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Well, Im back from my first LAN party since arriving in Perth about 4 months ago. I must say that it was a good event and I thoroughly enjoyed it, well worth the time there (Although I never did find out what WoLsLAN stands for)
First off, the admins were very friendly and even though I played 20 questions about their rules and stuff when I got there, they didn't see to mind. The overall feel of the event was very relaxed and fun, and didn't seem too uptight about anything (except pr0n file sharing....but there WERE little kids there so fair enough)
Heres my run down on the event:
Arrival:
On arriving at the LAN and enquiring about what I should do, and what was OK and not, I came in to find a well layed out floor plan, with HEAPS of room in between table rows to walk up and down. There was plenty of desk space to spread out on, and I had no shortage of room...even with my oversized mouse pad. The network layout was very good from what I could see and it worked as such (more on that later). Also, one of the local businesses set up a stall off to one side, selling some essentials such as emergency video cards and blank CD/DVD spindles, as well as new vid cards and HDD's, mice, headphones, etc..
Network/Power Setup:
The network appeared to be setup very well, with all cabling provided by the LAN, so you didn't need to BYO unless you wanted a direct leech link off another comps second LAN card. There was a plug for everyone there no hassle at all, and the lag was non existent. The networking only went down once all night (as far as I know) due to some tard tripping over the switches power supply or something. Power only went down twice, and that was the table behind me so I couldnt have cared less, LOL. There was plenty of power outlets to go around, and BYO powerboard was almost unnecessary. The whole setup seemed very stable and well thought out.
Leeching:
The leeching at this LAN far outstrips DGA for quality sorry to say. They dont use windows file sharing or FTP, they use DC++. Apart from some initial issues with it using up all my CPU cycles which I fixed by reducing its thread priority, it was great. It allowed EVERYONE to be accessed at a double click, instead of having to port scan to see who has FTP and then logging in and hoping they had anonymous login. And unlike windows file sharing, you didnt have to double click and hope they had something on share.....everyone logged in had something shared, and it was easy to access. No guessing to find files or anything, if you were after something specific, a simple click of the search button found it. DC++ also has an inbuilt chat function that was used very well and solved a LOT of provlems setting up games with people and finding out who had what files, as well as just general discussion.
Gaming:
The gaming at WoLsLAN was great in my opinion. Many different games being played and....shock, horror....hardly any CS tards. Thats right, ti was almost a CS free LAN. I got some good games of UT2k4 and Quake 3 in as well as some NFSU. I even dragged along my wheel for the NFSU and no-one seemed to mind at all. Was great, good to see a LAN where racing games get a good presence. Also got my hands on Colin McRae 4.0 (legally of course) and got a few other games in. The comps of the night didn't go off due to the badly timed network/power issues but other than that, I enjoyed it.
Food:
Apart from the usual Dominoes pizza order, there was also chinese food for sale, as well as chips, canned drinks and chocolate bars. Not the healthiest of foods, but a welcome relief from riding/walking/driving to the shops mid-LAN. The prices were good and the supply was plentiful. However it did lack one very important thing.....Eaters BBQ, that pwned all food offerings.
The Girls:
Unlike DGA, there were quite a few girls present around the LAN down here. Was a nice change in scenery and good to see soem girls getting in on the computer action. Also they were all very nice looking, like off that site posted a while back about hot gamers style of nice looking. I mean don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Sper0, DoM, lani and w00p.....but there is just so many more down here, LOL. I know its not relevant but I thought I'd give you guys something to whinge about and felt it was worth the mention.
Complaints:
OK this is the part where I bitch about what I didn't like about the LAN. About the only problem I had is it was just too damn short. It started at 11:00am and was all but over by midnight (officially over at 1:00am). I think this is due to the fact that it is held in a church hall and there's the conflict with all the churchies on Sunday morning. Other than that, I can't really complain about anything. Oh yeah...they didn't allow you to share pr0n...which was shit (but still available on FTP in some places).
All up it was a great LAN and I will definatly going to another one. I wont say it's better than DGA or vice versa, as both LAN's have their strong points, but WoLsLAN is definately giving DGA a run for their money in a quality LAN experience.
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