Getting Ready For A Mega LAN Night

[Moredhel]

I'm a regular LAN goer, for those a bit further up north I recommend epic.LAN (www.epiclan.co.uk) then of course there's Multiplay's i-series, with Insomnia 42 going on this weekend (I'm here right now!)

I also fairly regularly go to Dreamhack over in Sweden, which is in a league of it's own with 10,000+ people going.

I must say I don't like the big i-series LANs as much as others, I find them a bit serious and tournament focused, so I've not attended one since i28. I'm only at this one because we have one of the private boxes, so we can have music and a bit of privacy. It's a much more cozy atmosphere.

Multiplay's other LAN, StratLAN (in Stratford-upon-avon, funnily enough) is brilliant though, much more of a party than about the gaming, and that's what you want in the long run. Dreamhack has managed to keep the party atmosphere too, at least in their main hall, with live sets by bands and DJs through the event etc.

Not sure what people mean by expensive though, attendance and 4 nights at the Newbury Hilton hotel is only costing me about £350 in total, that's the equivalent price to night at a restaurant followed by the pub!

 

[PardonTheWait]

I'm a regular LAN goer, for those a bit further up north I recommend epic.LAN (www.epiclan.co.uk) then of course there's Multiplay's i-series, with Insomnia 42 going on this weekend (I'm here right now!)

I also fairly regularly go to Dreamhack over in Sweden, which is in a league of it's own with 10,000+ people going.

I must say I don't like the big i-series LANs as much as others, I find them a bit serious and tournament focused, so I've not attended one since i28. I'm only at this one because we have one of the private boxes, so we can have music and a bit of privacy. It's a much more cozy atmosphere.

Multiplay's other LAN, StratLAN (in Stratford-upon-avon, funnily enough) is brilliant though, much more of a party than about the gaming, and that's what you want in the long run. Dreamhack has managed to keep the party atmosphere too, at least in their main hall, with live sets by bands and DJs through the event etc.

Not sure what people mean by expensive though, attendance and 4 nights at the Newbury Hilton hotel is only costing me about £350 in total, that's the equivalent price to night at a restaurant followed by the pub!

£350 to play computer games for four nights?

I'm not against it, but that's hugely expensive!

 

[Anim]

No thats the hotel down the road, the ticket for the event is between 60 and 90 depending on discounts and other options.

 

[Fr0dders]

I think one was in the pipeline, but fell apart when trying to decide a venue.
The Scotts didn't want to come down south, and the southerners thought anything past Birmingham was too far north.

Would be very cool though

haha that thread was epic.

When people started to question it and said it was going to fail they were given a right bashing.

Moredhel, I am the Chair if you will of this commitee and I understand you have your concerns regarding this event, that is your personal opinion and you are entitled to that.

I would however like to kindly ask you do not assume how this is being organised. Myself and a group of well informed and extremely committed forum members are working hard to ensure this event is a HUGE success.

There is much happening behind the scenes which I feel is not conductive were it to be posted on the forum at this early stage.

I think that all involved at this stage are working very hard and I have full confidence this event will go ahead.

Obviously, the proof is in the pudding so I look forward to seeing you at the event.

If you have any further concerns, please mail me directly at jamespalmer at ntlworld.com

I would rather keep the negativity away from the thread, especially when the guys behind the scenes are doing all they can and have shown more commitment than I could have hoped for.

They were adament it was going to happen and had diagrams and everything !

And yet, nearly 10 months after those posts, theres still been no OcUK LAN.

 

[Moredhel]

haha that thread was epic.

When people started to question it and said it was going to fail they were given a right bashing.



They were adament it was going to happen and had diagrams and everything !

And yet, nearly 10 months after those posts, theres still been no OcUK LAN.

They lambasted me for raising concerns about how they were attempting to organise the event, I said it was unlikely to happen if they tried building it by committee rather than an organised structured way. Sorry to say it looks like I was right.

 

[Judgeneo]

They lambasted me for raising concerns about how they were attempting to organise the event, I said it was unlikely to happen if they tried building it by committee rather than an organised structured way. Sorry to say it looks like I was right.

I'm fairly sure there are still a lot of people who would be interested in a OCUK LAN. How should we structure the organisation of the organisation or the planned possible event?

 

[Fr0dders]

I'm fairly sure there are still a lot of people who would be interested in a OCUK LAN. How should we structure the organisation of the organisation or the planned possible event?

the same way every other OcUK meet / event has been organized

Somebody choses a venue and a date, and organizes it and waits for people to turn up.

Providing you don't do stuff to make it inaccessible like hosting it on the Orkney islands on a wednesday morning you'll have people turn up.

The notion of trying to please everybody just ends up for a recipe for disaster as you will never get everybody to agree.

 

[Blackstar_solar]

For the southerns around our lan is www.thebiggame.org. Held near Southampton, we've just had one though, but should be one later in the year. Only £25 for Friday 6pm - Sunday 6pm. Always a good one.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Few mates round for beers and a few games once a month (max) fine...

Tons of nerds getting together to do some mass nerding = nerdy.

 

[bmi92]

Looks epic! I'm wanting to head over to Dreamhack this summer, any been and have experiences to share?

 

[Menthis]

Agree with the overclockers LAN, would be pretty epic

 

[Moredhel]

Looks epic! I'm wanting to head over to Dreamhack this summer, any been and have experiences to share?

I've been to 3 of the winter events now, they are awesome. I recommend staying in the scandic hotel opposite the venue as the sleeping halls in the venue themselves are horrible. Cold, loud and crowded. The venue is dry but the hotel has a nice bar, although alcohol (and eating out in general) in Sweden is VERY expensive by UK standards, expect to pay upwards of £40 / head in a restaurant in Jonkoping.

Generally everyone's English is very good, we never had any trouble making ourselves understood, and all the expo people are happy to stop and have a chat. The atmosphere at the events if you're in the main hall is awesome, lots of (loud) music and generally quite the party atmosphere. The network is awesome, never had a problem, and the internet connection (at 45gigabit) means that if you have to download a game over Steam or something the bottleneck is on the 100mbit link to your desk.

The venue is a lot more spartan than UK lans, the "table" you get is a palette supported by other palettes, so I recommend taking some duct tape to soften the edges and definitely take a mouse mat. You also have to supply your own network cables, which is another departure from UK LANs.

The Dreamhack Game, a sort of logic / puzzle AR game, is always fun, and gets you moving around the venue a bit.

The opening ceremony is always awesome.

 

[Dokinator]

 

[Dokinator]

Want another LAN soon...