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Hints for Planning a Network Gaming Marathon?
"We have prior experience with private weekend-long gaming parties (with 20-30 people) a handful of times per year at the homes of attendees, and usually they conclude with few problems. However, we are planning on this session being bigger and more public, hopefully upwards of 120 seats. Although we have experience with smaller gatherings, we generally know all attendees, and have little experience with larger, public gaming marathons.
What did you do for advertising? Is it more effective to reach the intended audience by advertising on the radio, TV, internet, or billboard? What can you do about the rare, unmanageable, lunatic gamer? How have you handled cheaters (aimbots, wall-hackers, etc.)? Have you brought in sponsors to help offset the cost? Has there been technical support for the non-tech savvy? If so, was it free, or included in the admission cost? There are other questions, but I'll stop there.".
bathrooms...
We're only gonna die from our own arrogance, that's why we might as well take our time...
Bring in some people who can network computers well. 99% of the problems with BYOB events aside from Power is getting all those different computer talking to each other on a LAN... neigh impossible in some cases. =)
food....
http://www.lanparty.com/ has quite a few tips/suggestions for setup.
One essential thing. Loads of coffee or caffeine laden cola
Better yet, have games that are free (as all information should be). America's army is a good, completely free game.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Read the LANParty.com guide and make SURE you have a power grid already mapped out so you can troubleshoot power failure on the fly. Also, have trash cans EVERYWHERE and designate ppl to take the trash out. Trust me
If possible, supply a showering facility, and bring deodorant or air freshner. I've went to a few lan parties, and le me tell you the grease in the air, you can feel it just clumping on your skin.
after about 12 hours i was pretty much needing a shower just from being around so many unwashed geeks.
...to ask your parents for permission.
Make sure everyone has the games you plan on playing and the latest patches B E F O R E the event. It's rather annoying spending the first 6 hours getting everybody set up because each machine has it's own problems.
Oh, and make sure to devote a couple hours to mp3 swapping.
I am a filthy pirate.
I've organiced several 200 ppl lan parties and i can tell theres always something that goes wrong.
The main thing to remember is that it IS work, not fun, if you want to do it for fun your in the wrong bizz. Also remember security, are you capable of throwing out people if needed. How about alcohol, fights? Warez? Whats your policy? Tech support, people always need help with tcp/ip, remember to always have a few people on call to help people. Power recheck power, recheck power again, i can't stress this enough, when ppl start rolling in and they put their machines on, arr...
Also remember that personal faulty equipment like a coffe cooker thats broken can shut down the power to 20-30 machines depending on your setup. Whos fault is this if a computer breaks? (it has happened several times) Do you pay? Be sure to have the answers.
Complementary mace for any women who show up.
First, don't name it a Network Gaming Marathon. Some gamers might see the "marathon" and avoid your event.
Call it "extravaLANza." I dunno. I just made that up. Just name it anything that doesn't invoke images of sweat and toil.
qslack.com
If youve got a local shop try to bring them into it somehow. Many of the local LANs around here have some sort of sponsorship or help from a local shop. On tech support I would guess that anyone who would be coming to a LAN would know enough to keep their stuff up and running, but just in case have a few guys there who know what they are doing. If you can get a hold of a large confrence room in a hotel power shouldnt be too much of a problem im guessung, but it doesnt hurt to have a back up if you can get one.
wtfsig?!11
Are almost non-existant (I have yet to see one, in my 300+ lan parties I've been too).
Quite a diffrent thing when you can look at the guy next to you and see him wallhacking, or aimbotting - it's pretty blatant. He'd kick a nice swift kick in the head, and be labeled a lamer.
One thing about planning large scale parties - don't let people without PCs in, unless you know them well.
Being stuck at a LAN party without a PC will lead to the pickpocketing and other such mischief that will give your lan party a bad name.
Also, make up a bunch of "packets" of info. Inside the packet, have a little map with the location to the bathrooms, the name of the game server, the IP they can use (or if it's DHCP), and even their place at the table if you have assigned seating.
Make sure to have a couple of 55gallon garbage cans handy, and assign someone as the garbage man - making sure the trash cans arent overflowing, spills are cleaned up, etc - trust me, this is a must.
There's so much more info and hints out there, I'll let some others answer it.
Hell, every thing you need to know about it has been graciously already written for you by lanparty.com.
It's called, simply enough, "The Guide" and covers everything pretty well. Read it.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
I'm currently in the final stages of doing something like this myself. We're gonna have ~128 people at the LAN. Here's some tips:
Go and talk with the manager at your local software shop. Chances are they'll be happy to place a flyer on the counter, and they may even be willing to help sponsor.
Give yourself at least 3 months planning time. You're gonna need it.
Set a minimum age and stick to it. We decided on 16, no exceptions.
Make it clear that cheaters will be evicted with no refunds.
HAVE SOME PRIZES - very important. Best Case, MVP, winner of tournaments. Sponsors can really help with this one.
For networking we ended up getting several cheap 24 port Dlink switches with gigabit uplink, then had an 8 port gigabit switch that they all headed into.
Get some volunteers to help with setup and takedown. Offer them a free spot, but make sure you can trust them to stay afterwards.
Keep the rules understated. Make having fun the priority but let everyone know on a basic level that the rules are there and will be enforced. Anarchy is not a good thing with respect to a good LAN party.
Have FUN! I plan on doing so.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
Try not to mix those, tho.
Gamers are pigs. Extra wastebins everywhere, and extra ashtrays at the smoking area is a good idea.
Don't forget to hire a professional cleaning crew, for cleaning up after the 90% of gamers who can't hit the trashcan if it's five inches from their hand, and insist on messy food.
Also, quadruple the estimated time to pack up before the cleaning crew can do their job.
Other than that, whoever brings extra power strips, hubs and longer cat5 cables is going to be a hero. No arranger in the history of gamingkind has ever provided enough or long enough cables.
hmmmm, my first concern is hygeine. Definitely want to get a place with the appropriate accomidations (SHOWERS!!!).
