competitive gaming getting serious also helped kill it. Things used to be where winning these events at LANs, which happened on the regular, was fun and mattered. Even if you were only getting a CPU or a graphics card maybe a small check if you were lucky. That all changed rapidly. Now those events have entire seasons and professional events with much more at stake and higher payouts. It's very different.

It's not that people don't game in person it's that it's very corporate and organized right now. All the sorts of low budget clubby community run stuff in gaming is dead. We used to have community run leagues and ladders, that's gone as well.
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It was never really about that for us, but if you are talking about the massive 200+ person events then yeah, probably. We would sometimes have small prizes, like Jolt Cola glasses or something like that, but nothing on the level of CPUs or GPUs. It was basically a community-funded event that went to pay for the rental space and food. Pretty much all of the network hardware was donated or borrowed.

The main thing that killed it for us was losing the conference space we had rented for a long time, coupled with games turning more towards always-online requirements and more people shifting to stuff like MMOs.
 
MavericK said:
It was never really about that for us, but if you are talking about the massive 200+ person events then yeah, probably. We would sometimes have small prizes, like Jolt Cola glasses or something like that, but nothing on the level of CPUs or GPUs. It was basically a community-funded event that went to pay for the rental space and food. Pretty much all of the network hardware was donated or borrowed.

The main thing that killed it for us was losing the conference space we had rented for a long time, coupled with games turning more towards always-online requirements and more people shifting to stuff like MMOs.
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Even in the heyday of UT2004 there were people playing WoW on LANs. Going before that there were other MMOs. FWIW LAN cafe's are still around where people practice up for tournaments.
 
SOAREVERSOR said:
Even in the heyday of UT2004 there were people playing WoW on LANs. Going before that there were other MMOs. FWIW LAN cafe's are still around where people practice up for tournaments.
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There weren't at ours because we didn't pipe in internet until broadband became more widely available. ;)
 
MavericK said:
There weren't at ours because we didn't pipe in internet until broadband became more widely available. ;)
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LOL!

I miss some of the crazier Mech Warrior LANs where people would show up with pods and all that. I oddly do see lots of events that resemble LANs in the sort of spirit still today. The thing is it's all fighting games and arcade style games where people can all team up or 1v1 on the same console. From smaller stuff to things taking over hotel ballrooms.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the Command & Conquer series supports LAN play. I used to play monthly back in the day. Nowadays, LAN parties are mostly "special occassions" for the boys, and it's mostly Halo or another FPS.
 
Flybye said:
I had some great lan parties at my house the last being in 2010. Usually about 10-15 pcs networked and playing till the morning.
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This is awesome, 1999-2001 was a great time for our group of buddies, did this almost every other weekend. Crt's sucked to move lol
 
regk said:
This is awesome, 1999-2001 was a great time for our group of buddies, did this almost every other weekend. Crt's sucked to move lol
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I remember hosting a LAN party for my birthday and we were tripping the circuit breakers in my parents house with all the Amps we were pulling. Had to run extension cords to different parts of the house to evenly distribute the load across the panel!
 
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One of the greats!
LANwar 18/19/20 in Louisville, KY.
 

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regk said:
did this almost every other weekend. Crt's sucked to move lol
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Anyone remember Case Ace's Gear Grips? Back in the day (early 00s) I had harnesses to carry a mid tower, a Shuttle SFF, and a 17" CRT. And they still sucked to move.

Surprised that this company is still around.
 
Saturn_V said:
Anyone remember Case Ace's Gear Grips? Back in the day (early 00s) I had harnesses to carry a mid tower, a Shuttle SFF, and a 17" CRT. And they still sucked to move.

Surprised that this company is still around.
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I had a 21 inch Sony Trinitron... I swear it was made of solid granite! I affectionately referred to it as the desk breaker because over time it would just bow out the high quality particle board that most desks are made from lol
 
regk said:
I had a 21 inch Sony Trinitron... I swear it was made of solid granite! I affectionately referred to it as the desk breaker because over time it would just bow out the high quality particle board that most desks are made from lol
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NEC 2141SB-BK... 80 lbs of "wtf happened to my desk".

Then I added a 21" Sony next to it. That desk fell apart when we took everything off of it to try and move it a few years later. IT was held together by the tension of those screens.
 
Saturn_V said:
Anyone remember Case Ace's Gear Grips? Back in the day (early 00s) I had harnesses to carry a mid tower, a Shuttle SFF, and a 17" CRT. And they still sucked to move.

Surprised that this company is still around.
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I had an Antec LANboy that came with the strap set.
Had a Shuttle with a Barton XP in it as well, spent the money for the padded Shuttle bag.
Never had anything for the Gateway VX900 except for brute strength.
 
I had a Gateway CRT monitor that was heavier than I care to remember, but hey I was younger and could move it when needed..lol. Then I had an old case (can't remember the make), but it had a built in handle at the top which made it way easier to carry around, but not the greatest air flow. Even had an old small dining table that was wood with drop leaves that I would haul around and screw the legs on when I got to the LAN party. Good times.
 
lopoetve said:
NEC 2141SB-BK... 80 lbs of "wtf happened to my desk".

Then I added a 21" Sony next to it. That desk fell apart when we took everything off of it to try and move it a few years later. IT was held together by the tension of those screens.
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I had the 22in NEC that physically bent and broke multiple desks. Was a glorious screen though.
 
Thread necro to say that I had an FW900 on tempered glass. :D It definitely bent it a little but it held for years.
 
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