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Quake First Person Shooters (Games)

Fragfest 170

Posted by michael from the bang-bang-you're-dead dept.
CaptTrips writes "C|Net has an interesting article on the growing wave of LAN parties. Michael Duarte best puts it when he says "being able to play as a team, talk with the people next to you -- it's just a whole different aspect than playing online. For me, it's just more fun to put a face with the name of the person you're playing with." I agree!" This is a good excuse for us to link to QuakeCon. GameSpy has extensive coverage of the con - they've got some interesting screenshots and previews up.
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  • So this is news? I thought this had been going on for quite some time now...
    • After we met through the slashdot.meetup.com thing last month a bunch of the Nashville /.'ers got together last week for a lan party ;) pretty cool! :)
  • LAN parties are fantastic. With a good group of LAN gamers I can share the price of the beer and strippers and not have to spend as much money as I would if I were alone playing online. Not to mention it's more fun howling at the strippers in between games when there are other people around.

  • and I thought I was bored on Friday night.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by firippu ( 593681 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @09:57PM (#4087455)
    LAN parties!? What's next?? Kegger next weekend at the local NIC... yeehaw!
    • I wasn't bored. INstead I got completely fucking drunk and came home at 3:17am EST and saw shit about people saying, "yay, it's a Friday night and I am READING about LAN parties".

      Umm, you are MAKING FUN of people who are posting about LAN parties on a Friday night while you are SITTING AT HOME reading about them.

      At least I am wasted and laughing!

  • Doom (Score:1, Funny)

    by DrugCheese ( 266151 )
    We've been hauling our heavy ass computers around since Doom hookin up the ipx network to play.

    Laptops are lovely draggin for Lan Fraggin

    *DrugCheese rants*

  • LAN parties rock (Score:2, Interesting)

    by alptraum ( 239135 )
    LAN parties are definately a lot more fun than playing over the internet IMHO, my friends and I would get a bunch of people together and play CS or other FPS and not have to worry about all the cheaters. Plus we could coordinate team assaults a lot more effectively since we could grab a piece of paper and scribble some plans on it and show it to the team mates.
    • Indeed. And if you're in Melbourne, Australia checkout www.shafted.com.au. Double and if you want to be at Australia's upcoming bigest ever LAN read www.bigdayin.com.
    • Actually the growing popularity of net-cafe's is getting the best of both worlds. A place in my neightborhood has P4 1.4's with UT, AvsP 2, StarCraft, WC3, all the HL games, and Q3 on the machines. The place is always well filled, but there's usually 3 or 4 seats for me and my friends - the owner even lets me dl mods for the games too.

      Still, for trying out hardcore wierd shit games with your friends you can't beat a lan party. I remember playing Descent II CTF, Rocket Jockey, Abuse, Hexen, Battlezone (tons and tons of that)and a host of other oddball games at old LAN parties.
    • This is true. I've only been to 1 really good lan party, and it was one that I hosted at my place right after final exams one year.

      I think it's fun to choose a variety of games so that in any given game, there are some experts and some non-experts. This changes from game to game to everyone has a chance to dominate or come in last place.

      Back when I had time to play games (damn, has it been that long?) I always won a Jedi Knight and lost badly at Freespace. It kind of makes me sad I never went into university residence and instead lived at home (which happened to be very close to the university) because my buddies there played counterstrike or AvP all day with max 50 ping against the whole resnet, while I am still stuck on lame dialup because there's nothing else better when I am.

    • I think the best moment I remember was my mate sat next to me killed this guy 5 times in a row (Unreal Tourney), the guy was so annoyed he got up and to walk round and look at the back of everyones computer (which had our player names stuck on) to find him! Mind, it was only a LAN with 15 people - in a condemned community centre!! at least the roof didn't cave in...

      ...it's moments likes these you can't get on the net, at least not yet.

  • (i)max games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by macsox ( 236590 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @09:59PM (#4087465) Journal
    i hope no one in the south bay area forgot about the max games [thetech.org] yesterday at the tech museum [thetech.org] in san jose.

    nothing like halo on the imax dome. except, maybe, grand theft auto, which some reason was verboten.

    come to think of it, i'm glad some people from the south bay did forget to go -- it would have been awfully crowded.
    • Here's an email I sent to the author regarding the use of poor grammar in his article:

      Hi David,

      I noticed many instances of the use of "revolve around" in your story "Gamers fight for right to LAN
      party" at http://news.com.com/2100-1040-950054.html. This is a redundant grammar error (along the lines of "Easter Sunday") and should be corrected to "revolve on." Thank you.
  • I refuse to go to another LAN party 'til Duke Forever comes out, or as some might say, 'til Hell freezes over.
  • me and my friends are all to impoverished to have laptops, so for UT lan parties they just bring their PCs over:D so many tripped breakers...
  • It provides for easy slappage when someone TKs you!