Okay, LAN party experience tells me a few things. Make sure you have a few knownledgable network guys to set the thing up. Make sure you have a game plan for the configuration! Avoid DHCP if at all possible, it's much better to have a well thought out addressing scheme.
Power has always been an issue at the lans I attend. So make sure the facility you are going to has appropriate power.
Cooling is big. Lotsa computers can make a room very toasty.
Food and beverage consumption is a biggy at LANs, so charge people admitance fee to help cover the costs.
Don't be afraid to through ass holes out, a LAN that big will attract some unwanted guests.
Have a few spare gaming rigs that people can use if they don't have their own.
Also, remind people to watch out for their belongings. The LANs i attend are small (30-40) gatherings of friends, yours won't be.
I'm sure there are a million other things I'm forgetting, I'll post more if i can think of it.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
Take whatever you think you will need and double it. Specifications only go so far. A 15 amp breaker might trip at 10 amps after it has "warmed up" under a 14 amp load for several hours. Had that happen. It didn't just trip the breaker, but burned it out. Test the power outlets with large loads before the party. Breakers get old and wear out.
I don't know what to do about networking for that scale. Gets scary at anything above 40-50 people. Our parties run between 35 and 50 people and we have some serious networking hardware borrowed from a company one of the guys works for.
Also, we have sponsors. Lots. We have several local companies sponsor with trinkets and t-shirts for door prizes as well as some big names sponsor with certains CPUs and graphics cards that they make. We actually got an entire server from one company. Awesome box too, not some throw-away.
Once you get one good sponsor, that validates the rest of them to do so. Also, we got onto TV on the largest news station in the city. That helps. They were doing a human interest story on gaming. Just so happened we have a good website that was easily found on a search engine.
My name fits again.
Provide everyone with a utilities cd that contains all the latest patches for the games you will be playing and maybe the latest nvidia and ATI drivers.
And if you're playing some free games, slap them on there too.
Be very clear about what you will and won't provide and groundrules:
- 3'x3' desktop space (so make sure all your stuff fits on top of that or below)
- 1 120 VAC power jack (so bring your own power strip(s))
- No speakers (headphones only)
- Bring your own software
- Detail recommended software and network config
- No food or smoking in the game area
From a large (1500) lan party in Wash DC, IIRC they had issues with lan cabling, so BYOB 50ft of cat5 might not be bad either. Lighting could be an issue. And of course monitors. The DC gig eventually had rentals eventually.
This is the biggest issue I've ever had every time I've tried to do a LAN party: Set the start times for the beginning of any game and hold it. If you don't and allow anyone to say, "But just wait a minute while I configure my system," you'll never get anything done. If you're up and ready, you're in.. Of course, if you have games where people who can come and go as they please, it's not an issue.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
If you are planning to charge an admission fee (which it kind of sounded like you were) you should also require participants to agree to some ground rules. A verbal agreement might be sufficient but I would consider having them sign something at the time they pay their admission fee.
Basically you just need to establish what is acceptable and more importantly, what won't be tolerated and will get you thrown out. Things like cheating in games, rampant piracy, or conduct that is disruptive to another player (like bashing them over the head with your keyboard because you are angry at them for camping) should probably be prohibited by the agreement.
You might also what to establish under what circumstances (if any) a refund will be given.
Depending on the size of the gathering and the amount of money you are investing, you may want to consult with a lawyer about this agreement or at least try to find something boilerplate that you can adapt. The purpose of the agreement is to give yourself prior justification for the unfortunate possibility of having to kick someone out of your event.
Again, IANAL so maybe I'm completely wrong here, but if it were me I would at least investigate this kind of stuff and I'm guessing that this angle is easy to overlook when planning for an event like this.
------
Where are the slash-groupies? I distinctly remember being promised slash-groupies!
i used to throw parties when i was in highschool called "nerdsexfests" where 15 or so of my friends would come over and we would network and play doom, doom2, warcraft, etc. etc. i remember our first one was a little iffy because we had to go to fry's electronics to buy ethernet cards (BNC no less!) to outfit 80% of the computers my friends bought (we returned the gear the day after!!)
anyway, these nerdsexfests grew longer and longer. we did a two once and i'd say the most important thing about having a long lan party is *pace*...
Pace your playing (don't stay up *all* night), pace your food (junk food all day => feel shitty, want to leave)
We often interleaved playing actual sports to get our blood flowing...
and of course, there is nothing like good ol' loud techno blasting to keep everybody psyched...
pace, my friend
Is this a computer thing, or do you just give rough estimates in powers of 2? Like, "There must have been 128 people at the wedding, maybe 256!" Oh by the way, decimal is evil and causes cancer.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
One lad sitting in the corner leaching pr0n from others computers while they are playing games.
I have attended a couple of LAN parties. The 4 last years I have been attending The Gathering, with almost 5000 people, but the last LAN party I attended was a local LAN with about 100 participants where I was a crew member.
:).
:), and we even made a small amount of money of it because of our 24 hour kiosk!
The first problem occured on the opening day. 70% of the people on the LAN was unable to get a IP address. The problem turned out to be that we were assigned too few IP addresses.
The sysadmins on the school network we were using were however kind enough to give us an extra subnet, since the school was closed
Make sure you have enough IP addresses!
Once the network was up and running, everything worked almost smoothly, except for the occational few who had problems with their network card, graphic card, hard disk etc.
Since we didn't have a tech crew to handle these people, most of our spare time was used to help people fix their personal computer problems.
Make sure you have a tech crew to handle such problems!
We had a small kiosk inside the building where we sold food, beverages and soap. After a few days of sitting in front of the computer without sleep, you need to shower. The last couple of days the LAN party smelled like sh*it. It was horrible to enter the building when you had been outside for a while.
Make sure everyone is clean and shower at least twice!
