Here lies LAN Gaming #
Yes, it’s true. LAN gaming has been gone for some time. It’s not like I don’t know that, its just that I’ve had some time to relfect on both what LAN Gaming brought us, what’s been missing in its absence, and how that has impacted the world of tech today.
In case you missed the era, LAN Gaming typically consisted of packing up your computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers or headset, and heading over to someone’s basement to play multiplayer games for a night, or in many cases several nights and days in a row. And we’re talking about BIG tower computers and giant CRT monitors.
- Step 1 was to get a good seat, near some friends, near a network hub or switch, plenty of power, and NOT right next to the bathroom.
- Step 2 was typically a quick stop over at a 7-11 or somewhere like it to pick up some giant sodas and cheetos or similar snacks.
- Step 3 the big install party – passing around CDs or someone volunteering a network share, and everyone would get the games needed installed, cracked, etc. in preparation.
- Step 4 Play until your eyes bleed.
What did LAN Gaming give us? #
If you played LAN games as I’ve described you most likely, if nothing else, formed a few in-person social bonds with people whom had similar interests. For many of us, your first real LAN party made you want to be able to have your own LAN party. Through necessity, it’s where I learned how to network computers, not only learning the basic ins and outs of TCP/IP, but picking up IPX/SPX and NetBeui and other skills as well. In fact, I learned more about networking from LAN gaming, than training for my MCSE Microsoft certification in the late 90s. You were exposed to state-of-the-art technology as well as technically skilled individuals for the era. After getting my feet underneith me, I remember feeling like a real veteran when I transitioned to being one of the guys who would show up to a LAN party with a box of network cards to outfit newbie gamers with, and occasionally a 3DFX card, or some other sort of upgrade. I 100% learned skills that directly applied to my career; a career that I had zero formal training in before starting.
It is, in fact, safe to say I wouldn’t have made my way into IT as a career without LAN Gaming.
And many of the people I routinely played with have gone on to giant meaningful careers in technology. The fact is that in the mid to late 90s and into the early 2000s, LAN gaming had a real deep and meaningful culture. If you can look past the extreme-nerdiness of the whole thing, and factor in how prevelant IT has becoming in the world and in business, you would see that the pioneers of the time in LAN gaming would be the trend-setters and architects of the technological future we live in today. Hands down, 100%, many of the people I played LAN games with have changed the world for the better, and some continue to do so.
LAN Gaming is dead today, but so what? #
There was a book named Blowing Alone by Robert D. Putnam. This book came out around the turn of the century and showcased an unravelling of societal structure. Using statistical data, Putnam illustrated how social groups such as bowling leagues, PTA, bridge leagues, and others had been disintegrating over time. Instead of just being a simple statistical analysis however, he showcased how the broken bonds between these societal groups had led to harm on our physical and civil health, and how having those bonds had made society happier, healthier and safer.
Bowling Alone’s author was born in 1941, and was part of my parent’s generation. Bowling was his connection to society. But the same erosion of society might as well be the ‘Gaming Alone’ of today.
What the landscape looks like today #
Today, if you want to play games with others LAN is not much of an option. With the internet came the ability for just about anyone with a highspeed connection to get online and play with each other at a moments notice. But it wasn’t just the internet that made LAN gaming fade, it was the game designers themselves. They began to systematically remove LAN multiplayer as an option from their games. Even in the last 10 years you would see games like Borderlands come out with LAN gaming enabled, only to be later removed when the Borderlands - Enhanced Edition released.
I went to a LAN party in Portland a few years ago, and it just wasn’t the same. No install parties, no one administering a network or running last minute cable, no troubleshooting. Heck there were no LAN games either, everyone just played games on the Internet. Not the same experience.
Video game companies, and their parent companies, have not only figured out that LAN options create a place where software piracy becomes more commonplace, but they have also figured out that forcing customers into their proprietary servers creates new marketing channels and further silos the gamer into being an individual consumer who is dependant on the corporation for their entertainment. This further devolves with services like Game Passes or Free to Play with Microtransations or Subscription Based Games where actual ownership of a game is not possible. Not only do the larger corporations want to consistently market and sell to you, but they prefer you to be alone, away from others physically, because they see better financial results by directly teathering you to them.
And as a result of all of this, we have come to a place where most folks who have entered the technology space in the last 10-15 years have come out of puppy-mill like programs designed to learn to teach you to code or administer in 6 months to a year. The motivations of the vast majority of the people getting into tech have been exclusively money and an abundance of career opportunities.
The world has changed #
Warren Buffet famously once said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
In a similar vein today, we see the technology market shrinking. Five years ago I would have advised anyone thinking of doing so to get into IT. Today, not so much. As the tide pulls back and we see who has been “swimming naked” in the tech world, we can ask ourselves how did it get this way? And in asking, we can also take a look at how folks got into the water in the first place and see if there is a correlation. In my view there is. I think when we lost LAN gaming, with it our society also lost the social, learning and interest aspects that came with it. I’m not saying everyone in tech these days isn’t qualified or interested, but I do think that the motivations and catalysts for getting into tech have predominately shifted, and I think that this becomes more and more evident as the market in tech contracts.
Many, if not most of the best parts of LAN gaming were not the games themselves, but what happend around the games. The people, the culture, the discovery, the discussions and teamwork. It created these talent pools of interest and creative thinking that just don’t exist today. I will truly miss these experiences for the rest of my life and reflect on them nostalgically. It’s hard to believe no one really experiences them anymore and what a flash in the pan the whole thing was– maybe 15 years total.
R.I.P. LAN!