  • I would LAN more... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Howzer ( 580315 ) <<moc.liamtoh> <ta> <tohsbarg>> on Friday August 16, 2002 @10:01PM (#4087479) Homepage Journal
    If it was easier to move my computer. I mean it's not that hard, just a pain. And moving any screen bigger than a 19 inch monitor just plain bites.

    I've often thought a cool business plan would be to set up a "LAN Party" hall, with monitors and speakers, all the kiddies have to bring are their CPUs, keyboards and meece. $3 per person per hour, if you kept the room booked you could do pretty well.

    Anyone know if this has been done, anywhere? Or does the whole idea suck for reasons not yet known to me?

    • Check out the Gear Grip [caseace.com]. Maker of fine Case and Monitor toting equipment.
    • I think it would be much cooler to have this "LAN Hall" filled with out-dated, thrown out, tired, PC's.

      Quake (I) is still the best multi-FPS, and the source code is out there to improve on it... heck, mods would be okay.

      A Pentium I with a 3DFX Voodoo is really all you need.

      Maybe a big screen for the leaders... hidden from the players of course.

      I still love playing CTF, and Team Fortress.

      • Quake I is the best multiplayer FPS of all time? Wow, that crack you smoked before posting that must have been mighty strong indeed. I really don't understand why people like to push old school FPS games, when in fact, of all the genres, that one gets stale the quickest.
        • Stale? I know 10 years from now I could pick it up and 0wn!

          It really can't get old if there are new maps and players... no campers... etc... just like every other game.

          • Yes, but unlike other genres, FPS games are *all* the same, more or less. The object is always the same - collect weapons, kill the opponent. The only exception that comes to mind are capture-the-flag variants (tribes et al), which IMHO, tend to have greater replay value. Anyway, to get back to the point, the biggest difference between one and the next is the graphics engine. And when you consider that, then I don't understand how anybody could push older ones. What can you get in original quake that you can't get in UT? (with or without Tac Ops, depending on your preference)
            • Being that they are all the same (besides gfx) why should we argue?

              What makes me not play any FPS games later than UT is that they are simply too complicated and the gameplay is still yet the same.

              When I say complicated I mean the number of keys bound to items, movements, actions and weapons.

              Simply, I would vote "Doom" but there was no jump. Once that was added to Quake along with GL support and TCP/IP play there isn't much to add except more buttons to mash and even more gfx 'coolness'.

              Now, I'm not saying the rest suck. I'm just saying they are all basically Quake. Better gfx doesn't make a game "better" (unless you are stuck in that console world of "mine looks better than yours")

              I really hope that Doom III will add something really new. A lot of games have added a few things, sword fighting in Jedi Outcast and etc, but nothing radically different.
    • When me and my friends throw a LAN Party we just put it off at our university. We disconnect all the machines in a lab and then plug our own in. DHCP, Fast Connection, 19" monitors and everythign else already configured.

      It's the best way to network but you got to know/be an admin to tear apart a network like that :)

      • Re:I would LAN more... (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Where i live, in Sydney Australia, there are hundreds of gaming rooms around .. especially in the city. Machines there are typically at least 1 ghz, plenty of ram, with comfortable seats and snack facilities available (bottled water/cookies nothing messy).
        The most expensive of these rooms are $6 AU per hour, my friends and i regularily visit korean gaming rooms which are much cheaper about $1.50 an hour. Most popular games are definately starcraft and counterstrike but rainbow 6 series and age of empires 2 are also almost universal

        Sadly most of the starcraft games ive participated in focus more on money maps and less on actual strategy

        Cant see why these wouldnt be available in almost any city around the globe, your local chinatown would definately be a good place to check

    • I've often thought a cool business plan would be to set up a "LAN Party" hall, with monitors and speakers, all the kiddies have to bring are their CPUs, keyboards and meece.