In advance, we were planning on updating our webpage with stuff that was going to happen (competitions, results, general information etc.). It failed. The webpage was too difficult to update, so noone bothered to do it, since there was more important things to do (like downloading stuff and helping people).
Make sure your webpage can be updated in a second (PHP/MySQL solution preferrably).
These were the 4 biggest problems we had. Except for this, things turned out pretty well I think
--
Will work for bandwidth.
I've been involved with a couple lan parties, the biggest being 15 people and along with the aforementioned patching (have a fileserver with all the latest patches for the games you plan to host...it works great) the biggest problem was with the gameserver crashing. The first time around we had people hosting and playing on the same machine, and it would crash more than we'd like (both windows and mac). The second time around we set up a few game servers on the linux box and things were MUCH MUCH better....in fact, they never crashed once. Nothing will piss people off more than the quake3/CS/etc server going down in the middle of a session...well, maybe a power outage ;)
Maybe this doesn't apply so much to large gatherings where # of people on a server at any given time isn't a problem, but for those interested in smaller LAN gatherings, this may be helpful.
Keep the internet connection (whether it be modem or router) near to where you sit, and have it unplugged except for patches. Why? Because a lot of people are morons, it's hard to find an ideal group. One time, we wanted to play NWN but the kid who had the server cracked (unfortuantely people who buy games like me are a minority and thus we needed a cracked server to play) said that he "needed" to talk on AIM. And no, he couldn't tell us where we could find the crack.
This has happened dozens of times to me before I wised up. One kid had his semi-girlfriend dump him on AIM at a lan and he spent the rest of the night being a whining pussy. Like I wanna hear about that when I'm at a party. Story in point, crap like AIM and mindless websurfing can convince people to forget that they're there to play games, and in smaller LANs that's a real bitch when you're trying to fill up a server.
Or maybe I'm just anal about this?
I've gone to many lan parties. From 5 people upto 100 people. I have to say the biggest gripe is power outages. Make sure you properly test the power network at the event location. Make sure you have ample power. Test everything. Make sure your network, power, and servers are up to the challenge. Also have backups! Things will die, make sure you have a few spares of everything. If your having the lan party in the summer make sure the place has sufficient cooling. When I went to lansanity someone turned the A/C up too high and it froze so it stopped working. Try having 100 people in a room and it be 95 inside. There were computers overheating all over the place.
Make sure you know the power grid; power outages are common as 20-30 computers trip breakers.
Make sure you have a phone book [pizza is good mmkay]
Make sure you state the RULES beforehand, so everyone is on the same page:
- Alcohol? if minors are attending, it's probably best to set a policy banning it
- Speakers? Speakers are fun, but at a lan party, they can be disruptive. They DO help if you're doing more than gaming [I actually watched the Matrix for the first time at a 3 day lan party like this at 2 am after playing quake for 36 hours. whoa.]
- Minors? While adults can choose to stay up for 3 days in a communal sleeping area, minors make for a sticky situation
Suggestions:
give a list of things to bring; sleeping bags are good, commonly forgotten things like surge protectors, power cables, CDs are good.
Bring extra power cables/surge protectors
Specific questions:
Advertising: put it on lanparty.com a few months in advance. slashdot is also good, but maybe you should tell us where the hell it is.
crazy gamer: usually with 120 people, 1 crazy guy can be contained if anything by sheer numbers. If anything, cops are good if they're breaking stuff. Keeping 'officials' awake and patroling helps disuade thievery.
cheaters/lamers: What else do you do to lamers?!? beat them with a lead pipe until they stop cheating.
costs: charge a fee for attendance; charge less for pre-registration. Only use sponsors for prizes, though charge them ahead of time if they'd like to come and setup a booth or advertising.
tech support: abso-frickin-lutely. Most gamers are computer savvy, but not necissarily network savvy. With that many machines you'll likely need a dedicated network guy/girl or a few non-dedicated. Tech support should be free! materials like power cables and network cables should be free [and retrieved afterwards if possible] though things like network cards, extra mice should be for sale. ALSO: the network guy/girl should not provide technical support beyond getting the guy's computer on the network. It's not your problem.
Ahh . . . we've come so far since that time a buddy of mine brought his P-133 to a LAN party where we were playing Descent and we all bowed before the might of his power.
You have two enemies - well, three or more if someone in the crew is married - when holding an event such as this.
1. The lack of experience of some people who come and hope to immediately set up their computers and start fragging
2. The lack of proper facilities for the enjoyment of all
For issue 1, your best method of correction is to publish a 'So You Want to LAN Party with the Big Dogs' type web page or brochure. Get this to the folks who you are expecting to attend and make certain that they understand the necessary things:
- All NICs set to DHCP; if they don't know what this is provide a link to one of the bajillion sites on the web that document this
- All parts that should be brought with attendees (such as snacks, money for the conference room, pillows to crash when necessary, power strips/surge protectors,proper games, tables or chairs, etiquette expected, etc.)
- A rough schedule of events i.e. Diablo 2 from 9pm-3am followed by Counterstrike from 3am-3pm or whatever; nothing spoils a party quicker than someone coming who was expecting to play one game but then couldn't play.
For issue 2, make certain if you are using hotel facilities to have a conference room with multiple circuits!!! I may be using the wrong terminology but I once set up 18 rooms in a conference room near the Astrodome where the hotel electrician SWORE that there were multiple circuits but the first time the instructor asked everyone to open a certain document, the combined juice request from 18 hard drives overloaded the circuit and bamm-o, instant darkness. Good when you're with a chick but not so good when you want to slay some demons. Explain that you will be having X number of PCs and that continuous power is an important thing!
I used to go to a local Cincinnati Lan party (SOGA), of around 100 people.
.iso anyways.
I stopped after the 3rd time.
