#dotlan2014

[midwestlans]

Reflex - Arena FPS

Last week, I stumbled upon a Kickstarter campaign for a new Arena-based FPS shooter called Reflex.  A first view through their front-page video might leave you asking what sets it apart from other Arena FPS games we've been playing for more than a decade, and fortunately, the guys behind the scenes have been posting updates that I encourage everyone to read.  Check out the kickstarter campaign here. Their latest update was regarding movement, and I think this is really going to refine the recipe that has made arena FPS so much fun.  This easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master approach was done for games like TF2.  It's a game that is incredibly easy to pick up and play at a competent level, but in order to get to the next level of play, you really have to spend a lot of time on muscle memory and practice.  I can't tell you how much time I spent in TF2 during my competitive years just rocket jumping off of walls. While I don't have the time to invest 30-40+ hours a week perfecting my skills in a game, I do believe the guys behind Reflex are doing the right things.  They're not re-imagining the Arena FPS; you don't need to.  What they are doing is taking a formula that works well and adding their own spin to it.  Skill jumping is a huge part of it, but after watching streams of their pre-alpha build, there's so much more behind it that I find very compelling. I suggest you go check out their Kickstarter campaign.  They crossed over the $60k mark over the weekend, but their aggressive $360,000 goal is still quite a ways away.  So, consider backing it if that's your thing. They're also on twitter and facebook, so you can at least catch when they're streaming the pre-alpha content.  The other thing that I've grown to expect these days, especially with planning .LAN every year, is that folks typically don't take the time to reply to you.  I send out hundreds of e-mails in the months leading up to .LAN, and I would say that a small percentage is replied to.  These guys have been very candid and up front with my personal messages to them and I give them a ton of credit for it.  Surprisingly, Blizzard and Hi-Rez are the other two that have not grown too big to support this growing event where they can.  

I say this because when I do find folks that seem passionate about what they do and take time to reply and be respectful, I make every effort I can to support them.   Reflex, and the developers behind this seem like they want to do this. I support that, because I have the same drives and goals with .LAN.  Money has never been a determining factor for me.  If it were, I would have quit a long time ago.  Passion, games and friendships all drive me to keep doing .LAN year to year.  It may not be a glorious endeavor, but it's worth it in the end.  Let's help Reflex realize the same successes I've seen with .LAN over the last six years.

[midwestlans]

Just Days Away!

I've been running this event for quite some time and this week marks the end of a very, very long wait.  A wait that was, at times, incredibly difficult to overcome and at certain points, felt like it was indefinite.

That wait was .LAN 2014.  I wasn't sure this event would make a triumphant return in 2014 and while we're certainly not hitting big attendee numbers, I'm encouraged and excited about where we are, just days away from our return event.

We'll be provided an opportunity to make some new friends, see some old ones and most importantly, shoot nerf at each other and play some fun video games. Last night, I sent out an arrival e-mail to all registered attendees for this year's event.  The flurry of activity starts this week.  Today the electrical panel gets installed at the hotel, and for the next three days, I'll be working to organize the .LAN equipment that has been sitting in storage for two years. Thursday is the day and I've never felt so calm about an event setup.  Everything is in place, planning is done and now it's just time to execute.  I've done this many times before and it's almost second nature now.  I have an abundance of volunteers asking to help and that should position us to be ready by our 3pm door open time. I'm ready for .LAN 2014 and can't wait to see what memories come from this year's return.

[midwestlans]

What 2014 has in store...

I know it's been a good long while since you've heard from me, and it's definitely not great news. After months of trying to negotiate a contract with a new hotel, I decided that the risk was simply too high to accept.  Their terms were fair, and they needed to mitigate risk on their end as well, so as of right now we're still on the hunt for a new location as we head in to 2014.

Suffice it to say, I've worked with over a dozen hotels in the Milwaukee area, but also further down south.  Every hotel is the same story, their prices are high because we're competing with wedding revenue and that's simply something .LAN can't compete with.  We're a small, growing event, and besides putting us on hold in 2013, we just don't have the capital to invest in an event with so many questions. I'm reaching out to locations that are not hotels.  These are locations that will offer the bare necessities (power, hvac and internet) where we would be able to have folks stay in surrounding hotels overnight. This is less ideal than being able to wear slippers all weekend and never have to go outside in to the cold, but it's better than no LAN party at all. We're investigating some options at this time and hope to have good news before the first quarter of the year passes.  As always, keep posted here, and we'll have the latest .LAN news to share.

[midwestlans]

The Games we Play!

