Of LAN parties and the price of Maturity.

[Gytrash]

Before you read this it gets rather maudlin towards the end, there is a reason it's in general and not in General gaming. The fact that I had to carefully consider where to place this thread rather than throwing it to the sharks in Flood and shouting no fear says something I believe.

It occurs to me that I am likely doing something wrong when I host a LAN party. I book the guests, set an arrival time and wait for the day before. I then begin preparations; rearranging furniture, setting up power-boards, network switches, preset computers and begin preparations to feed the ravening horde. The guests then trickle in over about 3/4 of an hour to an hour, they take about an hour to set up from the last guest arriving.

What happens then would be the model of gaming efficiency, game after game cranked out with ruthless purpose, all towards the annihilation of one's enemies. What instead happens is that we get into a discussion about what to play, half of the group then play a strategy game whilst the others watch or play something else, often browsing Facebook or leeching the net.

Games have often been uninstalled since the last game and need to be reinstalled. Connection issues abound and the time of gaming dwindles rapidly. Let me use the event I hosted today that finished not fifteen minutes ago. Arrival time was set for 9:00 AM sharp. The first guest arrived at 9:00 on the dot, the next at 9:30, the next three at 9:36, the next four at 10:30 and the last two at 11:30. The first game of Halo custom edition, an old favorite, was hosted at 10:45. This was how long it took for all the equipment to be set up.

Halo was played for about 1/2 an hour, then there was a break where we all decided what to play next. The next game up was Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, another old favorite. This game was plagued with connection issues and took about five tries to even get working. I eventually had to sub a computer out with one of my spares. Finally the game was underway at about 11:25 The game went on for five minutes before the last two arrived with an X-box they wanted set up, I tagged out of the SupCom game to move the TV out to the other room where there was space to set it up. I spent a while setting that up and then watched on as the game continued.

About an hour in the network downed and the game was lost. The last two guests then went out the front to play Blops 2 on the Xbox, the rest began to play Guild Wars 2 and to browse the web and pass files around. I then commenced to make lunch, this involved getting out the pre-prepared steaks, rewarming the soup, chopping the onions, cooking the steak, frying eggs, and setting out cutlery and plates. After about 3/4 of an hour in the kitchen I called for lunch. Lunch was over by 1:50 and we then sort of hovered around until I finally broke the party up at 6:40.

Now in that time we played about 0 games involving everyone at the party. I mean, when we played Halo it was fun and all, but It wasn't worth the six hours I put into preparing for it the night before, nor the two hours I'm going to have to spend cleaning up after it now.

So I've called a moratorium on LAN events, I've purchased a Hamachi network anyway so we can do this all over the net. It's very strange to me because not even a year ago the whole group would have played much more cohesively, and wouldn't have even started until the time that this one ended, gone well into the night and had a raucous old time of it and had happy memories to keep for weeks to come.

What use is it to mature, to gain responsibility and to become a sensible working class man if it is at the cost of so much, I have quickly taken stock and realised that I have much less fun now than I did a year ago, sure I have a job and can therefore purchase things that I could only wish for last year, sure I have the respect of people and can command more interest in my opinions than ever before. But I'm not certain the price that I paid for this lofty growth of maturity is worth it.

I used to, for example, be a very active member of this community, I'd fly my ships every day and would be involved in OSI and Zoner drama as much as the next man. Now that I have matured I have slowly had my "Work time" and my "Work Ideals" erode that essential part of me that smiled and laughed away at immature jokes and could have a laugh over, for example, my accidental declaration to posses "lady bits".

I looked down on my brother before this event because he was always "too busy" to come to these events I hosted, even now that he lives not eighty metres away (He has not attended one since he temporarily moved out.) and now I realise that I can see his point of view and this terrifies me.

Is this a price I must pay to become more than I was, and have I indeed become more than I was. Have I gained more than I have lost or is the price that I have paid for gaining a job and holding "sensible" opinions far too high. Would it be better for me, would I indeed be happier if I erased my current self, perhaps if I could go back in time and tell myself that year ago that now seems like a lifetime "Don't grow up, stay a child.". I was so eager to "Grow up" to become, in all ways "One of the Adults". I now regret doing so.