Anatomy of a LAN Party? 364
malfaetor writes "My colleagues and I are interested in improving on an annual public LAN Party that we first held last year. Before the event, I asked Slashdot, and received some terrific suggestions. The event ended up being quite a bit of fun, and we had very few technical issues. However, there were some non-technical improvements that could be made. We did not break even financially, and ended up having to divide the loss among the seven of us. The biggest financial killer for us was insurance, at nearly $500 for the event. What have other LAN party organizers done about insurance and legal issues? Has insurance (or lack thereof) come back to haunt anyone in the past?"
"We've also had trouble deciding which network games would be the most popular. Our group has tried to focus on games that are the most familiar (or at least the smallest learning curve), and that most individuals already have installed. What games have been the most popular at LAN parties you have attended in the past six months? We know many individuals with consoles, but are unsure if promoting the console gamers would be a large draw. Have consoles been a common sight at the LAN Parties you have attended? If so, have you had any problems related to having to juggle both console and PC players?
Advertising was also an issue. We ran a grassroots advertising campaign because radio and TV advertising were too costly to be considered. However, we were concerned that the flyers we created and the postings we had on certain websites were not reaching enough local gamers. Strangely, local game shops have been very hesitant to allow us to place flyers there. What creative ways have other groups used in the past to get the word out?
Our webmaster has done a great job so far in getting sponsors. Sponsors have been very good to us, but other events that have been around longer seem to have quite a bit more swag to give away to the attendees. Is the real trick to getting sponsors to have longevity, Get Big, or have the organizers donate a whole bunch more money toward the cause to purchase these prizes themselves? Do local sponsors tend to give more than big national sponsors? Does anyone have any tips or tricks for approaching sponsors?
Lastly, has anything changed in the LAN Party scene in the past year? Has anybody seen or been involved in any noticeable trends, or have experiences worth mentioning?"
EULA (Score:5, Funny)
Re:EULA (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:EULA (Score:3, Insightful)
What's wrong with this picture? (Score:2)
Re:What's wrong with this picture? (Score:5, Funny)
A joke can contain insights.
And no karma is given for "Funny" mods, so you should be thankful
Re:What's wrong with this picture? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow! Imagine the karma I'd get if I started to troll or, I dunno... post offtopic? O:)
Re:EULA (Score:3, Interesting)
And no insurance agency has ever fought a claim?
Try asking someone with "health insureance" if they feel like they still have to worry about their medical bills.
Re:EULA (Score:2, Informative)
Skinner (with tape recorder in hand) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:EULA (Score:5, Informative)
Best recent LAN party game experience:
StarCraft [calcgames.org]
Warcraft [calcgames.org]
Halo [calcgames.org]
Half-Life [calcgames.org]
CounterStrike [calcgames.org]
BF 1942 [calcgames.org]
Other RTS (post reply) [calcgames.org]
Other FPS (post reply) [calcgames.org]
Other (post reply) [calcgames.org]
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Enemy Territory (Score:3, Informative)
I fully agree with WebLion. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is an awesome game. And it's free as in beer, but much of the source code has been opened up, so there are a lot of mods being developed. There were MANY disappointed attendees at QuakeCon who wanted official QuakeCon ET competitions.
Re:EULA (Score:2)
My guess is that a lot of the votes recorded there are just curious people who wanted to check out the stats.
Something like this [calcgames.org].
Re:EULA (Score:3, Interesting)
We played Turbo Sliders http://www.turbosliders.tk/ [turbosliders.tk] (free game) every time now at our lanparty.
Big advantage is (besides that it's just very cool) that it run's from almost any PC, so that means hardly no hassle in setting it up (extract & run & change nick & connect & play
Re:EULA (Score:5, Insightful)
Doesn't work for anyone else though. Microsoft are a law unto themselves because they can afford to defend anything until the other party dies of old age, so they pretty much get to make the rules, regardless of whether or not their 'laws' are legal.
For the rest of us, we're stuck with the legal principle that someone cannot sign away rights that are granted by law. Take for example, the fact that is illegal for me to kill you. You can sign a piece of paper to say that it's quite OK with you if I kill you, but the piece of paper is worthless and meaningless. I can't use it as a "get out of jail free card" because you can't sign your right not to be killed - it's not quite literally like that, but you get the idea...
