LAN parties — those wonderful gatherings where gamers haul their computers to one location, network them together, and play multiplayer games. Pizza, caffeine, and alcohol are often involved as well. Back when broadband Internet connections were less common, and some games didn’t even directly support Internet play, LAN parties were one of the more practical ways to play multiplayer computer games with low lag against your friends. But now, when most people have broadband Internet connections, and every new multiplayer game has Internet connectivity built in, why would anyone want to go to all the trouble of hauling their computer to someone else’s house to play computer games, when they could just as easily play each other online? Are LAN parties no longer relevant? Simply put, playing games in person with your friends is a completely different experience than playing them online. Sure, it may be a little more work to haul your computer to your friend’s house, but it’s worth it in the end.

The first time I ever played a LAN game was when I was in the 5th grade. We went on a field trip to the Engineering Expo at the University of Kansas, where the different engineering classes put on displays for the elementary school kids to see, and hopefully learn something. One class  had installed Doom on the computers in one of the computer labs, and had several 4-player network games going. Now, I’d played Doom at home, and had enjoyed it, but this was completely new to me, and it was awesome.

I, of course, wanted to duplicate this experience myself, but I ran into two very serious snags. First, my home computer (like most home computers at the time) had no network card, so I couldn’t actually network it with another computer. And second, I was 12, so my home computer wasn’t actually my home computer — it was my family’s, and my mom was not too keen on the idea of her 12-year-old son transporting the expensive computer to a friend’s house.

Fortunately for my 12-year-old self, there was a business in town called Battlezone that was designed to take advantage of the stumbling blocks that I had discovered. They had set up a LAN, and they rented the computers out to people like me who wanted to play networked games against other people, but who didn’t have their own LAN. They had quite a wide selection of games, from Doom to Duke Nukem 3D to Quake 2, and my friends and I went there to play whenever we had the spare funds to do so. We’d also occasionally try to play games against each other over our modems, but that often went poorly.

A few years later, one of my friends proposed an event to the rest of us that would set the course of our gaming for years to come: the Spring Break LAN party. The eight of us would all bring our computers (bulky CRT monitors and all) to his house, and we’d stay in his basement for the week, playing games on the LAN. Sure, there were plenty of headaches trying to get the network up and running on all of these computers running Windows 95 and 98, and trying to make it work with each different game we played. But despite all of that, it was some of the most fun we’d ever had, and we played all kinds of different games, from Counter-Strike to Command and Conquer. So from then on, the LAN party became our entertainment option of choice, whenever we had an extended weekend or other break.

As time went on, my friends and I all changed over from dial-up Internet connections to broadband connections. But even though we could all play against each other at any time, we kept having our LAN parties. Nothing could replace the fun of getting together, ordering a bunch of pizza, and staying up all night, playing games against each other.

Eventually, we all went off to college, and the LAN parties tapered off as we drifted apart. My college friends and I didn’t have as many LAN parties, because when you and your friends already all live in the same dorm, there’s not really much difference between a LAN party and the normal living situation. But my roommates and I would frequently start up a game of Unreal Tournament 2004, or some other game and we’d all play together. Even now that I’ve graduated, I still have LAN parties occasionally with my friends (though they’re all single-day parties now), because no matter how much you play against people online, even with voice chat, nothing can replace an actual LAN party. Sure, it may be convenient to just play on the Internet, but some aspects of the LAN party simply can’t be duplicated online.

People are all social creatures to some degree. A LAN party is simply more interaction and hanging out with your friends. There’s no hiding behind the mute button at a LAN party. When you score a kill in a spectacular fashion and are laughing about it, your friends can hear your laughing, and they can laugh along with you. When one of your friends is rushing your base, they can hear you swearing. You can hear feedback about everything you do, even if that feedback is just silence.

At one LAN party, my friends and I decided to have a 3 vs. 3 match of Empire Earth. The computers were divided up into two sides, and we put a double-sided chalkboard between them as a partition, to give each team their own “war room.” Teammates were continually checking each others’ computers, to easily keep track of what everyone else was doing. Battle plans were sketched out on the chalkboard. Both teams were launching coordinated attacks on each other. It was by far the best match of that game that I ever played, and that experience wouldn’t have been possible without all being there together.

More than anything else, though, a LAN party is a great excuse to play a bunch of different video games for hours at a time with your friends. You know that for the duration of the party, everyone’s going to be playing, and even if it’s a game that you don’t like too much, you know that the next game probably will be. And no matter what is being played, you’re still hanging out with your friends.