Multiplay Insomnia. What do *you* do when you go, if you go?

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,897
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In acme's chair.
As the title really.

Do you take a desktop setup, laptop or console? Are there any games you regularly play? Do you partake in tournaments? Wander around admiring peoples systems? Befreind people? Watch presentations? Do 'a bit of shopping'?

How do you spend your time there?

(or indeed, if you haven't yet been, how do you intend to?)

:)
 
When we went to I27 we spent the majority of our time either searching for a toilet that didn't resemble the latrines of a Turkish borstal, arguing with security about opening a door to reduce the 35+ degrees temp, walking to the supermarket for food to avoid the cabin of death and drinking. All in all it was a disgusting 3 days of my life that I never want to repeat. I've never been so ill in my life as I was returning from the pit that is Newbury race course.
 
divaboy said:
I guess this was meant for the PC\CONSOLE gaming forum
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Well no, theres a PC games section and a console games and hardware section, and this applies to both. :p

It's also more about what you get up to at a LAN gathering, and there are lots of people in GD. I like it where it is ;)
 
LOAM said:
When we went to I27 we spent the majority of our time either searching for a toilet that didn't resemble the latrines of a Turkish borstal, arguing with security about opening a door to reduce the 35+ degrees temp, walking to the supermarket for food to avoid the cabin of death and drinking. All in all it was a disgusting 3 days of my life that I never want to repeat. I've never been so ill in my life as I was returning from the pit that is Newbury race course.
Click to expand...

Well from what ive heard, thankfuly it has changed since then.
 
Been to i37, i40, i43, i46 and will be at i49 this summer. They have definitely got much better over the years, the current venue of the Telford International Center handles the event alright, they still try and wring every last penny out of you for food/drink, but at least the facilities have been clean and fully functional (showers etc), a vast improvement over Newbury.

Exhibitors are a lot better of recent years, even OCUK will be there with various staff from the forums. In previous years there was little to do but game at your desk, thankfully there is now loads of extra stuff to do during the day.

Try and go with a load of people you know, the majority of LAN time I spend just having a good time with people I see once a year, doing stuff like BBQs by the tents, chilling in the bar, going out for a meal, and the epic Pub Quiz that Multiplay put on. Gaming gets squeezed in there somewhere :D

Everyone who is there has a common interest meaning you can spark up a chat with anyone, people are all friendly other than a select few, but you can spot those a mile off, and they're generally the ones who won't leave their desk all weekend (not even to shower) due to being glued to CSS on their screen.

Peronally I take a desktop and don't really compete, have friends that do (and came second in LoL last summer) so just enjoy supporting them instead.

Give us a shout if you do decide to go, if any others do then could have a mini-OCUK meet at the bar one night :D


Any questions just ask :)
 
Voxination said:
Been to i37, i40, i43, i46 and will be at i49 this summer. They have definitely got much better over the years, the current venue of the Telford International Center handles the event alright, they still try and wring every last penny out of you for food/drink, but at least the facilities have been clean and fully functional (showers etc), a vast improvement over Newbury.

Exhibitors are a lot better of recent years, even OCUK will be there with various staff from the forums. In previous years there was little to do but game at your desk, thankfully there is now loads of extra stuff to do during the day.

Try and go with a load of people you know, the majority of LAN time I spend just having a good time with people I see once a year, doing stuff like BBQs by the tents, chilling in the bar, going out for a meal, and the epic Pub Quiz that Multiplay put on. Gaming gets squeezed in there somewhere :D

Everyone who is there has a common interest meaning you can spark up a chat with anyone, people are all friendly other than a select few, but you can spot those a mile off, and they're generally the ones who won't leave their desk all weekend (not even to shower) due to being glued to CSS on their screen.

Peronally I take a desktop and don't really compete, have friends that do (and came second in LoL last summer) so just enjoy supporting them instead.

Give us a shout if you do decide to go, if any others do then could have a mini-OCUK meet at the bar one night :D


Any questions just ask :)
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Cheers Voxination, very insightful :)

As you seem to have deduced, I created this thread just to get a general idea of what I might find myself doing at i49, which with any luck, will be the first major LAN I attend.