      Dude, there are *plenty* of cyber-cafe-style places that cater more to the gaming crowd then the email/web crowd, and they don't require the players to drag CPUs/keyboards/mice, or even software licenses.
      • Yeah, but generally their machines are sub-standard, it takes you half an hour to set up Half-Life (or whatever) how YOU like it (keyboard, mouse, etc), and their screens are filthy and the lowest quality.
    • heh - that's what putting comp's in plastic boxes is for ;p : http://192.168.1.102/cam/Cards.jpg

    • Anyone know if this has been done, anywhere? Or does the whole idea suck for reasons not yet known to me?

      There is a place in New Zealand, lanplace [lanplace.co.nz], that does this. Sort of. It's extra for a monitor - they offer from 17" ViewSonics up to 21" Sony ones.

      Oh, and no speakers, not that I think providing speakers is such a great idea when you have a whole lot of people with speakers in the same room...

      On closer inspection it appears they charge a flat fee for most events (either weeknight or weekend ones over 24 hours) and on weeknights monitor rental is thrown in with seat rental seeing as apparently they believe most people wouldn't want to lug a monitor along to such a short (~8 hour) event.

  • yes!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by skydude_20 ( 307538 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @10:01PM (#4087481) Journal
    exciting! its friday night and I'm reading about LAN parties on Slashdot... it couldn't get any better
  • For those of you in Texas: (I know it is a big state) There are a few places to check out LAN Parties.
    Check TexasLAN [texaslan.com] is a group dedicated to bringing LAN Parties to cities across Texas.
    For those up in the Panhandle, check out SystemAddicts LAN [systemaddicts.net] A member of the TexasLAN Family.
    LAN parties aren't exactly new but are definitly becoming more "main stream" than they have been in previous years.

    Posted from QuakeCon [quakecon.org], the Ultimate Texas LAN Party.

  • Lan Party Fun (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dragon218 ( 139996 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @10:03PM (#4087486) Homepage
    The real fun in LAN parties is not the games, the food, or the ability to tell that guy next to you, "HEY! Suck my plasma orb."

    No....

    It's trying your damndest to get that Windows 98 computer to see your frined's 2000 computer and finding that network cable that you thought you left under your bed for emergencies when the guy with XP is complaining that he needs your DSL connection to get drivers for his new video card that is sitting on your drying X-Wing Model while spilling the bean dip in your shag carpet from the 70s. Suddeny, skippy (your dog) pukes up what was the burgers you got 15 minutes earlier for dinner, on your new dual athalon server.

    AAAAGGHHH!

    Lan parties are fun...

    • The real fun in LAN parties is not the games, the food, or the ability to tell that guy next to you, "HEY! Suck my plasma orb.

      Or if you suck: "You frikken Ass-Munch!"

      I can relate to the probs you had. My old laptop used to drop from games during play and thus freeze my player or caused it to self-frag...
      Very interesting fun.

      I am actually heading out to one tonight...hopefully all the games are compatible with everyone's favourite OS, Windows XP...*snicker*
    • It's trying your damndest to get that Windows 98 computer to see your frined's 2000 computer and finding that network cable that you thought you left under your bed for emergencies when the guy with XP is complaining that he needs your DSL connection to get drivers for his new video

      Yes, this aspect of LAN parties sucks. But of course any discussion about LAN parties on machines running Linux would be pretty boring, given as there are precious few games running on Linux and those that do are outdated for the most part.
      • Not quite correct... I run SOFII (using Winex), Quake III (native binaries courtesy of Loki, I think), Unreal Tournament(same), and several others... Go to transgaming.com [transgaming.com] for a complete list -- it's already quite long and growing all the time.

        Winex is a GREAT project -- it's not perfect yet, but they've really done a good job. And you just can't beat 15 bucks to go windows free!

        I haven't booted into windows in so long I'm probably going to delete my windows partition -- I've just got to make sure UT 2003 is supported under Winex... :)

      • The only two (nonconsole) games I play anymore (StarCraft and Unreal Tournament) run fine in linux. The latest games don't work, I'll grant you that, but most of them aren't fun for very long, and you just end up going back to the tried and true fun games.

    • Re:Lan Party Fun (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Freedom Bug ( 86180 )
      Back in the day, we had to deal with DOS network stacks and 10Base-2. I think I'd take DOS over Windows: I kept a stack of boot disks with appropriate drivers, and that would get most people going. Anything with something wierd either had the drivers along or didn't play. The biggest issue was updating everybody to the same version of Doom.

