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LAN party activities?
Chalkbot
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Aside from the obvious I mean...
Every year I host an event for my friends and I. I round up 8-10 people (all friends or friends of friends) and we rent a vacation house for about 4 days, far enough away from home that there won't be any gameus interrruptus. Then we fill the house with computers and food and proceed to game pretty much the whole time.
This has been a winning formula so far, everyone loves the event. I was just hoping to find some things I could do (as the organizer) to make it a little more unique for everyone. Some of these guys go to LAN parties on a somewhat regular basis and I want those people to feel like this is the one they can't miss. At the same time I've got friends who attend this event as the only LAN experience that they have all year, so I don't want to alienate them by making it too competitive or anything like that.
About us:
Our ages range from 24 to 30. All of us enjoy an alchoholic beverage or two during our gaming sessions. Most of us also fit into at least one other category of board gamer, poker or Magic player, or console gamer. All of us are pretty good friends (some 15+ years).
tl;dr
Suggest some activities to make a LAN party with friends more unique/fun. Activities don't necessarily need to be LAN related.
Every year I host an event for my friends and I. I round up 8-10 people (all friends or friends of friends) and we rent a vacation house for about 4 days, far enough away from home that there won't be any gameus interrruptus. Then we fill the house with computers and food and proceed to game pretty much the whole time.
This has been a winning formula so far, everyone loves the event. I was just hoping to find some things I could do (as the organizer) to make it a little more unique for everyone. Some of these guys go to LAN parties on a somewhat regular basis and I want those people to feel like this is the one they can't miss. At the same time I've got friends who attend this event as the only LAN experience that they have all year, so I don't want to alienate them by making it too competitive or anything like that.
About us:
Our ages range from 24 to 30. All of us enjoy an alchoholic beverage or two during our gaming sessions. Most of us also fit into at least one other category of board gamer, poker or Magic player, or console gamer. All of us are pretty good friends (some 15+ years).
tl;dr
Suggest some activities to make a LAN party with friends more unique/fun. Activities don't necessarily need to be LAN related.
Chalkbot on
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Also, Starcraft. Holy crap I would love to play Starcraft in a room with 7 other people. Even the mention of Starcraft makes me want to want to play it.
As MagicToaster said - special rules for certain games. "Civil War" in TF2, for example -- only Melee allowed. Makes it challenging and interesting.
Also, make sure everyone has somewhere comfy/quiet to sleep. If you're renting a house, I don't see that being much of a problem - the last LAN I went to, I ended up sleeping in front of my computer, curled up on the wires. It hurt. Haha.
And don't forget that people will like gaming more if they have slight breaks from it - a quick scavenger hunt outside, if the area is nice? Just something to get them out stretching their legs that is still a game and fun and slightly competitive.
If you've got 8-ish people, you could team up and cook dinner for each other on a couple of evenings, unless it's an all pizza, all the time kind of deal.
Watch a funny/stupid movie.
The funniest thing* I ever saw at a lan party was a game of hard disk soccer. It ended with a really hard kick that sent the metallic corner of the disk, at high speed, into the shin of another player.
*Tied with:
Excessive vomiting after a speed drinking contest involving 2 liter colas - you should do this, only perhaps with a smaller quantity.
The guy who, during the raid mentioned above, yanked the hard disk out of his computer and made a mad dash outside where he chugged it at the nearest bush. They weren't there for him.
Pizza delivery guy from place A trying to start a fist fight with the guy from place B for invading 'his turf'.
Waking up in the morning at a large lan (300+ people), on the concrete in one of the designated sleeping areas, and realizing that a local homeless guy and his freaky dog had figured out that there'd be an open room available. When he was confronted and asked to leave, he bolted and left the dog.
And so much other silliness. Man, I should go to another lan event one of these days.
Prizes is something I hadn't put much thought into. Maybe because we're never really sure what games we're going to play. I like that idea, but it will have to be a pretty flexible format. I thought scratch lottery tickets would be a fun "loser" prize.
Last year we did a trip to the beach (with no particular activity planned) which worked well to break up the gaming a little, so those types of ideas are certainly valuable. Oh, also we watched Ice Pirates... or more accurately, had it playing on loop in the background. I have no idea what was going on in that movie, it was just funny to look over at it between rounds. Ambient cheesiness... That's good.
I think console party games is also a winner. I know we tried that last year but it didn't really work. Maybe organize an event around it instead of just loosely suggesting that we play? I like Smash Brothers okay, but I also happen to know that certain people in our group are ridiculous at that game...
An idea I came up with myself (please tell me if this is stupid) was making a bunch of T-shirts beforehand with stereotypical gamertags printed on them. Then requiring everyone to use the name on their shirt (which they recieve at the door) in every game we play. I think this idea was a product of nobody changing the default names last year in most of the games, which was pretty confusing.
Edit:
Wow, I never would of thought of a timed race through single player games. I'm going to have to think about that one.
As for the bartending babe - you might be surprised about bartending rates. It doesnt have to be for the whole time. Just a brief interlude after a hard day gaming. At least LOOK before discounting it is all I'm saying.
And darts. Lots of darts.
<@zerzhul> you win at twdt
YES!
someone beats you at CS?
Ambush them when they leave the bathroom.
About 15-20 of us would huddle in someones basment and play games for a weekend.
Best thing ever was when everyone went up for the BBQ you change the function of Mouse 1 to throw the weapon instead of shoot...ahhh good times.
Don't overlook Server options.
I switched a game of COD4 to low-gravity mid-match and it was fucking awesome.
Also, hire a stripper!
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Our 5am games of risk on the 360 are a tradition now too.
Don't forget UT2K4.
that's pretty cool
Hmmm, one night of bartender seems more realistic. Do they come with their own selection of drinks, or do you need to provide them with stuff to work with?
This will make for rapid successive deaths I would think! I'll be passed out after 20 minutes.
Haha... Maybe.
I like this idea! I think Counterstrike would be a good game to try this on, as we are really familiar with the maps AND it gives me the opportunity to make the obligatory "Buy some flashbangs" joke.