I am going alone, nobody I know 'IRL' (if you like) are either interested enough to make their way up to Telford, or simply couldnt afford to attend even if they wanted to go :(

So hanging out with existing friends isnt going to happen, but lets hope that I make some new ones while i'm there :p

Another thing that will be a bit strange is I will undoubtedly keep seeing people I know through the forums, but I wont know them by their face. So I thought I would have a little sign or label on my PC with 'acme15' written on it... Just so they know who I am. :rolleyes:

Would be good to actually have a good ol' chat with some fellow OcUK peeps :)
 
arknor said:
lol name tag just take an ocuk mug and a bag of hovis
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I don't own an OcUK mug :(

This may have changed by then!

Hovis? Is this yet another 'inside forum joke/reference' that I somehow missed? :D

I wasn't planning on wearing a badge with 'acme15' written on it, thats just a step too far :rolleyes: I was just going to stick a badge on the side of my case with acme15 on it :p
 
Voxination said:
Been to i37, i40, i43, i46 and will be at i49 this summer. They have definitely got much better over the years, the current venue of the Telford International Center handles the event alright, they still try and wring every last penny out of you for food/drink, but at least the facilities have been clean and fully functional (showers etc), a vast improvement over Newbury.

Exhibitors are a lot better of recent years, even OCUK will be there with various staff from the forums. In previous years there was little to do but game at your desk, thankfully there is now loads of extra stuff to do during the day.

Try and go with a load of people you know, the majority of LAN time I spend just having a good time with people I see once a year, doing stuff like BBQs by the tents, chilling in the bar, going out for a meal, and the epic Pub Quiz that Multiplay put on. Gaming gets squeezed in there somewhere :D

Everyone who is there has a common interest meaning you can spark up a chat with anyone, people are all friendly other than a select few, but you can spot those a mile off, and they're generally the ones who won't leave their desk all weekend (not even to shower) due to being glued to CSS on their screen.

Peronally I take a desktop and don't really compete, have friends that do (and came second in LoL last summer) so just enjoy supporting them instead.

Give us a shout if you do decide to go, if any others do then could have a mini-OCUK meet at the bar one night :D


Any questions just ask :)
Click to expand...

This post covers it for me. I Go with my Clan mates and we meet up on the motorway services and have brunch before heading to the venue (we all have EAS), Get the Tents set up in a good spot (not too close to the toilets). Then put al our PC's in my mates Van and head around to the venue. (Campsite is half a mile on foot but about 2 miles in a motor!). Get the PC's setup (Make sure you have a multi plug adapter as you will be needing it!) Sort out steam and jobs done! Your ready for a weekend of fun and drinking!

I wander around quite a bit as sitting in your own ass vinegar most of the weekend is not at all nice! Oh and the food delivery service is awesome, for years my Clan leader has been trying to get them to draw a dragon on the box of his pizza and last year (i46) they did it along with a badger on the packaging of my Sub Roll :D

Alcohol in the venue is expensive (only a little more so than a pub) but they have good cider (Stowford Press) so I'm happy to pay the price, That said ASDA is not that far away and its very easy to smuggle booze into the event as long as you don't take the ****.

If your still bored after all that then go hassle the fit birds on the ttE Sports stand for free stuff and raffle tickets (most of the stands offer things to do and raffle's to enter), I did quite well last year and walked away with a new Keyboad, Mouse and a Kingston Tiki Head!

Sleep if you want to, the first couple of nights I usually just power through and hit the sack around 5am, get about 5 hrs then back at it after a shower.

Showers, they are no way nearly as bad as Newburys, they did breakdown last year and there was always a que. (they opened the communal showers in the rugby club last year). But really who wants to be in the shower for more than a few mins when there is alcohol and games to play?

Think thats covered it all!
 
Wow, i went to i3 in Swindon. Didnt know this was still going!

lol i feel old....

Slept on the floor under the table where my pc was for a couple of hours.
The smell in that place was bad at the end of it all! Plus i had to stop half way home to have a sleep in the car.
 
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I've been to i46 and went to i48 just a few weeks ago as a PC gamer.

