Though one is obviously dwarfed by the comparison, both figures are impressive in their own right. And both speak to the health of their form of multiplayer gaming. For console games like Modern Warfare 2, multiplayer’s meteoric growth is commonly understood. But for LAN parties, still playing games like Counter-Strike, their resilience and persistence are most frequently seen among university-aged gamers on campus.

“If anything, I think it’s growing” says Nathan Etzell, a student at Oregon State University, whose 300-member OSU Gaming organisation has a prewired, 30-person LAN room at the bottom of a dormitory where at least two large parties are held per term. In January, his club will meet the University of Oregon in the second “Civil War LAN”, a gaming tournament named after the schools’ football rivalry.

But there is a sense that the PC LAN party — like all-nighters, streaking, whatever — are something whose time and place comes on a university campus. Out in the cold hard world, PC LAN and direct server support in new titles is dwindling in favour of console multiplayer and proprietary hosting services. Most notably, StarCraft II will not support LAN gaming as it shifts to Blizzard’s Battle.net. And dedicated servers are out under Modern Warfare 2, which is now running multiplayer with a combination of Steam and the recently created IW.net for Modern Warfare 2. Both sequels’ predecessors had a strong history in dedicated servers and LAN gaming, leaving some gamers feeling betrayed, and some LAN enthusiasts feeling marginalised.

LAN gaming is not gone from the off-campus civilian world. But annual convention hall events with big budgets, entry fees, prizes and sponsorships are different creatures from six people linking up to play Warcraft III. While the former will definitely still happen after you graduate, the latter is less likely. Those six-people sessions are most likely made among fellow gamers, who are likely to find each other in a class, or perusing a bulletin board in a student union.

“Their age group usually involves a lot of what PC gamers are,” says Keegan Gormley, whose Big City Gaming in downtown Eugene, Ore. offers constant system-linked gaming and monthly tournaments. “They’re mostly university students who, in their spare time, enjoy playing a game like Counter-Strike, or another game they’ve played for a long time.”

The players in his $US5-an-hour “stadium,” — eight consoles connected to high definition, Major League Gaming–standard panel monitors — are largely high-schoolers, Gormley said. Younger kids are less likely to LAN, he said, because of the accessibility of consoles and the desirability of their most current games.

“There’s much more deep-rooting in PC gaming,” Gormley said. “Someone who gets into a game on the PC can end up playing it for years,” he said. “On consoles, I’ve seen people drop Halo for Call of Duty, then drop Call of Duty for Flashpoint. For PC gamers, mostly, it’s whatever they originally clicked on and killed with.”

And that helps explain the persistence of LAN gaming. The standbys of a LAN party are usually real-time strategy games such as StarCraft, or WarCraft III, then shooters such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament. TF2 is the most recent of these, releasing in 2007, with others having roots going back to the late 1990s. There’s a reason for this.

“It’s what people are good at,” said Patrick Chinn, one of the University of Oregon organisers for the Civil War LAN, which will be held January 22-23. “One reason people want to play an older game like Counter-Strike is because they’ve played it a long time and they’ve gotten good at it. We’ve done tournaments for games that are brand new, and there’ll be some attendance, but they’re not as well played.”

Plus, by this point, the support histories for the games have either controlled for or patched out of existence most means of cheating. “The tactics in a game like Counter-Strike have become so refined that there’s no real dick move you can pull,” says Dylan Leeds, a senior majoring in digital art at Oregon. And for whatever in-game legislation doesn’t cover, LAN gaming offers another control: being physically in the presence of your opponent. It cuts down on ragequits and unsporting behaviour.

“You’re more likely to respect someone if you know you’re going to see interact with them after the game,” he said.

And that speaks to another quality of LAN gaming that, unlike its numbers, can’t be replicated or really improved: the human contact of it all.

“If you’re playing online by yourself, the hype’s really not there,” said Josh Bothun, an Oregon student majoring in computer science and music technology. “It’s like you have to intentionally create it for yourself, but you get a completely different experience when people are around you.”

LAN parties have an anecdotal culture that just can’t be replicated by solitary multiplayer gaming. Often stretching 24 hours or more, they’re salted with tales of inside jokes and hyper-caffeination. At major tournaments in the civilian world, bragging about casemods and your rig are their own sideshow, similar to a custom-car show.

