LlamaLAN

Thoughts, ideas etc

One thing that I was a bit dissapointed about this lan was the lack of names on the t shirts again, maybe more people would buy if they had more time and it was really pushed as an idea. Failing that, me and sarainy would happily pay extra to guarantee having our names on our shirts, I don't know if thats something you could do through your supplier at all, but I'm sure others may feel the same. I really enjoy the designs, its just a shame not to have our names on them.

The Good

In spite of this being the smallest Llama LAN I have been to, for me it was actually one of the most enjoyable.

Panda and I were both incredibly pleased with how many people were up for Secret Hitler and DiveKick. We both kind of expected struggling to get enough players, and yet both overshot and had more players than needed. So much so that DiveKick had Byes and Secret Hitler had players rotating out as we exceeded the 10 player maximum.

It was great to sit down and talk about the future of Llama LAN, as to me it is important that the relationship between the management and the rest of us be open and transparent.


The Bad

Following on from that, the singular bad thing for me was in the lead up to the LAN when games were being decided. There was a post on the Facebook group talking about suggestions for tournament games, which was then followed up with a few of us suggesting games. Of which there were about 15 in total.

Now some of the games, including my own suggestions, were not picked for obvious reasons (online multiplayer only for example) it was odd to hear nothing back from the management about the games suggested. Then the list from CyberDrac's post was cut from 6 mech / star wars related games to 2 + L4D2 + Warsow.

For me personally, it would have felt a lot better if there was a discussion talking about why the suggestions from the community were not chosen at the time.

At the Town Hall Meeting this was addressed, with reasons for some of the games being given, but leading up to the event it felt weird to have silence on the matter.

The Ugly

No names on t-shirts, as Panda said. Also, it was really weird to not have Golem's videos played throughout the event, although it was good to say hello when he popped in on the Friday evening




Overall I don't really have any major complaints, in terms of community it felt like the best of the 4 Llama LANs that I have been to. We struggled to get people to play Munchkin with 5+ players at a 40 person LAN in the past. Yet at this LAN we had 13 people for Secret Hitler and 19 for a community DiveKick tournament at a LAN with only 24 people.

The Good Stuff

I woke up on the Sunday morning thinking, "What? It's the last day already?" ALWAYS the sign of a good LAN.

Lots of us getting together to play Secret Hitler on the Saturday night - thanks Sarainy! I also agree that it was a bit easier to get people together for stuff like this with the smaller numbers.

The Town Meeting. It was nice getting together and discussing ideas for the future. A group of us also had a little follow up discussion to generate some more ideas, and these will follow later in the post!

The Community Tournament, in this case the Divekick Tournament. Again thank you to Sarainy for running this! I quite like the community tournaments where everyone gets up and goes to the location, watches it, and is on hand to take up their place and play their matches there and then. This is similar to the format that the Street Fighter 1v1 tournament worked and that worked damn well too.

The 1v1 Halo Reach tournament format. Similar to how the Divekick and the previous Street Fighter tournament went, everyone got together to watch, take part and support each other which is AWESOME. <3 A bit harder to do all in one go, but it was nicely spaced out across the three days! Previously I recall it being a bit of a struggle to get people to do their 1v1s if it was at their own PCs, so having community tournaments where everyone gets together in the same place is a good format.

The Not-So-Good Stuff

Fortunately the good much outweighs the bad. Only a couple of points; I was looking forward to the stompy mecha game action but it was not meant to be. Nobody's fault, but more of an 'aww shucks' thing.

Also I second not having names on the t-shirts was a sad-face moment, but that's just how the t-shirt orders work and it is sad when we don't make the orders. If I recall correctly the t-shirt orders went up later than usual, and closed earlier than usual! If there could potentially be an extra charge for getting names on the t-shirts it would be nice if that could be explored, if it works.

Ideas for the future, following the Town Meeting

So as I mentioned earlier, it was good for us all to get together and discuss the future. Just going to throw up a couple of ideas on here, happy to discuss at greater length if required

Ice-breaker session on the Friday night: I thought that maybe after CyberDrac officially opens the event on the mic, everyone could be asked to head over to the stage area for an icebreaker session? We'd go around everyone in a circle (including admins), and everyone introduces themselves (callsign, real name), say where they've travelled from, and then one bonus question-- Could be 'what are you playing at the moment?' or 'what game are you looking forward to playing at the LAN?' The bonus question could be shared prior to the event or something like that. This wouldn't just serve a function to people who are brand-shiny new to the LAN, I think that there are a few of us who have been to the same LANs but never really got talking or introduced ourselves!

