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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.
So this is news? I thought this had been going on for quite some time now...
C:\>
LAN parties are fantastic. With a good group of LAN gamers I can share the price of the beer and strippers and not have to spend as much money as I would if I were alone playing online. Not to mention it's more fun howling at the strippers in between games when there are other people around.
LAN parties!? What's next?? Kegger next weekend at the local NIC... yeehaw!
We've been hauling our heavy ass computers around since Doom hookin up the ipx network to play.
Laptops are lovely draggin for Lan Fraggin
*DrugCheese rants*
*DrugCheese rants*
LAN parties are definately a lot more fun than playing over the internet IMHO, my friends and I would get a bunch of people together and play CS or other FPS and not have to worry about all the cheaters. Plus we could coordinate team assaults a lot more effectively since we could grab a piece of paper and scribble some plans on it and show it to the team mates.
i hope no one in the south bay area forgot about the max games yesterday at the tech museum in san jose.
nothing like halo on the imax dome. except, maybe, grand theft auto, which some reason was verboten.
come to think of it, i'm glad some people from the south bay did forget to go -- it would have been awfully crowded.
go get it
I refuse to go to another LAN party 'til Duke Forever comes out, or as some might say, 'til Hell freezes over.
Out of order?! Fuck, even in the future nothing works...
me and my friends are all to impoverished to have laptops, so for UT lan parties they just bring their PCs over:D so many tripped breakers...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
It provides for easy slappage when someone TKs you!
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
I've often thought a cool business plan would be to set up a "LAN Party" hall, with monitors and speakers, all the kiddies have to bring are their CPUs, keyboards and meece. $3 per person per hour, if you kept the room booked you could do pretty well.
Anyone know if this has been done, anywhere? Or does the whole idea suck for reasons not yet known to me?
exciting! its friday night and I'm reading about LAN parties on Slashdot... it couldn't get any better
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
For those of you in Texas: (I know it is a big state) There are a few places to check out LAN Parties.
Check TexasLAN is a group dedicated to bringing LAN Parties to cities across Texas.
For those up in the Panhandle, check out SystemAddicts LAN A member of the TexasLAN Family.
LAN parties aren't exactly new but are definitly becoming more "main stream" than they have been in previous years.
Posted from QuakeCon, the Ultimate Texas LAN Party.
~.Evanrude
The real fun in LAN parties is not the games, the food, or the ability to tell that guy next to you, "HEY! Suck my plasma orb."
No....
It's trying your damndest to get that Windows 98 computer to see your frined's 2000 computer and finding that network cable that you thought you left under your bed for emergencies when the guy with XP is complaining that he needs your DSL connection to get drivers for his new video card that is sitting on your drying X-Wing Model while spilling the bean dip in your shag carpet from the 70s. Suddeny, skippy (your dog) pukes up what was the burgers you got 15 minutes earlier for dinner, on your new dual athalon server.
AAAAGGHHH!
Lan parties are fun...
"It's the little touches that make a future solid enough to be destroyed" --William S. Bourroughs
we didn't have no fancy LANs or PCs. If we wanted simlated blood-letting, we had to play D&D.
You know, this reminds me of why I'm such a Nintendo fanboy...by sticking 4 ports on the brilliant N64 (not to mention staging the comeback of the non-flightstick analog control stick) they really reinvigorated multiplayer gaming.
I admit first person shooters aren't quite as good as on a LAN party, with a single processor struggling to make 4 viewpoints, and you able to sneak glances at what you're opponents are up to. And people use to mouse+keyboard balk a bit (having never played a PC FPS since my DOOM days but a bit of quake, I'm still an all-keyboard wuss)
Still, the convenience factor is important, and the social aspect is great.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
...trusting that you can kill the cheaters physically if not in the game.
On the other hand, if Einstein had made pinball games, we woundn't have so many nukes. Bad example to pick.
And the l33t shall inherit the 34r7h.
Does anyone know of any lan parties in Rochester NY? 3dLan used to be awesome until they stopped doing it.
---
Always standing, I am a tree awaiting the lightning. -Samael, Crown
There's a lan in my friend's basement tomorrow (Saturday) through the night into Sunday. Fire an email to me and I'll forward you on to him. Woo!
