GoKawiilDiving into the nostalgia of LAN parties and exploring its rise, fall, and comeback in the evolving landscape of multiplayer gaming
It is the year 2001. With a touch of Tetris-style wizardry, my friends and I manage to fit three 19-inch CRT monitors, three beige computer towers, a 24-port network switch, and a box full of network cables into the confines of a 1984 Ford Laser. The Ford car's small engine groans as it tries to move with the weight of three teenage boys and their desktop computers. A short time later, after a very bumpy ride in the tiny car with the fully compressed suspension, we arrive at my friend’s house. It’s a school holiday. There is the familiar crackling noise of a packet of Doritos opening, followed by the pop-hiss of a can of Coke. A couple of hours later, the host’s living room is like a blue spider web, the network cables linking all our computers together. In three days, we will emerge bleary-eyed from one of the best times of our lives.
This is a LAN party.
An Intimate Gaming Experience
There’s nothing that can quite compare to the magic of a LAN party. For those unfamiliar, the advantages may not be immediately apparent. With online matchmaking and voice chat through platforms like Discord, online multiplayer has become more accessible than ever. A LAN party might sound like multiplayer with extra steps, but as anyone experienced with these events will tell you, a good LAN party is about so much more than gaming.
Strictly defined, a LAN party is a social gathering where a group of people will connect gaming devices over a local area network (LAN) to play multiplayer games. Traditionally, LAN parties focused on PC gaming, but the emergence of network-capable consoles in the 2000s saw the term broaden to include gatherings with multiple consoles connected to the same local network.
LAN party, circa May 2019. Source: Author.
The main advantage of a LAN party, especially in the era before widespread high-speed broadband, lay in nearly eradicating latency concerns. The shorter the distance data has to travel between users, the smoother the experience. Having a local network of users all gathered in the same room is about as close as you can get without playing split-screen on the same device.
The defining element of a LAN party, however, is the social factor. Playing a game with others in the same physical space, sometimes huddled side-by-side on the same large table, is an intimate affair. Cries of joy and frustration fill the air. Your ears are assaulted with sounds of gunfire and computer fans, your nose with a heady mix of body odour, energy drinks, and pizza.
Scheduling and executing a LAN party is rarely a simple affair, so they typically aren't something you do for any less than a day or so. The shortest LAN party I have attended has lasted for at least eight hours, the longest about three days. It's an intensely concentrated social experience, the sort that creates lasting memories.
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