Well gosh, I promised more blog posts after launching this thing and I've been very good at ignoring it instead. Well, not today! Today I feel like writing a bit about the games I've been playing while also providing an update on .LAN 2014.

I've been going back and forth with a few games, but mainly I've been playing a lot of Smite. Being a third-person view moba, the game really has the roots of an FPS while bringing in the mechanics of a traditional top-down view moba. I personally have never meshed with the moba genre. I can't connect with the game play, the item setup and the multitude of other meta mechanics that constantly evolve in the game. With Smite, things are a bit different.

While the game shares a lot of mechanics, like tower pushing, last hittng and within the last four months, jungling, there are a few things that are significantly different.

1. You can't see behind you. In a top-down view, you can see what is in front of you and behind you as long as you have line of sight. With Smite, because you're looking at the back of your character, you only get to see what is in front of your character, making spacial and map awareness key. Warding is even more important in this game and those who keep an eye on the map tend to have more success in the game.

2. The majority of shots are skill based. There are some exceptions where as long as you are within a proximity of an enemy unit you'll land some damage, but basic attacks and most skills require good aim and prediction skills.

I'm sure I could come up with a few other major differences, but I think those two points are the biggest. It really is what separates Smite from the others. Not only that, but the item system in place is diverse enough to give customization to your god, but not so complex that new players would be totally lost. Once you get the hang of it, you'll find yourself right at home.

God kits are also incredibly fun. They've been able to do a lot more with character skills than with other MOBA titles simply because of the perspective. What that means is that the new gods coming out are really showing some new and interesting mechanics.

I've been playing since August of 2012 and while I definitely follow a period of frustration and excitment over the community, I'm still playing.

I've also picked up Battlefield 4. It's incredibly similar to its predecessor, but it has some nice updates to the engine and gameplay. However the core mechanics remain unchanged. I've had the same split of immensely gratifying experiences to downright rage-inducing gameplay. It's unfortunate that with this new game they haven't been able to resolve some of their more trivial issues, like server crashes causing players to lose any progression in the match. With how much data is computed for this game, you'd think there would be a way to handle the data throughout the match without losing too much progression. Either way, it's a nice change of pace and I'm enjoying myself so far.

You've read this far, I suppose it's about time for an update on .LAN 2014...

We're heading back to our roots. I've been negotiating with the new hotel for about two months now on trying to solidify a date for next year. Right now it looks like it's going to happen sometime in April, so if you're keeping track of these sort of things, be sure to leave either the second weekend or the final weekend open, because it may happen during one of those weekends.

We're also scaling back the size of the event significantly. With the break in 2013 and with new game releases really separating the community from which this event draws, I'm simply not comfortable taking the amount of risk that comes with signing their 5,000 sq ft space. We'd have to bring in a minimum of 65 people on top of staff (which would be over 70 of us) and that was about where we were in 2012 with a lot of momentum behind us. I think we've lost a bit of that, so this year is going to take a step back and focus on what we do best: play games with friends.

With that being said, when we make the announcement for the event, we will not be holding public signups. We'll be keeping the event closed to previous attendees and invitations will be sent out to folks based on their history with the event.

I'm expecting 2014 to land somewhere in the 30-40 person area and we'll be keeping it a bit more casual. The event will coordinate tournaments and things like that, but sponsorship will be light and we'll keep things down to earth. With the more casual approach, the event will be significantly cheaper than you're used to seeing.

That's about all I can disclose for now. Keep an eye on our facebook page or right here for more updates! Expect to see an official announcement before the end of the year!

As always, thank you for being a fan of Midwestlans and I sincerely hope that we can grow .LAN back in to the event I hoped it would be so many years ago.

Cheers, Nick

[midwestlans]

The new Midwestlans News!

It has been a little over a year since the Midwestlans blog went offline due to a catastrophic failure from wordpress.  Combined with a poorly optimized blogging platform, the addons we had installed and an issue with the database, I wasn't able to recover it the way it was, especially considering that particular event was "the straw that broke the camel's back".

So, after procrastinating about it for many months, I've decided to bring back the blog with a very simple goal: provide a way for me to talk about all things technology, gaming and also give me an outlet to talk about .LAN and Midwestlans.com without relying on Facebook to do so.

I don't have much prepared at the moment regarding content.  Here are just a few things I have planned for the rest of the week:

An update on where we are with .LAN in 2014. 

Some of the challenges we're facing with the pre-planning process of .LAN 2014.

Some concerns we have entering in to next year, and what that means for you.

Bringing awareness to Game-a-Thon, the 24-hour LAN fundraiser happening on 8/30 and 8/31.

Thank you for visiting the new page, as I'm sure you've found yourself visiting from the post on facebook.