It’s Time To Bring LAN Parties Back

You heard me.

Long ago, in the distant past, we as a human race gathered together under one roof – unfettered by the social and financial obligations of adulthood – and played video games as one. Sharing snacks, gathering loot, creating stories and mythology that would span the ages.

When you think about it, this tradition harkens back to the most ancient days of humanity, and scratches the most primal of itches in the deepest recesses of our minds and souls. Gathering close together in a cave, sharing stories, knowledge, sustenance, and entertainment… Not a care in the world for what lies beyond the night skies, all that mattered was the source of light and warmth before you, and the people gathered around it who made it feel all the more welcoming.

These times are now merely spoken of in hushed tons around the office water cooler, reminisced upon in group chats, referenced in memes shared with one another on Instagram… Some would have you convinced that this ritual went from something all-too-common… But is now the most forbidden of dark arts. An impossible feat, an unreachable goal… Or is it?

The truth of the matter, is that it’s never been easier to game in person together. Every device you own can be a gaming screen in one manner or another. There’s handhelds, cloud-enabled subscriptions, and even consoles themselves are easy to transport. Everyone has insanely fast internet connections at home, so there’s no need to even “LAN” devices together.

Long gone are the days of lugging dozens of pounds of gaming hardware and cables to your friend’s house to play World of Warcraft or Diablo 2 in the basement, the whole house smelling like Doritos and overheated dusty plastic PC components. Hell, just last year a couple of buddies gathered in my basement to “LAN” World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Remix. One friend brought his gaming laptop, I had my PC, and another (an Nvidia GEForce Now subscriber) simply brought a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and work laptop… And we were off to the races. Beers, snacks, merriment in abundance. And we’re gonna do it again, mark my words. Because it was easy, and fun, and we’re adults.

Maybe it’s my fault.

Maybe I made it look to easy to just be an adult and plan something with your friends. Maybe I convinced you that it was too simple to look at your buddies and say “hey, we’re in our thirties, and our parents can’t tell us what to do – let’s set aside a weekend day or time after work in the next two weeks to enjoy ourselves”. Maybe it’s not so simple for you to hash out a few hours to play some Halo or WoW or whatever with the guys under the same roof. Maybe it is too difficult for you to make yourself happy and feed that inner child gamer who wants nothing more than to hang out with the fellas again and game in person…

Or maybe… You’re just making excuses.