LAN Party Eve

I’ve finally gathered enough real life PC gamers around me to have a LAN party. After nearly 15 years of computer games I can finally play in the same room as my team. To say I’m excited is an understatement. This last week of preparation has highlighted the parts of my past time I enjoy most.

We have seven to 20 people coming to a hotel conference room which is sure to have crap internet. We spent a good deal of time speculating on how we’ll get everyone interconnected and online. I researched wireless bridging for hours. Tomorrow, before anyone loads a game, I will have a sense of accomplishment. That feeling will come from a skill set I can apply directly to earning real world money. I have never gotten a paycheck for setting up an Xbox 360.

A few of us got together online to get our Modern Warfare 2 characters up to snuff. Three or four guys working together are a pretty formidable force in a twelve man game. Steam allowed our group to talk together and ignore the banter of the random people in close virtual proximity. I feel a bit closer to this group of people, even though we were just wasting time, scattered in our own homes across the city.

On the topic of growing friendships, a couple of people I’ve only known over the web will be attending. Over the years I’ve come to know a lot of people without actually seeing their faces. I’ve given and received gifts to lines of text that claim to physically exist in cities I’ve never been to. Tomorrow the wave forms called Gnarf and Sym will collapse into Dan and Scotty. It’s odd that there will be faces associated with the anonymous handles I’ve known for years.