“It’s more about community,” says Gormley, the game store owner. “It’s being able to shoulder-shove the person you just killed. It’s less about yelling at someone over a mic, and more about actually giving that person the evil eye.

“It gets so elitist online, sometimes,” he continued. “It seems like a lot of people don’t want to play online console games because they don’t get the game in its first week, don’t level up their character in time, and then they feel like they can’t compete.”

It might be easy to assume that anything other than gaming over the Internet, as opposed to a LAN or WAN, is redundant, a relic, or headed for obscurity. But system-linked games bring something to the room that proprietary multiplayer services can’t: One’s friends.

To use an apt college metaphor: “It’s like drinking online versus drinking with friends,” Chinn said. “Drinking a couple of beers and IMing with friends is not nearly as much fun as actually drinking with your friends.”

The different types of tournament are micro-management, small-scale combat, limited tech tree and full games using StarCraft Brood War 1.16.1. Registration is open between now and September 15, 2010. Submission is open from September 15 through to September 30, and the actual tournament kicks off October 1 and continues through the AIIDE 2010 Conference.

Here’s what the official website has to say:

Bots for StarCraft can be developed using the Broodwar API, which provides hooks into StarCraft and enables the development of custom AI for StarCraft. A C++ interface enables developers to query the current state of the game and issue orders to units.

…

All of the tournaments will use a double-elimination bracket, based on best of 5 matches.

So go forth, StarCraft modders. It’s not just for nerd cred… it’s for science!

Thanks for the tip, Professor Lowood!
Image Cred

Halo: Helljumper #4 Written by Peter David. Drawn by Eric Nguyen.

Summary Via Publisher Marvel Comics
With an entire Covenant regiment hot on the trail of their comrades, Dutch and Romeo don’t have a lot of options…the radios are out, so they can’t alert their CO as to what’s behind them, and they don’t have enough firepower to take the Covenant force out on their own. But… hey, what’s this here? A lightly guarded Covenant Drop Ship? But who’d be stupid enough to steal a Drop Ship? Two of the UNSC’s finest, perhaps?

Starcraft #5 Written by Simon Furman. Drawn by Federico Dallocchio.

Summary Via Publisher Wildstorm Entertainment
On a zerg-infested world, the War Pigs come face-to-face with Jim Raynor, but it’s becoming painfully clear that nothing is what it seems, least of all the man who brought them back together for this do-or-die mission – Cole Hickson. Prepare for revelations, shocks and cover-to-cover action! Plus, a peek at Nuura Joss’ troubled past! This one has it all!

According to Sweden’s Metro, the unnamed 18-year-old assailant “became angry when his internet connection wouldn’t work.” He then consulted a troubleshooting manual which apparently told him “grab a knife and go outside, that’ll solve everything.” There he attacked a 15-year-old girl “who was on her way home from a party and laughing with a friend.” Take that, you inconsiderate laugher!

Her injuries were not life threatening. Knife guy just got sentenced to psychiatric care. The prosecutor wanted hem tried for attempted murder but the court stepped in and said, no, it’s quite likely this guy is nuts.

Oh, this happened Aug. 9. And people say I’m slow with the news.

Crazy Starcraft Player Stabs 15yr Old Girl [Hot Blooded Gaming]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #45 … Written by John Jackson Miller. Drawn by Brian Ching
Summary Via Publisher Dark Horse Comics:
Despite a disastrous first encounter with the Crucible, Zayne Carrick is still determined to end the brutality they promote in their business. But this time, he plans to break them from the inside out!

Having set himself up to be captured by the slavers, when this former Padawan arrives at the Crucible’s training facility, it will be all he can do to survive, let alone focus on learning about their organisation. His connection to the Force will give him an unexpected insight—one that he doesn’t necessarily want. And when a past nemesis of his friend Jarael appears, Zayne begins to worry that entering the Crucible may be the biggest mistake of his life!

