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Have you ever Been to a LAN Party?

Monday, June 9th, 2008
at 10:24pm

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I asked my “son” Wicket if he wanted to go to a LAN party. That’s where a group of Geeks pack up their computers, get together, and game… for hours or days on end. Have you ever been to a LAN party, or been curious as to what goes on? Here are some tips sent in by Brian to help you out. He gives us his tips for LAN party guests, and five tips for LAN party hosts.

Tips for Guests

1. Bring your own networking supplies if necessary. This can include cables, routers, and hubs. The host may not be able to supply you with everything you need to get set up, so bring a few extra network cables and a router if you have them… just in case.

2. Bring a couple of dollars so you can pitch in for food and drinks, or bring yourself some snacks. You never know when you’ll be hungry, and neither will everyone else. Pitching in for a couple pizzas or a few bags of chips and a handful of sodas (or energy drinks!!) will help you stay awake longer.

3. Make sure you’ve already installed as many games as you expect to play that night. If not, you’ll be too busy installing the games instead of having fun playing them. You also want to have all of your games updated to the most modern version, or at least make sure you have the same version as everyone else.

4. Make sure your computer is equipped to handle the games you expect to play. Your computer may not be up to par with the games’ requirements and you will either not be able to play, or lag like crazy. Severe game lag can cause poor game play, and losing.

5. Bring a pillow and a blanket. It may feel ridiculous, as if you were attending a slumber party. Trust me, you may need it if or when you crash.

Tips for Hosts

1. Make sure you have as many network supplies possible so everyone can access the network. If you aren’t able to connect everyone to the network, ask anyone coming to the party if they could bring extra supplies to help out.

2. Make sure you have enough food and drinks for the guests. If not, have everyone pitch in a few dollars and get some food as previously explained. I also want to point out that non-greasy snacks (like pretzels) are best because they won’t get your keyboard and mouse all greasy while you’re playing.

3. Try and get as many places to set up as possible. Fold-up tables are the highest recommendation, but anywhere someone can set up works. You can try using desks, kitchen tables, or counter tops. As a last resort, end tables, dressers, and TV stands may also work of anyone is willing to use them. You should also have plenty of chairs.

4. Make sure you inform your guests what games you will probably end up playing ahead of time. It’s no fun getting to a LAN party and waiting for everybody to get the games installed as mentioned before.

5. Make sure your guests are able to power up their equipment. Having lots of surge protectors and extension cables allows for more freedom in terms of where your guests set up.

Brian also recommends the following free games, so you’ll always have something on hand to play… even if you cannot afford the latest and greatest paid games.

If you have any other LAN party tips and tricks, be sure to pass them along!

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18 Comments

YouTube - Have you Ever been to a LAN Party?

June 9th, 2008
at 10:26pm

[...] curious as to what goes on? Here are some tips sent in by Brian to help you out. More information: http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/06/09/h... Category:  Science & Technology Tags:  video  help  information  [...]

Abdul-Qahhar

June 10th, 2008
at 2:03am

In my 20’s I burned up quite a few week ends, vacations, and (I am ashamed to admit) some sick days at LAN parties that my friend use to throw. We played a mix of twitch games, RTS, and MMORPG’s, It was a lot of fun.
But now that we are all in our 30’s, its a little harder to get every one together and in the same room. Every so often we hook up on line for an old school crawl (Diablo2/Guild Wars) or do our dominate a CoD4 server over a week end. Its every bit as much fun, but a lot less work…

Tim Linden

June 10th, 2008
at 6:29am

So true.. I’ve done a few with friends years ago, and it was always a pain. People would bring a laptop that can’t even run IE let alone play a game, then half the people don’t have a game, the other half forget all their wires, and then we never had enough tables. Not fun..

I remember one where someone sat on a couch and used their tower as the mouse pad and monitor holder. LOL not the best way to frag.

Rasmus Abrahamsen

June 10th, 2008
at 6:49am

You will have to bring a headset too. People who bring real speakers will get flamed!

