Where I used to work, we had a daily ritual LAN party. We would be out in user land working on some random problem when the scratchy signal would come across the walkie-talkies: the hunt had begun.
Hasty excuses were given to the users as we ducked back to our offices, tripped off the lights, fumbled our passwords into our screensavers and started Quake. A few minutes of searching the local network and the server was found. Look at that! The server is running from the Network Manager's machine . . . again. No wonder that no one complains about the load.
Twenty seconds seem an eternity as you hear screams of success already coming from down the hall. I wonder what they think of the noise in the open lab? Come on. Come on. This is taking forever. Finally connected!
Hmm. Fifteen players. So-and-so must be out sick today. Call them at home. Frag the boss. Damn that felt good. Dive for the rocket launcher. Boom! Boom! Get fragged by an office mate. Frag them back. New players join . . . fresh meat. Hmm. So-and-so wasn't sick enough to stay in bed. No big surprise.
Get fragged by the boss. Damn, he's good! How much does he play?
Odd, that's a new handle. We must have a new employee. Introductions with a nail gun!
Boom! Gak! Frag! The afternoon disappears into a flurry of pixellated blood.
We never had problems with employee morale until they made us stop.
The scouts taught you to expect the unexpected, but when dealing with a LAN Parte` you have to expect more than that. Expect the unexpected, the unlikely, and most of all what seems to be the impossible!
Most of all remember to have fun for the duration of the party! You can worry about repairing your now semi-destroyed house later.
The huge LAN on the picture (http://www.lanparty.com/pics/index.asp?id=234658) is The Gathering 99, arranged every easter. It is, in fact, the world's largest temporary Local Area Network. Their upper limit is 4500, with crew there are about 5000 people in the arena.
The arena, by the way, is located outside Hamar, Norway.
The Gathering is not primarily a gaming party, although it has become more of that lately. The demo scene does also gather at The Gathering, and their excellent productions make the party memorable.
For the 2001 version of the party, they sold 2500 tickets in less than 24 hours. Black market tickets at the major online auction houses are now at three times the real price - and they have 1500 normal tickets left to sell (they just haven't done so yet).
The feeling of being at The Gathering is amazing! 4500 people in 120 hours (that is 5 days and nights)...
LAN party /lan par'tee/
An event to which several users bring their boxes and hook them up to a common LAN (Local Area Network), often for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games, especially action games such as Quake or Unreal Tournament. This is also a good venue for people to show-off their fancy new hardware. Such events can get pretty large, several hundred people attend the annual QuakeCon in Texas. The theoretical rationale behind LAN parties is that playing over the Internet often introduces too much lag in the playing experience - but just as important is the special quality of trash-talking each other across the room while playing, and the instinctive social ritual of consuming vast amounts of food and drink together.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.
Lan Parties are one of the most interesting phenomena to pop up in recent years.
Basically, the essence of a Lan Party consists of multiple computers, a massive tangle of category 5 wire, a hub or switch or a mix of both, a few or more people, and computer games those people play - typically competing against or with each other. Of course, other things - such as adequate power, air conditioning, refreshments, and prizes for tourneys - are nice to have, but by no means a necessity.
Of course, the nature of these parties varies wildly. There are small house parties, where groups of friends will get together to chill and play a few games... There are also some commercial lans like WasteLan and Quake Con that draw many, many more with the promise of sanctioned competitions and tournaments, food and drink, and all the other things smaller parties might have. Many illegal activities also occur at these parties - from the downloading and trading of much warez and minors exposing each other to gratuitous pr0n. Fortiounately, the media hasn't cracked down on these harmless gatherings, but we all saw what happened to the rave scene...
Anyone else see echos of yesterday? Lets hope violent games and pr0n don't become the evil threat to our 'innocent children' that drugs like acid and Extacy have.
Imagine not being able to attend a 'public event whereby attendees attach their personal computers to a computer network' after 3AM or something... Methinks I'm paranoid.
Ahem.
A LAN Party, as defined by myself, is any gathering of two or more people (usually more) and their respective computers wonderful, extraordinary, powerful, incredible, exceptional notebooks and desktops, for the sole purpose of playing computer games. No, not Freecell. No, not Solitaire. Yes, definitely Starcraft, and Warcraft, and Unreal Tournament, and Quake, and Age Of Empires, and Age Of Mythology, and Rise Of Nations, and Halo... First-person shooter and real-time strategy games.
What you must have at a homemade LAN party:
What would be a very good idea to bring, but isn't necessarily obligatory:
What you should avoid bringing at all costs:
these things can be a LOT OF FUN if one makes an effort. it can also mean MAJOR BRAGGING RIGHTS if you happen to rule teh awesum at starcraft. and perhaps age of empires. but enough of that.
If you're a computer geek, it is pretty much mandatory to at least attend one of these beauties. Do it. Seriously. Like I said, it is a lot of fun. I know because I've been to 2: one of Deejah's and one of mine. And yes, I actually won some games.
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