The RyTime! Geekcast

This week on Psycho says, we learn how to host a LAN party, what to do at someone else’s LAN party, and how to find LAN parties near you.

LAN parties are get-togethers where like minded individuals come together to watch movies, talk to friends, spread rumors about people who didn’t attend, summon the devil, play tabletop role-playing games, discuss zombie apocalypse survival techniques, eat poor quality pizza, and only occasionally play video games.

Some general tips before I get into the meat: When either going to a party, or hosting, know what platforms will be played before hand. LAN parties usually cater to the PC gamer, but consoles are often brought in as well by attendees. People will bring their laptops, no doubt about that, but some will also bring their desktops, which is why you need some bare essentials that seem obvious in retrospect, but the lack of these will come back to bite you if you aren’t prepared.

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Chairs and Table Space

This seems silly, but I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. Your guests will want to sit down, and they will ALL want to sit down, and so will you. This requires an actual chair for everyone. Couches don’t work if they are going to be playing on their computers. Table space is also very important as people who bring their desktops will need it, and any gamer worth their weight in RAM will have an external mouse with their laptop.

Clear off the dining room table, bring in all the tv stands, “borrow” a table from the local church’s gymnasium. People won’t care what surface their playing on as long as it’s elevated and flat.

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Power Strips

Think of how many power outlets you have in your most open space, maybe four or six at the maximum if you’re lucky, less if you aren’t. Everyone is going to need to plug things in, and some will need to plug many things in. For each person that will be attending, assume that they will need power for two or three things at once. Spread the strips out and use multiple outlets, if you can’t reach an area with a strip, use an extension cable. Don’t bring the plugs to the strip, bring the strip to the plugs.

SAFETY NOTICE: Don’t daisy chain strips, you’ll burn your house down.

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Internet

What’s a LAN party without online games? A terrible party is what it is. Don’t hold terrible parties. If you have wi-fi, write down the password and make it known to your guests.

If you have wired internet, make sure you have enough jacks for everyone. That means one per person, so while wi-fi is a lot easier, wired is faster in connections. The tangle of cables and lack of outlets for internet can be solved with…

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Connecting modems

If you don’t have enough jacks for everyone, link everyone into a Local Area Network with a modem. Also, now you know why LAN parties are called LAN parties. Learning!

For this to be done, make sure you have extra Ethernet cable lying about. It’s better if you have it already jacked and Cat. 6, but that isn’t necessary. If you have jacks lying about, someone in your party will know how to wire them, so no need to worry. If all else fails, “borrow” some of your own cable from around the house.

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Have a Plan!

The best thing about a LAN party is spending time with your friends, but sometimes that doesn’t work out. If everyone in the party is a follower, you’re just going to end up with a five hour long deferring argument about what to do, and you’ll never get around to actually doing anything at all.

Don’t stick to the plan if the guests feel like deviating, but have something in your mind as a back-up if no one knows what to do. This involves preplanning and prepping the guests beforehand. Pay special attention that everyone has the games you are going to play and knows where your house is. On that note,

HAVE DIRECTIONS TO YOUR HOUSE READY.

People will get lost, they will then call you and want to know how to get to your house, or wherever you are hosting the event. This is important. This is really important. Be sure to also tell them where to park.

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Food

Pizza is good, as you don’t have to prepare it and everyone can chip in. Have snacks, usually fattening, chips, dip, avoid anything that requires more than two minutes of prep work. Have a lot of drinks. Most of the people that will attend your party will want soft drinks and sugary stuff, but some odd people will want water or healthy stuff. Thankfully they will probably bring this with them, and hopefully have enough to share.

I personally wouldn’t allow alcohol as that would quickly lead to it being a regular party rather than a LAN party, but it is your personal decision. I would advise against it anyway.

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Your Guest List will Vary

People will come and go. People won’t show up. People will bring uninvited guests. People will materialize from the Aether just to go to your party, then disappear forever from the realms of mortal understanding to a world that was never meant to exist.

People will leave early, accept it now. People will come late, some very late. Some will arrive five hours in to a six hour party and spend the last hour setting up their custom desktop with 52″ monitor that takes up the entire table and has six hundred fans and a keyboard the size of a small surfboard, and a mouse with more buttons on than is physically possible to map, and a mouse pad which cools and relaxes the gaming hand as they furiously apm spam that mineral line, and a tower that has so many aftermarket add-ons that it should not be able to physically exist in this world as it is powered by a four sided triangle surrounded by a circle who’s circumference divided by its diameter is exactly 3, and then they complain that everyone is leaving.