The same ~kinda~ thing applies with people signing to say that if you hurt them it's their fault. It's not ~quite~ the same principle, but similar.
Look at it then from a contract point of view and it's a bit different. Like all the sporting and motorsport venues, you can sign to say that you accept specific obvious risks and that you will not, in consideration of being allowed to enter the venue, not sue the owner, operator, competitors, etc, etc, etc.
In a place like Australia, you'd probably get away with a nice strong disclaimer and acceptance of risk by the individual punters. In a place like the US, as vexatiously litigous as you folks are, I'd probably not bother running the event at all, but certainly not without insurance at least!
Couple of other thoughts: Perhaps the insurance company will give you a discount if you make the punters sign a EULA written by the insurance company, second, here in Australia we have a concept of a registered/incorporated not-for-profit organisation that, although a bit fiddly to set up, has the nice benefit that they're not legally liable for a lot of the kinda of stuff you're worried about. Might be worth checking if a similar concept exists in your jurisdiction
#include disclaimer.h: IANAL. I didn't make it past second year undergrad law, and I have only the vaguest memory of torts and contract law - as reading the above ramblings demonstrates. You'd be a fool to take my advice!
Re:EULA (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:EULA (Score:4, Informative)
Re:EULA (Score:3, Interesting)
Here are the (gruesome) details [cnn.com]
Re:EULA (Score:5, Informative)
This is completely incorrect. People can and do sign away rights every day. If they didn't, no one would ever be able to settle a lawsuit or plea bargain in a criminal trial.
I am a lawyer, and my opinion is that you are confusing the concept of the general ability to either consent to someting that would otherwise be illegal and/or release someone in advance of any legal liability with the countervailing concept that the law will not allow you to consent to some types of legal wrongs.
The classic example is battery. Battery is the unconsented-to harmful or inappropriate touching of another. Sporting contest participants are held to have consented to certain types of touching even though that touching may do physical harm (e.g., being tackled in a football game). However, the law will not allow you to consent to a touching that is likely or certain to cause death.
In my humble legal opinion, a properly drafted, clearly worded release would be completely appropriate for a LAN party.
Re:EULA (Score:4, Insightful)
Your parent is talking about something more on the lines of duelling with pistols, where the contestants goal is to kill each other.
Re:EULA (Score:3, Funny)
Which, of course, I will sue you over tomorrow
Re:EULA (Score:3, Interesting)
Not likely, since sydney is The third most litigious city in the world [adventurepro.com.au].
Need to protect yourself against venue damage too (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if you make all the attendees sign a permission slip saying that you're not responsible for them or their hardware and that they understand that LAN parties, like bungee-jumping, are an inherently dangerous activity, and that they agree to pay for any damage they do, you still need to protect yourself against attendees doing dangerous or stupid things. Because there's some reasonable probability that they will, and either you won't be able to figure out who it was or they won't have the personal assets or insurance to cover it. Maybe they plug their PC into 240VAC and the blue smoke gets out and sets off the sprinklers, or maybe they plug their Ethernet into the building PBX jacks and fry the PBX (yes, I know RJ45 is designed to discourage problems like that), or maybe their extra-high-power 802.11b card triggers the garage door opener and some outsider steals the snowplow, or your PCs use up too much power and a circuit breaker trips, taking out the coffeepot in the lobby, or who know what other stupid things can happen.
Re:EULA (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:EULA (Score:5, Funny)
a 4 year LAN party! WOW!!! how many cases o' bawls were drunk during those 4 years?!?
sorry, couldn't resist :)
Why not have an entry fee? (Score:5, Insightful)
They have that. Sell T-Shirts? (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe sell T-shirts - have some onsite, and set up a CafePress store to sell more of them in case you run out?
Re:They have that. Sell T-Shirts? (Score:5, Interesting)
Usually we run a 24 hour event, although last week we had our 5th anniversary, so we did a 43 hour event instead for the same price. I find that if you have a good event, people are more than happy to pay the entry fee. Use some of it to pay for a decent door prize, I find that always encourages extra people to come along, as they have the idea that they might actually come out on top with a $100+ piece of computer hardware.
I also offer prizes for games etc. and have built up a good relationship with a few local businesses who let us put up flyers and posters, as well as donating prizes for us. We have sold t-shirts in the past, but the costs of getting them made up means you can't actually make much money on them, people don't actually want to spend as much for a LAN t-shirt as they would for a designer label.
As for insurance, I've now run 35 LANs without ever needing it, but it's that one time you do need it that it matters.
http://www.blamlan.com/ [blamlan.com]
Invite friends and play games (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Invite friends and play games (Score:5, Insightful)
Insightful. I suppose. Of the majority of guys I play video games with, very few are willing to pay for LAN game time. They either don't see it as 'money well spent', or think they can put together a LAN party on their own and have just as much fun.
We have a game center in town (owned by a friend, ironically) that actually does quite well. The way he's making his money is that he provides everything. You just show up and hand him $4 an hour. It's a huge hit with the jr high and high school kids.
Ignorant Q from non-gamer (Score:2)
Re:Ignorant Q from non-gamer (Score:4, Informative)
He does own a copy for each machine of each game he has installed. I was shocked, frankly. I expected him to take a
He says he's gone over all the legality stuff. There was something to do with Blizzard, which I can't recall. The other stuff he has some loop hole or something. I think it has to do with selling time to be in his place, but using the computers is free
Another interesting thing he's done is setup four moded XBoxen with big hard drives (and great big 40" televisions
There are a few other replies to this comment that I will retort against here, as to avoid making more comments.
$4 an hour is CHEAP. Arcade games, take DDR for example, cost $1 for one game which seldom lasts longer than 15 minutes. Tada! Back to $4. Next we take 20 to 25 top-of-the-line Windows gaming computers and put them on a lag-free network with all the games you could want, fully patched and moded for every current popular game. Unlimited options, maximum quality. $4 is cheap. There is another game center about half an hour away in another town that charges nearly double that AFTER a large membership fee, which isn't required at my friend's business. And he offers memberships as well which give you unlimited play for one flat rate.
Me on the other hand, I play for free (: A little technical support and physical labor goes a long way. It also helps that I save his ass in 16 player Halo from time to time (:
Re:Ignorant Q from non-gamer (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Invite friends and play games (Score:2, Interesting)
KFG
Re:Invite friends and play games (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm guessing you've never held (or been to) a "rent party", the purpose of which is to charge enough for admission (and access to the kegs) to cover the residents' living expenses until the next party. (Those with good accounting skills also factor in the cost of the refreshments when calculating whether the party was a "success" or not, and those capable of long-term thinking factor in the loss of their security dep
Try Linux Australia's "Cheaper by the Dozen" Idea (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know if it would work for all, but
it's worth looking into:
Linux Australia buys a "big ins. policy"
Your branch wants to hold an event
It notifies the LA of type, place, date & times
LA notifies the ins. co. of same
Branch's event is covered by organisation's ins.
Again, I'm not directly involved in details,
but just heard the above scenario described
at its latest conference in January.
It's the kind of thing that could help to both
save small groups $'s -and- strengthen network-
ing among compatible groups... there's incentive
to keep in touch (at least a bit)
You milage may vary...
Or associate/affiliate with a larger entity (Score:2)
Xix.
Word of Mouth (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Word of Mouth (Score:5, Funny)
Underground RAVE LAN Party! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Underground RAVE LAN Party! (Score:2)
Ah, hell, there I go again.
Insurance (Score:5, Funny)
No. Lack of insurance has never been a problem for anyone. Ever.
Re:Insurance (Score:5, Funny)
Consider yourself served.
Re:Insurance (Score:3, Funny)
My recent LAN party (Score:5, Informative)
UT2k4 Onslaught mode - Its an awesome FPS game and Onslaught adds a depth to the game that strategy gamers will find appealing.
Rise of Nations - We played this near the end when we had 8, since that's the max for the game, and it is a great game, simple to learn, hard to master.
Counter-Strike - Simply because it *is* so old-school, even if it's not that great of a game.
My LAN party was, assumingly, smaller than yours, but you just need to scale accordingly.
What the... (Score:3, Funny)
Simply because it *is* so old-school
<stares at screen>
"old-school"? Counterstrike?!
Re:What the... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What the... (Score:2)
Re:What the... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What the... (Score:4, Interesting)
More recent games have better graphics, but I still like QuakeWorld (usually with either the Pain Keep or Team Fortress mods) for playability.
