Just a few years ago there were 2 LAN places which me and a group of 20 other people would play at for at least 4 hours every other weekend. It was really fun, but now there out of business, why is this?
What ever happened to LAN places?
- Thread starter inventorvii
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People get stabbed out front because 14 year olds get that excited over losing a counter strike round.
I've wondered this too. The place I used to go to was alright. Not the best, but $5 an hour on the PC's was pretty well worth it. I think the only bad experience that I ever had there was when some kid was hogging the Xbox to watch some Thomas The Train movie. But yeah, the place closed only a few years after it opened, which killed my chances of ever working there. *sigh*
We still have a 'WireWorld' around our area but we don't really ever go there. Mainly because they have limited games installed on the servers and the permanent games are all shit.
Lan cafes were all the rage when LAN was easier then playing on the internet.
There was an age when internet wasn't an immediate option for players, there were very few dedicated online gaming services. High-speed internet was a LOL, dial-up was the norm back then. Battle.net was a bit of a pipedream, and even in the age I'm talking of, it was only available for Diablo. Warcraft 2 didn't even have internet support built into it. Quake had TCP/IP, but it was largely for Peer-to-Peer. Gamespy hijacked Quake (and other games)'s TCP/IP settings and allowed you to search for servers, but it was very clunky, and didn't offer any support other then finding games.
LAN cafes were worth money back there - bypassing all of those issues entirely, as the LAN/IPX model didn't have to fuss around with those issues - the systems were setup to capitalize on LAN's positives. You could shell out a few bucks, and play a game of Warcraft 2 or Quake with other people in the same room - you could talk to them. Teamspeak and Ventrillo weren't available back then so talking to people became a matter of setting up calls, or visiting lans.
Fast Forward to today - Everyone and their dog has a high-speed internet connection. They get to play with their own system, tweak their preferences, play with however powerful a system they can afford. Teamspeak and Ventrillo is everywhere, you no longer need to jump through hoops to adequately communicate on the fly. And probably most importantly - the games all have full internet play built right into them - you don't need to use Gamespy to find games anymore, the game will feed you a list of available servers if you ask it to.
Then there is the superfluous nature of console online games, which stole more people who would have gone to lans.
Really, it was eventually doomed to failure, just because the nature of the technology we were using was evolving.
There was an age when internet wasn't an immediate option for players, there were very few dedicated online gaming services. High-speed internet was a LOL, dial-up was the norm back then. Battle.net was a bit of a pipedream, and even in the age I'm talking of, it was only available for Diablo. Warcraft 2 didn't even have internet support built into it. Quake had TCP/IP, but it was largely for Peer-to-Peer. Gamespy hijacked Quake (and other games)'s TCP/IP settings and allowed you to search for servers, but it was very clunky, and didn't offer any support other then finding games.
LAN cafes were worth money back there - bypassing all of those issues entirely, as the LAN/IPX model didn't have to fuss around with those issues - the systems were setup to capitalize on LAN's positives. You could shell out a few bucks, and play a game of Warcraft 2 or Quake with other people in the same room - you could talk to them. Teamspeak and Ventrillo weren't available back then so talking to people became a matter of setting up calls, or visiting lans.
Fast Forward to today - Everyone and their dog has a high-speed internet connection. They get to play with their own system, tweak their preferences, play with however powerful a system they can afford. Teamspeak and Ventrillo is everywhere, you no longer need to jump through hoops to adequately communicate on the fly. And probably most importantly - the games all have full internet play built right into them - you don't need to use Gamespy to find games anymore, the game will feed you a list of available servers if you ask it to.
Then there is the superfluous nature of console online games, which stole more people who would have gone to lans.
Really, it was eventually doomed to failure, just because the nature of the technology we were using was evolving.
My Nan lives in Spain, so we'd visit her a lot. And in the Summer they'd open their internet café place, and me, my brother and all the Spanish kids would play Counter Strike for hours at night. Then they closed it down...
:'(
:'(
The one around my house is still open, and occasionally hosting events. It's a pretty awesome place too. It's a damn good thing they're still open, because otherwise I would never be able to play L4D.
A recession hit.
At least that's what took out my local lan centre. They didn't pay their debts (and were illegally flogging stuff they shouldn't have been anyway) so I sat and watched as the debtors came in, got pushed out, called the police then had fun!
At least that's what took out my local lan centre. They didn't pay their debts (and were illegally flogging stuff they shouldn't have been anyway) so I sat and watched as the debtors came in, got pushed out, called the police then had fun!
It's been said already, but LAN centers were great back in the day when there weren't matchmaking or any clans you could be a part of. Once they made it easier for people to get together and group up online, LAN centers weren't really necessary anymore. I've been a part of a few LAN parties in my day as well. Those were fun, but a severe pain in the ass; you'd have to haul your entire computer setup plus games. They inevitably reduced to nothing more than a big testosterone-filled sausage-fest filled with college kids hopped up on Bawls and M&Ms, but it was still a blast.
A friend of mine would still play on LAN centers if he had the time and inclination. There are those out there who don't have broadband who use the outlets to play online. He played Battlefield and Black Hawk Down for a long time until he either lost interest, couldn't find a server he liked, or patches turned the game into something he didn't like. LAN centers are rare in the US anymore, but they're still all the rage in places like Korea or Mexico... places where getting a decent broadband connection is difficult.
A friend of mine would still play on LAN centers if he had the time and inclination. There are those out there who don't have broadband who use the outlets to play online. He played Battlefield and Black Hawk Down for a long time until he either lost interest, couldn't find a server he liked, or patches turned the game into something he didn't like. LAN centers are rare in the US anymore, but they're still all the rage in places like Korea or Mexico... places where getting a decent broadband connection is difficult.
A place like this stared in my hometown, but they didn't last long. $5 an hour, and most people would just play online or go to a friend's house.
I still have an awesome LAN place by my house, called Switchbox. Pretty sweet gaming oriented internet cafe-type place. Where people gather to play DotA within punching range of each other.
Ahhh yes. It's that sinking feeling that playing over Battle.net can't quite match. Trash typing/Trash talking through a headset isn't as fun (not that I do it anyway). Team-based games (such as DotA) tend to have a different atmosphere when all players are within earshot of each other.Kirosilence said: