Poll: LAN Parties

[FinalHeart95]

Well, me and my friends are setting up a LAN party, which will be my first. I never really became friends with real hardcore gamers that were into this stuff before this year, so I never had a chance to have a LAN party. (Although we're getting a lot of non-gamers involved, but that's not important). Anyway, it got me thinking, how often do other gamers have LAN parties? It's something that takes quite a bit of planning seeing how a lot of people need to haul equipment in, so I'm just curious to see how often people put up with that for the sake of gaming in the same room with a bunch of people.

For added discussion value:
1) What system do you tend to have LAN parties on? I'm sure the majority of you will say PC, especially seeing how there seems to be a large mass of PC gamers on the Escapist, but I want to see if there are any other consoles. The LAN party I'm going to is for the original Xbox, for example.

2) Do you prefer this experience to playing online with friends? Is it worth the trouble to play in the same room as your friends, or do you like the convenience of online gaming?

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

I used to quite a bit but I haven't in a couple years. My friends have either moved onto consoles due to the cost of a gaming PC these days or we're too busy to get together for one.

Every LAN party I've been to has been with my PC.

It's a lot more enjoyable than playing online since your friends are the room with you. There isn't that disconnnect you get with playing online, they're there, you're smacktalking them in person, throwing crap at them, etc. It feels a lot more like playing with friends, which is a pretty great thing. Playing with people who are in the same room with you is like going to a party, while playing online is like meeting in a chatroom. Everybody is a lot more loose and jovial when you're all together.

 

[Jodan]

the last lan party i had was playing duke nukem 3d ahhh those were the days

unless of course you count playing tribes hexen and rtcw during math class. taking advantage of the schools networked computers.

 

[MellowFellow]

I have them on occasion with friends, and they are really fun usually. This year at my university we had a few lan parties in our dorm and those were pretty cool. I have mostly had PC lan parties and we usually play games like warcraft 3 or Age of Mythology.

They are really fun if you can get enough people.

 

[FinalHeart95]

the last lan party i had was playing duke nukem 3d ahhh those were the days

unless of course you count playing tribes hexen and rtcw during math class. taking advantage of the schools networked computers.

Yeah, I've heard of computer programming classes having Quake LAN parties during class. That's a good 14-18 people playing Quake in the same room. Thank god for networked computers!

 

[Wayneguard]

LAN parties are pretty much one of the best possible gaming experiences you can have. My entire high school career was pretty much one giant lan party. We played diablo, starcrat, wc3, DotA, Unreal Tournament, Rune, CS 1.6, and all kinds of shit pretty much all day, every day on our school's free internet. God I love lans. I don't even know if that answers the ot but GOD I LOVE LANS

 

[Radeonx]

Well, I haven't been to one in years since I am in college, and haven't had enough people to do it with.
From my memories, though, they are pretty fun.

 

[Weaver]

I used to do them all the time in high school, and then sometimes in University, and pretty much never now.

Great times, and ALWAYS PC. Nothing like cramming 32 people into a house and playing some battlefield 1942. Oh how many fuses we blew!

 

[TheJwalkR]

Ya I just went to my first lan and it was really fun. There were only four of us but we had a blast. We played mostly gmod and cs.

 

[JRCB]

Counter Strike in computers class. It was so much fun.

"Where the hell is the last guy?" Meanwhile, I'm hiding in a washroom stall on the map...

 

[thePyro_13]

I voted sometimes, me and my friends used to hold near-bi-weekly LAN's at our homes. This was mostly back in high school though. We don't do it that often(true, its been near 2 years since our last one).

They are very fun. Ours were entirely PC based, but if you have enough consoles then I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be just as fun.

So many fond memorys.

 

[rekabdarb]

considering my friends usually come over twice a week and then we set up league of legends i do it pretty often... and we used to do wow when ... we played that grr.

But the reason why we get together is to play magic the gathering as well... so another reason to get together.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

the last lan party i had was playing duke nukem 3d ahhh those were the days

unless of course you count playing tribes hexen and rtcw during math class. taking advantage of the schools networked computers.

Yeah, I've heard of computer programming classes having Quake LAN parties during class. That's a good 14-18 people playing Quake in the same room. Thank god for networked computers!

fuck we had school vs. school a few times. we didn't even realize it till someone joined our room and we figured out what school they were from and a few weeks later we had a good 8 v 8 going on in quake


....

we raped of course

it was hilarious too because our teacher was cheering us on and getting into it


OT: i have had a good 10-12 lan parties in the past, with consoles, any pc hardcore person i know refuses to leave their cave most of the time so i've never done a pc one thus far, but maybe in the future if we all find a game we can agree on playing together on the pc

 

[crobulator]

just got back from one actually lanning nevewinter nights on pc we have a lan every fortnight

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I used to before online gaming took over consoles. I remember having Halo parties all the time, but after XBL hit big, nobody wanted to get up and get together anymore.

I loved it back in the day.

 

[Cody211282]

I love LAN parties, it just about the only time I play multiplayer, haven't had one in a bit because most my friends have moved though.

 

[Vrach]

Some of my mates and I recently started making some very light LAN parties with just using our laptops. The things are quite weak in most cases, but we still have a lot of good fun with about 6-8 of us playing some of the lower-end games like C&C Generals ZH, Counter Strike and the like.

When we wanna play some higher end games, we just visit the local "game rooms" (literal translation, don't know what it's called in English), which are basically large, LAN-connected internet cafes (in some placed inter-connected) mostly designed for gaming.

Tis good fun, just came back earlier tonight from a bit of fun just the 3 of us had (was late and we were just killing a bit of time) playing some Far Cry 2 multiplayer. I was really surprised at how enjoyable the MP is in FC2, the maps also feel very awesome for sniping (which I'm a great fan of), but literally any class is useful (I got my sniper ass handed to me, medium rare, by my mate sneaking up on me with a flamethrower )

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

Some of my mates and I recently started making some very light LAN parties with just using our laptops. The things are quite weak in most cases, but we still have a lot of good fun with about 6-8 of us playing some of the lower-end games like C&C Generals ZH, Counter Strike and the like.

You guys need to throw some Doom deathmatch into the mix.

 

[FortheLegion]

I frequently have lan parties on my pc and i have had one lan party on a couple Xbox 360s

 

[Dango]

All the computers in my school used to have Halo installed on them, so me and some friends would always have LAN parties during lunch or study halls.