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Maryland Lan Gamers
Lan Gaming FAQ
This section will give you a brief explanation of Lan gaming.
What is a Lan party?
Basically,
a LAN Party is where a bunch of players gather together and play games over a Local Area Network (LAN). This can be a wired or unwired. Wired
networks for lan gaming are
preferred because of the higher speeds.
How many people can play?
A Lan party
could consist of anything from two (which could be a bit boring) to
several hundred (or more) players.
There's no real limit to how many people can participate in a Lan
game, as long as the
organizers have the equipment to deal with the higher amount of attendees. However, not everybody
will be able to play in the same
game. Game
limitations vary from game to
game but typically for
first-person shooters player limits could range from 16, 32 or even 64 people per game.
What games can be played?
A majority
of games these days have a multiplayer option via TCP/IP (LAN or internet
gameplay). Providing the game
supports this option, it should be playable at the LAN. The organizers will have dedicated
servers running popular games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield 1942,
Counter-Strike, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament 2004 and others. Having
dedicated servers is the best way to host games. However, if you have a small number of
people playing a game, one of the people playing can host the game and
play at the same time. This is not
feasible with a large number of players in a game.
What equipment do I need?
You
will need your PC with the needed hardware installed as well as the games you wish to play. You will need a NIC
(network card) and 25’ CAT5 network cable. MLG also suggests that
you bring a computer grade power tap.
See our Rules
page which lists everything you'll need to bring to an MLG Lan party.
Also,
for those that do not want to drag their own box to a Lan and risk
breaking anything, MLG rents LAN ready computers for attendees. Go to
our MLG
Computer Rental
Information page for additional
information.
Why go to a LAN party?
Lan gaming has always boasted low ping (latency) gaming. This is where you get pings of 10 or 15
or less in Lan gaming. Even with a room of 100 or more
attendees, the ping is very low.
And
then there's the social side to LAN gaming. Sitting at home on your PC isn't quite
the same as being in a room
full of gamers with the
atmosphere and being able to stand up and yell “Dude...you just got
owned!”. Being able to put a
face with a name in a game ads a whole new degree of competitiveness to
computer gaming.
If you
have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Copyright © 2003 Maryland Lan Gamers
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