      But somebody who has never dealt with 10Base-2 (ethernet over coax) is allowed to complain about setting up LAN parties.

      I've still got a stack of about 6 ISA NE2000's along with the cable, T's and terminators. You can borrow it just to experience the pleasure.

      Bryan

      • Re:Lan Party Fun (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I finally retired my last dos-based 10base2 network no more than a couple months ago... God, those were fun. 'What the hell? You moved the box of paper that was holding the cable in place? Now you've gone and done it, knocking out your entire network of twelve computers because the terminater on that computer is so loose that gravity becomes an issue.'
    • Yep, I *literally* feel your pain. This is my 4th year here, and every year it smells more and more like a dirty gym in here! This year, they decided to scrunch the tables even CLOSER together. So, it's not enough that the line of 10 people going to eat all bump your case and monitor (along with everyone else's) on their way out, but the other 20 people all leaving on YOUR row, all rub their nastiness all over the back of your head as they scoot by you.

      Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this con. Though most of the time is spent playing games, it's my "cave" time of the year, and I get LOTS and LOTS of me time. A *VERY* good portion of it is, as you mentioned, spent getting file sharing to work. Windows 98 has always sucked at networking, everyone knows that. Some people can't afford XP, and wine doesn't do proper justice in some cases. XP looses compatibility with some games (though not new ones) that we play, so some of us simply have to run 98. It seems to me that MS$ has somehow coded XP to *NOT* play nicely with 98. Is this another "forced upgrade"-ism?

      Most of the time, we boot into Linux to run samba to share. Seems that as long as samba is the file server, it doesn't care what the client is, the share is blazing fast.

      Anyway, my lansearch results are just about done, hrm "*.mp*g;*.avi" returned 60000 results, should have bought that other 100GB drive!!

      Ogre
    • Oh, and, hey - Notice to all of you who just discovered lan parties: BRING HEADPHONES.
    • Yeah, I remember a few years back playing Duke Nukem at the University labs my friend administered. After gathering a bunhc of weapons, I ran out and recieved a rocket up the butt. With out thinking I proclaimed "That's a SPICY meatball" (The Mask was arecently playing film). Everyone just started laughing too hard to play.

      Good times.
  • we didn't have no fancy LANs or PCs. If we wanted simlated blood-letting, we had to play D&D.
  • You know, this reminds me of why I'm such a Nintendo fanboy...by sticking 4 ports on the brilliant N64 (not to mention staging the comeback of the non-flightstick analog control stick) they really reinvigorated multiplayer gaming.

    I admit first person shooters aren't quite as good as on a LAN party, with a single processor struggling to make 4 viewpoints, and you able to sneak glances at what you're opponents are up to. And people use to mouse+keyboard balk a bit (having never played a PC FPS since my DOOM days but a bit of quake, I'm still an all-keyboard wuss)

    Still, the convenience factor is important, and the social aspect is great.
  • ...trusting that you can kill the cheaters physically if not in the game.
  • Does anyone know of any lan parties in Rochester NY? 3dLan used to be awesome until they stopped doing it.
    • Well, My freinds and I host sporadically and poorly planned LAN parties here in Buffalo. However, I have a birthday coming up soon, and If I can garner enough interest, I'm considering holding a party on friday the thirteenth of september (superstitions aside). Drop me an email if you're interested.
  • There's a lan in my friend's basement tomorrow (Saturday) through the night into Sunday. Fire an email to me and I'll forward you on to him. Woo!
  • http://www.monitor.ca/monitor/issues/vol6iss5/feat ure5.html

    Anybody know a spot where I can post a mpeg of the newscast coverage of the party? Kind of cool... but its 2.63 meg...

  • Iffy title (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Swaffs ( 470184 )
    You gotta be careful not to miss the R when reading that title...
  • If you're anywhere near the Vancouver, B.C. area, make sure to check out the Necrowombicon [pacult.com], as mentioned on Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com].

    I won't be, because it's 3000 freaking miles away, but it looks like it could contain fun (in liberal dosages).
  • This would be something easy to pack around and capable of some power gaming. I am just waiting for the amd version with the agp slot before I buy it. The only thing that could make the experience even better for me would be to get a projector hooked up to it and play emulated street fighter alpha 3 on the side of a large building at midnight. I only saw this once but I was as happy as a troll posting goatse links when I saw it.
    • my friend has one of them. he just laughs at me when I bring my full size case..etc. to LAN parties. They realy are awsome.

