12-14 of the LAN attendees were from the Ohio-Detroit area but how many overall attended? If it's ok for the majority to travel to the LAN why not be fair and have the majority travel a lesser distance for one go-'round and raise the attendance numbers a bit to boot.
If the next LAN is next year I'd like to go and no matter where it's held I'm going to have to drive anywhere from 10-12hrs to get there possibly more but if it's being held at a venue that isn't a possesion of one of the promoters (like was originally planned) so that those of us that attend can crash under tables and such why not put it to where the guys coming from the left can get away with a shorter drive/flight as well as those of us from south of the Mason/Dixon line?
When it comes to the main concept behind having a LAN I agree with Prime. The bulk of the experience is the social aspect of meeting everyone, talking, joking, etc. I think we would lose that great experience if we were to break the LAN into different regions and then connect over the internet or something. If you are going to do that you might as well just make a gaming guild and roll with that. I mean sure, you could talk over voice chat or something, but it just isn't the same. We need to have one location for everyone to try and get to.
No, it's not out of the question. The new building is owned by a digital media company. They are "young", and the vice-president of the company is an avid gamer. We've already discussed a company vs company LAN, so having another wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility. As more time goes on a my relationship to the new owners gets cemented, we'll see how that pans out. The building would be a fantastic venue for a lan.
Yeah as much as I naturally despise Michigan, (I have to, I'm an OSU fan) Detroit really was a pretty good spot to hold it. As mentioned before, there is a good chunk of SM members from the Ohio/Michigan area and it seemed as though people from other parts of the country and Canada didn't have many problems getting there. Since we are starting to plan so early there should be more than enough time for those who are a long distace away to make it here. I mean Virtues of Evil flew all the way from Puerto Rico, Cluth and Ego drove from North Carolina, and of course we even had Canadians. If they can make it to Detroit then I think others should be able to with the increased amount of time to plan. It just boils down to how bad you really want to come. I loved the LAN so if for some reason Clutch decided to have it in North Carolina I'd be willing to drive that far even if it is like a 14 hour drive or so.
Norge
Ps. Sorry for making multiple post so close to each other. I'm in class so I have to break things up to attempt to pay attention.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited May 2004
This is good discussion. As much as I'd like to see a LAN at the West Coast, I think mid Midwest is probably the best solution. Cincinnati is the best suggestion yet. It's not a long drive for the Midwest and South members. Obviously, it is a long drive for people from south Florida and Louisiana, but not Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The bottom line is as far as geography is concerned, the site needs to be a locus where the most people would actually show up. That ain't gonna happen at either coast, in the deep South, or Northeast.
I was thinking midwest personally...Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma...Illinois. Along thos lines, they're all pretty central. I wasn't thinking of the "Deep South" as a venue, heck, the yankee's would die down here in the mid summer.
This is good discussion. As much as I'd like to see a LAN at the West Coast, I think mid Midwest is probably the best solution. Cincinnati is the best suggestion yet. It's not a long drive for the Midwest and South members. Obviously, it is a long drive for people from south Florida and Louisiana, but not Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The bottom line is as far as geography is concerned, the site needs to be a locus where the most people would actually show up. That ain't gonna happen at either coast, in the deep South, or Northeast.
We need two things-- a fairly geographic central location, AND a place where soemone lives who is willing to find an economical place that has support facilites for the LAN. DeeBe's worked because they had an internet connection and routing in place, had food available, and had places to sit and gab as well as places to have LOTS of fun and gether and game. As was solved, power is also a main issue when you get lots of boxes that draw a lot of power each plus routers to handle high-use bandwidth continuously.
Getting a place that has all this in place is not gonna be cheap, for three days or two, unless there is a city that has more than two or three whihc have to compete to stay busy. Detroit has that, and I suspect Atlanta has that but do not live there. I DO know Atlanta is an established nexus for broadband data routing. If we have some techs who live close enough to Atlanta and know the tech folks there or are part of the tech community there that might be worth looking at.
I will not comment on Cinnci as simply do not live there or know the tech available there or how competitive it is.
Now, why do we need local folks able to set up and check and verify what is at place we choose??? Simple, those folks are going to need to do pre-setup site study and possibly help with and supply routing infrastructure if things LANish get big. I woudl say, unless we have folsk with a specific location in mind, we need to stick with Detroit. Prime is very motivated, most of the staff games, and they like LANs in large proportions. So they know what is needed. AND they know now how to set up DeeBe's. DeeBe's has food when it is open, there are nearby places to get food or eat out, and hotels in area for those who do not want to sleep on the floor or take showers daily.
