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A Lament for the LAN Party

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Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#81

Post by harlanlewis »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #39
beggi wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me crazy but as I understand it from kids today it's pretty cool to be a "nerd" today

The word "nerd" is so overused that a supermodel who likes Dickens considers herself a nerd. It's really not the word it used to be.

Ye olde definition implies physically attractive people can't be nerds, and unattractive people can't not be nerds.

That's only useful for making an us vs them label. It's a good thing that anyone can nerd out on Dickens.

I've heard before that it's a question of degree (“prove just how much you like Dickens!”), which is kind of an uncool way to discourage intellectual curiosity. Not everyone was forged in the pale glow of monitors in their parents' basement, some have to work at it later.

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#82

Post by eric_h »

lotharbot wrote: post #74

LAN parties are still a thing among tight-knit gaming communities where the personal relationships are strong. For example, I still play Descent [0] competitively, along with perhaps a few hundred others off-and-on. There's a group of about 20 of us who have become really close friends in the last few years, and we try to have a big LAN party every summer. We've also had quite a few small get-togethers where a handfu…

Wow. Descent? I haven't even thought about that game in a decade and a half. I feel like the hardware required to play that game doesn't really require lugging, these days.

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#83

Post by shinymark »

atonse wrote: post #34
NeutronBoy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, the advent of broadband and routers now mean networking is literally plug and play, not spending 2-3 hours trying to either set up a DHCP server, or assign static IPs and trying to figure out why it's not working, only to find out that someone mistyped it.

I remember buying a networking kit at Best Buy in the late 90s and then with 3 of my friends spending hours just trying to get the computers to ping each other. There was also always someone who would have to reformat and reinstall Windows.

This resonates so much! In our group who started with IPX networks to play Doom there was always one less technical kid whose PC was so loaded with viruses the rest of us would spend a few hours helping troubleshoot his issues. A reformat always came next.

Pat, you were a legend.

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#84

Post by iamdave »

harlanlewis wrote: post #81
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word "nerd" is so overused that a supermodel who likes Dickens considers herself a nerd. It's really not the word it used to be.

Ye olde definition implies physically attractive people can't be nerds, and unattractive people can't not be nerds. That's only useful for making an us vs them label. It's a good thing that anyone can nerd out on Dickens. I've heard before that it's a question of degree (“prove just how much you like Dickens!”), which is kind of an uncool way to discourage intellectual curiosity. Not everyone was forged in the pale g…

Ye olde definition implies physically attractive people can't be nerds, and unattractive people can't not be nerds.

An alternate interpretation is that 'nerd culture' has become an ugly perverted commodity of its former self to the point where the requisite "hot girl" is put in front of eyeballs with no authenticity and offers semi-humorous-because-she-doesn't-quite-get-it-but-still-tries-her-best one liners while simultaneously manifesting this new proto manic pixie dream nerd girl persona-having no real purpose or reason for being there other than to rope in the casual viewer looking for something, anything, anything but another TCP/IP joke.

Physically attractive people can be nerds. Nerds can be physically attractive. But let's not fool ourselves on those tropes that still exist and get trotted out there making everyone look like damn fools: The hot girl who tries to be nerdy with a front as transparent as saran-wrap, and the incapable, slightly awkward-looking but you can't figure out why nerdy guys who pine after her because she totally understood how heavy the ending to Empire Strikes Back was and enjoyed it.

I call "The Big Bang Theory" to the stand.

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#85

Post by honua »

ModernMech wrote: post #22

LAN parties were an interesting normative force at my high school. You always hear about the tension between jocks and geeks. But jocks like playing video games as much as geeks, who had the technical know-how to get networked games going. So the jocks at my high school were really interested in being friends with us nerds. We finally had something in common! Our LAN parties were this strange alternate universe where…

I always thought it was just a movie stereotype to have 'jocks', 'nerds' and 'cheer leaders'

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#86

Post by holografix »

Oh the LAN party... Me and my mates in Rio, around '99, would carry our PC towers, monitors, and backpacks of cables, keyboards and tech paraphernalia to our one of our apartments in Ipanema and set up wherever we could. There'd be maybe 4-6 of us.

We'd spend maybe 4 hours trying to get all pcs "visible" to other pcs on the Windows network. At first we used coaxial cables and T plugs with a terminator at the last computer, what a nightmare. Then eventually I think someone brought a switcher and we used the regular rj-45s.

We still talk about epic Starcraft battles, insane coop quake run throughs and the day Diablo II came out and we played 12 straight!

Usually at the end, in the early Saturday or Sunday morning we'd go get a cheap breakfast go home to get changed and meet back up at the beach to debrief last night's shenanigans.

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#87

Post by thallian »

cptskippy wrote: post #6
ModernMech wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My LAN career started with StarCraft and ended with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Anyone play that?

W:ET was a ridiculous amount of fun.

I love ET! Have you heard of ET: Legacy? It's a modern implementation of the client and server and works great ( had a server running on FreeBSD).

https://www.etlegacy.com/

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#89

Post by smt88 »

honua wrote: post #85
ModernMech wrote: post #22

LAN parties were an interesting normative force at my high school. You always hear about the tension between jocks and geeks. But jocks like playing video games as much as geeks, who had the technical know-how to get networked games going. So the jocks at my high school were really interested in being friends with us nerds. We finally had something in common! Our LAN parties were this strange alternate universe where…

I always thought it was just a movie stereotype to have 'jocks', 'nerds' and 'cheer leaders'

It was at my school. Our jocks and nerds were very intermixed and hung out together in different groups, and our cheerleaders were mostly losers. The "popular" girls didn't really do any sports or activities to speak of, except for some resume-padding stuff like Key Club.

At other schools, I honestly think the stereotypes in movies became self-fulfilling prophecies. The terminology came from movies, and perhaps some of the division did as well.

Re: A Lament for the LAN Party

#90

Post by jon-wood »

ajmurmann wrote: post #73
noonespecial wrote: post #48

I loved lan parties. I hated moving my 17" CTX crt monitor to them. It was as deep as it was wide and must have weighed damn near 40 pounds. The future ain't all bad.

I had a 19" CRT which was terrifying to transport. Later I met a friend in college with a insane 21" CRT. Transporting that thing was like a proper move.

I had a big 21" CRT that would go to LAN parties with me. It took me and a friend to move it, and it once broke the table it was put down on with its weight.

Amazing monitor though.

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