One thing that was emphasized by many at the recent Game Developer Conference is that it is more important to havethe game be fun, engaging, and have good playability than to have all sorts of flashy features and graphics. To see if this is right I visited HatLan, a monthly LAN party in Buena Park, California www.hatlan.com. Here about 20 people bring themselves and their computers together to play games together over a local network from all Saturday afternoon and evening and sometimes way into Sunday. Computers varied from your typical consumer machine to over clocked water-cooled systems with high performance components. This is not the large gathering for game tournaments or what is typical for a LAN party in some parts of the world, but it is typical for Southern California.

The system/network administrator and referee known as Chester is a long time gamer who is lucky to have an understanding wife that allows him to run these events in his backyard. Chester and HaTriQk have been running this LAN party for almost 10 years. Chester told me that most of the people who come know each other, but newcomers are definitely welcome. The first game played was Ubisoft's Far Cry, a first person shooter set in a lush tropical setting. The game has gorgeous graphics, some of the best out there. The gamers really enjoyed it. However after a while they got tired of it. In the usual team vs. team play that this group is use to this beautiful environment doesn't provide as interesting a game play as they would like, so they are playing less of it even thought the game has only been out for a short time. As with a lot of multiplayer games, players can construct their own environments and custom game settings (mods), so the belief is as the new mods become available the group's enthusiasm in Far Cry will again hit peak levels.

The next game played was Electronic Arts Battlefield Vietnam. Here the graphics were not as good, but the playability and design of the environment gave it a lot more enjoyment. The game also requires you to continuously communicate with your teammates to be successful, which increases everyone's enjoyment. The game is designed so you can do strange and funny things, and sometimes they just happen. One time a player had a bomb land right on top of him and the player's character's body sailed over the treetop from the force of the blast. It was so outrageous and any of the other players whose characters were in the vicinity could see it; which resulted in everyone cracking up, laughing and making comments about it, adding to the fun. The talk back and forth between players, including jabs at each other, showed that a lot of the enjoyment came not just from the game but the camaraderie of them playing it together. This not just true with PC games, but with console play too such as I have seen playing Halo on Xboxes connected together.

During game switchover or when someone was downloading something that he needed to play the current game, other games were played over the Internet, including Unreal Tournament 2004 and even the original Doom; while some discussed games. One subject was a game which they greatly enjoyed, but when a minor upgrade came out, which the game developers thought would improve the game, it actually destroyed the game play. Sometimes you can spoil a good thing by trying to improve it. Also, you don't need the top level hardware, but at the same time you may have to throttle down the detail level on the graphics or other features in some games if you don't.

Those gathered reaffirmed that it was the playability and fun that counts, not just how good the graphics are. You don't need the fastest system or the latest high-end graphics card to enjoy modern games. Check around for a good multiplayer game that is widely played in LAN parties, play it in single player mode, and then sign up for a LAN party playing that game. You would be surprised at the fun you can have.

Timothy Everingham is CEO of Timothy Everingham Consulting in Azusa, California. and has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada plus Australia, England, and Japan. He is a member of TUGNET. Further information can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~teveringham