Starcraft #4… Written by Simon Furman. Drawn by Federico Dallocchio and Brian Denham
Summary Via Publisher Wildstorm Entertainment:
The War Pigs are getting closer and closer to hunting down renegade marshal Jim Raynor, but obstacles and internal conflict continue to muddy the mission waters. Far-from-gentle giant Turfa Dei confronts the ghosts of his past while the team faces off against present day ghosts—the Dominion’s elite and deadly.

I sat in the Battle.net panel, desperately trying to take crappy shots off of the big screen, and then Blizzard hands me this lovely disc, filled with crystal-clear pictures of Battle.Net, StarCraft II, and WoW. Think of this gallery as a companion piece to our story on the evolution of Battle.Net.

Now, I don’t have the first clue how you’d predict these winners. But if you do, or if you get lucky, you get two of aforesaid laptops – 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320GB drive, 15.6-inch screen, 4 gigs of RAM and an NVIDIA 9800M GS graphics card.

Right now, the site has the fields set for just two tournaments – Warcraft III and Warcraft Arena. When they get the field set for Starcraft they’ll do another survey. Here’s the contestants, first for the Warcraft III championship.

• Phil Crawford, aka Long Walk. Night Elf, United States, Winner, 2009 North American WarCraft Regional Final

• Deokman Yoon, aka PhoeNix_Soccer, Night Elf, Korea, Winner, 2007-08 AWL Season1; 2008 AMD Challenge Black

• Chulwoo Park, aka Shy, Night Elf, Korea, Winner, Leadtek WarCraft III; KODE5 Korea, WGT 2007 Tournament

• Pedro Moreno Durán, aka LucifroN, ORC, Spain, Second Place, 2008 BlizzCon Global Final; Winner, 2009 European WarCraft Regional Final

• Nikita Pomadov, aka Nicker, Night Elf, Russia, Third Place, 2009 European WarCraft Regional Final

• Nikolaus Cassidy, aka Sonkie, Human, United States, Winner, 2008 North American WarCraft Regional Final

• June Park, aka Lyn, Orc, Korea, Winner, 2008 BlizzCon Global Final; 2009 Korean WarCraft Regional Final

• Manuel Schenkhuizen, aka Grubby, Orc, Netherlands, Winner, WCG 2008; Second Place, 2009 European WarCraft Regional Final

And here is the field for the WarCraft Arena championship.

• Woah (Second Place, 2009 European WarCraft Regional Final) Members: Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez Santiago, Spain, Warrior , Patrick “Inflame” Costales, Germany, Warlock , Hugo “Kae” Gonzalez, Spain, Druid

• DKP (Winner, 2009 Taiwan WarCraft Regional Final) Members: Ming “Kita” Lee, Taiwan, Priest , Po-Jui “Ray” Lee, Taiwan, Death Knight , Yu-liang “KH” Huseh, Taiwan, Rogue

• SK Gaming (Winner, 2009 North American WarCraft Regional Final) Members: Joseph “Enforcer” Morrone, Canada, Rogue , Mark “Pookz” Rendon, United States, Mage , Ryan “Realz” Masterson, United States, Priest

• x6tence (Winner, 2008 and 2009 European WarCraft Regional Finals) Members: Nestor “Souler” Garcia Trabazo, Spain, Paladin , Javier “Siler” Dobon, Spain, Hunter, Victor Manuel “Falcon” Sanchez Lopez, Spain, Death Knight

• Shipit (Winner, 2009 Korean WarCraft Regional Final) Members: Soonjae “Coilmaster” Cha, Korea, Death Knight , Jaemin “Tsukiyomi” Lee, Korea, Hunter , Janghwan “Kamiu” Bae, Korea, Paladin

•TSG (Second Place, 2009 North American WarCraft Regional Final) Members: David “Valrath” Kovacs, Canada, Death Knight , Bennett “Veex” Lynch, United States, Warrior , Fabian “Zilea” Siffredi, United States, Paladin

• Button Bashers (Winner, 2008 Korean WarCraft Regional Final) Members: Naehyun “Orangemarmalade” Kang, Korea, Mage , Seoungouk “Numberone” Oh, Korea, Priest , Woojin “Hannival” Kim, Korea, Rogue

• All Pass (Second Place, 2009 Taiwan WarCraft Regional Final) Members: Yen-Fu “BA” Chen, Taiwan, Priest , Ming-Wei “Seven” Ho, Taiwan, Mage , Te-Chen “Tank” Liu, Taiwan, Rogue

Choose a Champion with Intel at BlizzCon 2009 [site]

Sure, this is a big free ad – but Heza’s not exactly fish food, and she’s got a history on weekends. She’s hand-made a Reaver plushie that is just dawwwww-adowable, and she’s selling it on eBay for $US30 OBO, plus $US6 shipping.

