A few friends of mine and I have decided to start a new gaming group. We’ve named it, “I Didn’t Survive.” We figured a zombie theme would be in our best interest because we all seem to have an unnatural obsession with them. That and we had just completed Denver’s Zombie Crawl last weekend so everything seems to fit. Last night we had our first “official” game night, and boy oh boy was it a nasty disaster, in my opinion anyway. I like to consider myself a LAN (local area network) expert and I’ve attended plenty of LAN parties to support this theory. I’ve decided since last night was a disaster, I would help everyone else, including my newly founded group, by explaining the do’s and don’ts of having a game night.
Don’t drink beer on game night if it makes you sleepy. I made this mistake last night and fell asleep during a boring match of Halo Reach’s Firefight mode. I think I got lucky that the other two guys didn’t play the old shaving cream in the face trick.
Do have drinks on hand that are caffeinated and/or hydration savvy to help you avoid my mistake.
Don’t rely on the host to provide everything. Our host tonight actually did provide a lot of extra equipment that we were missing, but this may not always be the case.
Do make it a point to make sure your equipment is working prior to heading over to someone else’s house, also make sure that you don’t forget anything that you’ll need.
Don’t all show up at one location and set up your equipment in separate rooms. This did happen last night and it caused a void in the group because we had no real bond. In addition to that, communication was virtually destroyed which killed any decent co-op progression. We couldn’t even manage to play a good match of Firefight on Halo ODST.
Do choose a location where up to sixteen people can comfortably play games in the same area. Garage spaces, large living rooms, etc all seem to work for this. Being able to talk and communicate without wearing a headset and actually seeing the person you’re talking to makes the gaming portion a lot more fun.
Don’t use the internet to connect to each other. You’ll most likely be distracted by your online friends who aren’t participating in game night. Besides, a group of people playing online together while being in the same house is lame. Seriously, I can play from the warmth of my own home while wearing nothing but my birthday suit if all I’m going to do is sign online. Why drive to someone else’s place for that experience? Last night we had three people in two separate rooms and our communication consisted of Xbox Live’s party chat system. Yikes.
Do set up a LAN the proper way. Everyone needs to connect to the same router which actually allows you to play offline. This is how we oldies did it, before online gaming was as popular as it is now. I’m sure the gamers before my time were in the same boat.
Don’t have a game night if only a few people are going to show, unless you’re game night consist of co-op only. Multiplayer LAN’s require at least eight people for a good time. Less than five is considered atrocious in my book.
Do plan ahead of time and get a solid group of friends that won’t back out at the last second. This will ensure you have a decent night of gaming.
Don’t gloat. Sure, some people are better than others, and some people cheat to have a better score than others (Zach). Gloating about it can potentially ruin the experience for those members who dislike this sort of behavior. The purpose of game night is to bond with your fellow gamers and have fun, not to degrade each other or make each other feel like shit because they’re not as good at something as others are. Some people may have a hard time not talking crap, but trust me, the experience is a lot better if that tension isn’t brought about.
Do have good sportsmanship. It’s vital to make everyone feel like they’re having a good time, because if not, they may not show up to the next LAN party.
Don’t pick a location that is a burden for people to drive to. I hate to poke fun at my buddy Zach, but the dude lives in freaking Kansas and it takes a good thirty plus minutes to drive out to his place. If more than one person is attending, the furthest location may not be ideal.
Do pick relatively convenient place for everyone to get to if it’s a reasonable request. Unfortunately this goes against the people who live farther away than everyone. The majority should rule in this area, so just because the person recommending the game night lives in Asia, as a group you should discuss the whereabouts the even should take place at.
Don’t bring every game you own just because everyone else owns it. You’ll most likely wind up just saying, “So, what do you guys want to play?” This choice should have been made prior to the event start time.
Do pick a theme for game night. Last night we had a disaster because we brought a bunch of games that we all owned, but in the end, we didn’t play half of them. Picking a theme narrows down the game choices and it puts the focus into action. Zombie night is hopefully on the way.
Don’t make the host pay for everything. The event may be taking place at their home and you spend the gas to get there, but remember that this is a group event and the team you should fund it.
Do have everyone pitch in. Each person should be held accountable for bringing something, beer, food, extra TV’s and Xboxes. We actually did great on this last night; our host provided plenty of food and an extra TV, while the two guests provided beer and soda on top of one million dollars in gas to drive to Egypt.
Don’t have a game night with three days notice. If you do this you’ll end up with a disaster bigger than we had last night.
Do plan ahead of time. This is probably the biggest thing that needs to be accomplished because overall it covers everything else I’ve already stated. A week or two in advance you should approach your group members and figure out a great date, time, and location for the event. Then you can see who can bring food, drinks, extra controllers, Xboxes, televisions, etc. If you’re the invited party, make sure you RSVP and if you have to back out, try to give a two day heads up. It’s pretty shady to back out at the last second, especially when you’ve had a two week notice to make up your mind.
To my, group, I hope we have a better game night next time, and to everyone else, I hope this helped, even if it’s just a little bit.
