LAN Party Help

[Marines2011]

Srry if this is in the wrong section.

I am in a group called the MX Gamers Club at my Highschool which plays games like
Halo 3, Guitar Hero 2, Gears of War and DDR. It's not a clan. Our student government has told us that they are going to close down our club if we "don't give back to the community". The president of our 5 person club(because no one comes even though 45 people signed up) and I both thought about throwing an all night LAN Party with prizes, food and tournaments. We were thinking about throwing it at the end of our School Year. I have been to LAN parties but don't know the big details in having one.

If anyone could help by telling me what we should get and the equipment we might need along with any websites and equipment wavers we could use to help promote this. The wavers are a liablility thing.

[H2O TankBusta]

A website would help with registration needs it, but you need to get it out there first some flyer's work as well. Posting them in the grocery store, etc. Maybe you could get it in the newspaper?

Down where I live Pizza places like Hungry Howies give discounts on community events like this as well, so I'd check on that.

Lot's of switches and network cables :) It's a good idea to hide those too or putting something over them on the floor.

Prizes are up to you, all depends on how much it costs to run this, and how many people attend.

hope this helps, im kinda out it right now.

[Extreme]

Well when I have LAN parties at my house I usually tell people to bring a few bucks.

Get lots of pizza and soda.
Then make sure you have enough xbox 360's and TVs (Tell people to bring them)
Make sure you have ethernet cables and alot of switches to plug everything into.
If your having it at your house or somewhere make sure you tell your parents they wont be getting any sleep that night lol.
Um...I dont really know what else to say I usually just wing it when everyone gets at my house lol

[Niz v2]

Email me at jchris6885@gmail.com. I will do some research for you. I haven't thrown a lan in quite awhile. I will need to look up my records and see what I did before to host them. If you can give me your email I will email you what I believe is what you need.

[Sniperess]

My husband used to own a lan party center thing... he set it up to where it was bring your own controller... and if you didn't have one you could sign up at a desk and rent one (in this case you may want to do it for free, idk).
Also, it's a good idea to do a test run of everything before hand, and I mean EVERYTHING. Get all your game copies and make sure everything can recognize everything else. If I had a dollar for every emergency run to Walmart because of bad cables/whatnot. :D
Give yourself PLENTY of time to set everything up. We've gotten caught with people waiting at the door and we still weren't ready... :p
Make sure you lay down the rules beforehand. No trash-talking (extreme), etc., just to make sure everyone has a good time.
And also have some sort of game plan of what games to play, gametypes, etc. If everything get too hectic it's nice to have a plan to somewhat go by.
These are just some of the things we've learned :D .... Goodluck!

[Marines2011]

One of the guys at our school just pointed out that on our lan website, we put our township initials and no one in the other districts likes our township. So we have to come up with a new name for the website and lan event. If anyone has any ideas, please post them. None will be rejected.

[Nakashige H2O]

where are u from and remember do u have enough power to power all of the computers

about 2.5 to 3 amps a computer

[H2O Raiden]

Protip: It is important to keep in mind, there are monitors, and other devices to power as well. Some keyboards, mice, joysticks (flight sticks, etc.) require separate power supplies as well.

[KraZ]

Tis one of those divide and conquer thing. I've thrown so many LAN I'm a fippin' expert at this. Seriously I could write the fracking book! Here's the draft free of charge:


0. POWER
No good power = crappy LAN. I have seen BIG organized LAN going down in flame and never recover because they did not have the power mapped out properly.
A) Map out your power:
You will need to map out power of the location that will host your event. What this means is you need to know HOW MANY amps total are at your disposal and WHAT CIRCUIT goes to what outlets. The bigger your event THE MORE IMPORTANT this becomes. You DO NOT want blackouts to happen to you.
B)Estimate the size of your event:
Here are a few pointers:
- 3amps/person (that's for a BYOC only event)
- 1amp/person (that's for console)
Just multiply by the number of estimated person that will show up for each category, pay particular attention to the BYOC part.
Lastly, overestimating your event size is A GOOD thing.
C)Buy some hardware:
- Buy fat extensions cords that can carry a lot of amps (12gauge)
- Don't buy powerstrips, (have people bring them see 6.D.) instead buy some of those triple plug things to put at the end of your extension cords. That way peoples can plug in up to three power strips.
D)Logistics:
- FORBID DAISY CHAINING.
- 1 Extention cord per circuit.
Here's the math:
1 extension cord = 1 circuit = 18amps = 3 power strips = 18 outlets = 6 peoples (3 outlets per person (monitor,rig,cordless mouse?)) = 3 amps per person. DO NOT GO BEYOND THESE LIMITS.
Most consumer grade circuits are actually rated at 20 amps but these are rarely more than 80% efficient hence why I have a 18amps figure per circuit.

