Game night: 21st Century-style

South Princeton LANers Max Kerr (from left), Jonathan Wolf and Aaron Harris engage in a little three-on-three computer gaming at Harris’ home south of Princeton. The three young men will join with other gamers Saturday at the Bureau County Farm Bureau for Bailout 2009, an all-day, on-line, computer gaming event. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt)

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PRINCETON — Hey, there’s a LAN party going on Saturday in Princeton. It’s BYOPC, of course, and those attending should bring their own drinks and snacks. Pretzels are the snack of choice, as they won’t get your keyboard or mouse greasy.

If you’re over 30, the above might not make much sense, but younger adults might know it’s an announcement there will be a local area network computer gaming party on Saturday, and those attending will bring their own personal computers.

The South Princeton LAN has been holding parties like this for several years, but Saturday’s party, which will be held at the Farm Bureau Building, is being opened to the public, so that more people will come to play.

“Ever since we went to college, about three years ago, we’ve started doing bigger events,” said Max Kerr, one of the event’s coordinators. “We’ve been having them every summer and winter when we return back from school, just trying to get our friends together, and their friends and acquaintances, and people that we know — basically anybody that we can who’s interested to just come out and hang out with us and have a good time and play video games.”

Video and computer games have come a long way since the days of Pong and Pac-Man.

Console games, especially like the Wii system, are still popular, but heavy-duty gamers generally prefer the intensity and flexibility of computer games.

At a LAN party, gamers bring their own laptop computers.

“Everybody sets up their computers, and you have a router and everybody brings an Ethernet cord to plug into it, and that’s kind of what makes everybody network together,” said Aaron Harris, another coordinator of Saturday’s party.

“You basically play what you want to play,” Kerr said. “We try to have a couple of games that can support a lot of people, so everybody can join in once or twice along the way and play with everybody else.”

And there’s a lot of games out there. Harris said older games like Call of Duty Four and Battlefield Two are still popular, as is StarCraft. StarCraft is a strategy game, as opposed to the first person shooter games.

“They’re probably the most popular because that’s the one you can support from just two anywhere up to 64 players,” Kerr said. “You’re in first person, so you are the character, looking out of their eyes.”

First person games can be played in a free-for-all style in which all of the characters are on their own, or team-style.

“That way you get a little bit more teamwork going on and strategy where people actually have to communicate with each other and try to help each other out, which is where a lot of the fun comes from,” Kerr said.

That communication is a key feature of LAN parties.

“The cool thing about the LAN is that you’re playing with somebody who’s right there next to you,” Harris said. “It’s a lot more fun because you can communicate with them, and you can joke around with them.”

LAN gamers tend to be in their late teens or 20s, although Harris and Kerr talk about one “old guy” who they’ve played who has to be in his 40s or 50s. They’re also pretty much all, well, guys.

“Girls come visit, and they’ll test it out and maybe play a couple games. But we haven’t had a girl specifically come and bring her own computer,” Kerr said.

Harris said Saturday’s party, titled, “Bailout 2009,” will feature good quality, free games, and will cost nothing for those who have never before attended. The action will start at noon, and go until “whenever.” The event has a number of sponsors, and those who attend can look forward to receiving posters, an energy drink, a CPU magazine, and maybe even a special gamers’ mouse pad.

“We think it’s worth it, but we’re a little biased,” Kerr said with a laugh.

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