Next LAN - when do you want one?

[DAve]

When do you want a lan, first weekend of the holidays? The uni semester (http://senate.gla.ac.uk/academic/dates0506.html) breaks up on the Friday June the 2nd, meaning the lan could happen on the 3rd and 4th.
There's the week after as well, the 10th & 11th, how many people will be moving back home on that day?

Always the option of another date, if the dates you would like to game aren't there, post when you'd like it to happen, and I'll add it to the poll.

[Fyndir]

3rd and 4th just because things might be getting a bit hectic the closer it is to the end of June, and because it's a vague tradition to use the first weekend. =P

I can make it to either though. =)

[Captain_Caveman]

You'd better make it the 3rd and 4th or I shall kill you all. I missed the last two and I can make the 3rd/4th and you lot are all overdue a dawn of war kicking. (or more likely I shall get a gubbing)

[Sideshow]

I don't care either way, but I voted 3rd/4th, because I miss Aaron's lovely company.

[Hex]

3rd and 4th would be better, i'm gonna be working full time by the 10th. Plus my exams finish on the 1st, so the 3rd and 4th would be excellent time to celebrate with some headshots!

[YegaDoyai]

looks like it is leaning to the 3rd-4th then

[Strings]

I don't really mind. But yeh I wanna see Capn Caveman again etc.. so 3rd and 4th it is!

[Viper001]

Either is fine for me.

[Phizz]

I'm up for it. Hopefully I'll be a little richer and a lot less stressed. I'll be looking for some actually pwnage by me rather than you guys on me this time. :-D

[gor]

Hi there,

Im quite looking forward to the next lan (3rd and 4th for me). Had to pull out the last one due to a family bereavement, and with exams out of the way, it should be a peach.

On the subject of the next lan, Sid and I have been talking about, firstly, getting the lans busier, and secondly, developing the prospect of a larger event.

Got talking to a few of the Scottish clans on IRC and there seems to be some interest in a Glasgow LAN. Although we're not sure on the policies for non GU members. We think that with the right marketing we could easily turn GUNS into a fairly large Glasgow lanning event.

If we could accumulate 50 regular GU attendees then another 50+ of non-GU folk, we could seriously appeal in the clan competition front, which is forefront in the appeal of other lans. Perhaps we could work a £5 members / £10 non pricing strategy or something similar?

mIRC can be installed here (http://www.mirc.com/), with a useful tutorial here. (http://www.pro-hl.com/column_sandman16.shtml)

30 mins of searching through league sites and relating irc chans resulted in probably around 6 people seriously interested – with each of them knowing someone at Glasgow, or knowing someone else interested (in one case an entire clan). It would be splendid if some of the guns team was on board to help us represent the interested parties.

Heres (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v213/craigjohnstone/random/ircchat.jpg) a screeny of the interest earlier this evening.

[Captain_Caveman]

Slightly off topic but a Beta 3 of hidden was released yesterday or the day before. It has some new features and hopefully requires less chanting to get to work. So anybody up for some at the next lan.

[DAve]

Got talking to a few of the Scottish clans on IRC and there seems to be some interest in a Glasgow LAN. Although we're not sure on the policies for non GU members. We think that with the right marketing we could easily turn GUNS into a fairly large Glasgow lanning event.
To be honest, I don't know what the SRC's policy is on non-GU students attending GU club events. I'll check up on that when I book the rooms.

While there are a significant number of non-GU students at the LANs recently, almost all of them have a significant GU link; have attended GU before etc.

Personally, I would like the club to stay heavily GU-focussed, but I'm aware that I'm standing down the next opportunity I get so won't help make the policy for very much longer.

Maybe I should have said that in the post I would like the AGM to be held round about (or on) the next lan date. I'll have to ask bluepixie and Exuus about the exact date though.

If we could accumulate 50 regular GU attendees then another 50+ of non-GU folk, we could seriously appeal in the clan competition front, which is forefront in the appeal of other lans. Perhaps we could work a £5 members / £10 non pricing strategy or something similar?
The williams room will hold 30-40 people max. The room downstairs will hold probably about 50-100 people at a push. At that point, we don't have the infrastructure to handle that (either in terms of power required, or network capability). Yet*. When you're talking that number of people, we realy need a manager, and a server-admin that don't play but only handle the people. Basically a lot more structure to the event that isn't required for the small >30 people lans.

