LAN party

Last updated

A LAN party is a social gathering of participants with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router or switch, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer video games together. LAN party events differ significantly from LAN gaming centers and Internet cafes in that LAN parties generally require participants to bring your own computer (BYOC) [1] and are not permanent installations, often taking place in general-use venues or residences.

Contents

The size of these networks may vary from as few as two people to very large gatherings of a hundred or more. Small parties can form spontaneously and take advantage of common household networking equipment, but larger ones typically require more planning, equipment and preparation, even dedicated gaming servers. As of 2020, the world record for the size of a LAN party is 22,810 visitors, set at DreamHack, in Jönköping, Sweden. [2]

Small parties

A LAN party in the Netherlands (2003) Lanparty.jpg
A LAN party in the Netherlands (2003)

Usually, smaller LAN parties consist of people bringing their computers over to each other's houses to host and play multiplayer games.

These are sometimes established between small groups of friends, and hosted at a central location or one that is known to all participants. Such events are often organized quickly with little planning, and some overnight events, with some stretching into days (or even weeks). Because of the small number of players, games are usually played on small levels and/or against bots.

If the venue lacks Wi-Fi, an ad hoc network may be set up, thereby eliminating the need for a wired network. Providing refreshments is often also a duty of the host, though guests are usually asked to contribute. In larger parties where participants may not all know each other personally, an entry fee may even be charged. Another tradition of some small groups is to purchase large amounts of fast food for consumption over many days. Many LAN participants will also bring food or drink to consume over the course of the party—though they can be held at any hour, many LAN parties begin late in the evening and run through the next morning, making energy drinks a popular choice.

When some of the participants cannot be present or when merging a few LAN parties together, VPN software such as Hamachi can be used to arrange computers over the Internet so they appear to be on the same LAN.

Normally, the host will host the games but sometimes at very small LAN parties (e.g. 2 or 3 people) all participants will connect to an online internet server and add a word in front of their name to tell everyone else that they are a clan or group. At bigger LANs (e.g. 5 or more people) the host or a friend of the host will use a spare PC as a game server to serve all the participants. Usually the host and/or the owner are administrators.

The group can play together in another server as well if they wish as long as they are in the same LAN.

Private LAN parties were at their peak in popularity during the late 1990s to early 2000s when broadband internet access was either unavailable or too expensive for most people at the time. Another purpose for attending private LAN parties was also the opportunity to share software, movies or music among the participants. File-sharing over LAN networks provided a convenient way to exchange content among participants, as most average internet users did not have access to the high-speed and bandwidth that a broadband Internet connection offers to accommodate large file size downloads. Since the wide availability of high-speed internet, friends can more easily remotely play their multiplayer games together, using gaming-orientated software such as TeamSpeak, Discord and Steam. Social media can also assist in online meet-ups and communication for groups of friends to be able to play their multiplayer games online together, in the comfort of their own homes rather than the inconvenience of packing and then setting up their PC's to the LAN party host's location.

Console-based LAN parties

A console-based private LAN party Private console LAN party image.jpg
A console-based private LAN party

While traditional LAN parties have solely consisted of computer gaming, the widespread adoption of network-centric console platforms, such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, has led to an evolution in LAN parties. Modern consoles equipped with Ethernet ports are able to communicate with each other over standard routers or switches, much like traditional computers.[ citation needed ]

Console-LAN attendees need only their console, games, and television to garner the same local gaming experience as their computer-based counterparts. Many popular multiplayer games for the console have also been ported to the PC (e.g. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Halo: Combat Evolved ). Developers have given consumers the choice to enjoy the same multiplayer games on multiple platforms, paving way for an alternative stage in 21st-century LAN parties.[ citation needed ]

Larger parties

A photo from the world's largest LAN party, DreamHack Winter 2004 DreamHack LAN Party.jpg
A photo from the world's largest LAN party, DreamHack
AMD Radeon ExtravaLANza Event in 2012 AMDExtravaLANza2012AutoAwesome.gif
AMD Radeon ExtravaLANza Event in 2012

Many commercialized parties offer various tournaments, with competitions in such games as StarCraft , Warcraft III , World of Warcraft , Counter-Strike: Source , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Unreal Tournament , Fortnite , Kirby Air Ride , PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , Garry's Mod , and games from the Quake, Left 4 Dead , Call of Duty , Battlefield , Doom and Halo series. Prizes may be awarded to winners, and can include computer hardware such as overclocking kits, cases, lights, fans, graphics cards and sometimes even complete computers (often considered humorous as typically the winner of the competition would already have (and be competing on) a custom PC far superior to the prize).

