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Comment by xandrius | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what could be today's alternative to the environments of LAN parties of early 00s (I never attended to previous ones).

Even if one were to recreate the events, I feel lots of the activities of these meetings (meeting the selected few gamers face-to-face, sharing media, and only finally gaming) are somewhat obsolete or not needed anymore.

Part of me wishes we still had these but that would mean removing lots of improvements and putting up barriers to entry to computers, games and the Internet.

Dunno, I might be rambling but perhaps one should just be happy to have been part of that scene back then and move on?

For me, the closest I got to that has been participating to hackathons (although many misses) even though those tend to be more stressful than the LAN parties.

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Why do you think these activities are obsolete? Meeting the other people face-to-face will always be nice, or not? And also playing together in the same room is much nicer than when you are separated.

I'm quite sure you will still be able to find such events, if you want to try. I know a couple of friends who still do that.

Speaking of something which has a similar feeling: There are the hacker events, such as the CCC, which is even right now: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/infos/index.html

(Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend any of these since a while due to having small kids... But I definitely will join them sooner or later again. Maybe then with my kids.)

Ehhh, we have people there with their 2yo, just don't be alone with a small kid (bring the other parent).

Board game or comic book shops often do board game nights that are unchanged from the aughts. They capture a lot of that energy.

There’s usually D&D at those stores but it doesn’t scratch the same itch imo.

I think with how much more social gaming is nowadays, and the prevalence of team games, I'm not really interested in attending a LAN party alone. I want to play with my squad. And with the internet, that squad is pretty spread out so a get together at a LAN party is going to be difficult to coordinate.

Though on the opposite end, locals are still common for 1v1 fighting games. Shared screen games that doesn't require everyone to bring their own setup, just their controller, for a lower barrier of entry.

LAN parties were way more social than "I play with my team (whom I ve never met IRL) over the Internet".

We were playing Warcraft 2 over a LAN between my house and the neighbors home and then we d run to the other house to discuss the game over a drink.

Or playing Warcraft 2 on laptops using some power inverter hooked to the car s battery in a truck, at night before going to sleep, on a surfing trip.

If anything gaming today is way less social, with most people playing online with people they ve never met.

A LAN meant we were physically close.

Exactly, I think that's the main difference. Before you had to be together, now people need the foresight to value in-person activities as well as wanting to play together. That's a combination which makes many not make the cut.

My take on all of this stuff: 20 years ago, you were young. That's all there is to it. There is no alternative today, not for you at least, because you are no longer young. Whatever the corresponding phenomenon might actually be, it will make you angry, or disgusted, or repelled, or you will reject the theory that it is even in any way equivalent - or some combination of. Anyway, my advice would be to move on, definitely. Whatever it was, it happened, and you were young, and you were there. Time for somebody else to have their turn.

I agree with this. I’ve tried to relive my enjoyment from playing the whole Halo series but the love isn’t there anymore.

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