Just deal with it.

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What to Bring to a Party

Bring your own computer, mouse, mousepad, power cable, Cat. 6 cable, and anything else you would need. Bring your own entertainment if you want specific things. Bring some drinks, and be courteous. You’re in someone else’s house, eating their food, and using their power. Be nice, and clean up your own spills!

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Where to Find a Party

Your friends are your best resources. You can also ask about them in local card shops or computer stores, or gaming clubs, but you probably won’t find much of anything. Check your local geographical reddit, it’s a great way to meet new people.

If all else fails, invite some friends over and make one yourself!

Terribad of the Week:

Turbine goes back on all it previously said and starts selling equipment in their cash shop. Thankfully it is both cheap, and low level. However, I would like to just say to Turbine: 1 month deletion period of mail is sort of acceptable. Unless said mail had a very valuable item attached to it, or perhaps a large sum of platinum. I’m talking about YOU Dungeons and Dragons Online. My Wizard found a 300kpp girdle, and I sold it on the auction house, but forgot about it, and now I will never know what happened to it because I wasn’t active enough for you. I bite my thumb at you Turbine!

Nyeh!

Did I leave something out? Insult your mother? Spelling or grammar mistake? Leave a note in the comments below, or contact me thru one of the following means:

Email: victorharms@gmail.com knows that file sharing happens at these parties.

twitter: @gigathrash (NOT SAFE FOR WORK)  also knows that that sort of thing is illegal.

Steam: Gigathrash  doesn’t need to hear about it.

Facebook: Victor Felton  does what he wants cause a pirate is free!

‘Ello, and welcome to Psycho Says, a new segment by DJ Desmond, host of Psycho Radio on K-UTE. This weekly article will be about gaming in general, sometimes cultural, sometimes new releases, sometimes old stuff. Whatever catches my interest for the week. This week includes an introduction of me, a look towards the future and my most anticipated games of 2012, as well as some minor news.

A little bit about me first for context’s sake: My name is Victor Felton, I’m a Computer Science undergrad at the U, and I’ve been playing video games since I was five. This first game I can remember playing was Castle Wolfenstein on my dad’s PC. My favorite game of all time however, is Tales of Eternia, the incredible JRPG by Namco. I have written two previous blogs, one about permadeath minecraft playthroughs, and the other as an all topic. I don’t intend to do a cross-over with either of them as they are both dead in the water, and not that interesting to begin with.

I am a very big pc gamer, and while I do own this gen consoles, I don’t play them very often, or even have that many games for them. I won’t only write about PCs, but I may end up highlighting them more then other consoles. My favorite genre is first person shooter, but I’m not into Battlefield, Modern Warfare, or the Bad Company series. My favorite current gen fps is Crysis 2, but if you include the source engine and last gen, it’s Killing Floor. And yes, I am a brony. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry about it, it will only come up every third sentence.

Enough about me! I’m boring and long-winded! Let’s get to the games!

I have 7 games I’m highly anticipating for the 2012 season, so in no particular order, here they are:

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Journey – PS3 / PSN – Thatgamecompany

This platformer seeks to emulate a real journey thru the desert with random partying as long as you are connected to the internet. The total lack of communication between the two players is an interesting experiment in altruism, and I am eager to see how it plays out.

The gameplay itself is lackluster, but the game shines in audio and visual design. I don’t expect it to be a big hit, but rather I look at it as an interesting human experiment as we learn to interact thru only physical interaction. No talk, no text, no way of communication other than simply sight. You won’t even know the name of the person you’re playing with. Sounds fun.

Journey is currently scheduled for a spring 2012 release on the Playstation Network.

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Castle Story – PC – Sauropod Studio

This one is a very recent indy game being made by two guys in Canada. While not too much has been revealed about it, the first gameplay footage has been released. Imagine minecraft as an RTS instead of a first person miner.

Resource gathering and building remain, but instead of doing it yourself, you assign little yellow blobs to do all your work for you. Based on the one trailer out it is unclear where they intend to go, but spoiled via some concept art, it is theorized that the game will contain monsters and you can train your builders into fighting units.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwZdXRPeYrc]

Not much else is known about it besides that.

Castle Story is currently in very early Alpha and has no known release date, but will probably follow a beta-early access model starting in the Summer

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Mass Effect 3 – PC – Bioware

While I personally don’t like Bioware or any of their games (I ABHORE Dragon Age: Origins especially), it would be remiss of me to not include this game on an anticipated list. I personally couldn’t care either way, but the rest of the gaming world is sitting on the edge of their seats.