The duration of events is not standardized; organized parties often last for a weekend.

Big LAN parties often offer a quiet place to sleep, shower, and eat, as well as hired security, alternative entertainment (such as music), and a dedicated support crew, as well as a professionally managed network including a connection to the Internet. Catering might come in the form of a bar, delivered food such as pizza, or nearby shops. Some parties come fully catered in the form of regular barbecues or even employment of a catering staff running a public canteen.

Gaming clans — groups of gamers that often play in team games—often use these gatherings to meet one another, since they typically play together over the Internet between other parties with little real-world contact. Their goal is often to win tournaments. Clans are often in "ladders" where they move up after winning a match. As well as counting for standings in national and international gaming leagues such as the CPL there are regular events such as QuakeCon in which the very best players from around the world compete against one another, much like in popular sports. Practice matches are usually held prior to a match so competitors can get a rough idea of what they are up against.

Often case modders and overclockers attend these events to display their computers, which otherwise would be seen by few. Some come just to display their computers and look at others' computers.

Some attendees also use these parties for the purpose of file sharing. Copyright infringement via file sharing is often discouraged or forbidden by the larger parties. However, enforcement is rare and spotty due to the time involved and often a lack of desire by organizers. Some LAN parties actively support file sharing for legitimate purposes (game patches, updates, user-contributed content), and may run Direct Connect hubs or other P2P service servers. One of the main reasons for running such servers is so file sharing can be monitored/controlled while standard Windows file sharing (SMB/CIFS) can be blocked, thus preventing the spread of SMB/CIFS-based viruses. Most P2P setups used at LAN parties also have a 'centralized' chat area, where all members of the LAN party can converse in an IRC-like environment.

There are also other kinds of parties not referred to as "LAN parties" where temporary LANs are built but are not used as the main attraction. Amongst these are demoparties such as Assembly and hacker conventions such as DEF CON.

In the traditionally active demoscene countries, such as those in Northern Europe, the LAN party culture is often heavily influenced by demoparties. This is due to the fact that many of the largest demoparties were already well established in the early 1990s and their facilities were also suitable for large-scale LAN party activity. This eventually led to gaming clans and other similar groups to attend these events and regard them merely as large LAN parties. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for "pure" LAN parties in Northern Europe to organize some demoscene-like competitions in areas such as computer graphics or home videos.

Sponsorship

Many computer companies, including NVIDIA, [3] Cooler Master, [4] Cyber Snipa, Antec, [5] Corsair, [6] Alienware, [7] SteelSeries, [8] Tesoro, [9] and Thermaltake, [10] offer sponsorship packages to large LAN parties, with funding, prizes, or equipment given in return for advertising. Many large-scale LAN parties seek such sponsorship, in order to reduce operating risk (often the organisers risk losing tens of thousands of dollars) and provide prizes for attendees.

Culture

A 50-port plug-and-play Ethernet switch, which can provide network and internet access to up to 50 simultaneous computers or consoles 2550T-PWR-Front.jpg
A 50-port plug-and-play Ethernet switch, which can provide network and internet access to up to 50 simultaneous computers or consoles
A typical home or small office router, which commonly comes equipped with 4 LAN Ethernet ports Adsl connections.jpg
A typical home or small office router, which commonly comes equipped with 4 LAN Ethernet ports

