Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Like Multi-player Gaming? Throw an LAN Party!

Joel Durham Jr. writing for Yahoo News brings us "Let's Have a LAN Party!" Multiplayer gaming is hugely popular since in addition to being able to play computer players you are either teamed with or up against humans. Every techie has gotten caught up in Doom. Doom is probably the classic introduction to multiplayer first shooters. My personal favorite has always been Descent which should date my gaming experiences.

Multiplayer games can be played by simply networking two or more computers. The easiest way to do this for most people is by dialing up to the Internet. Performance then becomes an issue. Joel Durham Jr. does a great job of explaining latency. In short, if one person's connection to the Internet is better than yours that person will have an advantage over you. A LAN party eliminates, or greatly reduces, that advantage by providing a relatively even network connection for all players.

In setting up a LAN Party you have to consider the number of attendees. If it will be huge then renting space at a hotel and getting discounted rooms for out of town visitors may be in order. Tables and chairs will have to be rented. Infrastructure considerations include electricity, 10/100 network connections and dedicated servers.

Other preparations include selecting games that will be played, collecting dues from players to help cover costs, getting listed, and food.

Yahoo recommends checking with LANParty.com and Blues News. And our favorite KROSTech.

Other resources:


Posted by: djuggler | 7:40 PM |