Re:What the... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What the... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What the... (Score:2)
Re:What the... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:My recent LAN party (Score:2)
Re:My recent LAN party (Score:3, Interesting)
I used to host lan parties, and I found that having a bunch of games around for others to install and play is better.
BZFlag - absolute insane tank fun.
Parsec - still a beta but you can have a decent space combat going.
One of the open/free Quake and Quake II versions out there with different GFX and levels.
demo version of games that let you play. (UT2003 play's on lots of hardware that is old.)
RTcW is a great one.
there are GOBS of lan
Local game shops (Score:5, Insightful)
This is because they fear that the rampant piracy that happens at almost gaming LAN will hurt their business. They're probably right too.
Re:Local game shops (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked behind the register at a gas station and our policy was no signs (I felt evil when I had to tell a woman that she could not post a sign asking for help finding her runaway daughter).
If you wanted to post something, you had to talk to the manager and lease the window space.
And the last LAN I went to resulted in me purchasing 3 new games that I got to try out there and that I liked.
Re:Local game shops (Score:3, Funny)
>> I felt evil when I had to tell a woman that she could not post a sign asking for help finding her runaway daughter
Is that because when you got home, you opened the door and yelled, "Honey, your mother's looking for you"?
Dead wrong. (Score:4, Funny)
We were too busy copying Mp3s and movies...
THANKS, FOLKS! I'LL BE HERE ALL WEEK!
Power is an important ingredient ! (Score:4, Funny)
My Party LAN Setup (Score:2, Informative)
Bear in mind, we usually play Starcraft, Old School style.
I'll own you on River styx :P (Score:2)
God spoke to me:
www.geocities.com/James_Sager_PA/love3.html
Choose Finance (Score:2, Funny)
What they say... (Score:5, Insightful)
enemy territory, free and fun (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:enemy territory, free and fun (Score:3, Informative)
Duh!! Wrong!!!! ET is completely free, as in beer. The full game is a free download.
Lan Party Suggestions (Score:4, Interesting)
I've never been to a LAN party so my input will not weigh as much as those who have. However, it may be worth listening to in order to attract the demographic.
Have refreshments and clean bathrooms. Make the machines comfortable to use. If people bring their own kit, be sure to have enough people who have the same games installed to make a decent game or two. If possible, try to moderate the games with some sort of ranking system where the n00bs (like myself) don't get 0wn3d too much by those with m4d 5k177z. I say let them play in their own high-ranking games.
As gaming in general has moved away from the socially unacceptable geek culture and towards mainstream, you'll be gathering an ecclectic group of people with different social skills. Be sure to have enough space for divergent cultures to group themselves. Social retards like myself need to hang out with others like me (I know there are others out there, damn it!) while the more pop-culture trash talking "you are teh suxor" group can have their pissing contest elsewhere.
I enjoy FPS games (ET, UT, TFC), but am not too much into the strategy types (warcraft/starcraft) . I'd go to LAN party events (and would gladly pay theme-park-like admission for a day's worth) but am wary that it's not a social environment I'd be comfortable in.
In any case, good luck to you.
Xbox is fun (Score:4, Interesting)
I have also noticed that it is easier to get girls to play on a console than a PC, YMMV, but there is something to be said for having a mixed gender party.
Easy (Score:2, Funny)
Lots of penises.
BølerLAN Norway (Score:3, Interesting)
The event is being held at the local school. We are also lucky that the district council is sort of sponsoring us with manpower that is used for security and running a nice non-profit stand with various food and candy.
The killer event is the Quake 3 Special Event. It is a concept that i borrowed from CodeBreaker [codebreaker.no]. Two rounds of deathmatch that lasts 20 minutes each. 38 of 60 people joined the game, and we had much more fun than with Ut2k4 1on1
What's missing... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's missing... (Score:3, Interesting)
Right.. (Score:2)
Re:What's missing... (Score:2, Funny)
Just get more people.. (Score:5, Interesting)
As for consoles, we did allow people to solely bring consoles for a while, but found nobody actually bothered. It seems console gamers don't want to sit and just play games for a whole weekend; however, the consoles make a great break from pc gaming, and are good for quick tournaments. We've usually got an xbox and ps2 connected up to a projector as well as ProjectorGames [projectorgames.co.uk] who have a pretty unique product, I'm not sure if they'll travel out to the US though
For advertising, the best is word of mouth, but before we got a bigger following posting at schools/colleges/universities gave us great success - We also got an interview on local radio, as the event can be passed off as a local community type affair.