LAN parties have their own unique culture. Enthusiasts often show off computers with extravagant aftermarket cooling systems, LED lighting effects, multi-display setups, and custom-built cases, and many other enhancements. [11] Highly caffeinated drinks, termed energy drinks, are very popular in these events to improve concentration and stamina, since LAN parties often run into the early morning hours. [12] Large parties can last for several days with no scheduled breaks. Most of the time, sleep is compromised to play for extended periods of time lasting from night to morning. There are also designated rooms separated from the LAN party for sleep.[ citation needed ]

Notable events

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demoscene</span> Computer art subculture

The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend and released online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assembly (demoparty)</span> Finnish demoscene and gaming event

The Assembly demoparty is a demoscene and gaming event in Finland. It is the biggest demoscene party. The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko and Jussi Laakkonen. The Summer event takes place every year between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days, and the Winter event is held in January or February. Edition 2020 was online. The most recent Assembly was held from 3 to 6 of August 2023 at Messukeskus in Helsinki.

A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system, on different computing systems via a local area network, or via a wide area network, most commonly the Internet. Multiplayer games usually require players to share a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise other players' activity. Due to multiplayer games allowing players to interact with other individuals, they provide an element of social communication absent from single-player games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Gathering (LAN party)</span>

The Gathering is the second largest computer party in the world. It is held annually in Vikingskipet Olympic Arena in Hamar, Norway, and lasts for five consecutive days. Each year, TG attracts more than 5200 people, with attendance increasing every year.

QuakeCon is a yearly convention held by ZeniMax Media to celebrate and promote the major franchises of id Software and other studios owned by ZeniMax. It includes a large, paid, bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilgrimage (demoparty)</span>

Pilgrimage was a demoparty which took place annually in Salt Lake City, Utah each summer between 2003 and 2006. The event was founded by Rich "Legalize" Thompson of the demoscene group Polygony. Pilgrimage was, at the time, the only active demoscene event of its kind in all of North America, while many demoparties take place annually throughout Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online game</span> Video game played over the Internet

An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). In 2019, revenue in the online games segment reached $16.9 billion, with $4.2 billion generated by China and $3.5 billion in the United States. Since the 2010s, a common trend among online games has been to operate them as games as a service, using monetization schemes such as loot boxes and battle passes as purchasable items atop freely-offered games. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special servers in order to function.

DreamHack is an ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions. It is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and Twin Galaxies as being the world's largest LAN party and computer festival with the world's fastest Internet connection and the most generated traffic. It usually holds its events in Western Europe and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PC game</span> Electronic game played on a personal computer

A personal computer game, also known as a computer game or abbreviated PC game, is a video game played on a personal computer (PC). They are defined by the open platform nature of PC systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LAN gaming center</span> Local area network for playing multiplayer computer games

A LAN Gaming Center is a business where one can use a computer connected over a LAN to other computers, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. Use of these computers or game consoles costs a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. It may or may not serve as a regular café as well, with food and drinks being served. Many game centers have evolved in recent years to also include console gaming. Other centers offer computer repair and consulting, custom built computers, web design, programming classes or summer camps, and other technology related services.

A game server is a server which is the authoritative source of events in a multiplayer video game. The server transmits enough data about its internal state to allow its connected clients to maintain their own accurate version of the game world for display to players. They also receive and process each player's input.

Video game culture or gaming culture is a worldwide new media subculture formed by video game hobbyists. As video games have exponentially increased in sophistication, accessibility and popularity over time, they have had a significant influence on popular culture, particularly among adolescents and young adult males. Video game culture has also evolved with Internet culture and the increasing popularity of mobile games, which has led to an increase in the female demographic that play video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GameCube online functionality</span> Nintendo GameCube networking overview

The GameCube is one of Nintendo's home video game consoles and part of the sixth generation of video game consoles. Although the competing PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles supported substantial amounts of online games, the GameCube had only eight games with internet or local area network (LAN) support. Nintendo never commissioned any servers or internet services to interface with the console, but allowed other publishers to do so and made them responsible for managing the online experiences for their games. Nintendo remained pensive with its online strategy for the duration of the GameCube's lifespan, defiant of growing interest from players and the success of Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. Company leaders including Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata based their stance on concerns with maintaining quality control over their games and doubts that players would want to pay subscription fees.