--
grep "xercist"
I'd say let him do whatever he enjoys doing. Who are you to govern how he uses his abilities? If you believe mayhem in society is caused by "violent video games", how do you account for all the madmen that were on this earth well before video games were even envisioned? I have played the hell out of every "violent" game since Wolfenstein 3D came out, and I must say, I feel fine. I havent went on any murderous rampages lately, nor have I had the desire to. I dont see how people are still getting away with this argument.
http://www.monitor.ca/monitor/issues/vol6iss5/feat ure5.html
Anybody know a spot where I can post a mpeg of the newscast coverage of the party? Kind of cool... but its 2.63 meg...
Anyone have a quake skin of the goatse guy? I mean that hole can easily launch a rocket.
You gotta be careful not to miss the R when reading that title...
--
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." - Homer Simpson [1F10]
The real fun in LAN parties is not the games, the food, or the ability to tell that guy next to you, "HEY! Suck my plasma orb.
Or if you suck: "You frikken Ass-Munch!"
I can relate to the probs you had. My old laptop used to drop from games during play and thus freeze my player or caused it to self-frag...
Very interesting fun.
I am actually heading out to one tonight...hopefully all the games are compatible with everyone's favourite OS, Windows XP...*snicker*
"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality." -Jules de Gautier
A brilliant troll, sir, I salute you. I haven't seen a masterpiece like that since "The Moon: Absurd Liberal Myth".
On the other hand:
When John Carmack has spoken, the thinking has been done.
He should replace Marilyn vos Savant as the guy with the highest IQ.
After having composed a response to this obvious troll i've since erased it and decided to kick back with a cold one and let some other people respond to this bantha fodder. I'm getting to old to get worked up anymore even to respond to such lunacy. !!!!
*--- Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. ---*
If you're anywhere near the Vancouver, B.C. area, make sure to check out the Necrowombicon, as mentioned on Penny Arcade.
I won't be, because it's 3000 freaking miles away, but it looks like it could contain fun (in liberal dosages).
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
This would be something easy to pack around and capable of some power gaming. I am just waiting for the amd version with the agp slot before I buy it. The only thing that could make the experience even better for me would be to get a projector hooked up to it and play emulated street fighter alpha 3 on the side of a large building at midnight. I only saw this once but I was as happy as a troll posting goatse links when I saw it.
So you wouldn't have to drag your monitor up to your buddy's 3rd floor apartment and hoping you don't drop it and watch it roll down the flight of stairs? But of course I may be bitter so don't mind me.
I never get to play in a LAN party, but I guess it's the only to have a clean game.
I'm getting so fed up of cheaters (and snipers -- who was the genius who decided to put that in TF?) that I'm seriously considering simply removing quake from my computer.
Things have reached a point that we should name the game "Go to the Bridge" instead of "Capture the Flag", because that's were you die.
"This really pisses me off".
Play with your own penis. It feels good and you won't go to hell.
"too old" not "to old" a qulity of old not a degree of direction.
It's been a while since I've been to a lan party. Anyone in the Tyler, Tx. area want to get one together?
Keep Austin Weird!
> 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.
And before the advent of the internet, we had sports.
you gay homosexual.
Here's an email I sent to the author regarding the use of poor grammar in his article:
Hi David,
I noticed many instances of the use of "revolve around" in your story "Gamers fight for right to LAN
party" at http://news.com.com/2100-1040-950054.html. This is a redundant grammar error (along the lines of "Easter Sunday") and should be corrected to "revolve on." Thank you.
L.C.D.
Besides, who wants to lug around a CRT anyway? LCD flat-panels rule.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Con...CON...COOOOOON!!!!
Leave it to CNet to give you the latest in breaking outdated news. "There is a network of computers called 'the internet' that is now hot among people." Way to go CNet. Way to go. =D
Remember... that your actually sitting next to the person you just destroyed 20 to 1...
Just make sure they are smaller than you.
"quality" not "qulity"
And round and round we go.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Why doesn't anyone start computer baangs like the have in seoul same concept.
"...talk with the people next to you..."
Geeks don't socialize face to face!!!
-bless-
I consider myself very lucky: my CS teacher in high school has lan parties, where we use the school's machines and network. Sure, the machines may be outdated, but they can run Tribes 1 very well.
The administration has been slightly annoyed at us, but didn't ban it, instead made it so that if a student wanted to play, they had to get a sheet signed by teachers each week that says we were getting good grades. This was the same thing that sports had to do. In effect, playing Tribes in the school CS lab after school/during lunch was officially considered a sport.
I can imagine an interview at college:
Have you any sports experience?