1. The food sucked, they asked you prepay, and since I didn't have a credit card, I couldn't, so instead of ordering pizza with the money (the same amount the prepay guys paid to get it) that the guys who just showed up payed, they just got dicked over and starved.
2. If your going to set up FTP warez servers, have time limits. The staff at the lan was awsome, huge FTP server with tons of games movies and cartoons. BUT, it had a 10 person limit so that you got a high transfer rate, so basically the first 10 guys in the door would start downloading, and take all night downloading hundreds of gigs of stuff. I mean, it got a little redicoulas when the fat greasy guy next to me filled 2 hundred gig drives with shit he'd never use, like gigs of NES and SEGA roms or games I know he had because he was playing them, but was downloading the
3. Don't be afraid to kick someone out. The was this one guy (NOTE), who was a complete jack ass and ruined it for everyone. He would bitch and moan because he didn't have a game to play in a tournament, so would make everyone waite while he loaded and configured it, and then he'd bitch and say people cheated when he lost. Everyone hated him, but couldn't make him leave.
4. If your gonna have tournaments, have awards everyone can win. Instead of all time winner, how about...to compete you turn on replay mode, and then judge on the most gruesome death or most awsome kill shot, just don't let the geeky guy who does nothing but sit on his ass and play CS all day take home all the trophies.
5. Have a good sleeping area. Rent out a few hotel rooms if you do it there. The one I went to, it was just a big room, and you went in there, tons of people sleeping. I'd get into my sleeping bag (nylon goose down stuffed) and have people bitch at me because of the noise. I know it was loud, but I couldn't help it, and would have really like to be able to go somewhere by my self or with just friends.
Plus, have good security, I was really afraid to leave my computer alone while I slept, I actually use a bike chain and lock, and locked it to the desk. Even just an old laptop and a few USB webcams spread around would work.
5. Don't just play high end games, not everyone has that kind of CPU. Get some good strategy game tourneys going, like Alpha Centarui, or Civ 2 & 3, or even have a Quake 2 tournament.
I think everyone else hit the important stuff.
Candles?? Sure, candles will be helpful if the power goes out, but surely it'll be easier to escape from 200 angery geeks under cover of darkness?
--
Hollywood representatives have publicly stated that skipping commercials is "stealing."
i've been to some little lan parties, and participated to the organization of some too (only the network part, not financial)
;) )
:) )
..., maybe it would be a good idea to get punkbuster running, if possible?
i es/cheaterlow .wmv :))
:) )
;)
prices may vary, i once paid ~23Euros for a 3 day lan party/demo party with internet access and a very huge screen (about 900 ppl were present, this was 6 years ago
To the last one i have participated, prices were more like 15Euros for a 2 day one (70 ppl, in a school), but think how many ppl will come, and how much it will cost to you to rent the place, and all other "debts", will there be prices for the first one? etc
Ask for a pre-inscription for, let us say 5 or 10 bucks, this will force the ppl to come, and if they don't, you still will have money for the 'debts'
Don't forget to get a place for ppl to sleep in a room with "no noise". Food & drinks to sell to them
Ask for them to come with ear headphones, or it will get very noisy, also ask for them to come with their own rj45 cables since only the switches should be pre-installed and wired
If you receive the network equipment, check it's at least a 100mbit/s one! (yeah, last time i had to manage 70ppl it was a fscking 10mbit/s, a hell to administrate, one file transfer and the pings were getting toooooo high, pita, and i was a newbie on QoS at that time
Games shouldn't take that much bandwith, about 10KB/sec is already high, the most problem will appear when ppl are playing & others are copying files over the network. Try to get a gigabit backbone, if possible, but this depends on how many ppl will come. And No hubs, only switches!
To all i've went, there were always electrical problems, 1 pc can take easily 220Watts if not more, with let us say maximum 10Amperes on 220Volts: ~2200Watts, which means: avoid more than 10 pcs on the same electrical circuit, depends on how good the electrical installation is.
Cheaters should be banned, maybe you could think of some rules to follow like, for CS: seting up servers to fade to black when dead etc, no skin alteration,
or in extreme conditions:
http://fragzone.medialt.ru/files/mov
If possible get some reserve hardware like 1 or 2 network cards, rj45 cables (yes, ppl will forget it, but if they need it, sell it ?
Worst electrical problem i saw was when one guy pushed his wire so hard that it broke the electric socket, shorting it, it took us almost 1 hour to find out the problem...
Advertising: most internet, ppl talking on irc, it also got on the radio (sponsored), a sponsor got us the servers & another one got us the (very poor quality) network equipment
It's all i can think at the moment, hope this helps (a bit?)
Condoms.
Probably, like, not ever.
A few years back, I attended a weekend long LAN party that was hosted by a group called RRGC (Road Runner Gaming Coalition, or something like that). It was like 10 buck for the weekend, wich covered the cost of renting the hotel room (conference room actually. The one thing that I notice people stressing is power, and I agree. This particular group double checked power consumption, and the hotel guarenteed that the power would be adequate, but when people started showing up with dual headed systems with two subwoofers and neons, along with mini fridges, it got out of hand. We blew about 12 circuit breakers in a day, and the second day decided to play in "shifts". Kinda slowed things down and killed the romance, if ya know what I mean. Power is probably the number one thing, with food, drink, and setup close behind.
Try to discourage people from pirating the games on your watch, but you won't stop it. Tell them ahead of time what games you'll be playing. Also, ask eveyone to bring a pair of headphones. The last thing you need is 100 different sets of 5 piece Monsoon systems pumping out 100 different MP3's mixed with game noise. (The 15 year olds listening to Britney Spears and NSync won't mix well with the 40 year olds listening to BTO and Steelers Wheel)
If you have it in a hotel, tell them that there will be 100 geeks in a room, competing at senseless computer games. People will get in arguments, I would bet my gonads on it. If you let the hotel know, they can have security ready incase anyone need to be persuaded to calm down, or dragged out by their feet. It would be nice to think that even if a few people got into it, the others would control them, but that doesn't always happen.
