LAN party management system

 Description

A LAN party consists of many computers joined on a Local Area Network (LAN) with the objective of playing computer games with other users on the network.  A LAN can be very big and easily have over 100 users sharing space in a large room. 

In order to play a game, a user must organize a group of other players to start a game simultaneously.  Currently, players use a centrally located whiteboard to organize games, or resort to shouting out the names of games they are interested in playing.  Because of the large number of people involved, the task or organizing a game at a LAN party can create a chaotic environment.  This often leads to players having a lot of downtime between gamers due to the lack of an efficient communication system. 

The LAN party management system aims to ease the task of communicating with other users to organize games.  Use of this system will allow a user to play more games during a LAN party and have less downtime.  The LAN party management system will streamline the LAN experience and increase the fun factor for the LAN party participants.

Screenshots

Sign in page allows users to create unique user names so they can be identified within the system

The LAN map allows users to locate themselves on map.  Other players can mouse over the player and find out where they are sitting

The homepage has a listing of ‘active games’.  Users are able to join the active games by clicking on the name of the game room

This is an example of a game room.  The name of the game, version, and any mods or patches needed are shown in the upper left.  Each player that is currently

Part of the game room is shown in the list to the left.  There is also a game specific chat that only users in the game room can use.

The player also has the ability to host a game if they cannot find a game room that they want to play in.  They provide the name of the game, a unique game room

Name, the version, mods and a description such as Free For All.  The host waits until the room fills with enough players and then launches the game.  The view above

Shows what other players see when the host launches the game.

 

Benefits and Drawbacks

This interface was designed to facilitate interaction between many users simultaneously which presented some unique challenges.  One challenge deals with testing.  To exhaustively test the system would require that many users test the system at the same time.  Problems associated with this include not only getting enough users, but organizing them into a setting such as a LAN and starting tests and collecting data from a large group.  Also, to be really functional this type of project requires creating and maintain a data base of many popular games including names, versions, mods and patches.  This turns into a lot of data entry and maintenance especially if the system will be implemented at future LAN parties.  Finally, being web based, this system relies on the user updating their status frequently rather than a local program detecting whether or not the user is playing a game.  It may turn out in practice that users have a tough time remembering to update their status which could lead to incorrect information being displayed to the rest of the LAN. 

To students considering this type of project, make sure that you are able to test on a large scale such as a computer room.  Also, for systems that rely on users updating their information frequently, have in mind a non-annoying way of prompting the user to remember to update their status.

 

Created by: Collin Anderson, Steven Chou, Dillon Hodapp, Paul Stevenson, and Pat Weygand