Are LAN Parties dead?

[Murdock]

I was browsing around and I found this article. Gaming has left the LAN party behind
http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/29/794475 ... ll-of-duty

He makes some good points. It does look like the gaming industry is trying to kill LAN parties with the requirement to be online all the time.

[Digger[NJLP]]

Heh ok so I missed this, but kinda funny that the article is from 2015.

Dead? I would say sorta, LAN parties rely on a core group that have the knowledge and resources to host local servers. Granted many games no longer have a listen server option. But I think once the common Internet connection is at least 50 to 100 MBit. The issue of playing multiplayer games online at a LAN party will be moot. Granted a large 250 man lan party will need higher, but in that situation the organizers have to plan for the need.

We all have had the frustration of dealing with 5 10 Mbit internet access at LAN Parties, including FITES and GXL. But as bandwidth gets faster and cheaper, you may see a resurgence of LAN parties.

But as the technology moves forward and there are less people who understand server hosting and bandwidth needs. It will still come down to having those tech savvy few who can get the job done.

[Toraborakid]

Good question, the short answer is MAYBE

It depends on if lan parties re-invent themselves on what is played as opposed to what is not.

RETRO lan gaming for now seems to be the better option for the moment until bandwidth catches up.

The better question to ask is where do we go from here.

[kobalt]

The LAN party atmosphere just cannot be replicated online, there is just nothing else like it. But clearly more needs to be done to draw gamers out of the comfort of their homes, lugging their computers over, just to take it all apart again later. I see the challenge as distinctly two-fold: With the advent of modern online gaming those who haven't been to a LAN party have no real incentive to go, and are missing out unbeknownst to them. Then there are those games who haven't been to one in so long they've simply forgotten the nuances that made it worth it leaving one's computer desk. So what will it take to solve this riddle?