The Lost Art of Lans

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.

Originally Posted by Vertigo Acid

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.

ahh the proven sneaker net

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!

well was looking through old lan pics..

Drinks anyone?

Originally Posted by iGamer

well was looking through old lan pics..

Drinks anyone?

Ours is full of hot dogs.

Chock-full.

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.