System Link is a form of offline multiplayer gaming on the Xbox and Xbox 360 gaming console over a LAN. A network switch and standard straight-through Ethernet cables may be used to link multiple consoles together, or two consoles can be connected directly. Connecting two Xbox consoles to each other without a switch requires a crossover cable, while Xbox 360 consoles can use standard cables. On the Xbox One, if one's console will not connect to their home Wi-Fi system, the best thing they can do is to factory reset the console and change their DNS resolver when the console is restarted and refreshed.

A home server is a computing server located in a private computing residence providing services to other devices inside or outside the household through a home network or the Internet. Such services may include file and printer serving, media center serving, home automation control, web serving, web caching, file sharing and synchronization, video surveillance and digital video recorder, calendar and contact sharing and synchronization, account authentication, and backup services.

Fragapalooza is an annual video game festival/LAN party that takes place in Leduc, Alberta, Canada. The name Fragapalooza was derived from the Military Slang "Frag" and "palooza" which is the suffix for any type of named festival or gathering, such as Lollapalooza. Traditionally held in the summer, Fragapalooza runs over a period of four days. In 2008, it was Canada's largest LAN party event, having reached approximately 900 attendees at its peak.

Online games are video games played over a computer network. The evolution of these games parallels the evolution of computers and computer networking, with new technologies improving the essential functionality needed for playing video games on a remote server. Many video games have an online component, allowing players to play against or cooperatively with players across a network around the world.

Online console gaming involves connecting a console to a network over the Internet for services. Through this connection, it provides users the ability to play games with other users online, in addition to other online services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PlayStation 2 online functionality</span> Online service for PlayStation 2

Selected games on Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console offer online gaming or other online capabilities. Games that enable the feature provide free online play through the use of a broadband internet connection and a PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor. Since the service has no official name, it is sometimes referred as either PS2 Network Play, PS2 Network Gaming or PS2 Online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaos Constructions</span>

Chaos Constructions is the oldest demoparty in Russia, previously known as ENLiGHT. Nowadays, it is considered to be annual computer art festival and IT conference.

References

  1. ↑ Kalke, Rushmie (22 October 2006). "CPUs get revved up in Hudson". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Retrieved 2006-10-25.
  2. ↑ "Largest LAN party". Guinness World Records.
  3. ↑ "Events - GeForce". www.nvidia.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. ↑ "Cooler Master". Archived from the original on September 22, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Welcome to Antec". www.antec.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "Corsair Community: LAN Parties". Archived from the original on October 29, 2006.
  7. ↑ "Alienware". www.alienware.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "SteelSeries" . Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  9. ↑ "Sponsors – All Your Base Online". www.aybonline.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  10. ↑ "Thermaltake - U.S.A." thermaltakeusa.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  11. ↑ Dan Evans, Nathan Edwards (March 1, 2006). "Build It: The Ultimate Game Room; Stun your friends with the best place on earth to play games, including an amazing (and amazingly expensive) LAN party scoreboard. We show you how". PC Magazine. Vol. 25, no. 5.
  12. ↑ "As In Risking Ours, For Science". The Life. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-10-18. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
  13. ↑ "Girls Dig Demos Too" by Steve Kettmann of Wired magazine. (August 3, 2001)
  14. ↑ Guinness World Records site January 7, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Frag Infinity Tournament, Inc. - FITES LAN Party - www.fites.net - Portal". www.fites.net. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
  16. ↑ Falkirk Herald Website. 31 August 2006. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  17. ↑ "Home". Insomnia Gaming Festival | A Celebration Of Gaming.
  18. ↑ NETWAR.
  19. ↑ PDXLAN.
  20. ↑ "The Gathering Tech:Server". techserver.gathering.org. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  21. ↑ "The Big LAN Tech:Server". http://thebiglan.com=9 September 2022.
  22. ↑ "NAG LAN | Southern Africa's Largest BYOC LAN". naglan.co.za. December 2023. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  23. ↑ "Experience South Africa's biggest BYOC LAN". rageexpo.co.za. December 2023. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.