I was going to write this a few weeks ago, since I just wanted to talk about how awesome a group of people are, but held off due to various reasons. But our discussion on IRC the other night about what LANs have become.
Basically there are two sides to the coin. There are those like me, who believe LANs are about gaming. And that multiplayer gaming is more social that file sharing. And there are those who believe that LANs should be file sharing, with games on the side. They claim that its just as social, because while they are doing this, they getup and go talk to people.
I disagree with that, you would be too busy getting the latest… I dunno, what do kids download? Buffy? eppisode to get up and chat.
Quite a few LANs (and ones outside GTL), which have been 90% games, I have found to be a great social experience, excepcily when I was younger. I guess I would like that feeling back. LANs just feel… well theres effort to get people into the same games now. It didn’t used to be like that.
I remember the first big LAN i went to, a game was loaded, and 15 minutes later, almost everyone in the hall was in, and those who couldn’t run it were doing “swaps” with someone (when you die, hop-up and let someone else on). Sure, back then it was 700mb verses 4gb for an install, but our network, optical media, and hard drivers are that little bit quicker, so it shouldn’t be that much more.
I guess you could argue that its “not a game I like”, but hell, you don’t have to like a game to have fun (yes, I know this sounds backwards, but let me try and explain). Lets use an example from GTL here. Counter Strike.
Only a few people like it, yet we used to be able to get a full game going, even of CS haters. I’m not the biggest CS fan, infact, I only play it at LANs if its being played. But you know what? Its fun to play at a LAN, even if its a game I dislike. Why? I can yell out in suprise, and hear the giggles come back. People can get excited at something special happening, and as both a player, and spectator (when you’ve died), its exciting, its funny, its FUN.
I’ve seen a room go CRAZY over a lucky last SECOND difusal, or a stupidly well placed rocket, or THAT perfect sniper shot. Or heck, even someone hiding behind a box with a shotgun, and waiting down the timer. Theres cheering, laughter, whoops, compliments, and ofcourse, explicitives. And they are all going everywhere.
And once the game is done, and the next one is being prepared, or the pizza is being served, everyone is talking about that moment, what the next games going to be like, who to look out for, who worked well together.
Random team-ups have resulted in life-long friendships at LANs I’ve been to in the past (from people who didn’t know each other before the LAN).
People come to the next LAN, and are clapping THAT guy/team on the back, getting ready to re-live the fun all over again, but maybe this time in a new game.
And note what I’ve described could happen in almost ANY LAN game? Not just Counter Strike, or Quake, but RTS games, racing games, sports games, smash-the-hell-outa-them games. It doens’t matter what game it was.
THIS is why those who go to a LAN to file-share will NEVER get the full experience. Noone is going to be chearing you downloading that latest movie. Noones going to remember that epic song you got when that 16TB server went up. No-one is going to talk about anything that happens with file-share, except who has the biggest HDD RAID.
Maybe if your a more social person, you MIGHT get the “meeting people” aspect, but you havn’t EXPERIENCED anything with them, besides bad breath, poor hygine, and a lack of sleep (yes us gamers get that too). Its the experiences that makes a LAN special.
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So whats this got to do with Quake Live?
Well, a Saturday or two back, I joined a server with The_Muffin, he was playing some Clan Arena. Lower skilled players, who don’t take the game seirous (just as I LOVE it), so i joined. After some team shuffles, and “pros” quiting (citing server was unbalanced and gay), and extreme nubs leaving ’cause they wern’t getting headshots, we ended up with some of the greatest guys I’ve ever had the plesure of meeting online.
Long story short, we had fun.
Some got drunk, some of us had music, some of us had wireless internet.
And it was amazing, I have no idea who’s team won what rounds, who got the most kills or anything, we just had fun, and lived the experience. Just the 8 of us, from 9:30pm all the way to 2:30am the next day.
Yes we lost track of time, there was much cited “oh shit! gotta get to sleep”, and even I got in trouble!
It was brilliant, and after the LAN discussion on IRC, I couldn’t help but think “if this Quake Live game happened on LAN, those file-share guys, who would shun a game ’cause its not ne of the 3 they play, would be missing everything a LAN is about”.
I am assuming everyone here knows about Mega Warheads.
