![]() ![]() But, much like how a good round of Goldeneye or a group Super Smash Bros. Ironically, Halo: Combat Evolved, one of the most popular games at the LAN parties I attend, was actually one of the first to make popular this distant, digital, online style of play, and diminish the practicality of the LAN party. Local LAN parties fell out of favor once things like XBOX Live or online matchmaking became popular and easily accessible. Probably stank to high heaven by the end of the night. There’s legends of a party that rented out a warehouse and filled it with over 1000 people, but I don’t know how accurate that is. Having everyone bring their pc and getting everyone together in one place was more practical back in the day before high-speed internet connection, and I’ve heard of parties that got as large as 100 people or more. These kinds of parties were bigger in the 90’s, with the rise of arena shooters like Quake or Unreal Tournament, though this roster of games was later joined by more contemporary additions like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Star Wars: Battlefront. And then we take a break for six months and regroup for the next one. Sometimes we get breakfast together the next morning. They generally last from 8 PM to 8 AM, and we play video games and screw around the entire time. ![]() Locales ranged from my friend’s basement to his mom’s office and now to his church, and party size has ranged from around 8 people to close to 20 for this party, I think. I’ve been to a fair handful of these parties before, and they’re always a good time. It leads to shenanigans, hijinks, tomfoolery, and a general building of camaraderie with laughter, jokes, friendly competition, snacks, and of course, video games. These parties usually involve all these people coming together and connecting to one network so they can all play games together, locally, without the need for internet access. There’s even an obligatory dick-measuring contest where people compare computer specs while they set up. LAN parties are essentially (usually) gatherings of people who happen to all like video games and who also happen to be predominantly white, male, and good with computers. In short, I went to my friend’s biannual LAN party, where I sat in a gymnasium and played video games for ten hours while hooked up to a power strip that was hooked up to an extension cord that was hooked up to another power strip that was plugged into the wall. And for three, the party was entirely centered around playing video games on a local access network, or LAN connection. But it wasn’t your average college party.
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