* I really do want to get guns to the stage of hosting bigger lans. I have been at a few big lans that fell on their face because the event was handled really badly. You don't get a second chance to recover from that. The next stage for guns is probably to host a 50 player event, we were trying to get this to happen for the tri-weegie lan, but nothing much happened after we met Strathclyde gamic club. I do think we should give Strathclyde a call when we do announce the dates of this coming LAN.

[YegaDoyai]

I dont know about anyone else but if we can get more folk then that is good, but we need to know in advance how many folk are going to turn up. the usual room we use can have 30-35 folk max so we need to book the exam hall downstairs if we are going to have more folk. gee, see if you can get them to sign up on the forum and give us an indicator of interest.

25-25 BF2 Sweeeeeeeeeeeet

[gor]

* I really do want to get guns to the stage of hosting bigger lans. I have been at a few big lans that fell on their face because the event was handled really badly. You don't get a second chance to recover from that. The next stage for guns is probably to host a 50 player event, we were trying to get this to happen for the tri-weegie lan, but nothing much happened after we met Strathclyde gamic club. I do think we should give Strathclyde a call when we do announce the dates of this coming LAN.

Most definitely trying to get Strathclyde involved is the next step.

I was partly involved in a project called lan-uk (a top 1.6 clan at the time), they had managed to get access to a two floor conference hall of some sort, just outside Birmingham (over 200 capacity) for an October weekend. They took the IRC and forum routes, gathering some 200+ idlers - and followed that up with a pre-pay type thing (pay all, or £5 deposit) - they regarded contact as very important i.e. project activeness - with bi-weekly email updated, news, seating plans, prize and tourney info etc. The success of the clan, irc and forum PR created quite a fuss.

With a bit of research, and organisation, im sure we could reach that stage. Im confident if I was to email the lads at uprising and other scottish lans they would help us out in terms of the infrastructure and managing the event.

Im just firing out some thoughts, probably not considering the reality of it all. But even if this seems entirely unreasonable - I still predict a simple "go to university in glasgow? join #guns.cs" - would attract another 10+ to the forums. Still seems worth while.

#guns.cs :!:

[DAve]

they regarded contact as very important i.e. project activeness - with bi-weekly email updated, news, seating plans, prize and tourney info etc. The success of the clan, irc and forum PR created quite a fuss.
You're right, having good contact and being able to get the word out is vitally important. That's one of the reasons that I'm standing down at the AGM, I can't make the time to organise myself and the club any more.

There was a club mailing list, but it's been unused since the forum was set up. I still use it to fire out emails for lans and other club events, but have been reluctant to use it more in case everyone sees it as unwanted spam. OK, I'm quite conservative that way!

I've already had the offer of equipment from one of the majo lan parties around here: Cumberlan and California lan (I think he does the X-Box lans too).

I have found it difficult to spread the word to the right areas without being invaded by a bunch of non-students. It is a university club after all ;)
Im just firing out some thoughts, probably not considering the reality of it all. But even if this seems entirely unreasonable - I still predict a simple "go to university in glasgow? join #guns.cs" - would attract another 10+ to the forums. Still seems worth while.
#guns.cs :!:
It's great that you are all having such fantastic ideas. I'll never have the time to follow up on all of them though - I agree that the IRC advertising would bring a few more members in, go for it.

Also, I've never used IRC before. I'm sure I would look like a complete noob there :)

[Strings]

Awesome stuff. Will shove it in my perform tonight.

Getting more people etc would be awesome... we just need a sound plan.

So aye, will join the channel tonight.

[DAve]

The LAN is now booked for the 3rd and 4th of June. See you all there!

[Sid]

I'll be at the LAN.

As g0r has mentioned we have been investigating the interest available in a large Glasgow LAN and we have found that there is definitely a large untapped market. Other Scottish LANs have existed but have been relatively small and have faded away due to being poorly run and due to general lack of enthusiasm from the leaders. With the nearest other decent LANs being hundreds of miles south, a Glasgow LAN would be heaven to so many gamers.