The LAN schedules on paper: This isn't really new but something I'd like to see brought back, the schedule for the LAN used to be put on people's desks so they could see what was happening and when. I liked this, could there be a possibility of bringing this back? It's nice to have an on-hand reference to when stuff is happening Or if individual ones are a pain, maybe a big A3 one could be stuck up somewhere so people can go and see it?

Very Important Llama: Again not a new thing, last time this was done was at LANCEPTION-- So, LlamaLAN 20 I think? It was the first one I went to after moving back to England. Anyway this was something that was also brought up at the Town Meeting. I think it was Very Important Llama at LANCEPTION but basically an attendee is nominated for being an overall good and nice person by other llamas. I think it was for the LAN overall last time, but could be for each team as well.

Extra community tournaments: Building on what was said at the Town Meeting, if we're going to increase the number of games put forward by the community I have a suggestion for a format. Suggestions for community tournament games are called for early, and they are put out to the attending community-- say for example there are 6 suggestions in all. There could be a voting/sign-up system in place where if a suggestion gets a minimum number of votes/signups, that tournament goes into the LAN and the suggester runs it. From those 6 suggestions, 3 could end up making the minimum number of votes and end up going into the LAN.

'Games with...' sessions: If there is a newly released game that's proven popular with a group of players, and new players (of said game, or the LAN altogether) are joining the LAN, some time could be set aside in between the tournaments for new players to get involved in these games. So for example from 1-2pm on Saturday, people can join in a session of Heroes of the Storm, get to know the game, have more experienced players take them under their wing, talk about the game, and get to know people! The primary aim of this would be to get new players of games involved with existing players. A recent example of where this could apply is Warhammer The End Times: Vermintide. There's a little pocket of us that play the game together, but a lot of people were interested in and bought the game prior to the LAN as well. So a session for an existing player to get new players involved could work for situations like this (kudos to Loki365 who brought this up on the HS1 train)

'SuperLlamas' for games: Taking this from the workplace 'super user' schemes where one person is designated go-to for particular Microsoft Office programs. If a llama is particularly invested in a game, has played a lot, and knows a bit about it, they could be a designated 'super user' (Super Llama, but suggestions for a better title welcome!) for that game. This wouldn't be a reflection on how good someone is at the game alone (so NOT for people to go 'ner, I'm better at this than you!') - more that they are someone who plays a lot and enjoys it, and would be a good person to go to if someone wanted to find out about that game. You could have more than one Super Llama for a given game, short applications could be submitted to the admins for consideration?

Tiny business cards: We could have little business cards for the LAN with some brief details (logo, website) to hand out to people if we ever get talking to someone about LANs? (maybe not to leave stealthily at events though) Moo do some nice slim business cards, and the black background with the red llama logo would like really nice. As a few of us go to various events with people who could be looking for other LANs to go to, this could be a handy advertising touch.

Good grief that's a long post. But I think that's everything off the top of my head. TL;DR: This LAN was lots of fun and I have many ideas!

Also a small aside: I think I might change my callsign from next LAN onwards. I'm known better as Festy rather than Festinger, so I think a change to Dr. Festy might be called for...?

As ever, LAN took ages coming and was finished before I knew it. Getting to share the hobby I love with like-minded people will always make my heart beat faster. Particularly when they're all such excellent and admirable Llamas.I'd say Admin did their usual sterling work. Particularly in the face of obstacles like an uncooperative internet, mysteriously distrustful scouts and participants dropping like flies. Max kudos from me .

The Good:

The L4D2 tournament was a laugh and a half. A close-fought versus game is always good fun and Knight_of_Ni enjoying more success with nothing but a pistol than we did as a fully-loaded team is definitely memorable.

Unlimited internet access was well received, particularly when it came to downloading games to join in with others.

Secret Hitler and Dive Kick were amazing. Max kudos to Sarainy and Panda Pops for bringing these about.

Yellow team, and Rogue in particular, looking out for me when I suddenly developed a fever. This kind of camaraderie is what keeps me in queue for the discount tickets!