      Just be carefull if you try to mod out the power supply by dropping the fan speed to make it run silent. He had to get a new Power Supply last week cus he screwed it up. Of course he has the Intel / PCI one, and put a GeForce2 64 MB in there with a Tualton Pentium III @ 1200 mhz ... (he can overclock to 1400Mhz no problem too)plently fast for every game out there :-)
  • So you wouldn't have to drag your monitor up to your buddy's 3rd floor apartment and hoping you don't drop it and watch it roll down the flight of stairs? But of course I may be bitter so don't mind me.
  • It's been a while since I've been to a lan party. Anyone in the Tyler, Tx. area want to get one together?

  • Sports (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @10:59PM (#4087683) Homepage Journal

    > being able to play as a team, talk with the people next to you -- it's just a whole
    > different aspect than playing online. For me, it's just more fun to put a face with the
    > name of the person you're playing with.

    And before the advent of the internet, we had sports.

  • Wait, I didn't get to go to QuakeCon..

    Con...CON...COOOOOON!!!!

  • CNet... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Zazi ( 601795 )
    Leave it to CNet to give you the latest in breaking outdated news. "There is a network of computers called 'the internet' that is now hot among people." Way to go CNet. Way to go. =D

  • Not always that great in person (Score:5, Interesting)

    by yeoua ( 86835 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @11:25PM (#4087746)
    Remember... that your actually sitting next to the person you just destroyed 20 to 1...

    Just make sure they are smaller than you.
  • Why doesn't anyone start computer baangs like the have in seoul same concept.
  • "...talk with the people next to you..."

    Geeks don't socialize face to face!!!
  • there is nothing more satisfying than sneaking up behind someone in a fps game, taking them out then hearing them scream obscenities from 2 rooms down.

    -bless-

  • I consider myself very lucky: my CS teacher in high school has lan parties, where we use the school's machines and network. Sure, the machines may be outdated, but they can run Tribes 1 very well.

    The administration has been slightly annoyed at us, but didn't ban it, instead made it so that if a student wanted to play, they had to get a sheet signed by teachers each week that says we were getting good grades. This was the same thing that sports had to do. In effect, playing Tribes in the school CS lab after school/during lunch was officially considered a sport.

    I can imagine an interview at college:
    Have you any sports experience?
    1 c4n n41l j00 fr0m a h100dred y4rD5 w1th m4 sn1p3r r1f73!!!

  • New? (Score:1)

    by awyeah ( 70462 )
    My friends and I have been having LAN parties since Quake II (LM CTF baby!). I'm glad more people are catching on... the bigger, the better!
  • I came two years ago, and this is my second time. I'm more impressed than I was the last time about this whole entire shin-dig. Its huge. This is the first year they had to turn people away from the 1300 person Bring Your Own Computer. With play by play commentary and recordings to watch of the tournaments, sponsor booths (with booth amenities), more people than I can count, and none other than Carmack himself (who posts on these pages) giving a stunning 2 hour speech, its the best one ever.

    For those of you unimpressed, they set this whole LAN up in... oh... day and a half I think of actual set up. Preparation is alot longer. They use several miles of Cat5, and ALL the quake games (and the licensed ones like Jedi Knight, Half Life, etc) are hosted on servers, as well as a few file servers for patches, updates, IRC, misc files, and such. Plus there's internet acess for everyone, and everyone's comp sees the other ones.

    Theres so much on sale, to do for free, and then just look at I'm going to have to budget sleep so I don't miss the developer round tables, technology workshops, blow out party on Sat, and the 100 other things I got to do.

    Plus, the Convention itself is ABSOLUTELY FREE!

  • On a Continuing Note.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Befreiung ( 597575 ) on Saturday August 17, 2002 @12:01AM (#4087842)
    Hello I'm Michael Duarte, the host of Silicon Valley Frag Fest, in case any one was wondering the URL is www.svfrag.com Thanks! Mike
  • I have been playing games like Quake and Age of Empires during LAN parties since 1996 in the computer labs at the University I attended. Now, I run my own Internet company, but one of the main reasons that I (along with my 4 partners) started this business was so that we could have our own LAN party center, so we could play games with each other ... face-to-face ... whenever we wanted without having to drag our equipment around. Lets face it, carrying a 21" monitor, Klipsh 5.1 surround sound speakers, a leather chair, and my PC would REALLY suck (as mentioned in previous posts). I suppose that you have to have the chance to regularly play on a LAN to really appreciate how nice it is (and what kind of advantage you get when playing against other people online), but we decided that this was DEFINATELY worth it.

