PC Gaming Golden Years: The LAN Age (geddit?)

[Blazzok]

I have so many fond memories of LANs. When I was Grade9 or so we were still living on the farm, so one weekend we (my brother and I) organized a LAN with a bunch of friends and we held the LAN in our "stoor" (for the life of me I can't think of the proper English word). Inside we had this long table that we used for exporting grapes that made the perfect spot to put all the PC's.
We made a christmas bed on the back of our truck and everyone slept there (bunch of mattresses and blankets). We also had to lay extension cords from our house and the next building over to the "stoor" because all the PC's kept on tripping the power. Those were fun times.

I also remember the last LAN we had, it was my final year at University. We had the LAN over at a friend's flat and we were about 8 people, it was hectic. One evening we were playing COD4 and we were yelling and screaming so loudly, the campus security came knocking on our door. They had driven past and only heard screams so they came to investigate, we had to assure them we were just playing games! :3
Probably my most memorable LAN moment.

[VirtualForce]

One of the best LANs we have was in a bar in Edenvale I think. We were a tight bunch of Tribes 2 players. The guy I think owned the bar, so they had a spot set up just for us. Most awesome burgers...and beer.

[DarthMol]

One of our LAN favourites was the Nazi Zombies mode for COD5 - many, many hours spent playing that. I still recall the excitement when a new map was released for free in a patch. Those were the days

[Glordit]

This is how LAN's always ended up for me and friends.

Step 1: Spend 4 hours debating what game to play.
Step 2: Play said game for 30 mins.
Step 3: repeat step 1 and 2.

[DarthMol]

This is how LAN's always ended up for me and friends.

Step 1: Spend 4 hours debating what game to play.
Step 2: Play said game for 30 mins.
Step 3: repeat step 1 and 2.

So true, and there's always that one guy who doesn't feel like playing the game everyone else is keen to play. Or you really want to play a coop game but there's 5 of you...

[murfle]

Out last LAN was a disaster. We'd been talking and organizing since January last year. Finally, we had a location, and had all the games decided on ahead of time, and this was October. At the last minute, the friend who kept pushing for the LAN to happen started inviting everyone under the sun to come and hang out. People showed up for a booze fest, ate all the snacks I made for LAN participants, f***ed up my potjie, one guy scared off a couple that were there for gaming by asking about their sex life, and one drunk chick wouldn't stop pestering me (she even walked in on me taking a dump). Oh, and one friend got dumped during the event.

Now we're going to try again. But venue is going to be the problem.

[oltman]

I recall the good old days with serial cable playing Doom and Red Alert! Getting the games to just see each other was fun enough!

More recently we have been carrying Xboxes to each others' houses to play first Left 4 Dead (both) and then Dead Island. Co-op campaign modes replaced any form of competitive gaming. My very best LAN moments ever has been in the Left 4 Dead co-op campaigns! I still hear the piano cues that a tank is close by!!!

I have tried with a few other friends to get together for a PC LAN, but it turns out exactly like [MENTION=3017]Glordit[/MENTION] said - arguments over what to play! Some guys dont have the game, others dont want to play this or that. Painful. We tried it once where the rules were simple: we are playing game "X". It is open source, so everyone owns it. If we get tired of that we can switch to game "Y", also open source. It worked for about 15 minutes until people realised the game in question sucked (it was some ID Tech 3 based shooter).