The 'State of the Llama' meeting. It was good to hear from everyone and air some ideas. The LAN lives and dies by its community and the community spirit was definitely strong.

The Bad:

The big llama in the room was probably the attendance. Whole teams having to pitch in on tournaments when they would prefer a rest was a shame. Of course the issue is well in people's minds and the community is already in a fervour to solve it.

The Ugly:

So who pissed in the Scouts' tea? Of course it's their prerogative if they want to take away the cups and plates, but it seems strange considering that we're conscientious guests and leave the hall in a better state than we found it.

Suggestions:

I will happily echo the points made here by Madam President Chancellor Doctor Festinger and by Lord Admiral Caveman on Facebook. To me the social aspect of LAN trumps all other concerns.

Advertising is the lifeblood of events like this, we need to create reliable demand for tickets. I'm not expecting the Admin team to make like MAD MEN, but we have social networks. Among the average group of friends will be someone who would like to give LlamaLAN a try. Tell them how great it was. Tell them about the people, the games, the prizes, the highs, the lows. Don't tell them about the early-bird discount . If half of the people present at the last LAN each convince one more person to come, we'll be at capacity.

Well that's probably enough from me. Remember everybody: TWERK FOR VICTORY!

Thanks for your comments so far everyone, really appreciated

* Reposting it here, as my other post was on the wrong thread, so apologies *

-

Having just returned from LlamaLAN 25 and had a good night sleep, I have had a chance to think back over my gaming life, and what makes me come to the LAN parties the most, and for me it is being sociable, laughing, fun and silliness.

With the way computer games have gone now, there are ever more games that will allow you to immerse yourself completely within its digital coding, but that is not what I derive the most enjoyment out of when I think of gaming.

Just like a big family at meal time, do you want to be laughing and joking over the week’s events as you pass the gravy boat around, or do you want to all be glued to your mobile phones and barely acknowledging each other’s existence, too self-absorbed to even realise that someone has asked you to pass the salt three times?

When I think of coming to LlamaLAN, I think that it is giving me a chance to hang out with like-minded people / friends and get the chance to try out and play games that I would not ordinarily play at home, or perhaps just don’t yet own a copy of.

I like the idea of team colours, it helps gives structure to the seating plan, helps organise games, plus it gives you an excuse to cheer on someone without having to play unfair favourites, but being in a team that comes last every LAN I really don’t care about the overall scoring.

What bit did I like the best this LAN?

Blowing myself up in Halo when I accidentally fired my rocket launcher too close to a wall.

What did I like least about this LAN?

Getting sniped in Warsow by an enemy I never even saw, despite having run around and grabbed a shield and collected a few weapons and power-ups.

Also spawning as a zombie in L4D2 on the wrong side of a building and spent the entire rest of the round trying to figure out how to get to the humans ... my fault for not knowing the maps better I guess, but it still sucked a bit.

What do I want to see more of in the next LAN?

More variety of smaller games and tournaments being played throughout the entire weekend, so that I am almost torn between playing one or the other, in a nut shell shorter games and more of them.

I would be very happy for as many people as possible to bring along to the LAN one console game that they think nobody else has played but might like to.

What games would I love to try at the next LAN?

8 player Bomberman, League of Legends, Vermintide, Time Crisis II.

How do I think we can entice new Llamas to the fold?

I think expecting someone who has never come to a LAN before to be willing to give up an entire weekend, agree to pitch a sleeping bag next to a group of strangers they hardly know, and pay for the chance to do so is actually a big ask! Yes of course we all did it, but even for me it took both Rob and Tim mentioning it on and off for a couple of years before I finally took the plunge.

I envisage a LAN where the venue has an open half day on the Saturday, say from midday to 6pm, where invited people can just turn up, perhaps with a small entrance fee like £5, and then get to take part in a variety of games for themselves, plus get to witness all the fun and shenanigans’ going on around them.

If on the main stage there is a different arcade game going on every hour, perhaps with one projector being one game, and the second projector being another, that way they can take part instead of just observe, and if they don’t like one game they don’t have to wait around for a couple of hours for something to see or do.

I also like the idea of people bringing along a board or card game, as long as the game takes less than 2 hours to play and if the games can start before 9pm, as after 10pm I am either too drunk or too tired to expect my brain to take in anything new.

I also would like to get a cup, baseball cap and mouse-mat with a LlamaLAN logo on it.

