Timothy Hoogland

My trip to Digital Overload in Providence, RI has re-ignited my interest in LAN Gaming and gaming in general. The only problem with being a gamer today is that the general public always assumes that a gamer is someone who lives in their mother’s basement and never comes out to see the light of day. This could not be farther from the truth so I would like to set some things straight for the record.

Starting off with a 3 word something that any lame person assumes that a “gamer” has to play, World Of Warcraft. I cannot tell you how many times during my employment at a retail store as a computer technician that I had some customer ask me about World Of Warcraft just because I was into computers. I personally find it insulting and all it does is show how ignorant you are as a person. That would be like me going up to a black guy and asking him if he had any good chicken or watermelon lately, it’s just stupid and ignorant.

Now most people also assume that gamers spend the majority of their days in the basement. I myself have my gaming station in my bedroom that resides on the second floor. While it is true that gaming is better done in the dark it is not always done in a basement. There are gatherings called LAN parties that most gamers attend. A LAN party is is when gamers get together with their gaming systems (PC or Console) and hook them up to a Local Area Network (or LAN for short) to play games with each other. Now most people will probably argue that internet gaming is the same thing but the fact is that most of the people who say that have never attended a LAN party. What most gamers like about the LAN parties is that after they get done with a fragging session you can get up and go meet the guy that you have been head-shotting for the past hour. Usually with most LAN parties at some point everyone will go out to eat and its always a lot of fun.

From my personal experience with gaming and LAN parties I typically find that most gamers are pretty friendly and outgoing. There are a select few who like to keep to themselves but they are not the majority of the gamers that are out there. Before I went into retail I was quite active in the LAN party community and hosted parties almost every other month. But due to the crazy retail hours I was not able to host them. I am getting active again as I truly miss the environment and the people from the gaming community.