    Now comes my question.... what would all of you think about opening a LAN party center for the public to use? I'm talking about providing VERY comfortable chairs, good gaming PCs, concessions, and a place where people could come together (at all hours of the day or night) to play PC games together ... either against each other or over the Internet. Of course, the place would have a T-1 or something close for bandwidth for about 20 to 30 stations (some would have complete PC's with only our game titles installed, some stations would only have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, others would only have a network cable ... of course, we would offer wireless as well) How much would you pay to do this with your buddies (or just to meet and play games with other people)? $3/hr, $4/hr, $5/hr???? Would membership or group rates help this? Is this a good idea??? A buddy and I have been pondering this for about a year now ... and we've got a business plan in place.

    The problem is that it will take about $60,000 to start this up, so there is a risk involved. We're both Unix systems administrators for major universities as well as full partners in an Internet company that has been around for 3 years now, so we have the technical know how and business background, but we're lacking in the funding. If anyone knows of an investor that would like to fund this opportunity (in Ohio), please email me at adavis@colfirestudios.com. We have a couple ideal locations for such a facility, and I'm sure if we do this "right", we can make this fly. I think that this would really be a great thing for the world of Internet gaming. Best of all, I would love to share some of the fantastic experiences that I have had while playing PC games with my friends ... IN THE SAME ROOM! It makes games SOOOO much better! In fact, I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't already done something like this to try to drive up PC game sales. Sorry for the advertisement here, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I have MANY more details for those that may be seriously interested in funding this idea. Also, any comments on this idea would be GREATLY appreciated. This is something that I have been dreaming about doing for MANY years now ... nice to see that others may be thinking like me ...
  • That's right Mr. Jones, the house you so recently purchased, with the lovely empty basement, will be ours! The carnage that basement will see will exceed even the real WW2. Bwaaaahahaha..ha... ha.. ahem.

    Defuse ze dynamite!

  • LAN parties rock! You know what else rocks? When your own school is willing to host them! That's right, my high school hosts my lan parties. Infact, we are having one on Sunday as a "before school blowout". Can't shake a stick at "real" computer tables and a 1.5mbit connection to the internet for free can ya? God I am lucky! :)

  • For me, it's just more fun to put a face with the name of the person you're playing with.quote>

    Are you sure you want to do that? That face is probably the reason they're playing six hours of Quake on a Saturday night. =)

  • You want pictures from QuakeCon? I'm there right now and updating my site as it goes on... http://www.shrocks.com/qc2k2 [shrocks.com]

  • Fragfest (Score:3, Flamebait)

    by Mulletproof ( 513805 ) on Saturday August 17, 2002 @02:29AM (#4088126) Homepage Journal
    Did somebody have an overnight lobotomy? Does it take a freakin cover from Time magazine for this crap to all of a sudden become "news worthy"!? The topic has been around for years! People haven't "all of a sudden" just started to enjoy LAN parties! It appeared on CNet-- Hey, now there's a good reason to jump all over it... Big f!$#%$ deal! Micheal, you're a chump. A hack. THIS. ISN'T. NEWS. No! It's not a good excuse for you to link to QuakeCon! A story on QuakeCon would have been a good excuse. But what do you post? "being able to play as a team, talk with the people next to you -- it's just a whole different aspect than playing online. For me, it's just more fun to put a face with the name of the person you're playing with." I agree!" Tee-Hee! Did you have to post a person who has only within the last few days discovered what a LAN party is and how to play games online?!

    Not that any of these were worthy, right?

