GlXII Post mortem

Fobia wrote:

Well Mr Cortex, the theory is that, with a larger area of space, one can fit more people into it. Hence Sniipe states that Menlo Hall, as it has a larger floorspace, can hold more people.

Before you ask the next questions with regards to the rest of Sniipes equation let me answer them for you also.

More people = bigger lan because generally, LANs are measured by the number of people attending.

bigger LAN = more money because each person who attends the LAN is supposed to pay an entry fee, generally around 35 euro.

more money = more prizes with more people because, after an enormous hunk is taken out of the pot for servers, networking gear etc, the remainder *should* be spent on prizes, hence if there is more money, more can be spent on prizes.


Why the **** am I posting this?

No idea why you are, you'd swear you had organised a lan before

The menlo was good as it was one large room for the lan. The anno is capable of holding more people, the second room that was in use (Pizza Room) isn't wired for 3 phase, but its on the 3 phase circuit. The very top room and the very bottom room are both fully 3 phase powered, wired and have sockets in the walls. the very top room has the advantage of having the network ports in the wall beside the sockets.

Having spoken to the gaffer he said that he would consider directly connecting both rooms (Top and bottom) but have the pizza room wired up would cost more than the lans would bring in.

also, to equate that the menlo would generate more revenue is second guessing tbh.
atm there appears to be a decent following of galway heads for the lan, hence the numbers, however, expansion is dependant on either others travelling from dublin/waterford/whereever or more galwayheads going lanning. The latter is achieved by word of mouth.

If yee want more tournies at the lan then i'd suggest yee play more than just Q3, CS and DC. There are alot of other fun games that can be played

I *really* don't like the idea of cash prizes.

LANs are for getting together with a few mates, playing some games and doing stuff you couldn't feasibly do over the internet, along with being face-to-face with the prick who just shot you before you reached the flag and discussing a match over a pint.

When big prizes and serious competition become the main attraction of LANs I'll probably stop going to them. If you want to play for money, challenge the pikeys to that punchbag game in the arcade, or go for a pint in Mixers and get the shít kicked out of you over a game of pool.

I'm looking into extra sponsorship thingies, I'd like to run a big LAN in Galway at some stage in the future, but the organisation and basic capital required for something like that is exponentially greater than what the majority of LANs in Ireland are based on.

I like tournys at GalwayLANs, I preferred them when it was a bunch of lads jumping into the game for fun and messing about and just playing for the pleasure of besting your mates. Prizes are all well and grand, but they are not the reason I play.

JP has a good point in that tournaments need to held for other games.
We've had a CS tourny at *just about* every GLAN that's been held, I'm sick to the teeth of that game now, partly due to my not playing it at all nowadays, and partly due to certain people's proficiency at the game. It's not fun for me to play anymore. It's not gaming - it's work.
DC is still fun for me as it has enough variety and craic to keep me interested.
Quake3 is fun because it's nice, fast and furious. I had an excellent time at QuakeLAN last year even though I am pretty much a noob at Quake, but the oldskool lads didn't give a shíte and helped me out which considering the state I was in was very much appreciated and made the matches even more fun.

The downstairs of the Anno was a bit cramped, but that was due to anyone who came early on Saturday heading straight downstairs and not enough people making use of the upstairs room.
If it was too cramped for you, why didn't you go upstairs?
Christ, at the first LAN we had about 20 or so people crammed in, back-to-back in the top-floor room and it was excellent.

Expansion-wise, we could go to about 50-60 people in the hotel spread between the 3 rooms - laptop gamers being herded into the Pizza room naturally and would still have a big of space for a XBox corner or something.
When we get everyone using Sniipe's intranet site, IRC and voicecomms, inter-room communication shouldn't really matter.
As regards servers, they can be stacked in a corner with the switching gear with one monitor, keyboard and mouse. Windows boxes can use VNC for remote administration, and *nix boxen can use SSH.

We now have enough servers to host pretty much whatever we need to, and this has taken a long time to get to.

The next step is to upgrade the network to GigE and sort-out some issues with the servers and streamline some things.

I'll also be finishing college soon, so I should have a bit more time and energy to do the behind-the-scenes stuff to the standard I'd like.

SyxPak wrote:

I *really* don't like the idea of cash prizes.

I like tournys at GalwayLANs, I preferred them when it was a bunch of lads jumping into the game for fun and messing about and just playing for the pleasure of besting your mates. Prizes are all well and grand, but they are not the reason I play.


Expansion-wise, we could go to about 50-60 people in the hotel spread between the 3 rooms - laptop gamers being herded into the Pizza room naturally and would still have a big of space for a XBox corner or something.
When we get everyone using Sniipe's intranet site, IRC and voicecomms, inter-room communication shouldn't really matter.

We now have enough servers to host pretty much whatever we need to, and this has taken a long time to get to.

The next step is to upgrade the network to GigE and sort-out some issues with the servers and streamline some things.

*Hit* *Nail* *Head*
The most enjoyable lans have been the ones where the prizes were Jam Jiggers or a Bluetack Q3 MAtchstick Statue. Fact was participation in the lan was a prize in itself.

As reguards the servers, We were considerably blessed with the last one, so far its only set the lan back about 100e and the rest was funded by myself. Both servers are more than capable of hosting large games of whatever we fancy with enough extra for FTPing.
As John said, when a lan turns competitive and cash prizes are given there is less fun involved. More people will show up to win the money than to have fun. Oh, and the reason i keep using that same line quetzal is cause its true, you should consider listening to your peers instead of following the folly of youth.

We now have 4 organisers for the lan, all of which are more than capable of sorting any problems, mainly cause we've "Seen em all before" so to speak. Fact is, that for the amount of time that can be spent on the organisational process we (Especially John) are doing a great job, and the fact that people keep coming back for more is what speaks for itself.

I think after May more concentration can be done on improvements to the lan as people will have more time. I dont think that the hotel is the wrong venue, way i see it is its the home of the lan and still contains the spirit of the first few lans. *Enqueue the song Memories from the corner of my mind*

Now, im hungover and needa study. Go play in the sandbox until dinners ready.

<quote = syxpak>and partly due to certain people's proficiency at the game. It's not fun for me to play anymore. It's not gaming - it's work</quote>

I'd have to say the same about DC. I suck at it. I PLAY IT BECAUSE ITS ALL ABOUT TAKING PART. Sure wouldn't a lan suck if there were like 20 games and people played only certain games and not other ones. I really hate DC tbh. Not giving out @ u syxpak, honestly. I would think a 30 V 30 in DC would kick ass??? I would think a 30 V 30 in AVP would kick ass. I think 12 CS teams in a knock out tourney with seeded ppl on diff teams would also kick ass(harder to do I'll agree).

/me waits for response from such ppl (which is a good few) You can refer back to this if I bring it up again, as thats the last time I'll comment on it... [edit] Not [/edit]

DC is rubbish

I await the latest battlefield release with baited breath.

June/July for definate.
Any chance of an earlier one is dodgey, what with exams all over the place.
Would be hard to organise and tough to pull in a decent crowd.
We shall see though.
Might just run a small one at the end of May for those that can come.

a cruel twist of fate maybe...