I would recomend food and drink be provided by individuals, yet a group chip-in on a bunch of pizza's could be a cheap way for everyone to eat as well. Encourage non-gamer spouses/sig. others to cater!
Other than that, just make sure you keep it chill and not too competitive. Make sure the nerds know it's just a game.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
My work frequently hosts events at conference centers in locations across the nation and we have discovered that each city/state has different rules. Make sure you know the ones for where you are at. We've run into lots of trouble with unions and hotel rules which have included the following:
1. Not being allowed to touch anything power related. Apparently unions have contracts which require you to hire them even for something as simple as plugging in a television
2. Unable to bring in external equipment. They might make you rent from them any one of a number of items: televisions, power strips, extension cords.
3. Not allowed to have snacks/drinks brought in.
Basically, read everything and make sure you don't get hosed with the fine print. Good luck.
A friend of mine does this fairly often and he uses multiple 24-port 10Mb switches with 100Mb uplinks into a single 100Mb switch. This has several benefits. 1) They're cheap. 2) 10Mb is more than enough for games. 3) If people want to trade files (and they will) it doesn't congest the switches and lag the network.
Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
Ok, first of all, I'd definately advertise, sell tickets or something. Use the proceeds to offset the room rental costs. The rest should be set up in some sort of fund as prize money. (Which will help get people there...)
Next, I can not stress enough, have a set list of what games will get played, what versions/patches, what maps, etc. Make sure everyone knows this in advance (maybe provide it with their pre-ordered ticket). That should reduce the amount of headaches. I can't tell you how many times this has caused problems at LAN parties at my house because somebody wasn't patched up or didn't have the new map pack we all wanted to play...
Have a set schedule of what game will be played when. That way if somebody wants to check out for an hour or two of sleep they can do it during the time block of a game that they don't like to play. Also, make sure you schedule BREAKS!
Find the local rock stations and see if they can advertise the event. However, it is usually expensive to do a real advertisement. Some stations (at least here in Atlanta) have a "what's happening this weekend" segment during their Thursday or Friday morning shows. Maybe you could get in on those. Fliers on local college campuses work well too...
As far cheaters/hackers... Just having somebody walk around and observe is always a good deterrent. Most hacks are easily noticable by the casual observer walking around the party room viewing monitors. If you get caught, you get removed from the current running game and DQ'ed from the money prize...
Require headphones (NO SPEAKERS!) for all users. Everyone brings their own power strips. UPS'es and extension cords are recommended because you're probably going to need more power than the room will provide.
The only other issue I'd be concerned with is theft of property. How does somebody secure their gear while scooting off for 30 minutes to take a leak, grab some food or catch a nap?
Also, make sure you check out the room and what the hotel/hall can provide for tables. Most conferences at hotels usually have either round dining tables (usually good enough to fit 4-5 computers on) or long rectangular tables that are horrible because they aren't deep enough for a keyboard and a monitor.
Anyhow, hope this helps. Good luck! Make sure you post a followup report after the event!
--Mike
This should go without saying, but don't forget Cat 5's. Someone always forgets his, we all can make them, so bring a few extra. Not a big deal. And power cords. And label them so you don't lose yours, though Cat 5's are cheap.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
I can't stress this enough.. make sure not to over do the daisy chaining of the surge protectors. After having just had a lan party at my place with about 8 people in the basement, and all on the same circuit, and two circuit trips because someone went to go pee, we had to start mandating people use the bathroom in the dark, or pause the game and everyone power their monitors off.
Make sure to find yoursefl a lawyer and take care of having ppl to sign an agreement for the rules you put up. A good disclaimer could save your ass a big trouble.
Get out, live a little
Who says all they do is game?
Afterall they're going to great effort to put on an event they'll like and it's going to take a shitload of work and education to get there.
This is well beyond 'just gaming'
They sound a lot more intelligent then your schoolmates that can't hold a decent job.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
badges really do keep people out pretty well. at the CPL last year this guy was like "let me borrow your badge for 10 minutes while youre eating"... why you ask? so he could go around and steal ram, mice, headphones, keyboards and mousepads. keep in mind gamers are known to spend 80 dollars on an illuminated keyboard and such.
Can't go wrong with that combination.
Just make sure the BOFH has the nicest kit and plenty of beer.
Size
Make sure you have more than enough tables, chairs, and floor space for your attendees. I've seen attendance estimates very as much as 20%, and you never want to turn people away at the door, so always over-estimate your space requirements
Electricity
You'll have some attendees. who will bring machines that draw next to nothing, and others who will plug in giant subwoofers and space heaters. Spread your load over as many circuits as you can, and make sure you have plenty of thick-gauge extension cords.
Over a year ago, we ran an event at the local Masonic Temple. It's an old building, and some of us had power concerns from the start. Within two hours, we had run wires to every floor in the building, blown almost a dozen fuses, and destroyed the high-amp fuses on the main. (These fuses, circa 1936, were burned and torn in half)
Technical Support
Without fail, someone will set up, and their NIC won't work, their video card will fail, or they'll need to reinstall their OS. Chances are, you'll be enlisted to help resolve these situations.
Someone will forget a mouse/power cord/length of Cat5, so bring a few extra just in case. A decent percentage of attendees. won't have current patches for their games, so before hand, burn about a dozen CDs with patches for popular games, and hand them out as needed.
File Sharing
The biggest problem we've had to deal with recently comes from this department. When it comes to sexual content, we consider ourselves to be a PG-13 Lan Party. Until recently, we permitted the sharing of adult material, but we've had two recent incidents of inappropriate use. Now, we have a strict policy on the matter. Additionally, we've had problems with infected files/machines on the network. We still allow file sharing, but this may change if this problem continues.
