Hey guys, I've been a lurker here on Forgehub for quite a while, finding and downloading new maps and such. I never really get around to posting, but I thought i'd ask a few questions. A great tradition that my old high school friends and I have is to have one or more epic LAN parties during times when we're all out of school (eg, thanksgiving or christmas break). I've hosted a few, and I've been to several at other people's houses, and I'm curious to know any particular tips or tricks you guys know of to make a LAN party awesome. Typically we end up playing Halo or Call of Duty until everyone collapses from a gaming-induced stupor. The most recent parties we've had though haven't been as much fun as the others. Reasons include guests being whiny pricks and other stuff like incompatible group dynamics and the like. Long story short: Do you guys have any ideas to make my next LAN party awesome/not suck?
We've had problems with batteries in the past, we eventually figured out it was a good idea to have spares.
Food and drink: Never a bad thing to have munchies, just make sure they won't get your console ruined or your controllers sticky. TV's: no one likes to get stuck with the shitty, tiny little SD TV. Especially when they'll be sharing splitscreen with other players. Controllers: Make sure everybody can have one at once, no one likes taking turns. Spare batteries are a great idea, as you mentioned yourself. Prizes: In the past, when my friends and I have had a lot of people over LAN partying, we 'd have some sort of tournament, so they get more into the game. Prizes can be anything really, as long as people will compete over it. This makes me wanna go host a LAN party now
I'm hoping you mean with four consoles and everything, for 16 player LAN. If not, thats problem number one. Problem number two; if people are annoying, then you don't have enough friends to pick and choose. Fix that lol
energy drinks... LOTS of them. Ethernet cords, at least one extra xbox/tv, one computer playing random songs, Pizza hut, drivers licences, a 7 11 nearby, money, more energy drinks, taquitoes, rock band, more than 16 friends, the guy who owns the computer playing random songs must troll people in the game and party, room for everyone to fall asleep without being on another person. That pretty much describes my summer long LAN party... yes, the entire summer was one LAN party. XD we usually do our LAN parties on computers though.
We have the TV angle covered. I've got a 50" plasma that we run with a 400 watt sound system, two 27" tvs (one with a 200 watt system and the other with a good 2.1 setup) and I bought a 19" LCD a while back. We rarely have more than 8 people there. We put 4 on the plasma, and 2 on each 27". If we need more room we'll have someone who wants to play something else use the 19". I wish I could have 16 people but my basement just isn't big enough, and I don't know enough video game enthusiasts who can all come over at the same time. We almost always have more than enough food, and we patch an ipod or usb drive into the xbox hooked up to the 400 watt sound system and have it play music. We're usually able to find people who can play with us online to make it a full 16 player party. (let me tell you by the way that Circle of Doom or Lava Pit with 16 people is absolutely epic). I got another couch since the last LAN party so theoretically we have room for 8 very comfortable people and 2 or 3 slightly less comfortable people on my futon. If I had enough room in my basement for 16 people to eat, sleep, and game in comfort, believe me, it would happen.