I do agree that this should not be the first step to increasing our LAN size – we need to start at home. We need to really go out with a bang over the summer and at the start of next term. Currently, thirty-odd GU members regularly attend our LANs – I do not believe for a second that there aren’t many more that would come but simply haven’t heard of it. Personally, I was in my 3rd year at Glasgow University before I came to the LAN. Why? Because I simply didn’t know it existed. I didn’t even find it by seeing some advert – I had to actually go looking for it. We really need to smother the campus in advertisements: the QM; the GU; lecture buildings; not to mention being all over freshers’ week. We should really have about 20 folk with flyers running around all over freshers’ week – not just at the fair.

For the first LAN of next term we could really work to get Strathclyde and Caledonian universities together. It seems silly to have us all doing our separate things in a small scale when we could just join forces and have bigger, better LANs. Network-gaming is something that gets better with scale. Rather than struggling to get every single person at the LAN to join the same game there could be a few games running simultaneously offering gamers choice.

There is the matter of whether or not the SRC would allow now-GU students along but I can’t really see any reason why not, providing priority for a seat at the LANs is given to GU students. In essence it’s really just a conference between students at various universities – I’m sure lots of those are held in Glasgow University buildings with no problem. If we were to eventually go as far as letting non-students come along then perhaps the SRC might have an issue although surely we could come to some arrangement – such as the SRC getting all the entry-cost revenue from non-students to help with their funds. The maximum capacity thing would be an issue but by this stage we could probably look to hire a private venue. Anyway back to the near future…

To conclude, I think that our first steps should be to spend the summer working with the leaders of the other Glasgow University LAN clubs to try and arrange for us to merge our LANs and also to arrange a huge advertising campaign to implement towards the end of the summer and start of freshers week.

[gor]

To conclude, I think that our first steps should be to spend the summer working with the leaders of the other Glasgow University LAN clubs to try and arrange for us to merge our LANs and also to arrange a huge advertising campaign to implement towards the end of the summer and start of freshers week.

I would suggest getting a hold of the computer science mailing lists at Strathclyde and Glasgow (must be over 500 people?) - Spend a lot of time over summer drafting and re-drafting an informative news e-letter - which could include the likely dates of each lan, the modes of transport, the possible themes of each lan (one for cs tourney, one for bf2, ironman etc), cost, games schedule and general procedures, parking arrangements etc.

If that doesn't get at least another good few members I will eat my hat.

[YegaDoyai]

to sid and gee, these are things that the current administration has looked into. However due to time constraints and other duties most of it has not been followed up (apologies to those who feel they have).
As Dave says we should have the AGM at the next LAN or about the same time so we can get everyone to vote on the new administration. Both of you sound like you you have a lot of ideas to put forward but maybe not the time to implement them? I'm not sure.
Either way, the new administration hopefulls should prepare a short brief to give at the AGM to tell us why we should vote for you. Anyone that has the time and ability to put together a large lan has my vote. As I am not affiliated or ever been affiliated with the uni I will not run for any position, but would intend to help where and when I can as I'm sure most of us will.

Logistics wise I think the current administration has come to the conclusion that without further spending or otherwise attaining more equipment, a LAN of 40+ is unmanageable. If we are going to look at increasing the lan size beyond that then we will need to draw up accounts and put some time into researching what is really needed/what we want. Overall I'd say it is a larger step than most realise to move from our current size lan group, to a cross Uni lan size. But I'm all for trying.

Dave, I know you are busy, like the rest of the students, but could you put up a list of proposed positions available so that people can register thier interest in running for a position? Maybe we can read thier brief before we even get to the AGM and it will simply be a formal voting and acknoledgement process.

Positions:
President
Secretary
Treasurer
PR
Game/Network technician

Anything else?

[Sid]

Both of you sound like you you have a lot of ideas to put forward but maybe not the time to implement them? I'm not sure.

Quite the opposite really - I have far too much time on my hands and would love to arrange these things but feel it isn't really my place to try and make changes at the moment. Also, I wasn't sure whether or not the rest of you were happy with the LANs remaining at 20 person. I'm not particularly bothered either way about a position as such, more just an opportunity to try and make some changes.

without further spending or otherwise attaining more equipment, a LAN of 40+ is unmanageable.

Absolutely, we'd need to buy some more equipment but nothing that would break the bank. A 16-port Gigabit Switch for about £125 new / £100 ebay and a 48-port 10/100 switch for about £200 new / £150 ebay.