Sponsors do seem to only look for a proven record and shear numbers of attendees, so make sure you've got a good record of past events on the site. You might want to target local firms to start with, these will benefit from the targeted advertising your LAN will offer, as the small (comparatively) attendance of your LAN could mean a large increase in customers for them.
The main trend with LANs seems to be they're getting more popular, but also, the big ones tend to become really corporate, so maybe the niche is not to sell out?
Consoles are the way to go. (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't play games (Score:5, Informative)
Insurance is only expensive if you don't need it.
For $500 you avoid being on the hook, potentially for the rest of your LIFE, if something bad happened at your LAN party. You'd be insane not to get insurance!
Unless your business is to pay fortunes in medical/legal/pain and suffering bills, pass that risk to someone else who is used to taking the risk. Do you have the $50,000 to even defend yourself against a (possibly bogus) claim? If you are worried about $500, probably not! Does the insurance company? Probably so. You'd be insane not to take out insurance!
Do bad things ever happen? Yes they do!
Someone hurts themselves. Someone hurts someone else. Somone get's electrocuted by your wiring even though it is their own fault. Somone is on drugs and dies at your party. You'd be insane not to take out insurance.
Now if something bad did happen at your party, and someone needed expensive medical attention, don't you WANT to encourage them to get it? Don't you WANT to know that they will be taken care of by your insurance. This isn't just thinking about yourself, it is also thinking about them. You'd be insane to skip insurance!
Now, the per-event cost for a one event type thing every year is going to be high relative to what it would cost to add on event insurance to an existing type of policy. You might check if a local company would sponsor the event and add the liability coverage to their policy (it will be cheaper). If you have a friend who is an insurance broker you might try asking them as well, though at $500 we are not talking much here at all, so an insurage agent making $10 commission is not going to spend much time with you.
I don't play games online, and don't know insurance, but hope the 2 cents helps. Kudos for taking out insurance the first time around.
Re:Don't play games (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Don't play games (Score:3, Funny)
Don't be silly, the first job requirement on becoming an insurance salesman is to alienate all you friend by trying to sell them insurance. After that they don't have any friend except other insurance salesman.
You're not an insurance salesman by any chance, are you?
Be prepared (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Be prepared (Score:4, Funny)
Promotion and Premonition (Score:3, Interesting)
Lots of people would like the LAN party idea if they simply only knew what it was. Many of my buddies (long time computer guys) are just now learning what games like Evercrack or Counterstrike are and what a real multiplayer experience is. The best damn way to promote these things is do demos and to get flyers taped to games at the stores that sell the multiplayer games you are offering. Charge a small entry fee and split it down the middle with the store that got you the referral. This doesn't have to be much mind you, just enough to cover some network cabling/power bars and network cable/hubs. You don't care if you break even on this one, but the event will never happen if you don't buddy with someone to make it happen and let someone know about it. If you don't charge anything for it, people will think you are not worth the time because you don't even put a price on it. If rations and equipment are covered all you will be worried about is how many people you frag. As it should be!
In running a few little events myself the "ramp up time" does matter. You will get many more people with a years notice than you would with six months, and if you are talking 3 months or less lead time I wouldn't even bother. It simply takes time for people to tell their buddies about the event and for people to see your web links and ads. For these smaller events you need lots of time for them to really work. It's the difference between your event breaking even/profiting and you losing money. Even if you don't want to profit on it a serious gaming event costs money to put together, and the people coming know it costs you something so don't feel bad about sharing the costs with them.
-Mind
Preparation is everything. (Score:5, Informative)
There are also a number of programs/tools that can help you run a LAN such as "LAN-in-a-box" (the LAN I attend uses a similar web-based system but I can't remember its name... they both allow you to run competitions easily) and HLSW (remote console program for a wide variety of games - doubles as a server browser).
A big whiteboard can also come in handy for organising competitions and getting information to the LANners. A PA system is helpful if you can't yell loud enough.