If you do allow file sharing, you'll run into people that don't understand the concept of restricting their shares... You'll see entire hard drives with read & write permissions enabled. We haven't had anyone maliciously delete files off of someone's computer, but a few years ago, someone accidentally shared pictures of his naked wife lying in the bath. He was none too pleased to discover that the photo made the rounds.
Getting back to the inappropriate use subject... a few events ago, someone decided it would be a good idea to bring their LCD projector. Since we hold our event in an airplane hangar, it's pretty easy to set up a 20' screen. Sure enough, it only took a few hours before there were larger than life sexual acts being projected on the wall.
Other
Other than that, you'll run into issues about food & drink, sound (headphone requirements), tournaments, bathrooms, and trash. Use common sense, and these issues *usually* resolve themselves.
After seeing that video clip of the guy who was caught cheating at a LAN party, two things came to mind.
1. Assault. The "security" guys were guilty of assault. You can NOT even touch someone. You can demand they leave and call the police if they refuse, but don't lay a finger on them. You can go to jail for this type of stuff.
2. Destruction of private property. Throwing the persons computer with great force into the parking lot had the expected result of destroying the computer. This is definately a civil offense. It may be a criminal offense in some jurisdictions.
The people running the event could have been open for some serious litigation had the person persued the matter.
I'm not condoning cheaters. I agree that they should be removed from the event. The wrong tactics, however, can gurantee you can never sponser another event because of liability problems.
You want to make sure you have liability insurance so you don't get sued out of existence by some asshole who trips over his own feet and breaks his leg because he hasn't slept in 72 hours.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Step 5: Get real - hire a booth babe in Xena garb and have her sell the drinks at 300% markup.
If you have a power issue (like only 3 stations per extension cord) for the love of god, TELL PEOPLE WHAT IS GOING ON. I know geeks dont like to communicate in general, but I've seen so many breakers tripped because no one was ever told how much power one outlet could take.
I myself, have hosted several smallish (~10 to 15) lans at my house and have had pretty good luck. It's friends and friends of friends only. So if some jackass shows up, we know exactly which friend to blame
Other things that you may run across depending on setup:
- food Make sure there's enough to eat for everyone, because even after being sedentary for 8 hours your stomach starts rumbling. And after eating junk food for 24 hours, you start craving something nutritious.
- sleep Most people don't have the stamina to do anything for more than 18 hours straight, even if it is just sit at a computer and play games. You are going to want to crash some time, so provide places to sleep.
Other than that, I suggest you have some movies available, because gaming is competitive and intense, so it's good to just relax for a while. 2001: A Space Odyssey is just wonderful at 4 am.ok, you've never participated in one and you're calling it a drag?
I'd like to publicly state that you're terrible in bed.
There is DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) from sitting in economy class too long, but you can also get this from sitting at your PC for too long without a break. For a laugh (in a vain attempt to take the serious edge off this) I will call the clotting of blood from sitting at your PC too long "Computer Geek Thrombosis" (CGT).
/. and laughed, but seriously don't let it happen to you (or people under your care at your LAN).
To avoid this you should make sure that every hour or so people get up and around. We acheive this at our lan's through:
1 - BBQ, Softdrinks, water etc, and place them at least 20 meters away from the action. It forces people to get up and walk, and at the same time they also tend to wander.
2 - Make sure there is lots of cheap water (not just coke) available, as water prevents dehydration, and it stealthily encourages people to go to the loo... heheh nasty when in the middle of a tough cs WAR.... but it might save youre life.
3 - Ensure that there is pizza delivery, again, people need to stop gaming, get up, walk around etc.
This may sound silly, but CGT is a VERY serious problem, one that people have died from. We have all read the anecdotes on
lounge around on the blue couch
DCCon (3?) used fiber one year. They got a sweet network donated by bay networks or someone.. and it included a bunch of 100mbit full duplex ethernet switches that used fiber for switch interconnects. (this was like 1998) The problems were that the fiber was run between tables, and people kept knocking into it or even stepping on it.
At the beginning of the day, the network was clean, no PL, no lag. By the end of the day, the game was all kinds of choppy (NetQuake, btw) and the PL was horrible.
Take it from me, USE COPPER ONLY. Especially today with the affordability of 100mbit ethernet. Gigabit switches/hubs are still expensive, but it is an option for the backbone.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Very important but often overlooked if you are running an event larger than a few friends in someone's basement, is to get public liability insurance. Many venues won't even let you hire them out without having it. You may never need it, but its a damn good idea.
first concern: power
we usually distribute power based on the assumption that each computer will use 4 amps. on a 20 amp circuit this means 4 computers (5x4=20, dont want to overload a circuit). you can get cheap 100' extension cords from walmart. put no more than 2 computers behind one (get some cheap power strips while you are at it). this works out well, it means you run 2 of these to a group of 4 computers (and there are 2 plugs on the outlet anyway). make sure you label EACH extension cord, on both ends. this is INFINATELY valueable when tracing down power problems. also make sure that you have a designated electrician who knows what circuits correspond to what outlets. DO NOT OVERLOAD a circuit. if you are hosting a 120 person event, assume you need 480 amps just for the players, not counting server row, consessions, lights, anything else. make sure you stay at or below 80% power usage for the facility you are at. you might look at getting power boxes or renting a generator from a local construction company. keep in mind generator power is not very clean nor natural to your pc. we got our power figures from lanwar, arguably one of the most successful regular lan parties in the usa. POWER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION
second issue: food
decide up front if entry cost will be paying for any/all of the food for the gamer.
either see if you can get some stuff donated or on a discount, or just go buy generics. there are always decent generic brands that are alot cheaper than normal name brands. people at lan parties are not going to care that they are drinking vess or big k as long as its halfway decent and there is plenty of it. you might also see if you can get some kind of discount on catering by a local food place, such as subway or a pizza joint. use the "you can only take 1 sandwich" or "you can only take 2 slices of pie" rule until everyone has had an opportunity to go through the line.
