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Domain: lanparty.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to lanparty.com.
Stories · 4
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Anatomy of a LAN Party?
malfaetor writes "My colleagues and I are interested in improving on an annual public LAN Party that we first held last year. Before the event, I asked Slashdot, and received some terrific suggestions. The event ended up being quite a bit of fun, and we had very few technical issues. However, there were some non-technical improvements that could be made. We did not break even financially, and ended up having to divide the loss among the seven of us. The biggest financial killer for us was insurance, at nearly $500 for the event. What have other LAN party organizers done about insurance and legal issues? Has insurance (or lack thereof) come back to haunt anyone in the past?" "We've also had trouble deciding which network games would be the most popular. Our group has tried to focus on games that are the most familiar (or at least the smallest learning curve), and that most individuals already have installed. What games have been the most popular at LAN parties you have attended in the past six months? We know many individuals with consoles, but are unsure if promoting the console gamers would be a large draw. Have consoles been a common sight at the LAN Parties you have attended? If so, have you had any problems related to having to juggle both console and PC players?
Advertising was also an issue. We ran a grassroots advertising campaign because radio and TV advertising were too costly to be considered. However, we were concerned that the flyers we created and the postings we had on certain websites were not reaching enough local gamers. Strangely, local game shops have been very hesitant to allow us to place flyers there. What creative ways have other groups used in the past to get the word out?
Our webmaster has done a great job so far in getting sponsors. Sponsors have been very good to us, but other events that have been around longer seem to have quite a bit more swag to give away to the attendees. Is the real trick to getting sponsors to have longevity, Get Big, or have the organizers donate a whole bunch more money toward the cause to purchase these prizes themselves? Do local sponsors tend to give more than big national sponsors? Does anyone have any tips or tricks for approaching sponsors?
Lastly, has anything changed in the LAN Party scene in the past year? Has anybody seen or been involved in any noticeable trends, or have experiences worth mentioning?" -
Hardware Bytes
Zygo writes "Hey everyone Merry Christmas! (Yes I'm a bit too late) Here's some Hardware & Modding news! : At WinHQ the Xoxide X450 Case, Some pretty Cold Cathode lights over here, nice MX mouses at LANParty, At ClubOC the Swiftech MCX462+T, Some shocking Shockwave Fangrills over at ExtensionTech, Playing Mp3 with the iRock 530 here, a Big cooler here, OCIA brings you the Solarism LM-1711 17" LCD screen, Vantecs Fan Controller at ExtremeMHz, and a 8x GF4 Ti4200 at Viper's Lair" -
A Beginner's Guide to the Dance Dance Phenomena
An anonymous reader writes "I just saw a rather interesting article over at LANParty.com about breaking into the world of Dance Dance Revolution. The article has a humourous story about going from DDR mocker to DDR fanatic thanks to a seven-year-old kid. Also, it has reviews of some home DDR equipment for those too timid to play in public. The article is written from a beginner's perspective, and has some good resources for newbies! If you've ever thought of hopping up and 'busting a move', be sure to check it out." -
Fragfest
CaptTrips writes "C|Net has an interesting article on the growing wave of LAN parties. Michael Duarte best puts it when he says "being able to play as a team, talk with the people next to you -- it's just a whole different aspect than playing online. For me, it's just more fun to put a face with the name of the person you're playing with." I agree!" This is a good excuse for us to link to QuakeCon. GameSpy has extensive coverage of the con - they've got some interesting screenshots and previews up.