AND it has an internet connection, right?? So, it has a router or routers. Plus prime can bring a router over because he lives near it, set ti up, and not have to pay for extra day of rental time to allow for running cabling, fixing power issues, and settle the infrastructure in that would be needed for a big LAN. Having people have to travel to set up means expense, and having a place that has to be wired would be a PITA in terms of buying cable, etc just to have the LAN plus folks coming early to set up if we want to offer 2 full game days or more. That cost would have to be covered somehow, folks who are goign to a setup pre-LAN woudl have to pay to stay somewhere probably unless there were folks with room to house them for 4-5 days to allow for setup and takedown of infrastructure. Detroit has a core of folks that live there now.
I would say stick with Detroit until we get a group of folks willing to help with infrastructure in one other pretty central place, in Midwest or southern in a city not too far South for the folks up North. Funny thing, Atlanta is also a transport hub for air travel fro some airlines. Let's see who would be willing to commit to look around their city and see what is there and tell about it, and commit to help set up the basic infrastructure needed or deal for a very good price on a place that has such already.
Logistics can destroy a LAN, fast action and lots of work behind the scenes made the last LAN work....
Actually, the only place besides Deebe's within walking distance to eat was the Big Boy... and that sucked. It was a 15/20 minute drive to get to OHOP, and we had to wait over an hour to even set up our PCs when we arrived because most of the group was gone to White Castle, which took them over an hour to accomplish.
The venue I spoke about in Cincinnati already has an existing high-capacity network and high speed internet connection (faster than Deebe's, at least). The owner of the store is a geek like us (only with more money (well, maybe not more money than Geeky's family (don't deny it, anybody that has more than one Mercedes in the family is undeniably rich))) and when he opened the place (we were his first customers) he told us all about his network, and he did it right.
Not that I disliked Deebe's, but I think the infrastructure there is insufficient to support the volume of gaming PCs we had to hook up. If we can swing doing this thing at Brian's office, that would be really cool. I don't have anything against doing it in Detroit. LANWAR is hosted in Louisville, and while that is a sufficiently central location, it's really just a coincidence; it's hosted in Louisville because that's where the organizer lives, similarly to our SM-LAN experience.
0
Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
edited May 2004
Ok, would you be willing to help study power supply for 20-35 high-power draw boxes running there at once and availability and cost??? If so, one way to get real info and at same time get your idea made more acceptable to many folks who will be spending travel money to come and go and stay there is to get the math done on costs needed and how fast the setup can be and how fast the takedown can be and present them.
Let me make one more hint here, and while this is an alternative idea it would have a few benefits. Is there any reason regional teams and competitions could not be formed, and the teams be made up of the best from each area going to one place-- say teams of three-four folks, with a Team captain chosen from local ad-hoc gatherings and compettions??? Eventually, it would be good to do this, simply because huge numbers of folks running computers at once mean huge bandwidth and power loads. Should we start this model of regional competitions leading into a central competion with bigger prizes???
If we do this, the numbers gathering centrally will be limited. This model could work for folks in US, and possibly UK as a whole, while folks who are good gamers but live far apart could form an ad-hoc team or two... Since this is a "discuss the next LAN" thread, I figured this idea could go here.
Ok, would you be willing to help study power supply for 20-35 high-power draw boxes running there at once and availability and cost??? If so, one way to get real info and at same time get your idea made more acceptable to many folks who will be spending travel money to come and go and stay there is to get the math done on costs needed and how fast the setup can be and how fast the takedown can be and present them.
Sure I'm willing to look into that. My gut tells me power wouldn't be a problem, since he already has about 20 networked PCs there that he rents out time on. I'd look into cost, if Cincinnati were really an option, but it looks like Detroit is going to be the choice again. I'm fine with that, as long as we get a power study on Deebe's (or whatever venue there we choose) so that we don't blow the breakers multiple times again. Heck, I'm even willing to head up early and participate in making sure the power flows smoothly to all PCs involved in the next LAN, if that's the chosen location.
Let me make one more hint here, and while this is an alternative idea it would have a few benefits. Is there any reason regional teams and competitions could not be formed, and the teams be made up of the best from each area going to one place-- say teams of three-four folks, with a Team captain chosen from local ad-hoc gatherings and compettions??? Eventually, it would be good to do this, simply because huge numbers of folks running computers at once mean huge bandwidth and power loads. Should we start this model of regional competitions leading into a central competion with bigger prizes???