Currently popular games at this LAN:
Call of Duty (and I expect the expansion CoD: United Offensive - but its still new)
UT2K4 (Or any other Unreal Tournament)
Quake/Quake3
Starcraft/Warcraft (+ different warcraft styles TD/dota etc)
Age of Mythology
RTCW: Enemy Territory (Excellent *free* as in beer game)
Counter-Strike (Still OK in the wee hours with nothing else to do)
I'd suggest setting up your servers with as many different games as possible and change between them as requested/needed. When you change the servers around let people know a different server has just started so they can join and get things going.
Relating to costs/breaking even (Score:2)
Also, you may want to offer some sort of CoOp membership, so you can share any profits with the CoOp members, again heading off any bitching about fees increases/profiteering. It's all about having fun, right? Not profit
Give them a goal (Score:2, Insightful)
Home Insurance May Help (Score:2)
Company donations (Score:5, Informative)
A tourney on the other hand, has an entrance fee, prizes, and is generally a lot bigger with a rented location. Most I've been to included prizes, and were prepared months in advance.
A few of the prizes were in the $200-300 range for the top players, other ones included higher-end CPU fans , a desk lamp, mouse pads, PSU's and various other geeky things. Local companies - mostly computer shops, etc - were named in the brochures as sponsors, and donated most of the prizes.
Now, I'm not suggesting everyone go out and try to hunt down sponsors, since then supply would dry up. But if you're willing to put the effort down for a real party, then it can turn out quite nicely. In fact, the first one I ever went to had big name sponsors (and this in a not-so-big city) from major gaming companies donating games for recognition. Remember, it doesn't take much effort to put a sponsor's name up on a poster, and there is something of automatic recognition involved when the sponsor's games are played.
Used to hold Monthly LAN parties... (Score:5, Informative)
We would have seperate rooms (or clusters in an open environment) with about a doz games installed on each machine: Some of the games we used at one time or another:
Everyone was *expected* to pitch in $20 per day for expenses. We used McD's for breakfast, Dominos for lunch and Dinner. These days, we have much better food selections available here. I suggest some better variety, but sitck with finger food that does not make a mess. Keyboards can be hard to clean when slobs use them.
Our sessions would go as long as 3 days (Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. We would draw between a dozen and 60 people, mostly based upon the size of the room(s) we had available to us. All spots were reservation (pay in advance, no refund) or walkin at $50 per day if space was available.
For getting the word out, we would use the cheap/free papers in the area, and the computer stores (offered free advertising at our gig if they advertised our gig at their place). We would go to all the Grocery stores and place 8.5x11 flyers up. They would last a few days - use tearoffs on the bottom to let people get the phone number to contact you easily. Local colleges are a great place to spread the word. We have an Ivy Tech and an IUPU here, so we put flyers on their boards as well (the local computer groups did for us to make it proper). If you are not to shy, putting a sign on the car (just like for sale) works wonders, believe it or not.
For insurance, never had it. Maybe a bad idea nd maybe not. I do not know. We never needed it. We had all people sign a waiver to be part of it. No kids under 18 without a guardian or responsible adult - legally adult, not acutally 8-).
Worst thing that happened, one of the players kids (about 10) hurt his ankle while running around (expressly forbidden in the rules the parent signed). A few keyboards were toasted with soda and other things. Lost one computer. Person who toastes it paid for it at least.
Beyond that, everything was always smooth. We learned about the 4th time to provide an area for Significant Others to sit and do something (TV was good).
We always made a profit. We allowed several companies locally to advertise at the bigger ones (the ones that were not private ivitation only). Compnies liked it for exposure, and the players got coupons from the companies, so most of them liked it.
Hope that helps. And good luck. LAN Parties get old fast when your career takes off and you have children.
InnerWeb
Plan ahead. (Score:3, Informative)
Find a fixed or regular location (that is one you have an annual lease on yourself or one you agree to rent for one day per month, repeatedly). Light industrial space is cheap as hell, costing less for a month than most rented spaces will cost for a night. Everything becomes cheaper if you operate from a fixed location. Even if you just find a hotel and negotiate for monthly meetings, you'll get a better deal than hunting around every time. Also, people will be more likely to show up repeatedly if they don't need to find you each and every time. If you want predictable results, you have to be predictable.
