PC GAMES BRING YOUNG PEOPLE TOGETHER FOR FUN

Geeks Know How To Party, Too.

Just ask the thousands of young video-game aficionados around the world who
host and participate in LAN parties.

LANs are local-area networks, a group of computers that are linked with
cables and network interface cards. LAN parties are events where gamers
play "Doom," "Quake" and other popular titles until the wee hours across
impromptu PC networks.

Odds are you can find a LAN party this weekend in your vicinity or as far
away as Alaska or Singapore. That's because more than 250 regular party
hosts have emerged in the United States and another 350 abroad, according
to Andrew Gearhart, director of LANParty.com (www.lanparty.com), one of
several Web sites that list where upcoming parties happen.

The rise in popularity has been attributed to the popularity of
inexpensive, easy-to-install home network equipment as well as the
overwhelming popularity of computer games, said Jason Della Rocca, program
director of the International Game Developers Association.

"In the past two or three years the popularity has been growing and
growing," he said.

LAN parties are mostly popular with teens, twenty- and thirty-something
men, according to Gearhart and other LAN party gurus, but there are also
hardcore female gamers, too.

Dawn Greene of Bellmawr, N.J., said she relishes the competitive, charged
atmosphere of LAN parties. "It's like game day for the (Philadelphia)
Eagles," she said.

And the predominately male crowd doesn't hurt either, she said. "Do I think
the LAN party is a good place to pick up men?" said Greene. "Well, yes it is."

While many LAN parties are hosted in homes, bigger ones often take place in
rented halls, which are decorated to resemble a dance club, complete with
pulsating disco lights and driving techno or rap music, Gearhart said.

But instead of a dance floor, there are rows of computers and lots of
pizzas and paper plates. And the party fridge often is crammed with Jolt
cola, Bawls guarana berry juice and other high-caffeine drinks that keep
gamers' eyelids open and reflexes sharp during marathon LAN parties.

A recent Salon.com article reported that drugs such as Ecstasy also fuel
the festivity at some LAN parties. Some participants said on Internet
message boards that drugs and alcohol do creep into some parties, but they
indicated that the majority of LAN partiers eschew any substance that dulls
game reflexes.

"Fun for most LAN partiers, who previously were the freaks and geeks who
hung out in the library, doesn't involve getting high, stoned, strung out
or drunk," Gearhart said.

Camaraderie is key

LAN parties attract gamers because they shave valuable milliseconds off
reaction time by playing each other on a LAN instead of over the Internet.
And there's also the camaraderie.

When you pit yourself in a death match against another player over the
Internet you can't shout, "In your face," when you win because you're
sitting alone in front of the computer, said Toby Cherasaro, 23.

Despite his age Cherasaro is a LAN party veteran. He and his brothers threw
their first LAN party in their parent's basement eight years ago. Cherasaro
and his buddies at the LAN2k1.com Web site (www.lan2k1.com) have been
throwing mega LAN parties in New Jersey for the last two years.

At a LAN party you can stand up and cheer when you win while other players
clap and congratulate you, Cherasaro said. And it's easier to pick up
gaming and computer networking tips at LAN parties, he said.

"The adrenaline rush that gamers get from this is absolutely priceless,"
Cherasaro added.

Computer gamers have long fought for the right to party. Almost two decades
ago when only text-based games were available, tech heads got together and
fiddled with dial-up modems to link up terminals and play each other,
Gearhart said.

But the release of more sophisticated, graphically intense multi-player
games such as "Doom" from Id Software in Mesquite, Texas
(www.idsoftware.com) in 1994 fueled a boom in LAN parties that has not
stopped, Gearhart said.

Id games pitted gamers against each other over the Internet or local area
networks for the first time. Company officials are not surprised their
games spawned the global LAN party scene.

"People are always looking for ways to compete with each other," said Marty
Stratton, director of business development at Id. "For people who compete
it's a natural thing to want to compete with a human opponent."

Parties are labor of love

Staging your own party is hard work and can be expensive. And although many
LAN parties charge $5 to $20 for admission, don't expect to make money by
hosting one. In fact, many LAN party hosts say they lose money once they
take into account the cost of renting a space, buying network cables,
network switches, pizza, snacks and drinks.

"A big joke with my circle of LAN party hosts that I hung out with in
southern California in 1999 was that the better a LAN party was, the more
money it lost," Gearhart said.

But if you want to hop into the LAN party scene or host one yourself, see
above for a guide on essential equipment, the most popular LAN party games,
and party etiquette and tips.

The advice comes from Cherasaro at LAN2K1, Gearhart from LANParty.com,
Christopher Wong, a Toronto tech writer who has attended 10 LAN parties and
hosted several himself, Nathan Elliott, who helps run an Alaskan LAN party
network (http://lanparty.jupiter-io.net), and Olivier Adam, a Canadian
software engineering student who hosts parties in Montreal (www.polybash.org).