This idea has merit. If that's the case though, I would think Cincinnati would definitely be too close to Detroit to be one of the regional locations. I would say that I'd rather drive up to Detroit for the people aspects of things than organize a second node of the LAN party here.
Well we can definitely benefit from the experience of this past LAN - I'm positive that with the knowledge (intimate knowledge now ) we have of Deebe's power infrastructure, between me, -tk, microman, and pseudonym, we can get reliable power to all computers. Especially since we were using all the basement circuits. The upstairs circuits were untouched, and George already gave me the thumbs up to drill holes in the floor to run lines to upstairs outlets if need be.
Well we can definitely benefit from the experience of this past LAN - I'm positive that with the knowledge (intimate knowledge now ) we have of Deebe's power infrastructure, between me, -tk, microman, and pseudonym, we can get reliable power to all computers. Especially since we were using all the basement circuits. The upstairs circuits were untouched, and George already gave me the thumbs up to drill holes in the floor to run lines to upstairs outlets if need be.
We ran 31 PCs without tapping upstairs circuits. The owner gave us the go-ahead to drill holes in his establishment's floor to get more power. He's giving us the location for free...
The way I see Deebe's is, great place for the size event we had... I cannot foresee putting much more than 5 more people in there. The power thing could be worked out, the network and internet access can be worked out. The heat (cooling) will be difficult and the space will be difficult. The price was GREAT and the convenience of upstairs was great....
The argument that Detroit/ Michigan area has a larger number of members to pool from… Not as compelling as you may think. I may be wrong, but it seemed like a number of the attendees were not regulars at SM and came to the LAN because it was in their backyards. I think that the number of people that showed up for this years LAN from around Detroit was due to the fact that it was in Detroit. I think that where ever we hold the LAN, more people from that area would show up. How many of the Michigan crew would have skipped out if wasn't in Detroit. How many people would be added if we held it in Ohio or Chicago? Where ever it's held, the locals will be more willing to take the time off and party. I can say that, if held in Chicago, at least 7 or 8 more people will show up from this area.
I'm offering Chicago area as a possible venue. We have 2 international airports and we're just about as central as you can get. I think the "west side" crew from Michigan will find the trip to Chicago fairly close to the same as going to Detroit. The Ohio Crew will have to travel a bit more but the Wisconsin and other Illinois people will benefit. Dan can fly into Chicago with ease.
I'm sure ocomik and I could get the venue and organization stuff done...
I love chicago. What a great town. From detroit, you can fly to chicago for about $40.
One other thing to keep in mind is that George offered us the upstairs as well as the downstairs. Theoretically, we could fit another 30 people upstairs. He stressed it several times during the event that the upstairs was ready and available for us.
0
KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited May 2004
You can't argue with George. Although it would have been nice to have 30 Short-Medians line up for a group photo on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, or have 30 Short-Medians share a pint or 12 over at McSorley's, I suppose having it in Detroit is okay.
Yes, it cannot be denied that George is very generous with his coffee shop, and that Deebe's was a decent location to hold the LAN at. However, based on my past experiences it's my opinion that Deebe's is far from an optimal location for a LAN event. The DSL connection was very slow. The power, while we did work the bugs out eventually, is still of an old spec and not up to the quality demands of a huge number of PCs (when compared to, say, the place here in Cincy that I mentioned, or prime's sarcnet HQ). The cooling system was not capable of handling the heat output of 30 humans and 30 PCs. The location did not lend itself to the common LAN party practice of just parking your car once and walking to any off-site food establishments.
0
Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
I love chicago. What a great town. From detroit, you can fly to chicago for about $40.
One other thing to keep in mind is that George offered us the upstairs as well as the downstairs. Theoretically, we could fit another 30 people upstairs. He stressed it several times during the event that the upstairs was ready and available for us.
I could justify coming to Chicago, have relatives there (brother's family, aunts and uncles and cousins) and friends there, grew up my teen years in Barrington. So, a combined-purpose trip would work and be justifiable for me-- if I flew, it would be cheaper for me to come late one week, wait until mid next week to fly out again, so having multiple goals would help. Ironically, it is cheaper overall for on-continent US travel NOT to have to travel weekends or close to them, so having places to stay for rest of time and also things to do, helps justify travel costs to a place for me.
chicago would also work for me, i also have family over there, and the travel wouldn't be much longer than going to detroit for us in the western michigan area.