Wayne Hastings

June 10th, 2008
at 8:19am

Funny enough, last week I was visiting the forums for the Memphis, TN, area LAN group that was active in the late 90s. The site is still up, and some of the old LAN gamers return to post every now and then. Thanks to the prevalence of broadband internet, the gaming scene has fractured so everyone is doing their own thing. The last LAN party I attended was in 2002.

Shadowfigure

June 10th, 2008
at 3:21pm

your the best dad in the world Chris lol last time i went to a lan party was for a halo2 showdown

cananito

June 10th, 2008
at 4:54pm

Well, when I was younger and a casual gamer, I used to go to alog to friend’s houses, but not exactly to a LAN party, they where more of just a videogame party, scince we all played in a single console, wich means we could only play 4 at a time on N64, sometimes 2 on PS2, or if we had the multi pad we could play more.

Now, for a LAN party, I guess that a Mac mini with boot camp would be aswome.

Planet iCE Forums

June 11th, 2008
at 11:44am

[...] Planet iCE Forums Author: ]D[JJ-E- <yes@maybe.no>    74.7.206.66 Date: 6/11/2008 10:21:34 AM Subject: Free Games I wasn't aware that GTA 1 and 2 are free downloads. The links are at the bottom along with a couple of others. My boss sent me the link. http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/06/09/have-you-ever-been-to-a-lan-party/ [...]

Jace

June 11th, 2008
at 9:29pm

yes I have been to a Lan Party, and games that I enjoy playing are - Call of Duty 4, Starcraft, Counter strike Source, and Flatout. Think my only tip for someone attending a lan party is bringing your own video card because some computers are stock and lack what u need to play some of these new generation games.

ookami

June 11th, 2008
at 10:41pm

I have gone to a LAN party before. My brother use to go and I ended up going with him. At first, we played WoW which was rather fun. Making all new chars and raiding with lvl 1 chars is always a blast.

But after that, we usually go straight to COD. Which was really fun. I did not know any of the people since they were all my brothers friends, but I enjoyed it because I was able to show up all his friends.

Inside WeatherBug®

June 12th, 2008
at 5:09am

Chris Pirillo Have you Ever Owned any Apple Products? What are Popular Home Repair Scams? Do you use Gmail?s New Features? Where can you Watch Severe Weather Videos Online?Have you ever Been to a LAN Party?

Matthew Lindner

June 12th, 2008
at 5:27pm

I had a Halo2 LAN party a few days ago with sister, cousin, and some friends. It was really nice actually mainly because nobody could screen look. It was good fun.

JDB

June 13th, 2008
at 8:36pm

After watching Chris’ video on lan parties I found this website. I e-mailed it to him, but Ill post it here for those interested http://www.lanpartymap.com

It has lan parties listed for all 50 states and also “LAN Gaming Centers” in all 50 states.

Hope this helps someone.

Jhay Dee

ThEKiDThRiLLzZ

June 13th, 2008
at 10:30pm

lan partys are a lot of fun.. but things could get a lil wiled at times

Blunk

June 16th, 2008
at 11:09am

Some years ago I participated of lots of LAN Partys. Two of them were really huge… I mean like 3000 people playing at the same time for the whole weekend and almost no sleep. In this case was a company that organized it and the network was perfect and so on. The others were “Home” Lan Partys on friends house or at mine. Just 10 persons with NO International Champs, just playing with friends

Maximum Verbosity - 10 Most Recent Entries

July 7th, 2008
at 1:01am

Geek Appeal Tags: Server Permalink Hits: 199 Post Comment Any Regular LAN Parties in Colorado Springs? (07.05.2008 14.22.19) On my list of blogs I check daily, I found a video regardingGoing to LAN Parties; It occurred to me that I haven’t been to one in about four years. I stopped going shortly thereafter because I didn’t like lugging around my 80lb rig, complete with a secondary external power supply and several drives that weren’t properly mounted

Z-Index 255: 10 Most Recent Entries on 07/10/2008

July 10th, 2008
at 7:02am

(07.05.08 14:22:19) On my list of blogs I check daily, I found a video regardingGoing to LAN Parties; It occurred to me that I haven’t been to one in about four years. I stopped going shortly thereafter because I didn’t like lugging around my 80lb rig, complete with a secondary external power supply and several drives that weren’t properly mounted

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