What should we do to keep the LAN alive???

This is a repost for the most part to start a poll. Due to only 6-7 regulars and a few monthly stragglers attending the LAN Party every month the LAN is about out of money. We have a couple hundred extra dollars right now (7/10/09). If things don't change soon we will be forced to either charge $15 to $20 per month for less player attendance or move to someone's house, which will likely restrict new attendies....Also moving to someone's house would likely kill the LAN's chances of ever returning to a real venue again, and could kill it altogether.

My recommendation is that if you are wanting to see the LAN continue, at least at the $10 rate per month, you better sign up and try to bring a friend.

Personally I have no issue with paying $15+ a month. That would mean we would only need 7 people to make it work....but right now we have 6 people signed up so we would have to pay about $17 each to pay the rent and that leave no money for new equipment as required occasionally.

What is everyone's thoughts. Personally I really enjoy my one day a month away from the house just doing a LAN party...but I do get tired of begging people to sign-up. Last month we had 9 players which means we lost $10 by having the LAN. We can't keep doing this. Also we have in the past allowed people who come for a half day pay $5 to attend. If we have less than 10 players, we can't afford to do this anymore.

What is boils down to is that the facility costs $100 per month and if we can't get 10 people there every month, we can't keep doing things the same way we are today.
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I guess the first thing to do is see if this attendance problem is specific to the OKGG, or if it just represents a demographics change across the entire LAN scene.

You can fix the former, you can only stave off the latter.

I know I don't attend, but I'd chip in next month to pay for some interns to canvass local colleges with flyers.
Probably have the best ROI from that activity.

LightningCrash wrote: I guess the first thing to do is see if this attendance problem is specific to the OKGG, or if it just represents a demographics change across the entire LAN scene.

You can fix the former, you can only stave off the latter.

I know I don't attend, but I'd chip in next month to pay for some interns to canvass local colleges with flyers.
Probably have the best ROI from that activity.

i honestly think the problem are these forums. new people come to the forums all the time, never to be heard from again. it's the cough*warm*cough welcome they receive. and while it's all meant to be fun and games, cuz all the regulars know the inside jokes, but it singles them out. i know when i'm at a new place i don't want to be singled out and laughed at. i can even think of a few times when members on the board ridiculed others to the point they don't attend anymore. THOSE WERE PAYING CUSTOMERS! 10 to 1 are those that tell about bad service vs good service.

i'm not going to name names, but seriously reflect on your actions on the forums. are you inviting and welcoming? are you considerate toward others, even the regulars? i'm not saying be all touchy-feely and shit, but...

i think the older okgg'ers have moved on with their lives, and newbies don't want to be a part of this lan. i for one have stopped coming to the forums as often, and it's in part due to the same ol' crap here on the forums. this prolly isn't what you all wanted to hear, but sometimes, truth hurts.

/$.02
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I've not mentioned it to my boss yet, but my work has a small office we could potentially use. It has decent A/C. It has heat for the winter. It couldn't hold 50 people, but could hold 20. As for price, would probably just want reimbursement for power usage. Location is I-40 and Merridian. Plenty of parking space but it is not right in front. Only 2 spots up front we could use without making neighbors mad.

There would be absolutely no horseplay in the office. Everyone would have to stay away from my boss's desk and out of ALL of our stuff. I would have to be present for there to be a LAN. Probably okay with alcohol, but you would be expected to behave. The place would have to be left immaculate when the LAN is over. The LAN would need to purchase tables/chairs. Though you'd still be welcome to bring your own chair. The neighbor owns a shredding business and shreds stuff right outside the door, but rarely on Saturdays. Small bathroom. Might need to expand power capabilities.

http://dannyweaver.com/lan
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Nice offer. Buying tables and chairs would be an issue though since we are cash poor.
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Well, I might have a solution for the tables problem. We steal them from the YRUC!

Just kidding, but I think I have access to a bunch of decent wood tables. If not, the 8 foot plastic ones were on sale at lowes for 19.99 about 2 weeks ago. Perhaps we could find some cheap chinese made goodness.
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Anreill wrote:
Why'd you quit coming anyway?

Even when I first started coming you were only there on occasion, but still, you ought to come out.

nimda wrote: i honestly think the problem are these forums. new people come to the forums all the time, never to be heard from again. it's the cough*warm*cough welcome they receive. and while it's all meant to be fun and games, cuz all the regulars know the inside jokes, but it singles them out. i know when i'm at a new place i don't want to be singled out and laughed at. i can even think of a few times when members on the board ridiculed others to the point they don't attend anymore. THOSE WERE PAYING CUSTOMERS! 10 to 1 are those that tell about bad service vs good service.

i'm not going to name names, but seriously reflect on your actions on the forums. are you inviting and welcoming? are you considerate toward others, even the regulars? i'm not saying be all touchy-feely and shit, but...

i think the older okgg'ers have moved on with their lives, and newbies don't want to be a part of this lan. i for one have stopped coming to the forums as often, and it's in part due to the same ol' crap here on the forums. this prolly isn't what you all wanted to hear, but sometimes, truth hurts.