First, planning a LAN is a very convoluted process. For those who are offering up their locales, understand that Prime and his crew put a lot of time and effort in making this happen. In even the best case scenario, planning an event of this magnitude can become a part time job + at best, especially as the event draws closer.
Second, LANs cost $$$. The fact that Prime was able to get DeeBees for free probably reduced the amount each attendee had to pay. I may be wrong but I just checked my local park district facility and they will rent their space for $100/hr. I'm sure this rate would be reduced for an extended period; however, it still wouldn't be as cheap as free.
Third, I'm happy to support whatever decision is reached on the venue. Actually I'm just excited that there is a chance that another one of these will happen. In regards to DeeBees, I believe it should be given first consideration when it comes to the next LAN. About the only drawback I see is the amount space available in the basement and I feel that multi-level gaming just doesn't have the same excitement as having everyone in the same area. As for the data connection this could either be upgraded via the provider or we could look to do some "line of sight" stuff.
Fourth, re: going to Cincy - I'd rather use my own machine than a "rented" system. I'm sure that most attendees would feel this way.
Fifth, In regards to Q's suggestion about Chicago. I'd be happy to help with the planning should everyone decide Chicago is the best venue.
Sixth, if it's held in a Northern clime, it would be my suggestion that it occur sometime in May or later. Q originally stated that the event was set to go in January. Two words that do not mix well are January and Michigan, especially as it relates to winter driving conditions.
Prime I would say another 50 upstairs. Have you measured the area? There enough space for not only that but a crashing area also. So there would be a nice setup for a very large setup. Also, if the LAN is in a different state I can't go. If I can't go than I can't roast you guys in a few games.:)
I don't think we could fit 50 upstairs. George mentioned just the back half. It's about the same area as the basement. Another 20 definitely, maybe 30 if we squeeze like we did last weekend.
Oh,that eplains why you said 30. Well you would most likely be correct and if we do we can use the theater screen for one of the computers to be able to watch the action on.
:Rocker:
Draw up another plan.:)
I think the idea of having some interim sub-LAN's is a good one, not to replace THE annual LAN, but to allow those at the far edges of the country/world to meet one another. I would think a Florida and a California sub-LAN would be obvious choices, with maybe a "heartland" LAN for the "Big Twelve" area. A European LAN would be very cool, too. Maybe Dancer, Jon & Sally can set something up in OZ.
These could be held over the next year, leading up to the big event at the 2nd Annual S-M main gathering. The experience gained by those planning and executing the regional LAN's would no doubt be very helpful. The excitement generated would likely spark even more interest in the big production next year.
One thing is obvious - this year's LAN was a rousing success. Look at how many people there are (myself included) who can't wait for the next one.
It does sound like a sencible idea to have some satalite LANs, especialy across the ocean, but the main drawback I see is that a lot of people would refrain from trying to find a way to the main event, if there was a satalite near them. That would still decrease attendance to the main event.
Also, I think that we're just going to have the grit our teeth and admitt that most of the highschool students who would like to come to the LAN, will simply have to wait until they are old enough to have control over their own lives before they can attend. It's sad, but we just wont be able to find a time/place that can make everyone's parents happy. If I was still a teenager, I wouldn't have been able to just up and go to detroit like that (and for good reason).
0
Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
Fourth, re: going to Cincy - I'd rather use my own machine than a "rented" system. I'm sure that most attendees would feel this way.
.
.
.
Sorry so long...
Ocomik
True as to gamer's box, what I was thinking of was the network gear and server(s) in common use. Those need to be set up right and in common. To keep many people able to be gaming at once, the LAN might need more than once server in play at once also. AND more than one router.
Comments
If the next LAN is next year I'd like to go and no matter where it's held I'm going to have to drive anywhere from 10-12hrs to get there possibly more but if it's being held at a venue that isn't a possesion of one of the promoters (like was originally planned) so that those of us that attend can crash under tables and such why not put it to where the guys coming from the left can get away with a shorter drive/flight as well as those of us from south of the Mason/Dixon line?
Norge
Norge
Ps. Sorry for making multiple post so close to each other. I'm in class so I have to break things up to attempt to pay attention.