Negotiate annual or multiple event coverage, not per-day. A fixed location will make this much cheaper as there are fewer variables. $500/day is insane if you're going to be doing this on a regular basis.
Offer door prizes.. (Score:2)
Trust me, a LAN party is a perfect place to get people interested in personal hygiene(sp?)
One idea of the many suggested: a hotel. (Score:5, Informative)
Pros:
Their property, their insurance. So long as cables are secured and they approve of the layout you should be fine.
Possibly a lower cost on the facilities. Say it's a small hotel with 300 rooms, it's off season, a time they're normally almost empty and you can book 150 rooms. It's quite likely they'll give you the meeting room space for free or a low per person charge. Add in the profit (for the hotel) on overpriced drinks (soda, coffee, booze, etc.) and the money made on what would normally be an empty room.
If the hotel can make a good profit off the whole thing they'll likely comp a few rooms for the organizers. Keep everyone in line (i.e.: not destroying the place) and the hotel might do a better deal the next year.
Cons:
Their property, their rules. If they run a hard ass place then your lan party is going to be like a high school study hall. If they're willing to look the other way on certain minor issues like late night noise (in the gaming area) or someone having a toke outside then things are good. Expect wrist bands for the players and guests.
No outside food or drinks. Hey, they want to make some money of this event too and drinks are quite profitable. They'll most likely be hard on this one. Try to preset the prices of sodas, beers and a few food items. Remember, they can't say no to your own food/drink in a guest room but they can (and will) forbid it in the gaming area.
They might want you to cover any loses. Get a contract and get it approved by a lawyer. If a bunch of people no show on their rooms and the hotel can't charge them for whatever reason you could be left on the hook. Again, get a contract and a lawyer. A few hundreds bucks spent will be well worth it.
Advice on dealing with the hotel:
Check the place out. Does it look like they handle meetings often? How's the access to the proposed gaming area? Enough parking and can some be reserved? Take lots of photos during the walk through for your record, planning and the web site pushing the event. Again, a room no sold is lost revenue. If they're empty (like Cape Cod in February) they're much more likely to give you a better deal if they have a bunch of rooms sold. Forget any holiday weekends. Try to book when no other meetings are taking place. Multiple meetings might mean less access to the gaming area before and after play. Make sure the contract covers clean up. Reasonable is you removing the wiring you laid and the duct tape you use to cover it. Food, drink, table breakdown, chair stacking and general cleanup; the hotel's problem. Budget a few bucks for tips to the staff you deal with. This might really help you in the end.
Be mature. They're running a business with some tight profit margins. If they can make money on the deal they'll talk to you. If not they'll boot you out within 30 seconds. Welcome to the hotel industry. Sign nothing until your lawyer approves it. While there are some very honest hotels out there, there are also some that will screw you as much as they can. Be careful.
A hotel can be a great place to have a lan party or you're worse nightmare. Be careful but check it out.
Advertise on slashdot ... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm also involved in running lan parties (<shameless plug> In Adelaide SA </shameless plug>) [inlan.net.au].
I think the biggest draw is word of mouth, but since you're only running them once a year, and not advertising much, you'll have to target your advertising better.
Try targetting groups of geeks, ask to advertise at the IT department of your local schools / colleges.
Perhaps you could have a bring a friend discount.
Maybe you need to lower your price, or improve the perceived value.
For our LAN parties we charge $20, but we chuck in a BBQ, 3 cokes and a pizza. We don't pay insurance as we are covered by the venue, we also don't pay any rent / hall hire.
Consider getting this book (Score:3, Informative)
I haven't read it, but I read the authors LiveJournal, he's a smart guy who knows his stuff, and if I was even planning a 4 hour lan party for just half a dozen friends I'd go out and buy it on strength of his name alone.
One Method that worked for me... (Score:5, Interesting)
We started very small: just 8 of us in a guy's house. If we met someone that was a gamer, we invited him to the next month's event. After a few months, the host's wife got a little annoyed at the size of the event. So, we had to move...
We rented out a local Lion's Club for a reasonable price & had an 25 people at the first event. We charged everyone $15 to get in & asked everyone to bring some sort of snack or drink. We even taped heavy black plastic trash bags over the windows so nobody suffered from glare). It was a great success.
