Do you LAN? Will you LAN 5 years from now?

[olicon]

Let's admit it--we're the LAN generation. We grew up when multiplayer games were budding, but the internet was crappy enough that we needed to use LAN. The greatest multiplayer games came out when we have great freedom and friends close by (high school and college age). But father time is a mean old bastard, and he stops at nothing to turn most of us bald, and give the rest of us grey hair.

I used to LAN with my friends all the time, starting from D2, SC, C&C to something like HL & Quake. We even chipped some money together to buy a gigantic LAN hub to play. But those days are over. 50% my friends now live overseas, the rest lives hours away from eachother--LAN just isn't an option because proximity does not allow it. We do play together from time to time online, but most of the contact we have are from the always on Blackberry messenger.

The latest D3 online escapade kind of got me thinking. Does the younger generation (the 360 gen) even care what LAN is? They have excellent internet, with country-wide wifi coverage, and the ability to take their PSPs and DSs online from any major fast food franchise. Many grew up playing MMOs, meaning they ARE always online. And as us, the older generation who did grow up with LAN, grow out of the ability to get together, does it still really matter (practically) to keep such option in gaming, especially 5 years down the road?

Now don't get me wrong. I think it's great that you could just LAN normally, and it should definitely be implemented into every game if it doesn't add too much the development cost (I have no idea of it does or not). But I wouldn't mind too terribly to see it go the way of the Dodos either.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My friends and I still lan. We can't really do it that often, but when we do it's an amazing experience that could never be replicated online.

Nothing better than getting 4 xbox 360s, 4 TVs, and a house with 16 people together for a day playing Halo 3, eating pizza, and punching people who whore out the needler.

 

[kasperbbs]

I stopped using LAN once i got sick of counter-strike and starctaft, that was more than 5 years ago. Dont really care about it anymore.

 

[olicon]

My friends and I still lan. We can't really do it that often, but when we do it's an amazing experience that could never be replicated online.

Nothing better than getting 4 xbox 360s, 4 TVs, and a house with 16 people together for a day playing Halo 3, eating pizza, and punching people who whore out the needler.

I wish we could still do that.

I guess it's also a bit of a cultural divide. I'm not from the US, so social mechanics is quite different.

We're really not that old yet (most of us just turned 25), but life has already caught up quite well, and it's nearly impossible to get 4 people together, let alone over 10. Many of us owns business, and that's a 7-days a week occupation already. Those with family/commitments have also dropped off the map already.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

I lan all the time with my best friends. It's not something that everyone does though, I'm aware.

Dying breed, I suppose. Man, I remember having Doom lan parties and having soooooo much fun.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My friends and I still lan. We can't really do it that often, but when we do it's an amazing experience that could never be replicated online.

Nothing better than getting 4 xbox 360s, 4 TVs, and a house with 16 people together for a day playing Halo 3, eating pizza, and punching people who whore out the needler.

I wish we could still do that.

I guess it's also a bit of a cultural divide. I'm not from the US, so social mechanics is quite different.

We're really not that old yet (most of us just turned 25), but life has already caught up quite well, and it's nearly impossible to get 4 people together, let alone over 10. Many of us owns business, and that's a 7-days a week occupation already. Those with family/commitments have also dropped off the map already.

Well it really helps that my two best friends are also my roommates, and that we live together in a house with 3 tvs and two xbox 360s, so that really makes it much easier to get people together since our house is large enough to fit 16 people easily, and that we only have to borrow 1 TV and 2 xbox 360s instead of having to rely on other people being willing to drag 4 tvs and 4 xbox 360s into one location.

It also helps that me and my friends are all still in college, so we usually have the winter and summer to reconnect with our friends and have parties with them.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The LAN generation were the guys who were high school or college aged when Doom came out, and are probably pushing 40 by now, just sayin'.

That said, the Baptist group at my university throws a LAN party every term[footnote]I know it sounds weird, but the guy who runs it is a huge gamer. They take about 5 minutes out of a 12 hour LAN party to say a blessing over the pizza, and then everyone gets back to gaming. They don't proselytize at all.[/footnote], and I enjoy it greatly. Unfortunately, unless something changes, I won't be going 5 years from now. Not because they won't still be doing it, but because it's currently only open to college students. They don't have to go to the university that it's hosted at, but they do need a valid student ID, which I probably won't have 5 years from now. Maybe if I start grad school after I've been working for a few years...

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The LAN generation were the guys who were high school or college aged when Doom came out, and are probably pushing 40 by now, just sayin'.

That said, the Baptist group at my university throws a LAN party every term[footnote]I know it sounds weird, but the guy who runs it is a huge gamer. They take about 5 minutes out of a 12 hour LAN party to say a blessing over the pizza, and then everyone gets back to gaming. They don't proselytize at all.[/footnote], and I enjoy it greatly. Unfortunately, unless something changes, I won't be going 5 years from now. Not because they won't still be doing it, but because it's currently only open to college students. They don't have to go to the university that it's hosted at, but they do need a valid student ID, which I probably won't have 5 years from now. Maybe if I start grad school after I've been working for a few years...

LAN became a much more socially acceptable activity with Starcraft and Halo CE though, so the people who played those in high school are in their mid to late 20s now.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The LAN generation were the guys who were high school or college aged when Doom came out, and are probably pushing 40 by now, just sayin'.

That said, the Baptist group at my university throws a LAN party every term, and I enjoy it greatly. Unfortunately, unless something changes, I won't be going 5 years from now. Not because they won't still be doing it, but because it's currently only open to college students. They don't have to go to the university that it's hosted at, but they do need a valid student ID, which I probably won't have 5 years from now. Maybe if I start grad school after I've been working for a few years...

LAN became a much more socially acceptable activity with Starcraft and Halo CE though, so the people who played those in high school are in their mid to late 20s now.

It was only required for multiplayer Halo, though. I guess you could make an argument for that generation being the console LAN generation, but PC gamers were mostly past that by the time Quake came out and allowed for dedicated servers. I know Starcraft was big at LAN parties, but I don't think it was all that wide spread among the kind of people who didn't regularly attend QuakeCon; Laptops were pretty rare until about halfway thorough the last decade, especially laptops capable of gaming. A desktop LAN party was, is, and will always be a pain in the butt, and for more than just transportation -- you get too many 500 watt power supplies on the same circuit, and you're going to throw a breaker.

 

[Darth_Dude]

Well, me and my friends occasionally get together and LAN Minecraft, or Age of Empires 2. And we're all around about 15. And Yeah, I will LAN in uni (If I can find people to play with )

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

Yeah, we still do, but not as much as I'd like us to do. We LAN'ed two days ago with TF2 and Company of Heroes. Whenever we do, it's always a blast. Afterwards, we're all dead tired, our eyes hurt and full of junk food. It's probably good we only do it once in a blue moon, otherwise we'd eat horribly all the time. =o

 

[Irridium]

Pretty much the only way to play with people decently where I live is through LAN's. Connection speeds in my area make playing over the internet a pain in the ass.

I seem to be in the minority though. Makes me feel sad and old...

 

[Littlejib]

My friends get together to play the new starcraft, usually ended up playing online together pretty quickly though

 

[Fiad]

I used to with Half Life, but it has been forever since I had a PC lan party. Still get together now and then and hook up a few xboxs for a big party.

 

[Shockolate]

About twice a year. First in March for a friend's birthday, and the second sometime during the summer when the same friend's parents are gone on vacation.

They usually start around 10:00 am. if we have everything up and running by 4:00 pm, then we're ahead of schedule.

PC lanning is a pain in the ass, but is always so much fun.