We need two things-- a fairly geographic central location, AND a place where soemone lives who is willing to find an economical place that has support facilites for the LAN. DeeBe's worked because they had an internet connection and routing in place, had food available, and had places to sit and gab as well as places to have LOTS of fun and gether and game. As was solved, power is also a main issue when you get lots of boxes that draw a lot of power each plus routers to handle high-use bandwidth continuously.
Getting a place that has all this in place is not gonna be cheap, for three days or two, unless there is a city that has more than two or three whihc have to compete to stay busy. Detroit has that, and I suspect Atlanta has that but do not live there. I DO know Atlanta is an established nexus for broadband data routing. If we have some techs who live close enough to Atlanta and know the tech folks there or are part of the tech community there that might be worth looking at.
I will not comment on Cinnci as simply do not live there or know the tech available there or how competitive it is.
Now, why do we need local folks able to set up and check and verify what is at place we choose??? Simple, those folks are going to need to do pre-setup site study and possibly help with and supply routing infrastructure if things LANish get big. I woudl say, unless we have folsk with a specific location in mind, we need to stick with Detroit. Prime is very motivated, most of the staff games, and they like LANs in large proportions. So they know what is needed. AND they know now how to set up DeeBe's. DeeBe's has food when it is open, there are nearby places to get food or eat out, and hotels in area for those who do not want to sleep on the floor or take showers daily.
AND it has an internet connection, right?? So, it has a router or routers. Plus prime can bring a router over because he lives near it, set ti up, and not have to pay for extra day of rental time to allow for running cabling, fixing power issues, and settle the infrastructure in that would be needed for a big LAN. Having people have to travel to set up means expense, and having a place that has to be wired would be a PITA in terms of buying cable, etc just to have the LAN plus folks coming early to set up if we want to offer 2 full game days or more. That cost would have to be covered somehow, folks who are goign to a setup pre-LAN woudl have to pay to stay somewhere probably unless there were folks with room to house them for 4-5 days to allow for setup and takedown of infrastructure. Detroit has a core of folks that live there now.
I would say stick with Detroit until we get a group of folks willing to help with infrastructure in one other pretty central place, in Midwest or southern in a city not too far South for the folks up North. Funny thing, Atlanta is also a transport hub for air travel fro some airlines. Let's see who would be willing to commit to look around their city and see what is there and tell about it, and commit to help set up the basic infrastructure needed or deal for a very good price on a place that has such already.
Logistics can destroy a LAN, fast action and lots of work behind the scenes made the last LAN work....
The venue I spoke about in Cincinnati already has an existing high-capacity network and high speed internet connection (faster than Deebe's, at least). The owner of the store is a geek like us (only with more money (well, maybe not more money than Geeky's family (don't deny it, anybody that has more than one Mercedes in the family is undeniably rich))) and when he opened the place (we were his first customers) he told us all about his network, and he did it right.
Not that I disliked Deebe's, but I think the infrastructure there is insufficient to support the volume of gaming PCs we had to hook up. If we can swing doing this thing at Brian's office, that would be really cool. I don't have anything against doing it in Detroit. LANWAR is hosted in Louisville, and while that is a sufficiently central location, it's really just a coincidence; it's hosted in Louisville because that's where the organizer lives, similarly to our SM-LAN experience.
Let me make one more hint here, and while this is an alternative idea it would have a few benefits. Is there any reason regional teams and competitions could not be formed, and the teams be made up of the best from each area going to one place-- say teams of three-four folks, with a Team captain chosen from local ad-hoc gatherings and compettions??? Eventually, it would be good to do this, simply because huge numbers of folks running computers at once mean huge bandwidth and power loads. Should we start this model of regional competitions leading into a central competion with bigger prizes???
If we do this, the numbers gathering centrally will be limited. This model could work for folks in US, and possibly UK as a whole, while folks who are good gamers but live far apart could form an ad-hoc team or two... Since this is a "discuss the next LAN" thread, I figured this idea could go here.
Sure I'm willing to look into that. My gut tells me power wouldn't be a problem, since he already has about 20 networked PCs there that he rents out time on. I'd look into cost, if Cincinnati were really an option, but it looks like Detroit is going to be the choice again. I'm fine with that, as long as we get a power study on Deebe's (or whatever venue there we choose) so that we don't blow the breakers multiple times again. Heck, I'm even willing to head up early and participate in making sure the power flows smoothly to all PCs involved in the next LAN, if that's the chosen location.
