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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. =)
http://www.lanparty.com/ has quite a few tips/suggestions for setup.
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
...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!
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.
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.
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
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.
Condoms.
Probably, like, not ever.
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
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
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
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.