LAN Party

Revision as of 17:32, 26 July 2010

A LAN Party is a temporary computer network, built to play games, share files, and enjoy a social atmosphere with other gamers. Pizza is an requirement for every LAN Party. A LAN Party can range in size, from a few mates in a lounge room or garage to a few thousand people in a stadium.

External Links

Respawn large regular Melbourne LAN
EtherSnap LAN Melbourne based LAN
Zurek Gaming (TAS)
FragFest Oldest active LAN in Sydney, used to be B.O.N.G.
Lanvictims A Local lan based in Brisbane.
LanSmash Brisbane LAN Party (also hosts large LS Arena)
GhettoLAN A regular Newcastle based LAN.
OverloadLAN Melbourne based LAN.
WALAN (WA)
Red Flag Lan (WA)
MonsterLAN (Geelong based LAN)
Darwin Gamers Association Darwin's Premier LAN Events Provider
Reload LAN (SA)
EGN LAN (WA)
SOGC LAN Sydney's newest LAN event - established by a few OCAU forum members (NSW)
scoutLAN Brisbane's newest LAN (Brisbane North Side)

Home LANS 101

You have probably been to a few house lans or small lan gatherings, some can suck and other can be totally awesome. The success of your own lan party will come from planning and consideration for your lanning friends. LAN Parties are about zero hassels & fun moments with your peers in a close environment (DM, team games)

Below is a list of things to organise/consider prior to the lan.

Think about the number of people you can fit into your house (including desks, chairs, computers). Most houses power circuits will not support much more than 20 computers.
Now think about the types of games you and your lanning friends enjoy (new or old). Discuss what the majority of the invitees are keen to play, well before you decide who is comming.
From that list consider which games are best suited to a lan environment with the given number of people.
Draw up a list of invitees with a separate smaller list of backup people. Your invitees will all generally enjoy the games you have selected to focus on. There is no point having 11 FPS fanboi's and one RTS nerd. RTS nerd will just sulk and play C&C Generals by themselves, takign up valuable space and having a negative affect on the rest of the lanners.

Backup people should be friend that you know will drop everything to attend your lan with < 1 days notice. Invite people you are sure wont sulk when no one plays their obscure favorite game. If it is a gamming lan, avoid inviting people you know are starved of movie downloads who will spend the whole time trying to leech everyones computer looking for episodes of startrek the original series.

Organise real tables. Dont count on using your breakfast bench or coffee table as a substitute. If all you have is 1 wonky table from the backyard, you will need to hire the right number of tressel tables from a party hire joint.
Organise the right number of chairs (plastic party hire ones are suitable). It can be unwise to count on friends to bring their own.
Arrange to borrow networking equipment and have it in your hands well before the lan. Dont count on your computer savvy geek friend to program some uber router management configuration to optimise performance.. keep it simple, but avoid obvious network bottlenecks. Make sure you have a switch (not hub).
consider the network configuration for your lanners. Get your DSL router to act as a DCHP (if you have one) to automatically configure peoples IP addresses and internet. Most people will then be able to plug in and play.
Organise / connect networking equipment and power boards and tables and chairs prior to people arriving! (WARNING you may have to get out of bed before 10am!!). consider how many will be on each table and put a chair, power connection and lan cable there for them to just plug into.
- tape down any cables crossing over the floor where people will walk..
- avoid overloading a single power point.
Send out invites at least 2 weeks before hand. Remind everyone personally a few days before the lan. "ie. hey man looking forward to the weekend?" is suitable.
- Remind invitees what games will likely be played. Make sure everyone has everything installed and ready to go before they arrive at the lan. There will be someone who has to totally reinstall windows or rebuild their machine for some reason. Help them as much as you can but dont sacrifice too much time if its 'game over' for them.
- If a new patch came out the night before the lan, download it and make it available on the network for everyone to grab.
consider what food you might provide. When everyone is getting hungry, call a food run. People can go to the local takeout joint or you can provide some staple food like BBQ sausages, sausage rolls / mini pies, or packets of potato chips. Then there is "the pizza order". You will need to take charge of this because people are slack. Get money first, get orders, make the call and dish out change afterwards.
have a website URL in the invite. it will have all details of the lan so people can get access to it without bugging you. It will have address, start time, games likely to be played, what they need to bring and what the rules are. maybe a list of everyone comming (to get people excited and talking between themselves about it).
have several spare power boards, lan cables of various lengths, spare switch (if possible), masking tape / pen. People will forget things. They are only human. You want to be the man on the spot when things start going pear shaped for them, you'll have a spare cable, or a spare power board. Do not abandon them and continue to play your game.
consider the cooling / heating requirements of the lanning rooms. If its going to be 40 degrees outside its going to be hotter inside. Can you run an airconditioner?
consider neighbours briefly, then disregard because you are a REBEL!
consider where everyone will park. Make sure that if people arrive, they unload and move their cars to the appropriate car parking area (like down the street or whatever)

List of DO's and DONT's for your house lan

You are a host. The happiness of other lanners should be put at higher priority to your own fun. If everyone is sorted, then you can relax and have some fun.
- At the start of the lan you will need to be running around making sure everyone is happy and getting setup ok.. You wont get much game time in to start with, but its essential to get as many people up and running as possible so early birds have something to do, and people aren't still trying to install some patch or game mod 6 hours after the lan started because they couldn't find it on the network! If you spend 5 mins helping them at the start, they will spend 5 extra hours playing, making everyone happier.
Try to get everyone playing the same game at once, having organised teams in different rooms go against each other is even better.
Avoid games where 1 player can die in first 10 mins and the rest of the lan plays on for 6 hours (Empire Earth :). Suggest a game restart if this happens.
Provide internet access
Provide a fridge with room for peoples drinks / or get an esky or two.
If you organise tables from the party hire joint, it is ok to charge people 10 bucks for a lan to help offset costs, but you should provide a fridge full of cans of drink at least.

People who are willing to help out

matthudson:Send me a PM or email if you are planning a LAN somewhere in the Newcastle area. I can usually bring tables, chairs, networking equipment and sometimes the odd 17" or 19" spare monitor. I might also bring a carton of coke or two:). NB:I am usually unavailable during school terms, but I might be able to work something out.

More Information

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 == External Links ==
+* [http://www.respawn.com.au/ Respawn] large regular Melbourne LAN
 * [http://www.ethersnap.com/ EtherSnap LAN] Melbourne based LAN
 * [http://www.zurekgaming.com/ Zurek Gaming] (TAS)