As a computer gamer myself I think a LAN Party room would be awesome. This would also attract many more con goers. Very large lan parties usualy cost $25+ a person for 150 system setups etc. Im just throwing out an idea, but this may also perk some more people to come, and would be a great extra for those people who prefer to come to sit back and have fun. At the past few cons I have been to the gaming rooms later in the evening were the most packed, when other parts of the con started slowing down. Die hard gamers will usualy play at all hours of the night, so this would also allow for a good thing for night owls to go watch/do.

Chaos with the grea idea!!!!

That would be pretty cool. I've hosted a few LAN parties myself, its fun and like he said it would give night owls somethin to do besides roam the halls and pester those who want to sleep.

This is definatly something we will have

Last week we checked their wireless network, though for a true lan party that isn't even an issue.

As for anything wired, I have PLENTY of equipment, I even have access to a few 48 port switches. At any rate, find out what is going to be needed and Ill bring the equipment. :)

As will I. I've got a few wireless/wired combo routers. :D

I assume these things are BYOC?

So what games are we talking about? Like, Counterstrike? Or do you guys want to go at it in "The Sims Online"?

ACK! SIMS! But, then I'd spend the entire con playing and miss out on everything else...

Well you cant have a LAN party without Quake3 Arena (I also have the Bawls map for it), so Q3A, StarCraft, CS, and pretty much anything else. We can setup a thread for listing of games for it here, and see what all people have and would like to see. And it would need to be BYOC but I can supply a few extra older computers, 450Mhz, 128MB RAM, 4GB hard drives. These would play games like Q3A just fine. I have about a dozen of those laying around as well as a few others, I could bring perhaps 15-20 extra computers other than my personal 4 system setup I will be using. The problem is I only have around 5 monitors laying around, but I can see what I can do. I have some pull at my old high school in the tech department (where I got the mojority of the computers I own from). I may be able to pull out a few extra monitors, but no gurantees. Also, if we cannot use the hotel LAN I have network servers able to tackle the job too. Depending on how the hotel LAN and network are set up.

I've got a feeling that if this gets set up it will be awesome. :D

Plan on it, and feel free to advertise it anywhere you like.

We have four gaming rooms, I say around 11pm we shut two of them down, pack all the TV's and stuff into a corner or something and let people set up their rigs.

As far as the hotels LAN, we were able to download at about 200kbs to 400 kbs. It wouldn't let us do a ping test, and we had no way to test latancy. It might be a good idea to bring your own server just incase, and no matter what we're going to need some serious switches, hubs, and routers.

As for monitors, I can get a hold of some at a decent price, if worst comes to worst.

How about a couple of these ;)



I have access to 2 of them, with fibre and Cat5 inputs. Not to mention I may be able to pull out some Cisco Catalyst's hehe. Im thinking going all 10/100 with one 10/100/1000 for people whom have the higher cards installed. All my stuff here at home is setup for 10/100 tho. Anyway, Ill find out tomorrow what all I can get.

Liquid...you just became my best friend. I'm all for letting this happen. What about security in the LAN room though? Theft and the like?

I also feel the need to nominate Dawn of War, Enemy Territory and UT2004 for the list. And Anti-vote Starcraft

I re-vote Starcraft!

Do you think starting Lan gaming at 11 pm is too late?

11 Sounds good to me, perhaps 11PM-8AM or something like that. As well, we can broadcast live webcams of the gameroom all night, which would be cool as well. As for security, Im sure we can post a security person in the room for the night, and during the day possibly lock systems up or something. That shouldnt be to much of a problem.

And I re-vote StarCraft too heh.

Side Question for you Mike, do you have anyone to Dj the rave/dance stuff yet?

We can probably set up a storage area for PC's at con-ops too.

As for DJ'ing... a tentative yes, but I'd like to see what you can do regardless! For the dance I'm thinking mostly ani-mixes and stuff, since most cons seem to be leaning towards more traditional DJing and raves, and a lot of people are left asking for more anime music.

Just as a note on the anime mix dance idea, at CCC this year they did that, a large group went to the dance and within about 20 minutes the majority had left or were sitting to the side playing card games lol. My idea for Djing was to bring more game song remixes and other forms of techno. Not just your rave techno, but more of your anime/game techno and j-rock. There needs to be more than just anime songs or remixed anime songs, because it does get rather old quickly, and ALOT of it is hard to do any kind of dancing to, I saw more people just standing around listening than actualy doing stuff. Also, another good thing I see to play is some of the common Flash file songs and such remixed. These tend to get alot of cheers, I have found a remix of Peanut Butter Jelly Time that is rather cool. As well as some other internet and/or cell phone songs of fame. I have a very large collection of this kind of music, so if you want to keep more options open...

Anyway, back to LAN party subject. I confirmed today the ability to use the large Procurve switches and other networking equipment. So if this idea becomes 100% official Ill make a list of equpiment I have available for the con. Ill also start building up some extra computers for use by con goers and set up my personal security on them (so I dont have to repair them while the con takes place lol).

lol Heaven forbid we gotta do tech work at a con Chaos. We take these vacations to get away from that stuff. haha. :D

Seriously though I look forward to the gamefest.

Yeah, I would say the Lan is good to go

Ah, quite nice, quite nice. Time to debate building a computer that actually fits properly in the case, instead of having a tangled array of drives and power supplies hanging out the side. Or else just be lazy and bring the laptop.

I say bring the mess, it's cooler that way!

I like your style... there's something nice about the mess of components somehow working that makes me dislike the idea of cleaning it up any.