The Lost Art of Lans

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!

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.

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....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"...

KYFF in Lexington, we LAN about every other month. Small but dedicated group of gamers.

Well ya'll have convinced me that not all is lost!

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.

Originally Posted by samduhman

Us old timers remember the haydays of 19" crts and big biege pc cases yet we still did it because it was worth it!

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!

Originally Posted by JinxyBoi

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.

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...

Originally Posted by wtburnette

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...

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.

Originally Posted by JinxyBoi

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.

good point, whatever it was...lol
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.