third concern: networking
hopefully someone in your group will be a good networking tech. decide up front if you are going to allow file servers on server row (i would advise against, alot of wasted gaming bandwidth). my advice for the networkside is rent out some professionals. www.lanrental.com, i knwo these guys, they know what they are doing. in any event try to build out a network with low latency and not high bandwidth (if you can get both then great, but latency is more important for a game lan IMO, and i dont even game at the ones we throw).
fourth concern: parking
minor concern i admit, but still one to consider. make sure there is enough parking. try to make an area where noone can park but is used for loading/unloading. call the local authorities and tell them what you are doing and where you are doing it.
fifth concern: bathrooms.
make sure that the bathroom facilities are ample and work. this is especially important for multiday events. you might consider offering a location for the attendees to shower.
sixth concern: sleeping/chilling locale.
mark off an area for sleeping. sleeping under your computer with people walking over you sucks. set asside an area with a decent sized tv and vcr/dvd player or run a video projector. have alternate entertainment past the attendee's own pc.
seventh concern:
have people who are definately designated as in charge at all times. they should all wear the same shirt in a bright colour indicating they are event staff. always have someone on duty at a helpdesk or where they can be reached.
please mod this up, should be rather informative
Get some tools on the servers that can show traffic usage per IP possibly.
Then incase someone gets the bright idead to start DOSing the server, you can find their MAC, set the dhcp server up to give him/her an ip on a completely different subnet that's not in use. That or block his/her IP or something to get rid of him/her. And depending on the switches you use, you can quite possibly track them down.
The likely hood of that happening is slim, but just incase.
One other thing, make sure you have a few people who know how to admin the server/maintain everything else around the room so you can get decent playing time in. I ran a lan party for our computer club at school, and the janitors got the bright idea to turn of the A/C that night. So I was busy running around the school most of the time trying to find fans and ways to keep the room cool. That night I didn't get in nearly as much playing time as I would have liked.
And all of that belongs at a LANparty, absolutely. What would a LAN be without caffeine and greasy food to blame your bad performance on? (ie: "The only reason you fragged me was because my hand was so greasy it slipped right off my mouse! ::mutter::lucky bastard::/mutter::") Makes you feel better to.
But never will I go to a LANparty without a gallon jug of water for myself. Spacing caffeine and junkfood with water is good, keeps you from eating too much crap and prevents acid burn from eating pure junk for >24 hours.
Just my .02$, and apologies for slight rambling.
Seriously, I doubt anyone will use it.
So you can scan for dhcp servers. There are always a couple idjits who came to the party w/ internet connection sharing turned on the windows boxes, handing out bad or conflicting IPs to people around the network. Then make sure you have a bullhorn or pa system, so you can start yelling "ok, who the hell is 'l33th4xor' and why are you a dumb ass?"
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms,
Prepare to deal with the bane of IP networks... rogue DHCP servers.
Any sufficiently large LAN event will inevitably include attendees who for some reason run Windows 2000 Server with a DHCP Server Service configured. Without the proper tools, tracking these down can be a nightmare. Be prepared. Ideally, you'd have managed switches that can tell you what port a given MAC address is connected on, coupled with sniffers to tell you which MAC address is the source of the DHCP service. The DHCP protocol monitor plugin for Snort IDS can be used for this latter purpose (and Snort can also be used to detect hack attempts and DoS attempts).
These tools will also help in identifying conflicting IP addresses.
Sure, you can put together a kick-arse LAN party without too much trouble. But if it's going to be big enough to attract attention from non-geeks nearby, then don't skimp on security.
The last organised LAN I ever went to (over a year ago now), I was mugged afterwards at knife-point. I lost my mobile phone and wallet, but they didn't take my computer which I was standing next to. Most probably because of all the friends nearby, the mugging caught them off guard and they didn't react to it, but taking my computer would have had a fair few people coming to my assistance.
Later the police told me that the area where the party was held was one of the worst crime neighbourhoods in Adelaide. Apparently people get mugged in broad daylight. So although the hall would have been dirt cheap at that time of night, it really isn't the right place to hold a LAN.
Even though the organisers also had someone steal a 24-port switch, they still wouldn't move the venue. They practically covered the incident up. The other gamers to this day are unaware of what happened and has probably happened pretty regularly since. The organisers did hire some security guards to guard the cars, but my friend who still attends that party tells me that his car got broken into the very next time he went.
So my advice to you is this: imagine how you would feel if one of your friends, or one of their friends, were mugged at knife-point. Or worse, if their computer were stolen. Then you will make the right decision about the venue and any security issues.
Don't be half-arsed about it, it's better to have less food and no theft, than for the majority to be happier while one person has a really rotten night.
lots and lots of hummus
If you liked licking my balls, add me to your foes list!
Have at least one or two people who don't expect to play games, at an event that size. Preferably, hook one up with a Linux box with all the hacking^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsecurity tools you'll need to take care of the rogue DHCPer's or equivalent (as already noted). Something not noted, as far as I can see: Have a Windows box with popular trojan clients (SubSeven, BO2000, etc) scanning for servers to make sure that nobody can ruin anyone's fun with a trojan before you warn them and clean them.
:-)
Make sure there's a big sign over the "Help" people, so the average gamer doesn't get ticked off by Mr. Rich Parents who can't figure out how to run a program that's not in his Start menu.
I recognize people by their sigs. Is that a bad thing?
