7 tips for a successful LAN party

Posted on May 21, 2007
Filed Under Games, General, Techie stuff |

I’ve just spent the weekend in the company of 6 friends and 7 computers, playing games and shooting the shit (and each other). The weekend went off without a hitch and from it I have gleaned the following tips for a successful LAN party:

Tip 1: Do not skimp on cables. There is nothing worse than getting to a LAN party and finding that there aren’t enough cables, or that there are but one is broken, or too short. I have learned from experience to take at least 5 cables of varying lengths with me to a LAN party, this means that there are always cables. Don’t get too fussy about them either, if someone goes away with your cable don’t worry about it, you’ll be seeing them at the next party anyway. A corollary to this is not to use a wireless network, its slower, and prone to cutting out if there is any interference.

Tip 2: Run a spare machine as a server if you can. Either for files , it saves swapping discs around and doesn’t tie up  a gaming rig if someone needs files from it, or as a dedicated game server which balances out performance all round. It doesn’t need to be a high spec beast that can perform somersaults, its just a number cruncher and won’t be running the graphical bits of a game.

Tip 3: Work out a list of games that are known to work beforehand, have all the maps, mods, models etc available in an easily accessible package (either on the server as mentioned above or on a large flash drive or external hard drive). This means that you’re not pissing about with untested games during playtime, at which point you have to get them all installed on everyone’s machines. Installing games should only ever be done at the start of the party, in other words you should know what you’re going to be playing before you start, or even before you get there.

Tip 4: Take your own chair (or at least something to sit on). There is nothing worse than sitting on a hard dining room chair for 4-5 hours at a time when you’re used to playing games at your des at home with your nice office chair with the leather and the chrome.  At the LAN I was just at I sat on the floor, I didn’t mind because I took a double duvet with me, folded it four times and sat on that. I was comfy enough, and I certainly didn’t envy the guys on the hard chairs in the other room.

Tip 5: Variety is the spice of life. Try and vary the kind of games played, not everyone is a twitch hungry, caffeine hyped, instagibber, neither is everyone a flatscreen general. After an intensive round of UT2004 there’s nothing like kicking back with something a little more sedate. Games like Civilization should be kept for the small hours when people’s reactions are a fried but their brains are still functioning.

Tip 6: Get up and move around every so often. No-one will mind if you sit out a map to stretch your legs or make tea (especially if you’re making it for everyone else too). If you’re spread out in different rooms, go and visit the other players, socialise, its the main reason you’re there after all. This is even more important if you’re sitting on the floor, I swear that bits of me I didn’t even know existed went to sleep at various points in the proceedings.

Tip 7: Invest in a headset. There is nothing more distracting than having everyone else’s sound effects flooding into your awarenes, especially with some of the newer FPS games which have highly directional sound which can tell you where your opponents are. Not only will a headset let you keep your noises to yourself, you won’t be isolated from everyone else because, if they’ve brought their headsets, they’ll be able to talk to you. Over the last weekend some team games would have gone better if people had been wearing headsets, I had headphones on and so couldn’t hear when people were talking to me. Headsets are the key.

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One Response to “7 tips for a successful LAN party”

  1. Lan Party Tips - Dogpile Web Search on February 14th, 2008 1:23 am

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] East Open to all PC Gamers Sponsored by: http://www.lanse.co.uk/ [Found on Ads by Google] 8. 7 tips for a successful LAN party : UC2 7 tips for a successful LAN party. Posted on May 21, 2007 Filed Under Techie stuff , Games , [...]

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