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How to Make a LAN Party Great
AkimboEG
Mr. FancypantsWears very fine pants indeedRegistered User regular
Mr. FancypantsWears very fine pants indeedRegistered User regular
It's been roughly five years since the last time my friends and I got together for a LAN party, and only a few of us still game, but we thought we could arrange another LAN for nostalgia-sake. So seeing how this will probably be a one time deal, I want to make sure it's as fun as possible for all involved.
We're already outdoing our younger selves by bringing over a PS3 with RB2, GH:WT and GH3 (and possibly a Wii as well.) What I want from you guys, are tips on how to make this a LAN to remember.
Now, it's true that these threads pop up every once in a while, but this one's a tad different. See, I'm not really asking about which games to play, since I've already got a pretty big list compiled, but am actually looking for general advice to make a LAN party more fun. Favorite party food and drinks, logistics and preparations advice, recommended software and hardware, etc'... If you've ever LAN'd, and have a tip to share, I'd like to hear it.
Oh, and if you really want to recommend a game that we probably haven't thought about, that's more than welcome.
Thanks in advance Gee'n'Tee.
We're already outdoing our younger selves by bringing over a PS3 with RB2, GH:WT and GH3 (and possibly a Wii as well.) What I want from you guys, are tips on how to make this a LAN to remember.
Now, it's true that these threads pop up every once in a while, but this one's a tad different. See, I'm not really asking about which games to play, since I've already got a pretty big list compiled, but am actually looking for general advice to make a LAN party more fun. Favorite party food and drinks, logistics and preparations advice, recommended software and hardware, etc'... If you've ever LAN'd, and have a tip to share, I'd like to hear it.
Oh, and if you really want to recommend a game that we probably haven't thought about, that's more than welcome.
Thanks in advance Gee'n'Tee.
Give me a kiss to build a dream on; And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss; Sweetheart, I ask no more than this; A kiss to build a dream on
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Backups are good. I had a 3 year old laptop with me that I was able to use - don't discount older hardware (like an old dell machine someone has sitting in their cupboard) because the right specs can still be worthwhile and on the day it's not a big deal to sub out the bitch-box and sub in the grandfather. My old hardware was still able to play C&C3, TF2, DoW:SS and CoD4 smoothly to still be relevant (and yet we still spent all our time playing Frozen Throne).
That brings me to my last point - don't forget older games. For all the planning I did on the last one nothing came close in fun to the long-ass games of Frozen Throne we did in a futile effort to stomp allied-insane-cpus.
Oh, and you can never have enough power cables, lan cables and pillows to sit on.
Also all drinks should be in can form.
PSN:Missing_a_legg
One of the best times was a big ass game of Age of Empires II.
We had people making trade agreements, treaties, cease-fire agreements, and stabbing people in the back all the time.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Also remember that if anyone gets tired of gaming, it's your responsibility to make sure they still have something to do. A TV and DVD player tends to do the trick.
How old are you? The tradition at LAN parties is shitty food and even worse drinks. However I'd recommend getting some smarter foods/snacks - maybe have a small deli do some catering/party sized meals?
I mean still have you energy drinks and stuff but the meat and potatoes of your party food should be more meat and potatoes and less skittles/pizza/twinkies/cheetos. After attending a few tournaments/lan parties recently not having decent food really takes the wind out of my sails after a few hours.
Plus good food is just another thing to look forward to.
PSN:Missing_a_legg
To answer some of the questions:
Depending on actual attendance, we'll be anywhere from eight to sixteen players.
The LAN will take place over about three quarters of a full day - starting Friday noon, ending Saturday morning.
We're all about twenty two, with the youngest player attending probably around nineteen years old.
Oh, and Mantiz, thanks a million for bringing up Suicide Survival. I've played it back in it's initial release, but have completely forgotten about it. I have no doubt it makes for a terrific LAN game.
1. If you plan on playing consoles, make sure you have enough T.V.'s. Preferrably HD sets. Most games nowdays don't allow split screen and if they do, only for offline 2-4 players. Plus any unlocks, special settings, pesonal names are all specific to your HD making it almost essential for everyone to be on their own console. I.E. Forza 3, Borderlands, and Call of Duty series are examples.
2. As mentioned above, most games are designed nowdays to be played online or LANed with one person on each console therefore you need multiple T.V.'s and copies of the game. This also means you need plenty of space, chairs/tables, power strips, cables etc.
3. Obviously make sure everybody brings a copy of the major games you want to play and try to keep everyone in sync meaning, keep them playing the same games if possible. Someone brought over DJ hero and everyone was so impressed with it, no one could get organized to play MW2. Therefore we ended up with 5 guys crowded around DJ hero and like 2 playing MW2.
4. Make sure you have a lot of people 8 or more who are serious about making this thing work. Nowdays witht the convinience of XB Live and PSNetwork LAN parties are a little more difficult to organize. What good is playing MW2 with 4 people when you can go online and play with 15 others.
5. I know most of these tips are obvious, but it just seems like before online gaming got really big, it was much easier to organize LAN parties for consoles. Now we can all just sit in the comfort of our own homes and do essentially the same thing without all the hassel.
"Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." -HST
Add some booze and Monkey Assist and your entire evening is set.
- All LAN connections should be wired, and at least gigabit. Especially if you're distributing files that way.
- Spares of everything should be dandy, but if people start relying on you to supply them with a monitor/computer, tell them to go fuck themselves.
- Either make sure everyone knows what games they need beforehand, or you're playing freeware, or everyone's gonna have to install pirated material, which inevitably leads to viruses (avoid)
More added later.
-Don't play CS. It's like the Bud Light of local multiplayer.
-Someone kind of mentioned it above, but there's games that are good for playing around other people and games that you might as well just be playing online. Know the difference. Age of Empires 2 is one of my favorite LAN games because diplomacy is intense when the guy you're backstabbing can just walk over and punch you. Ditto for any game like that. Dokipon Kingdom just sprang to mind for some reason, despite the fact that I've never played that game. Weird.
-Listen to the guy that says generally avoid sugar and soda. It just means a more abrupt end to the night when everyone crashes. Unless you want them the fuck out of your house.
-This thread has a brilliant premise, and plenty of stories to give you an idea of what to expect. Also stories to pray you do not have to expect.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
(A game of Two Flag CTF on Sidewinder all vehicles lasted four hours, tie game.)
ANY of the Battlefield Games (Bad Company 2 here we come!)
1942 was great fun and battles lasted very long
In my opinion RTS' shine when being played in a LAN, not so much solo or online.
That's just me though. Starcraft and Command and Conquer are good.
As far as nourishment goes, go ethnic!
Chinese take out, Mexican at 4am are awesome
EDIT: Also, fucking Jedi Knight Jedi Outcast/Academy MP shit lasted for DAYS
Lugubrious amounts of alcohol.
Make sure you get good air circulation because 10 computers running + bodies will get warm and then maybe smelly.
Have extra ethernet and power cables, people always forget those.
Definately a TV too. Some of the most fun I've had at a LAN party was watching Adult Swim with a bunch of friends(Brak Show is so great).
The phrases "Killed by Monkey" and "Monkey has bag" are exponentially funny when there is over four people in the room and alcohol is involved.
We played the crap out of timesplitters 2 when I was living in an awkward unconventional situation with like people i didn't really like in a seedy hotel. That game made life better.
These men speak truth. Every awesome LAN party I've been to had some pretty rigid structure. Some of your guests may whine about it. Ignore them. Structure is essential, and once you loose control of a certain percentage of your players, it's almost a lost cause.
Note that you'll typically only be able to remain in control for the first four hours or so; after that everyone will ignore the schedule and just do whatever. Imagine a an entire room of people, all playing GalCon. All evening.
Of course, this is all situational. If you're just playing with a small group of friends, not an issue. If you're hosting the school LAN party?... Start planning now.
Something that's probably less of an issue these days, what with cheap computers and all, is to have things for people to do. CS and other FPSs were fun back in the day, but not when you had 10 people watching 2 duke it ut 1 vs 1. That also gets boring pretty fast. This can happen with consoles, but it's not as big of a deal with 4 players around a single TV.
hookers
Yeah. As much as new games are fun, at some stage you are going to play Dibs2, Starcraft and possibly Half Life.
Fun times.
99% of the lan parties I've ever been like six or seven hours of arrival and setup and general goofing around, an hour of starcraft, and then four or five hours of finding a game that A. Everyone wants to, or at least is willing to play, and B. That will run on everyone's machine.
Figure out what your going to play ahead of time and make sure they work on everyone's machine.
Huh?
I can't vouch for the other two (and L4D needs an internet connection or a working offline steam, which has the potential to be problematic), but Rise of Nations is an absolutely amazing LAN party game. Games generally last almost exactly an hour. Everyone can be peaceful all the way to the end, and nuclear war will erupt anyway. There will always be that one guy who just plays SimCity on his own little island in the middle of nowhere and names his cities things like "DontKillMe", and "YourMommasSoFat".
The only downside is that it's so complicated that it'll generally take two or three games before everyone is fully caught up on the full strategic breadth of the game. But it's a blast in the meantime, anyway. And crowding around one guy's monitor to watching an instant replay of the game is actually an interesting activity.
Things you should have (you can make people contribute to these too, but make sure they will bring them):
Most of the following things have happened at each LAN party I've been to:
The biggest issues are usually time-related: People arrive late, don't have the games installed or have computer issues, and by the time things really get started, it's getting late and people start getting tired.
I finally have enough friends that I can ditch the ones that only play pirated games.
Working on the file server. Fuck people hog up ethernet sometimes. I get the feeling I need an army of discs.
This is always fun. You always need a metric shitload.
God, I'm sick of buying ethernet cables. I think next time I'm just gonna make people buy their own.
This too ventures into submissive bitch territory.
Finding creative new ways to fit a person and computer in is always fun.
Yeah... although sometimes I think I should just cut people off to stop some anti-social fuckers from just playing WoW or TF2.
Totally. The requisite pizza run is always going to happen, but some cereal and food of actual substance is important too.
NNNNaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
Ding! Ding! (Guilty) Well I do that before the LAN begins. I do after all want to show off Compiz [/linux wank] Ding! Ding! (or WoW/hangs out with online friends) Ding! Sick of providing for these people too. Especially with file sharing. Getting through the initial XP firewall crap is always annoying too.
In a nutshell. This one is smart.
Room with lots of expensive equipment and inebriating substances have led to some sad things happening in the past
barring the one dude who always thinks alcohol is an invitation to get completely smashed
Beer at a LAN party has a 50/50 chance of leading to either the best of times or the worst. :P
Being smashed and playing Rock Band is, I think, the only true way to play :P
Oh.
Get everyone playing Skulltag DooM for extra awesome points.