Next, we started a small website with a FAQ (adults only, no booze, no drugs, games we play, etc...), a map to where we hosted the event, and a message board to see what games people wanted to play. We also made it clear that we were a Quake2 Lan Party so that we attracted people who were all interested in the same game.
We actually planned out 80% of the event (1PM until 2AM) so that there was usually a scheduled activity right around the corner. Events included the following:
-Started with a few deathmatch servers that people could hop in & out of while configuring their computers. We used some mod that kept things "even" - the more frags you had, the less damage your weapon did (and vice versa)...it got the point where you'd have to rail some newbie 4 times to kill him, but a few shots from him with his pistol would kill you - very fun stuff & extremely even scores)
-A silly tournament of sorts (QPong, Chase the chicken, or the like). Always good for a laugh.
-A group tournament such as CTF, Team Rocket Arena, Ball & Chain (Strongest player teamed up with the weakest player - usually decided by parsing the logs of all the previous tourneys & the warmup servers)
-30 v 30 Rocket Arena (the absolute highlight of the evening - there's nothing like running around on a HUGE map with 15 of your teammates trying to kill all who stood before you. It was always fun if you were the last man on one team...the whole place would errupt in cheers if you actually killed one of the mob hunting for you).
-A 1 v 1 tournament. We usually gave out medals or trophies to the top 3 players (very cheap, but such a nice item to have - just for pride; I think I still have one above my computer). We actually attracted the top players in the Houston area to this event & had several top 50 GPL players show up on many occasions.
Most tournaments were double elimination & there were always a few deathmatch servers to retire to after you were bumped out of the tournament.
People had fun playing, but the real fun always happened near the food table: you got to meet the guy who kept fragging your ass & B.S. with him or brag with your friends about some kick-ass kill.
As we grew, we had to install a new sub-panel at the lion's club to handle all the computers (an organizing member was an electrician & just charged us for parts), we frequently borrowed a switch (one of the guys worked for a networking company & didn't mind us borrowing a high powered switch for the weekend) & we started providing food (we raised the admission to $20/person but provided lunch AND dinner plus more snacks than you could eat - I usually shopped the local sales or Sam's Wholesale club).
Towards the end, we were an official GPL (??) qualifing event, had real sponsors (for door prizes & tourney prizes): Bawls, Logitech, & a local porn shop (one of the players managed an adult video store - his door prizes were very interesting), and had the tiny Lion's Club rocking with 70+ people. We even had to turn people away.
Here are the things that I think made us successful:
1. Start small & grow into the event. This did several things: we never lost a lot
The precise anatomy of a lan party: (Score:3, Funny)
\
Computer Computer
\
-----------
| hub |
-----------
add more users, and sometime connect hubs to other hubs.
Lots of hassle, but worth it all. (Score:4, Interesting)
Why insurance? (Score:3, Interesting)
Turn the LAN party into a FUNDRAISER! (Score:3)
What if you turned the LAN party into a fundraiser for a certain charity? You open up a lot of free advertising for an event when it's for charity. You can get local businesses to donate free dinner awards, gift certificates, etc... and allow you to post ads in their stores. You could definately get the local paper(s) to do a local-interest story a few days before the event. And you can probably get a local radio station to do a remote from the site on the day of the event. Depending on other news events, you might also get a local TV station to do a local-interest bit.
"Well that's nice, but what if we want to make money?" I re-read the original "ask /." in addition to this follow-up and I didn't get the impression the group had formed a for-profit entity or had a goal of making lots of money. But if you did want to make money, it may require a delayed-gratification approach. Setup your for-profit entity as a sponsor of the non-profit fundraising event. Donate all proceeds from the event as advertised, but use the venue and crowds to get the word out about your LAN-party company.
Add some other distractions to keep gamers' non-gaming [spouses|friends|SOs] occupied. Have a raffle for prizes donated by local businesses, have a giant moonwalk for the kids, invite Joe's Tech Shack to setup a small demo booth of his new whiteboxes. Come up with cool ad slogans...
Blast AIDs with flash-grenades!
Strafe the legs off of breast cancer!
Come frag-ass for charity!
Well, maybe some of this is getting out of hand, but you get the idea.
Re:One thing is for sure (Score:2, Funny)