LAN gaming.

[sal_vager]

This post reminded me of the LAN parties I used to go to when both I and the internet were younger and dedicated gaming servers were not a thing.

At the time, gaming wasn't seen as a very social activity by non-gamers, but it was, and groups from a few friends to enough to fill a conference hall would gather with their hardware and play games, hang out, chip in for take-away food and beverages (!soda) and enjoy a unique gaming experience.

We'd play Starcraft, Total Annihilation and Warcraft III, we'd play Quake Arena, Unreal Tournament and Half-life.

It was a lot of fun.

These days, console companies push 'casual social gaming' where overly bright and shiny people wave strange looking controllers in front of giant screens in rooms too brightly lit to play games, or gamers play against strangers on the other side of the world via online servers, their only real contact being a text chat box (VOIP being hit and miss, if on Xbox live, miss).

Much of the social aspect which gamers used not to be known for but did occur has been lost, our actual real-life get togethers are replaced with a plastic and distant version, backed and controlled and monetized by the gaming industry.

LAN parties still happen though, if you've never been to one, I highly recommend you go

[Tex]

I've never had the chance for LAN parties or anything like that... The closest thing I've come to that would be using a "Local Game" to play L4D2 with some of my friends in town on Steam!

Other than that, I kinda wish I had more opportunities for split-screen, even.

[StrandedonEarth]

Occasionally I'll bring my laptop over to some friends' house and we'll fire up StarCraft, 3 against the world

[rtxoff]

Same with me, my LAN parties consisted of me and my buddy networking our PCs and playing together or against Q3A, at that time it was popular. I actually never went to some big LAN parties because i never had that much time. LAN parties lasted sometimes for days and i wouldn't go there with all my equip only for a few hours.

[hugix]

I do remember the golden days of LAN parties. Sometimes in a big hall with a lot of nerds with their own gaming systems and game controllers. Some vey beautiful case-mods (some less so). I used to own each and everyone in Unreal. Good old times.

I am currently working in a music venue. I am looking into the possibility of hosting a LAN party there. Maybe get a local ISP to sponsor a good connection and some servers to host games on. Maybe host some tournaments of new and older games.

[Cydonian Monk]

Ah, LAN Parties. We had a group of XBox 360 gamers at work and had a LAN Party probably once every other month. It was a pretty good deal, a dozen or so folks and all-day (sometimes 2-days), we even had a dedicated cook. Then everybody [else] had children, some of the core folks moved on to other firms, and "Always Online" games like GTA Online happened. Ever have ten+ people try to play high-bandwidth online-only multiplayer games over the same residential internet pipe? Sucks.

We might have one of them a year now. Just not the same.

It's been (nearly) two decades since I was into the PC LAN-Party scene. (Mainly because it's been two decades since I've owned a Windows PC that wasn't a glorified netbook.) We did have some epic LAN Parties back in college though. C&C Red Alert, US Navy Fighters (97), Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, and of course Quake. Good times.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Thomas988]

My school has a Minecraft Club, and despite being quite bored of that game I do attend every Thursday session and play with my best friend. We sometimes even play together as an entire group (a dozen or so of us), and it gets pretty wild.

[The Destroyer]

My library hosts a small gaming event, kinda a LAN party, usually around 4-6 people, we play Planetary annihilation, Quake 4, sniper elite, KSP (I introduced them to it), MC, and Portal 2!