This idea has merit. If that's the case though, I would think Cincinnati would definitely be too close to Detroit to be one of the regional locations. I would say that I'd rather drive up to Detroit for the people aspects of things than organize a second node of the LAN party here.
We ran 31 PCs without tapping upstairs circuits. The owner gave us the go-ahead to drill holes in his establishment's floor to get more power. He's giving us the location for free...
How dedicated a place can we get?
The argument that Detroit/ Michigan area has a larger number of members to pool from… Not as compelling as you may think. I may be wrong, but it seemed like a number of the attendees were not regulars at SM and came to the LAN because it was in their backyards. I think that the number of people that showed up for this years LAN from around Detroit was due to the fact that it was in Detroit. I think that where ever we hold the LAN, more people from that area would show up. How many of the Michigan crew would have skipped out if wasn't in Detroit. How many people would be added if we held it in Ohio or Chicago? Where ever it's held, the locals will be more willing to take the time off and party. I can say that, if held in Chicago, at least 7 or 8 more people will show up from this area.
I'm offering Chicago area as a possible venue. We have 2 international airports and we're just about as central as you can get. I think the "west side" crew from Michigan will find the trip to Chicago fairly close to the same as going to Detroit. The Ohio Crew will have to travel a bit more but the Wisconsin and other Illinois people will benefit. Dan can fly into Chicago with ease.
I'm sure ocomik and I could get the venue and organization stuff done...
One other thing to keep in mind is that George offered us the upstairs as well as the downstairs. Theoretically, we could fit another 30 people upstairs. He stressed it several times during the event that the upstairs was ready and available for us.
I could justify coming to Chicago, have relatives there (brother's family, aunts and uncles and cousins) and friends there, grew up my teen years in Barrington. So, a combined-purpose trip would work and be justifiable for me-- if I flew, it would be cheaper for me to come late one week, wait until mid next week to fly out again, so having multiple goals would help. Ironically, it is cheaper overall for on-continent US travel NOT to have to travel weekends or close to them, so having places to stay for rest of time and also things to do, helps justify travel costs to a place for me.
First, planning a LAN is a very convoluted process. For those who are offering up their locales, understand that Prime and his crew put a lot of time and effort in making this happen. In even the best case scenario, planning an event of this magnitude can become a part time job + at best, especially as the event draws closer.
Second, LANs cost $$$. The fact that Prime was able to get DeeBees for free probably reduced the amount each attendee had to pay. I may be wrong but I just checked my local park district facility and they will rent their space for $100/hr. I'm sure this rate would be reduced for an extended period; however, it still wouldn't be as cheap as free.
Third, I'm happy to support whatever decision is reached on the venue. Actually I'm just excited that there is a chance that another one of these will happen. In regards to DeeBees, I believe it should be given first consideration when it comes to the next LAN. About the only drawback I see is the amount space available in the basement and I feel that multi-level gaming just doesn't have the same excitement as having everyone in the same area. As for the data connection this could either be upgraded via the provider or we could look to do some "line of sight" stuff.
Fourth, re: going to Cincy - I'd rather use my own machine than a "rented" system. I'm sure that most attendees would feel this way.
Fifth, In regards to Q's suggestion about Chicago. I'd be happy to help with the planning should everyone decide Chicago is the best venue.
Sixth, if it's held in a Northern clime, it would be my suggestion that it occur sometime in May or later. Q originally stated that the event was set to go in January. Two words that do not mix well are January and Michigan, especially as it relates to winter driving conditions.
Sorry so long...
Ocomik
:Rocker:
Draw up another plan.:)
These could be held over the next year, leading up to the big event at the 2nd Annual S-M main gathering. The experience gained by those planning and executing the regional LAN's would no doubt be very helpful. The excitement generated would likely spark even more interest in the big production next year.
One thing is obvious - this year's LAN was a rousing success. Look at how many people there are (myself included) who can't wait for the next one.
Well done, prime!
Also, I think that we're just going to have the grit our teeth and admitt that most of the highschool students who would like to come to the LAN, will simply have to wait until they are old enough to have control over their own lives before they can attend. It's sad, but we just wont be able to find a time/place that can make everyone's parents happy. If I was still a teenager, I wouldn't have been able to just up and go to detroit like that (and for good reason).
True as to gamer's box, what I was thinking of was the network gear and server(s) in common use. Those need to be set up right and in common. To keep many people able to be gaming at once, the LAN might need more than once server in play at once also. AND more than one router.