    2002-04-01 18:18:13 Gaming vs. Cinema Double Standards (articles,games) (rejected)
    2002-04-18 15:31:27 Planetary alignment; The End must be near. (articles,science) (rejected)
    2002-04-24 13:18:20 Second Front (articles,internet) (rejected)
    2002-04-28 02:28:59 Subscription alternatives (articles,news) (rejected)
    2002-05-02 18:37:13 Gaming vs. Music (articles,games) (rejected)
    2002-05-15 05:36:39 Napster Approaches Bankruptcy (articles,music) (rejected)
    2002-05-19 16:06:51 Florida Face Recognition Fails (articles,privacy) (rejected)
    2002-05-21 15:46:01 A Tastier Chicken Through Genetic Manipulation (science,humor) (rejected)
    2002-06-03 19:25:40 Bush Administration Global Warming Turnabout (articles,news) (rejected)
    2002-07-11 05:31:21 Mining the Moon for Helium-3 (articles,news) (rejected)
    2002-07-30 20:40:46 Jon, the Al-Qaida and the FBI (articles,internet) (rejected)

    Really, I have a life beyond Slashdot, but this crap SO pushes my buttons. I know I'm not the only one out there with a worthy story, but what gets posted? "Wonderboy discovers LAN parties". Right.
    • I recall going to GenCon back in the mid- to late-80's and playing a great game called MidiMaze on a daisy chain of Atari computers. Each player was a happy face that rolled around through a maze and it was your basic fragfest, with up to 20 people at a time gathered around the ring.


      The only difference now is the splatter factor!

  • Everyone! Everyone that goes to a lan party is a winner, because in the end everyone has fun. If you suck at the games and die repeatedly, at least you can talk to people that are just like you. Lan parties are about the only thing that keeps me sane, the only thing that lets me know that other people are actually into this kind of shit. If i had to give a piece of advice to any budding geek, it would be to find a lan party (the less "trendy" the games played/the smaller frequency of them being repeats, the better) and just go and have fun. I bet you $40 that if you and your friends start going, teenage girls will start showing up too. Just make sure and invite them. This applies of course to teenagers in school.

    Mandatory plugs:
    http://www.slagg.org/ - LAN Party in Sarasota, Florida. People from all over the area, from north tampa to south of sarasota somewhere, come to play at this great 60+ LAN. The atmosphere is awesome, the people are great, the games are plentiful, and the administrator is a cool old-school geek with a long ass beard!
    http://www.flux.org/ - Florida Linux Users Xchange. Having a lan party on September 21st in south florida. If they get enough people, we could organize really big ones! Oh, and here's the catch: LINUX IS ACTUALLY RECCOMENDED!
    http://fl2600.cjb.net/ - Doing a sort of joint lan party with FLUX, this 2600 meeting at the Broward Mall in Broward County, Florida supports gaming as a very productive means of hacking. Imean, having fun. But what's the difference, really? :D btw, they also recognize that 2600 magazine's recent issues blow chunks.
  • I will probably leave my current job at the end of the year and join this outfit: www.xgamerz.net It's a gamer pro-league/gaming computer builder. First event is in Houston in November.
  • Sorry to sound like a total lamer, but none of my friends are interested in stuff like LAN parties. So how do you find LAN parties? Is there a site that lists parties by location?

    I'm in the UK, by the way.
  • I loved this demo of the Q3 engine called "Quake 3 Arena" for about five minutes, but when are those people going to release a real game with that engine? Oh wait, that WAS a real game?

    RTCW anyone?
  • While the big emphasis is on first-person shooters now, I wonder what will LAN parties be like in the future with the rapid growth in the popularity of the game Neverwinter Nights, which in many ways is essentially an online Dungeons & Dragons game that handles one Dungeon Master and 60+ player characters. I believe that NWN is easily configured to play over a LAN, with one machine designated for DM use.

    I personally think a NWN gaming session will probably take longer than FPS game sessions, mostly because you have to do a lot more than just attack another character.
  • We are all of us pack animals really, and will use all channels we can to communicate with our fellows.

    What these people are doing is using voice and vision to interact with each other while playing over a healthy amount of ethernet bandwidth. The real world chat plus the data chat makes for a really fat communication pipe and most people love it.

    But you get the same effect even without being on the same LAN.

    You can see this on the Internet games people play. On Everquest a couple of years ago, for big raids the group leaders would all be talking on the phone and on ICQ as well as playing in teams online.

    You can also run a realtime voice server with Battlecom see (http://www.battlecom.org/ ) from Shadowfactor and this adds a whole new dimension to online play:

    "Incoming over the hill on the right! Heal me, Heal me. Evac NOW! Damn I'm dead. Why are all our clerics ****ing retards?"

    Try typing that with a pack on gnolls on your tail.

    I think voice and video links over ADSL will be the next really big advance in online gaming.

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