Bioware makes good games, mind you, I just don’t like them. I understand their appeal and can see their positives from a third party perspective, but they simply frustrate me.

Mass Effect 3 will follow the same vein as its predecessors and finish the story line with  their trademark third person tactical combat. What the tedious resource minigame will be this time is yet unreleased.

Mass Effect 3 has a demo release on the 14th of February, and has a March release. It will require Origin.

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Duke Nukem: Forever 2 – PC/PS3/360 – Gearbox

Okay, this may seem like trolling, but I really liked Duke Nukem: Forever. Yah, it was a terrible game that tried to parody modern shooters by doing everything they do, except worse. Yes the humor was juvenile and in poor taste. Yes the graphics were less consistent then the Hawai’i Bus system. I still enjoyed it.

And since I would catch flak if I didn’t include Mass Effect 3, I figure that I can include this.

What’s that? You say that this game was never announced and the original flopped?

And your point is?

Duke Nukem: Forever 2 will release in a double pack with Half Life 3. It will include a free hat for the Soldier in Team Fortress 4, and a shotgun for the Scout.

Speaking of Half Life 3…

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Whatever Valve is up to – PC/PS3 – Valve

Valve is up to something. Something big.

It isn’t Half Life 3, we already know that, but what could it be?

It probably isn’t Portal 3, we just had Portal 2. I can imagine it being Left for Dead 3, but L4D2 wasn’t very good, and the original was better. I doubt it will be a new IP, but you never know with Valve.

Gabe Newell is a sneaky sneaker.

Valve has no announced or upcoming games besides DOTA 2.

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Equestria Online – PC – Equestria Online Team

I can hear your confusion from here. Hear me out.

As I said before, I am a Brony. I plan to play the ever living hell out of this game. This is one of the very rare MMO’s that is built by an indy team. It uses the Unity engine, as does Castle Story. You can play as one of the three subspecies of pastel equines, Earth, Unicorn, or Pegasi, and explore Ponyville while interacting with totally new characters built especially for this game.

The gameplay itself has not been revealed, and the tactics, ui, and goals behind it are unknown.

Equestria Online currently does not have a release date, and has barely entered alpha testing.

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Guild Wars 2 – PC – Arenanet

Oh man.

OH MAN

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E]

YES YES

This is the big one. My most anticipated game of 2012. I’ve been waiting on this game since its announcement back in 2007. I’ve played the first Guild Wars to death and, at last count, I’ve logged over 4,000 hours across 10 characters in Tyria. I liked the game so much I’m a beercrat at the unofficial Guild Wars Wiki (GuildWiki).

Star Wars: The Old Republic proved that MMO’s can have character stories.

It’s up to GW2 to prove that ToR wasn’t a strike of lightning. With different gameplay, a Z-axis and a time skip of 200 years, GW2 is related to GW tangentially at best. Innovation is the keyword that bridges the gap between the two games. The original Guild Wars was praised for its innovation with the Buy once, play forever plan, and for bringing significantly more tactical thinking into the MMO environment.

Guild Wars 2 is all about working together. ANet has eliminated competition between players outside of PvP, and is also destroying the sacred Heal-Tank-DPS trinity. With no dedicated healing, tanking, or DPS classes, it is possible to play any class as you like. Maybe you want your warrior to have a shield and control area. That’s fine, but halfway thru you can switch to your hammer and really lay down the beats.

With weapon dependent skill bars, five playable races, and eight playable classes, GW2 promises to eat up most of my time in the future.

GW2 is currently in closed beta with no release date. The author is desperately trying to get in.

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In other news, Dead Island is receiving some DLC. It’s about SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. Ryder White, the antagonist from the main game, and will be played from his perspective.

It will be available for download on all platforms for $9.99 equivalent.

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In this week’s terrible, terrible, gaming decision, we have Amy. Amy is itself a terrible game with horrid controls, bland graphics, horrendous voice acting, a boring story, and okay audio.

This “game” is a horrendous mess of everything that could have gone wrong. The only good points about it are the sound design is sometimes sort of acceptable. And then only the ambient music. But hey, it didn’t crash on me at any point, so that’s good, right?

Yah, I would have preferred to play Superman 64 over this.

Did I leave something out? Insult your mother? Spelling or grammar mistake? Leave a note in the comments below, or contact me thru one of the following means:

Email: victorharms@gmail.com

twitter: @gigathrash (NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

Steam: Gigathrash

Facebook: Victor Felton