1 c4n n41l j00 fr0m a h100dred y4rD5 w1th m4 sn1p3r r1f73!!!
My friends and I have been having LAN parties since Quake II (LM CTF baby!). I'm glad more people are catching on... the bigger, the better!
Why, no, I haven't meta-moderated lately. Thanks for asking!
I came two years ago, and this is my second time. I'm more impressed than I was the last time about this whole entire shin-dig. Its huge. This is the first year they had to turn people away from the 1300 person Bring Your Own Computer. With play by play commentary and recordings to watch of the tournaments, sponsor booths (with booth amenities), more people than I can count, and none other than Carmack himself (who posts on these pages) giving a stunning 2 hour speech, its the best one ever.
For those of you unimpressed, they set this whole LAN up in... oh... day and a half I think of actual set up. Preparation is alot longer. They use several miles of Cat5, and ALL the quake games (and the licensed ones like Jedi Knight, Half Life, etc) are hosted on servers, as well as a few file servers for patches, updates, IRC, misc files, and such. Plus there's internet acess for everyone, and everyone's comp sees the other ones.
Theres so much on sale, to do for free, and then just look at I'm going to have to budget sleep so I don't miss the developer round tables, technology workshops, blow out party on Sat, and the 100 other things I got to do.
Plus, the Convention itself is ABSOLUTELY FREE!
Hello I'm Michael Duarte, the host of Silicon Valley Frag Fest, in case any one was wondering the URL is www.svfrag.com Thanks! Mike
"LAN parties are well known as the leading source of AIDS in this country. It is a well established medical fact that when so many gay homosexuals are placed together in one place" wait, gay homosexuals? isnt that a double negative? and besides, that would make them straight, good insult loser.
I will not be trained.
if i'm not mistaken this is a first as you can spec the actual match in realtime via the q3a client ... it works and it's kewl ... get with the picture doods, this is history
I have been playing games like Quake and Age of Empires during LAN parties since 1996 in the computer labs at the University I attended. Now, I run my own Internet company, but one of the main reasons that I (along with my 4 partners) started this business was so that we could have our own LAN party center, so we could play games with each other ... face-to-face ... whenever we wanted without having to drag our equipment around. Lets face it, carrying a 21" monitor, Klipsh 5.1 surround sound speakers, a leather chair, and my PC would REALLY suck (as mentioned in previous posts). I suppose that you have to have the chance to regularly play on a LAN to really appreciate how nice it is (and what kind of advantage you get when playing against other people online), but we decided that this was DEFINATELY worth it.
... either against each other or over the Internet. Of course, the place would have a T-1 or something close for bandwidth for about 20 to 30 stations (some would have complete PC's with only our game titles installed, some stations would only have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, others would only have a network cable ... of course, we would offer wireless as well) How much would you pay to do this with your buddies (or just to meet and play games with other people)? $3/hr, $4/hr, $5/hr???? Would membership or group rates help this? Is this a good idea??? A buddy and I have been pondering this for about a year now ... and we've got a business plan in place.
... IN THE SAME ROOM! It makes games SOOOO much better! In fact, I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't already done something like this to try to drive up PC game sales. Sorry for the advertisement here, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I have MANY more details for those that may be seriously interested in funding this idea. Also, any comments on this idea would be GREATLY appreciated. This is something that I have been dreaming about doing for MANY years now ... nice to see that others may be thinking like me ...
Now comes my question.... what would all of you think about opening a LAN party center for the public to use? I'm talking about providing VERY comfortable chairs, good gaming PCs, concessions, and a place where people could come together (at all hours of the day or night) to play PC games together
The problem is that it will take about $60,000 to start this up, so there is a risk involved. We're both Unix systems administrators for major universities as well as full partners in an Internet company that has been around for 3 years now, so we have the technical know how and business background, but we're lacking in the funding. If anyone knows of an investor that would like to fund this opportunity (in Ohio), please email me at adavis@colfirestudios.com. We have a couple ideal locations for such a facility, and I'm sure if we do this "right", we can make this fly. I think that this would really be a great thing for the world of Internet gaming. Best of all, I would love to share some of the fantastic experiences that I have had while playing PC games with my friends
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Defuse ze dynamite!
LAN parties rock! You know what else rocks? When your own school is willing to host them! That's right, my high school hosts my lan parties. Infact, we are having one on Sunday as a "before school blowout". Can't shake a stick at "real" computer tables and a 1.5mbit connection to the internet for free can ya? God I am lucky! :)
Hard work usually pays off over time, but procrastination pays off now.