1. NETWORK
There's two way to go about this.
A)FAT switch hooked up to a bunch of "snakes" that radiate from a center point:
This is the secret to a lag free LAN party with the most throughput. What I call a "snake" is a bunch of cat5 cables tied together to a big "head" with 6 female cat5 plugs. You can put these in a box hence why it kinda look like a snake. Route your snakes to each tables similarly to how you routed your extension cords, plug the other end of your snake to the main big kahuna switch. (6 person per extension cords = 6 cat5 plugs per snakes) Snakes are a pain to make. Expect a few hours of crimping, but your network will be ludicrously fast.
B)A bunch of small switches each daisy chained to a central switch.
This is slower and lag will increase but who cares it's LAN, not the internet. This is also cheaper. (48 or 96 ports gigabit switches are $$$) In this scenario you don't really need snakes because the switches will be next to your users. Just make sure to tell them to bring long cables. (see 6.D. again)

2. FOOD
Over the years I have found food to be an incredible burden on the part of the LAN organizer and it has very little return on investment. Dedicate ONE or TWO person to this. These guys WILL NOT PLAY at all. Make sure they understand that and that they plan out ahead of time how much soda to buy and what they will be offering. (safe bets are hot dogs, hot pockets, pizzas, anything that's microwavable and that takes < 3 mins to cook is a good choice.) Forget BBQ. It's a fire hazard.

3. ENTERTAINMENT
A) Movies/VJ
People get bored of fragging each others all night. Have a projector or two setup with movies or even a VJ
B) Music
Music is hit or miss at a LAN. Some peoples just HATE the kind of euro techno/trance/electronica junk I play. However, some of the best LAN I have organized had live DJ mixing during the event. Combine it with a good VJ and you have a sure hit.

4. TOURNAMENTS
FEWER TOURNAMENTS is better than a bunch that you never EVER get to complete. Tournament take time. An incredible, ludicrous, ridiculous amount of time. Again, one person should be put in charge of administrating/setting up the game server AND DO JUST THAT all night. Another person should be in charge or registration and keeping track of who wins what.

5. SETUP/TEARDOWN CREW
You always want to have that. How many depends mainly on how big your LAN. But I say the more the merrier.

6. GENERAL LOGISTICS
A) PA system
Never underestimate the importance of a good PA. Keep it to a minimum but he's important to announce tournament and wake up peoples that will unmistakably forget all about it. It is also nice to introduce the DJ or give a shout out to the peoples who helped make the lan a reality (i.e volunteers, sponsors, etc...) This is most likely going to be you btw.
B) Waiver
Need I say more?
C) Sleeping
Arange sleeping area. Enough said.
D) PREFLIGHT CHECKLIST
Last but not least, a checklist that YOU must give out to your attendees BEFORE the event. You do not want them to forget a mouse, a cat5 cable, a power strip or something stupid like this. A good clear check list is your friend.

Okay this is way too long but I hope it helps. I've thrown 100+ peoples events before so I've had time to hone it down to a science. Make sure you have a well defined team with proper skills assignment. (god server admins, good food peoples, networking gurus, power masters, etc...)
And remember, divide and conquer.

God speed and all that crap.

[Niz v2]

There you go he pretty much explains it.

[Marines2011]

Hello again.

Just wandering if anyone knows how much a hotel will charge someone to use a ballroom for a lan or if they would even allow it.

[Nakashige H2O]

depends contact them

[H2O D3V1L]

Hotels nowadays usually will rent out their ballrooms to just about any organization.. but Ive been reading some articles and hearing about how some hotels are now RAISING their prices for renting on such places if a LAN is going to be held.. rucus/energy drinks/lots of noise/cussing/ all that stuff is probably the reason why.. You might be better off finding like a Community Center type building where its just the lan people in the actual complex... or maybe talk to like your local gamestop and see if they know of any places..

[Nakashige H2O]

lions clubs big auditoriums

[Megasoft Office 2001]

Don't bank turn-up on online registration. There may be a few hundred Xbox 360 players, but less than 10 are going to feel obliged to check up on some arbitrary website just to sign up. Just pin a sheet on the school bulletin board and raise awareness over the morning announcements.

[Gun Monkey]

To be honest, not many people are going to show up. Its nice to have a PA system, and 15 daisy-chained switches. But you won't need them.

Get yourself (2) 16 port linksys switches (10/100 is fine. gigabit switches are a bit spendy right now) and a crossover cable. Download all the most recent patches for all the games you will be playing, and put them on one computer, then share them over the network.

Ask for donations from various computer shops. They usually have some cheap part they won't mind getting rid of (costs money to recycle it). You don't need to give away $500 video cards or anything.

Then use the white board to write down tourney times and teams. Use it to keep track of eliminations and such.

However DO THIS:

Write an acceptable usage and actions policy (no beer, no porn, no warez etc etc This is VERY important)
Buy food yourself or have people pay money to come to the event, and use that to buy food.
Supervise the floor 100% of the time.
Advertise the games as soon as you advertise the event.
Have someone on hand who knows networking and hardware.

I've run more than a few LAN's, and been to a professional LAN (won me a 400 gig hard drive too), so if you have any other questions, just ask.