/$.02

Consoles.

Death of the PC game. All PC releases now are just console ports (few exceptions). I didnt think it would ever happen but it is....

LAN attendance started to slowly drop with the release of the X-Box, and has never recovered. Now with the 360/PS3/Wii all with NET play, you can game any time you want from your couch in your panties.

All the young kids are starting out on a console rather than a PC now a days, and the vast majority never leave that platform, so there really is no new blood in the PC arena. Add to it everyone and their dog has high speed net, so the few PC gamers there are can get their LAN fix from home.

It is just not the OKGG, it is LANs everywhere. To get a big crowd you have to offer lots of prizes, tourneys etc. Doing that kills the hosts and burns them out, so it is a double edge sword. You do it and get attendees, but the people doing all the work begin to hate it.

My $.02
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It is my belief that most people just don't want to LAN as much nowadays.

That little LAN I tried to put on here in Poteau the other weekend? I had 4 people show up. No shit, *4* people. And I wasn't charging a dime.

10 years ago, when a lot of people were still on dialup, and the best they could hope for was a 180ms ping, it was a real treat to get to play at a LAN with 8ms ping, where you could rail the hell out of people with ease and then talk shit back and forth across the room. I think that now the ubiquity of fast broadband has made that a lot less novel. Also factor in the relative increase in popularity of console gaming, and the voice chat either built in to games or through Ventrilo or whatever, and it's not hard to imagine why LAN gaming doesn't seem as strong as it once did.

Which is a shame, frankly. I still LOVE the idea of packing up my shit at least once a month and setting it back up in a less than perfectly comfortable room, just for the opportunity to virtually shoot some bitches and then talk smack. Believe me, if I hadn't moved to Bumfuck, Oklahoma, I'd still be there at the YRUC every month.
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What he said......so to combat vs the consoles and ppl wanting to stay at home, you have to go out of your way to draw them in which is a win/lose proposition IMHO.

It is kind of like the book "I am Legend".........LAN being the legend!
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I can only be sarcastic and entirely unhelpful, so I guess I won't try to help.

lanparty.com points to rpgplanet.com now

just sayin'

LANs are still going strong up here. i can find a 20+ person LAN just about every every other weekend, even more frequent during the winter.
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nimda wrote: LANs are still going strong up here. i can find a 20+ person LAN just about every every other weekend, even more frequent during the winter.

(just previewed this and saw how long it is, try to give it a read, hopefully some of it makes sense and might be helpful)

I voted to move it to someone's house and give them the 10 bux for the trouble. BUT I reconsidered this opinion as you never know who someone really is, and even if you know the type of person someone is, you never know who they are going to bring sometime. And MOST of you guye are on the + side of the trustworthiness scale, but I don't know if I would open my own doors to the general public and say "Come on in!"

Every once in a while (a few times a year) I still get invited to a friend's house who is just trying to throw together a small LAN party FOR FREE with cook-out (like grillin' hamburgers, hotlinks, skirt steak, and smoked pork loin) and even with the enticement of FREE SMOKED AND GRILLED FOOD and fixin's, they've been getting smaller and smaller. The last one I went to was me, my daughter, a friend, and the host and his wife, and there were 3 no-shows. The cook-out LAN used to draw in 15 or so friends+family a few times a year.

I hate to say this, but I also think the "CONSOLES" and the "High speed internet" talk is pretty spot on. That coupled with the high cost of PC gaming these days both hardware AND software. Although lower than before, its still prohibitively expensive to purchase a PC just for gaming when you can buy a $200-350 console (even cheaper at pawn shops, and yah theres a couple PS3's and XBox360's sittin in the pawnshop down the street from me last time I went in there) and buy used games for it from gamestop or same said pawnshops for $10-15. (Gamestop no longer sells used PC games)

When good friends don't show up for a FREE LAN party with great FREE FOOD because they would rather not make the effort or have "better things to do with their Saturday", (and that better thing to do is sit on the couch and relax) theres something going on.

Now, theres why I think LAN parties are a dieing breed. In additionto just complaining, heres what I think might make things a little better (because you are asking) in no particular order:

1) Venu. The YRUC sucks ass. Not just in quality of accommodations, but in location. I realize that its the cheapest place we could find, and with dwindling numbers, even it's getting too expensive. Unfortunately, I think it may be if not consciously at least sub-consciously part of the reason people are less excited to come out. When it was at 7's job, it was about the same distance from my house, but I was a whole lot more excited to go there and there were a whole lot more people showing up. I wish I had a suggestion on how to fix this, but unless someone out there has a climate controlled shop in their back yard or something, it looks like we are stuck with the YRUC.