All the LAN parties I attended would consist of the shittiest players on the Planet!
Are you sure you want to do that? That face is probably the reason they're playing six hours of Quake on a Saturday night. =)
"All art is quite useless." -- Oscar Wilde
You want pictures from QuakeCon? I'm there right now and updating my site as it goes on... http://www.shrocks.com/qc2k2
Did somebody have an overnight lobotomy? Does it take a freakin cover from Time magazine for this crap to all of a sudden become "news worthy"!? The topic has been around for years! People haven't "all of a sudden" just started to enjoy LAN parties! It appeared on CNet-- Hey, now there's a good reason to jump all over it... Big f!$#%$ deal! Micheal, you're a chump. A hack. THIS. ISN'T. NEWS. No! It's not a good excuse for you to link to QuakeCon! A story on QuakeCon would have been a good excuse. But what do you post? "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!" Tee-Hee! Did you have to post a person who has only within the last few days discovered what a LAN party is and how to play games online?!
Not that any of these were worthy, right?
2002-04-01 18:18:13 Gaming vs. Cinema Double Standards (articles,games) (rejected)
2002-04-18 15:31:27 Planetary alignment; The End must be near. (articles,science) (rejected)
2002-04-24 13:18:20 Second Front (articles,internet) (rejected)
2002-04-28 02:28:59 Subscription alternatives (articles,news) (rejected)
2002-05-02 18:37:13 Gaming vs. Music (articles,games) (rejected)
2002-05-15 05:36:39 Napster Approaches Bankruptcy (articles,music) (rejected)
2002-05-19 16:06:51 Florida Face Recognition Fails (articles,privacy) (rejected)
2002-05-21 15:46:01 A Tastier Chicken Through Genetic Manipulation (science,humor) (rejected)
2002-06-03 19:25:40 Bush Administration Global Warming Turnabout (articles,news) (rejected)
2002-07-11 05:31:21 Mining the Moon for Helium-3 (articles,news) (rejected)
2002-07-30 20:40:46 Jon, the Al-Qaida and the FBI (articles,internet) (rejected)
Really, I have a life beyond Slashdot, but this crap SO pushes my buttons. I know I'm not the only one out there with a worthy story, but what gets posted? "Wonderboy discovers LAN parties". Right.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Everyone! Everyone that goes to a lan party is a winner, because in the end everyone has fun. If you suck at the games and die repeatedly, at least you can talk to people that are just like you. Lan parties are about the only thing that keeps me sane, the only thing that lets me know that other people are actually into this kind of shit. If i had to give a piece of advice to any budding geek, it would be to find a lan party (the less "trendy" the games played/the smaller frequency of them being repeats, the better) and just go and have fun. I bet you $40 that if you and your friends start going, teenage girls will start showing up too. Just make sure and invite them. This applies of course to teenagers in school.
:D btw, they also recognize that 2600 magazine's recent issues blow chunks.
Mandatory plugs:
http://www.slagg.org/ - LAN Party in Sarasota, Florida. People from all over the area, from north tampa to south of sarasota somewhere, come to play at this great 60+ LAN. The atmosphere is awesome, the people are great, the games are plentiful, and the administrator is a cool old-school geek with a long ass beard!
http://www.flux.org/ - Florida Linux Users Xchange. Having a lan party on September 21st in south florida. If they get enough people, we could organize really big ones! Oh, and here's the catch: LINUX IS ACTUALLY RECCOMENDED!
http://fl2600.cjb.net/ - Doing a sort of joint lan party with FLUX, this 2600 meeting at the Broward Mall in Broward County, Florida supports gaming as a very productive means of hacking. Imean, having fun. But what's the difference, really?
I will probably leave my current job at the end of the year and join this outfit: www.xgamerz.net It's a gamer pro-league/gaming computer builder. First event is in Houston in November.
HELLEMAN???????
sig'ity sig'ity soo.. yer ma eats my poo
Sorry to sound like a total lamer, but none of my friends are interested in stuff like LAN parties. So how do you find LAN parties? Is there a site that lists parties by location?
I'm in the UK, by the way.
mogorific carpentry experiments
We r0x0r your b0x0r. w00t. Party going on right now!
I'm going to die of lack of sleep.