Have gigabit lines going from 3-4 servers (1 dedicated CS box, 1 dedicated battlefield box, 1 DCHP server, 1 intranet / IRC server) to the Gigabit Switch then connect the 10/100 switch into the gigabit switch. As we expand just add more 48-port switches connected to the gigabit switch. You can get this kind of stuff dirt cheap on ebay. We can pick up a couple of cheap 1U dual-cpu servers too while we're at it.

We can possibly even try to work deals / sponsorship with various networking companies and even other computer companies.

Power may be an issue, although I'll need to look into that aspect of things a little more. gor's uncle is an electrician and gor's going to have a word with him about this kind of thing.

If we are going to look at increasing the lan size beyond that then we will need to draw up accounts and put some time into researching what is really needed/what we want. Overall I'd say it is a larger step than most realise to move from our current size lan group, to a cross Uni lan size. But I'm all for trying.

Yeah, accounts are needed. It'd be good to open a GUNS bank account with automated credit card + paypal available to pay for specific LANs in advance, perhaps offering a discount paying in advance. But yeah, the books need to be kept, in general.

[YegaDoyai]

where in your accounting did you get 4 dedicated boxes?

[Sid]

where in your accounting did you get 4 dedicated boxes?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean.

[Sideshow]

Allow me to join the dots:

sidHave gigabit lines going from 3-4 servers (1 dedicated CS box, 1 dedicated battlefield box, 1 DCHP server, 1 intranet / IRC server)

yegawhere in your accounting did you get 4 dedicated boxes?

[Sid]

Allow me to join the dots:

sidHave gigabit lines going from 3-4 servers (1 dedicated CS box, 1 dedicated battlefield box, 1 DCHP server, 1 intranet / IRC server)

yegawhere in your accounting did you get 4 dedicated boxes?

That's great Sideshow - thanks. I wasn't quite sure what Yega was looking for as an answer. Between us all I'm sure we have plenty of decent second systems lying around that would do perfectly. Between me and g0r we could have 4 already. By the time the LAN gets to the stage where we'd need all 4 we would have more than enough funds to buy some decent used servers from ebay - these things go for next to nothing when companies are upgrading.

[Sideshow]

No problem. Happy to help :)

[gor]

It turns out, after a bit of research, that 100+ lan would be a Scottish record.

Uprising - 50-60
Gumpcon - 60-70
ScotLAN - 80
HorizontalDog - 50 (considering going to this one)

ScotLAN went for a 100 lan and managed 80+. I think its a complete joke that the top three English lans are approaching between 800-1500, and Scotland struggle to get a pitiful 100.

On the grand scale of things - anything over 40 would be quite an achievement for a small uni team - (credit to that one lan this year that hit 35 was it?). That’s not to say that we shouldn’t attempt to expand further than that. Such a big head start over other lan parties, what with a substantial hall and a large customer base, it would be silly not to.

Surely this is too big an issue for others not to have an opinion on?

[DAve]

Dave, I know you are busy, like the rest of the students, but could you put up a list of proposed positions available so that people can register thier interest in running for a position? Maybe we can read thier brief before we even get to the AGM and it will simply be a formal voting and acknoledgement process.

Positions:
President
Secretary
Treasurer
PR
Game/Network technician
OK, I think the PR is a valuable post, but can be thought of as an Ordinary Committee Member (OCM) - which leaves it open to various other duties in addition to just publicty (e.g. helping with freshers week).

I think the final one - a dedicated server person - is very valuable. I think you proved this in the way the servers just worked all this year.

I'll get at it this week, and report back when it's done.

[YegaDoyai]

meh, I reckon I did crap this year, but if you were happy then that is good, the server is under testing at the moment as it has stopped the ability to serve anything, for no reason. Hopefully it'll be ready for the LAN and we can play the new hidden with a dedicated! :)

[DAve]

meh, I reckon I did crap this year, but if you were happy then that is good, the server is under testing at the moment as it has stopped the ability to serve anything, for no reason. Hopefully it'll be ready for the LAN and we can play the new hidden with a dedicated! :)
That would be sweet - I still say you did a good job this year.

In response to your last post, I've created a wiki page for each of the roles I think would be useful.

I've split the thread as well, I think the discussion needs a thread of its own.

http://guns.snakebomb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=431