2) Additional things going on at a LAN other than gaming. Lets be honest here. I think (at least when I was attending) there is JUST AS MUCH going on at a LAN other than gaming as gaming. People watching movies, porn, listening to music, internet TV, sharing files of their favorite family videos, etc. Hell, last time we went, even though flatout 2 only has space for 8 players we couldn't even get that many interested in playing it at the same time. Ridiculous. Perhaps some kind of structure to the madness? My favorite times at the LAN was when there were structured tournies, even if just for bragging rights. I even loved to host them. But for some reason people dont want to be bothered with structure anymore. Yes structure can be a little restrictive, but its better than complete chaos. Perhaps also adhereing to the games voting? Have a few games that everyone has ALREADY LADED and spend a proportional amount of time playing them based on the voting list percentages?

3) Using the LAN to fix your PC issues. I'm going to be brutally honest here. I'm all for helping out friends with their problems. But when people EXPECT to be helped with their PC issues when I'm in the middle of a game, it gets really frustrating. Especially if they are (kidding or not) boasting about how its the LAN Party's problem, or whineing because of their problems. People, I make my living fixing other peoples computer problems every day, main job and side jobs. I don't need to be doing it for strangers for free on a day I'm supposed to be relaxing and having fun. Get your shit fixed before you show up and make sure you are fully updated with windows updates and drivers. Don't use the LAN as your time to upgrade your hardware either. How many times has someone showed up with new memory, video cards or what the F&^K ever else and 3 people are trying to get it up and working properly. Again... ridiculous.

4) This is going to sound a little cry-baby-ish but I'm going to say it because its true. Some of you can be a little harsh in your "friendly" banter while playing these games. Its a turn off when you are getting particularly beat down upon in a game you just started playing that day and the people doing it are yelling and screaming at you. (even your own team mates for sucking so bad). I'm not going to name any names here, but there are times when its funny, and times when I got my feelings hurt a little. A little smack talk is good, but to much can ruin a fun game. Some people need to learn where that line is, and not cross it, at least for the sake of allowing EVERYONE to have fun, and hence continue to return to the LAN. Perhaps in the example above where someone is just learning a game or may not be as good as you, you lay the smack down a few times, but then honestly and sincerely try to help them become better at it in a constructive and meaningful way. And no, handing their ass to them over and over is not the best, or funnest way to accomplish this. Some people's skin may not be as thick as your own and scaring off newcomers is counter productive to the longevity of the LAN.

5) Some of you need to learn what the word "boundaries" means and also learn to not cross them. Dry humping your friend is funny the first time, it gets old real fast though. Also, even your BEST FRIEND'S computer is not your computer. it might be funny to you, but leave their shit alone. Don't hack their windows or screw with their settings just to be funny and show you know how to do it. I'd wager that just about everyone attending knows how to do it. Leave your practical jokes at home and save the time spent doing it, and cleaning up the mess you made on their computer for actually playing games.

6) CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS. I'm not your mother, maid, servant, or your towel boy. You make a mess at the LAN its your responsibility to clean it up. I mean seriously, there have been times after the LAN after MIDNIGHT while cleaning up I thought we were attacked by 12 year olds. Theres not much the LAN can do to fix this, theres already a couple LARGE trash bins, and the expectation that you are an adult. Its up to you, the attendee, to act like one.

There's some things.. I hate to be brutally honest, but these are some things that I think might make the LAN a little more enjoyable for everyone.
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5) Some of you need to learn what the word "boundaries" means and also learn to not cross them. Dry humping your friend is funny the first time, it gets old real fast though. Also, even your BEST FRIEND'S computer is not your computer. it might be funny to you, but leave their shit alone. Don't hack their windows or screw with their settings just to be funny and show you know how to do it. I'd wager that just about everyone attending knows how to do it. Leave your practical jokes at home and save the time spent doing it, and cleaning up the mess you made on their computer for actually playing games.

TehDanMan wrote:

5) Some of you need to learn what the word "boundaries" means and also learn to not cross them. Dry humping your friend is funny the first time, it gets old real fast though. Also, even your BEST FRIEND'S computer is not your computer. it might be funny to you, but leave their shit alone. Don't hack their windows or screw with their settings just to be funny and show you know how to do it. I'd wager that just about everyone attending knows how to do it. Leave your practical jokes at home and save the time spent doing it, and cleaning up the mess you made on their computer for actually playing games.

I'd like to point out that the dry humping has stopped since you stopped coming.

And actually the messing with people's computer shit has stopped completely. Though that lan where Noz changed Anreill's wallpaper to a picture of a goofy looking dog was hilarious!

And as always, you are wise Shinare.

I didn't know you guys did all that. I thought you only hid his tower. I know everyone always blmed me when their tower went missing, even though I only did that to bobacus one time. Chairs are a different story though.
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