I loved this demo of the Q3 engine called "Quake 3 Arena" for about five minutes, but when are those people going to release a real game with that engine? Oh wait, that WAS a real game?
RTCW anyone?
Hate me!
I live in North Eastern Ohio and there isn't a whole hell of a lot to do up here. So we have LAN parties. I have my 5 port Linksys router and a coupla extra network cards. YA, we're only on a 10/100 but its not that bad. Only time it sucks is when you get to many people and we have to use my friends hub (this ancient 8 port 25 pound P.O.S.) and we have to use a crossover cable to link the two. The lag gets TERRIBLE!!!!
Five computers on my end linked to eight on the other and all that info getting shoved through. There are WAY to many collisions. Does anybody know af a hardware hack we could do to get it to let us hook up two cords between the two hubs?
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
While the big emphasis is on first-person shooters now, I wonder what will LAN parties be like in the future with the rapid growth in the popularity of the game Neverwinter Nights, which in many ways is essentially an online Dungeons & Dragons game that handles one Dungeon Master and 60+ player characters. I believe that NWN is easily configured to play over a LAN, with one machine designated for DM use.
I personally think a NWN gaming session will probably take longer than FPS game sessions, mostly because you have to do a lot more than just attack another character.
The only difference now is the splatter factor!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
We are all of us pack animals really, and will use all channels we can to communicate with our fellows.
What these people are doing is using voice and vision to interact with each other while playing over a healthy amount of ethernet bandwidth. The real world chat plus the data chat makes for a really fat communication pipe and most people love it.
But you get the same effect even without being on the same LAN.
You can see this on the Internet games people play. On Everquest a couple of years ago, for big raids the group leaders would all be talking on the phone and on ICQ as well as playing in teams online.
You can also run a realtime voice server with Battlecom see (http://www.battlecom.org/ ) from Shadowfactor and this adds a whole new dimension to online play:
"Incoming over the hill on the right! Heal me, Heal me. Evac NOW! Damn I'm dead. Why are all our clerics ****ing retards?"
Try typing that with a pack on gnolls on your tail.
I think voice and video links over ADSL will be the next really big advance in online gaming.
Not surprising, I know, but let me fill you in on the Europian (or at least Dutch) situation:
In Holland we have LAN parties about every weekend! (Check http://www.lan-party.be/calendar.php if you don't believe me..)
And we've been having these large number of parties for a couple of years now.... Funny seeing the USA catching up on technology related matters...
And in Europe we have Redbull (www.redbull.com) which is also a high-caffianated drink and is the main drink for LAN-Parties here...
Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.
When the Apache Foundation was working on the first ApacheCon, I proposed on the newsgroup or mail list (I forget which) that the Con be intercontinental, with gatherings on each continent and multiple video-over-internet presences between the gatherings on each continent. These would have provided telepresence of speakers, and also personal interpresence allowing individuals to 'meet' with each other, constituting what would have been the first BIG "LAN party".
I think at the time this was too ambitious for anyone else to pick up especially for a first convention, and I was both too lazy and too poorly connected myself to make it happen, which is the open source way is it not?
It would still be a great example of how the 'bazaar' accomplishes things in a global way, and would allow the many open source developers who can't afford international travel so easily, to get together.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
My group has been doing this for years. http://www.wpngg.org, We've been having LAN parties since the days of Doom II.
This is the first article I've seen about QuakeCon 2002 and I'm sadly disappointed. I thought SlashDot was on the cutting edge of major events...
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
After we met through the slashdot.meetup.com thing last month a bunch of the Nashville /.'ers got together last week for a lan party ;) pretty cool! :)
Not saying that I'm blind to the fact. I would hope that maybe just one of them would post. Of course, calling the eds out on their oh-so-poor stories probably doesn't help.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Fragfest : Obvious
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Tons of pictures from QuakeCon here.... http://www.planetquake3.net/modules.php?op=modload &name=Features&file=quakeconpics1
also a cooL video from QuakeCon:
http://www.planetquake3.net/download.php?op=viewdo wnloaddetails&lid=1062&ttitle=Around_QuakeCon_Movi e
The finger pointing also doesn't get translated very well.
We have one friend, Jamie (last name omitted since he reads /.) who bangs his keyboard and curses when he gets fragged. After 7 years of getting together every month or so, he still hasn't figured that it makes him much more enjoyable to hunt. ;)
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
actually it is a degree of direction ... after all i AM headed that way whether i like it or not...
*--- Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. ---*