So if you dig Starcraft, engines of devastation, fluorescent yellow Ceti eels, or just want to touch something that’s touched Heza, run right out and bid it up.

StarCraft Reaver Plushie Toy – Custom Made [eBay]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #43… Written by John Jackson Miller; Art by Bong Dazo

Summary via publisher Dark Horse Comics: “Reaping”: An unprecedented new adventure begins — leaving former Padawan Zayne Carrick clinging to the side of a comet! When Zayne and crew infiltrate a comet mine, his partner Gryph believes it’s another clever con to capture some quick cash. Little does Gryph know, Zayne and Jarael have other intentions — like rescuing the miners enslaved by this ruthless mining operation. Of course, the noble intentions of the team will all be for naught if their plot is discovered. Swimming through stardust is no place to be when enemy ships open fire! (More info.)

World of Warcraft #21… Written by Walter Simonson and Louise Simonson; Art by Mike Bowden and Tony Washington

Summary via publisher Wildstorm/DC Comics: King Varian is so focused on The Lich King and the recent Scourge attacks that he fails to notice Cho’Gall’s power and threat continue to grow. Plus, Maraad has kidnapped Garona – but to what nefarious end? (More info.)

Starcraft: Frontline Volume 3 (208-page manga)… Written by Various; Art by Various

Summary via publisher Tokyopop: Revel in the brutal, menacing and sublime world of StarCraft in this collection of world-expanding adventures….

In “War-Torn, “Senator Corbin Phash used his power and influence to hide his young son Colin’s psionic abilities from the Dominion, but their secret has finally been exposed!

In “Do No Harm,” the sadistic “Butcher of Korhal,” Dr. Burgess, gets his bloody hands on Muadun, a recently captured protoss high templar and goes dissecting for clues on how to mass-produce horrifying protoss-terran soldiers…

In “Last Call,” a lounge singer on the backwater mining post of Meteor Station finds herself at the centre of diplomatic intrigue…

And in “Twilight Archon,” the griving head instructor of a protoss templar school discovers what she’ll have to sacrifice just to be whole again.
! (More info.)

So if you are going to really learn StarCraft, then ByunTae wants you to learn it from an “authentic Korean”. That’s right, not a fake Korean, an authentic one. From his Craigslist posting:

Hi, my name is ByunTae from South Korea. I have been playing Starcraft since 1998 and I was born and raised in Korea. I’m 100% full blooded Korean, meaning I have been gifted with unparallel talent to master any video game, particularly, Starcraft: Brood War. I’m also experienced in Counter-Strike, I am able to perform bunny hops, my best score on a public 32 player game was 171-2 with 170 kill streak. I’m offering my expertise in Starcraft to be taught to non-Koreans that wishes to have the skill of a Korean player.

ByunTae goes on to claim he’s advised and coached Korean pros and will teach you unit management, map strategies, how to use in-game bugs to your advantage, and even basic Korean “to communicate with Koreans on Battle.net”. He goes on to add:

My lessons will result in:
Faster APM (actions per minute) – average professional gamers range from 250-550. Average player is about 100.
Better Win/Loss Ratio
Chance to become a professional gamer in Korea – Celebrity status, especially for foreigners, like Guillaume Patry (Grrr…) and Bertrand Grospellier (Elky)
Bragging rights, that you’re as good as a Korean in Starcraft
You will be called a hacker because you’re so good.
Korean girls will be intrigued that you’re such a good Starcraft player.

My lessons are offered to only non-Koreans or American born Koreans because they lack the blessing from the Gaming God, Norazi.

The price of this “authenticity” starts at twenty-five bucks an hour.

Starcraft lessons from authentic Korean (richmond / seacliff) [Craigslist Thanks AJ!]