Power: 1 computer uses about 350-400 watts, a monitor is about 60-70, and a small speaker set uses about 10 or so. that's 480, call it 500 watts per computer. I'm also thinking that your in the US so one computer will use about 4.5 amps on the high side. So at the lans that i run we drop 3 cords hooked up to 15 amp breakers into the table setup with 12 computers, since not every one has the biggest baddest super power hungry computer this works out fine. ;)
Network: With that many people it makes much more sence to try and get your hands on bigger switches to hook together with a trunk of some kind insted of lots of little switches, just for price and performance. At the lan i run we have a few centillion switches along with a cisco 5k all of these have 48-96 ports in them the switches are hooked together with ATM or gigabit... but this leaves you with a problem, 48-96 ports in one place is way more than your going to have in a single table cluster. the solution! network snakes 30-50 foot long bundles of 6 or 12 cat5 cables with rj45 plugs on one end, and a box with keystone jacks on the other. this keeps individual cat5 cables to a minimum, and makes clean up a bit easier. besides with big switches you can poll them and find out who's leaching off who
food: I have found that for the really long parties it makes sence to only provide 2 meals (normaly both dinners) since by the time the next mean comes around not every one feels like eating the same thing as every one else... also get buddy buddy with the local pizza manager, some times they will give you deals if you order lots of food at a time, and they might want to sponser you.
BATHROOMS: Possibly the worst lan i've ever hosted was at a place with bad bathrooms, i can not stress this enough. make sure you have the number for the guy who is in charge of fixing them if they break to... it has been known to happen.
Internet always a good thing to have around... for patches or for email... but it is a good idea to have some one who knows what there doing to setup a firewall to limit stuff like... kazaa etc, other wise the people who actualy need that bandwidth wont have it (a cache of some kinda helps here too)
Polices: Make some and dont bend them for anyone, unless you want the attendies walking all over you. it's one thing to have a lan with all friends... it is MUCH diffrent to have a public party were random people show up. It isn't a bad idea to let the local police know that there is a event going on at your location and that you will not hesitate to call them if you need help... then make sure the people at the party know that too. I'm sure theres more, i might reply to this and never mind the spelling mistakes. Seany
"Where ever you go, there you are"
Sweet merciful Christ, get these people some deodorant!
First, get measurements on the building/room you will be using and map out where you will want all of your tables. You can fit about 3 people per 8 foot folding table. Make sure to leave room for people to walk and have areas for the admins/servers and a checkin table by the door.
For power, my general rule of thumb seems to be about 3 Amps/system. We run 6 systems per 20 amp circuit (117 VAC) in our building without any problems. To get gamers to connect to the right circuits, first map out which circuit every outlet in the room(s) is on. Then, run a fairly heavy duty extension cord from one outlet on each circuit to a group of tables and stick a power strip on the end of it. (use the map to figure cable lengths) Then, just tell gamers to plug into the power strip at their table and things should go pretty well. If you want more info on power usage by computers check this study out: http://www.fwgg.org/files/FWGG_POWER_TEST.pdf
For networking, just go to pricewatch.com and find some cheap 16 port 10/100 switches with uplink ports. They are ~$50 each. Bigger switches require gamers to have really long cables to connect to switches. Smaller switches require too many uplinks to the certral switch. Anyway, you will be able to plug 15 boxes into each switch (1 is used for the uplink) and uplink all of the switches into a central switch that you also plug the servers into (again 16 port should be fine unless you have more than 150 people or a lot of servers).
Once you have all of your switches, go on ebay and buy a reel or two of stranded cat 5 cable, a hundred or so rj45 plugs and crimper and wire stripper. Get a bunch of friends together and make your uplink cables plus a few more cables of whatever size you want in case you need them. Use your map to plan out where each switch needs to be and don't forget to add length for running from the table to the floor/ceiling.
It is really handy to have a dhcp/dns server on your network for easy client setup and to make it easy for gamers to get to stats pages (ie. set a default subdomain and give each server its own dns name in the given subdomain. Then to see your counter-strike stats, gamers can just open up their web browser and type cstrike).
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned that is really nice is a PA system. Being able to crank up the volume and announce tournies, etc is much easier than trying to yell at everybody.
Finally, a central web/file server with current info about your LAN party and torunaments if you have them is also nice.
Finally, check out http://www.nerdclub.net/alp/index.php for some nice LAN party management software.
Make sure there are some console games available for "cool-down." Highly recommended is Soul Caliber for Dreamcast, or, if this will be after August, Soul Caliber II for the platform of your choice. Soul Caliber is an excellent beteween-deathmatch game, as it requires very little thought and is a lot of fun (I generally just play Yoshimitsu and commit seppuku when I start to lose badly.)
* mild mannered physics grad student by day *
* daring code hacker by night *
http://www.silent-tristero.com
Okay, one more time:
;-).
You need a dedicated network person who only handles issues as they arise, this person can also handle the power load. This person does not need to deal with troubleshooting of PCs because....
You need a few volunteers to get PCs up and running on the network in the first few hours. Ideally, have spare cables and one NIC available for sale (but don't make them cheap, the poor sods deserve it) for the one awkward guys that won't have a proper NIC.
Power:
Prepare the distribution "network" ahead of time and make sure that the different sections are really on their own breakers and not overlapping with those 60 feet away. Providing the initial plug in points limits within 10-15 feets from their anticipated usage point helps control the load on the circuits.
DO NOT under ANY circumstances allo unrestricted access to any wall/floor outlet that is not designated for end users. Tape them over.
All cable snaking on the floor should be taped over, many cables running parallel should be grouped and run under those special ramps that let people walk on them.
Have an extra long extension and duct tape to tape it to the ground. This is to run alternate power to an underpowered cluster of PCs from a place with spare juice. It comes in handy, especially if 10 guys with 3-4 HDs, 21" screens and 5.1 speaker set up all gather nearby, you know like a clan
Misc:
Written policies for thefth, damage, injury, cheating, minimum age, etc. Trash and trash extraction. Facility cleaning and maintenance. Food, Beverages, Bar (and license if you have one) and other things need to be planned out. This means hoodles of soft drinks, whatever you can come up for decent food, etc. Bars are problematic and most venues that will let you have one (hotels) will insist on running it.
Badges are great, tee shirts for staffers and volunteers are awesome. Prizes should be PC/Gaming related, either games, graphics card, speakers, mices, gift certificates for electronics stores, mp3 players... Bonus for anything given by a sponsor.