I am not sure where the t-shirts orignally come from, nor how much they cost to have names put on, but I am seriously considering having a red hoodie done for me, especially as t-shirts are great but as its often cold in the scout hut you rarely get to see t-shirts being visibly worn, but a sweatshirt of hoodie would be fine.

Well that’s my two cents for what it’s worth. Thanks for reading.

The good:
I had a good time with the Halo tournament, whether that's because I did okay this time in the 1 vs 1 or not I can't say, but the general atmosphere and spectator cheering was great.

I had a great time playing Secret Hitler, so a huge thanks to Sarainy and Panda for bringing that little gem along.
Also, considering the number of times I faced off against Sarainy in both the DiveKick and Halo tournaments, I'd like to thank him for being such a good sport about things when he beat me every time

In fact the warm camaraderie of all the attending llamas was, as always, one of the best parts of the weekend; and continues to be a big reason why I enjoy coming back every time

The bad:
The lack of crockery/cutlery was unexpected, and while I imagine the admin team only discovered the situation once they arrived on Thursday, it seems like something the scouts should have mentioned to us ahead of us hiring the hall.

The ugky:
The lack of variety in genres for the big games. I fully appreciate that free/cheap/common games take preference when deciding the games list. However, some of my best experiences at LlamaLAN have been the odd/different games. Zombie City on the projector games was a great early one for me. Others have included D.I.P.R.I.P (free mod), Alien Swarm (free), and Castle Crashers (on stage on Xbox's). All free-ish and all non-FPS's.

Notes:
I spoke to Golem previously about a better deal I could get us on the T-shirts after the last Spring LAN. I don't know why he didn't follow up about it but the TL:DR of it is this:
I have a good friend who owns and operates a small screen printing (and other clothing stuff) studio. For the size of run we usually need (20 - 30 tees), and based on the LL23 design as an example, he could do them for around £10 - £11 (and that would include having user names on them).
So it's worth thinking about.

I liked some of the suggestions put forward at the pizza-anticipation meeting.

The idea of more tournaments done in the style of the current "community" one, but adopted as a "big" tournament with prizes and stuff sounds cool.

I've always enjoyed a bit of card/board gaming to break up the PC gaming at LANs. Cards against humanity, etc. So having a bit more of that would be cool, especially for in the evenings.

I'm sure I'll have more to say later but that's enough for now methinks.

I'd also like to pipe up that the missing crockery and cutlery (save for mugs) was a downside... Nobody on our side's fault, we could have done with some notice for our side so we'd know to bring the paper variety! But, we live and learn

For the card/board games, to ensure we have a nice selection maybe people could be designated 'bringers' of games? That way we'd have a definite menu guaranteed, that we could publish in the weeks leading up to the event so people know what's up for playing?

Also, another suggestion: More outside-lan gatherings and outings!

More regular online meets would be good too, but that would be done under our own steam...

We could start a thread for people to list board / card games they own that they'd be okay bringing to LAN/ showing people how to play?

I know our household has a whole bunch of them they we've played most of a time or too at least.

Bobtastimo wrote:We could start a thread for people to list board / card games they own that they'd be okay bringing to LAN/ showing people how to play?

I know our household has a whole bunch of them they we've played most of a time or too at least.

I'm down for this! Then maybe before an event a few are picked from the repository thread? Or would all games be available?

I have just made said thread in the General forum board.

I wouldn't want to have to cart ALL of my games to an event, but yeah if people had any requests pre-event we could shortlist some to have at the LAN.
I've only stuck a couple on my list atm, as I'm at my parents and so can't see our "Shelves-o-games".

Splendid, sounds excellent!

And another thing-- Does LlamaLAN have an IRC channel? I think it may have done, but there is also the possibility that I could have been dreaming. Would it be worth (the potential hassle of) having one, if they are not completely obsolete? Bearing in mind that we have Teamspeak, or could easily set up a server on Discord (which doesn't require a download), not sure what the unique benefits of IRC could be. But throwing it out there!

And another another thing: More pictures of the events! I don't know if one or two people could be designated photographers during downtime, but it would be nice to get more candid pictures of punters and the event

IRC channel is probably still there tbh

as for pictures, would be good to use the galleries on the site

In terms of outside social events anyone is welcome to organise them. We have a lot to do between lans so unfortunately don't have the time to organise them