I see insomnia as an opportunity to meet with my fellow clan members, socialise, drink and play a lot more hours then I get chance to normally. i46 was the first time I had met any of them in person and we had such a laugh together. iirc there was 12 of us at i46 and there was 13 at i48 who were BYOC, with a couple of people coming to spec on different days.

EAS is a must imo, otherwise the weekend would feel a bit short. Meeting in spoons at midday on the Thurs for beer and a burger, as more and more clan mates arrive is great. I've not laughed so muich in a long time.

We always make the effort for classy Saturday and the pub quiz. It's a good booze up, opportunity to get away from the screens for a few hours and multiplay do a fantastic job with the quiz imo.

At i45 and i46 the clan entered a team into the BF3 comp, coming 3rd and 2nd respectively.

In terms of top reasons for going, I would order mine as:

1. Meeting clan mates.
2. Having a weekend away with like minded people.
3. Gaming (competitively or otherwise).
4. Pub Quiz.
5. Drinking.
 
I went to i19 at Newbury back in August 2004.

Christ alive that was a long time ago, Doom 3 was just out and there was a guy building a PC there (?!) with an ATi 9800 XT I think? Them were indeed dark, dark days.

Oh and the lights were on-off-on-off-on-off. £3 Dominoes delivered to your desk was an acceptable arrangement, few other LAN tourneys had similar setups but i19 was just massive in comparison.

I'd like to do it all again but I feel I'd want a more mature environment, I'd rather hit the sack early and get up early with a nice coffee and play some games :p
 
Sex with the girl gamers mostly. In their tents or in the showers or anywhere really. Otherwise just booze and gaming. Might have changed slightly the past year or so.
 
Laptop gaming

Although I used to go with a large group, we'd go for a curry, a night out even, and sit in the bar for entire afternoons! One time we played centurion after a 5 hour session that afternoon, we did quite well getting to 47/100.
 
I went to i8, i9, i10, i11, i12, i14, i15, i16, i17, i18, i19, and I think i21, before i stopped. There were magnificent events, you really felt like you had run a marathon afterwards. Usually ended up ill for a few days after too.
The bogs were **** though.

The days consisted of in no particular order:

Trying to fix someone's PC with parts bought secondhand from someone else at the Lan (or an ill advised visit to a local PC shop)
Drinking JOLT cola, and red-bull in far too higher volumes, usually mixed with various alcohols.
Eating crap bought from the supermarket (usually crisps, biscuits and hot chicken bits)
Ordering Pizza to your desk
Drinking beer and boatracing
Playing in some tournaments
Posting on internal forums
Entering the raffle
Entering competitions from sponsors
Waiting for power or network to come back
Building towers from cans/random crap
Pranks
Taking photos
Selling your old crap to someone who has broken their PC
Taking off side panels, and borrowing fans to keep your system cool
Sleeping under desks, or in tents if you were posh
Being ill
Playing lightbikes
Playing other random games you picked up from someone via local fileshare
Complaining about slow internet access
Watching spotty oiks cream themselves over the few girl gamers present
 
Think I did i32-i40 have not been since, would go again if could get a group of people together and had a box, didnt like telford when I was out with everyone. far too much risk of things "going missing"
 
[moved to PC forum]

I have to admit I was disappointed that Multi-play didn't have their own iSeries only servers for a true LAN experience. I would have liked to have played people in the hall as generally it was Internet based.. so no different from being a home really.

That said, you do get to see other peoples rigs and generally socialise if that's what you want to do. I spent most of Saturday chatting to people and joined in with the stage event on Saturday evening (quiz, boat race etc..) It's well worth going just for the experience and i had a great time. Might not go for a few years yet though.


Things i learnt for next time.

- Take a box you can lock up your peripherals when you aren't there and chain that to the desk.. We boxed everything up when we did leave and trudged that back to the hotel. Was a pain.
- Defiantly make the opening events.
- Take your own PC. We hired one. For £75 we got a decent system and monitor for the duration but we had problems and lost about 4 hours on the Friday. My son took his own and he was up and running in no time.
 
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