no game is going to bring back the era of being with your friends in a same physical space to spend hours gaming without a care in the world. the young don’t even have that now.
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2026
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It's so sad, it was so magical. I want that for my kids.
We have two laptops and a desktop, and we have three kids, so they get a bit of a LAN party experience playing Mineclonia.
The desktop also has a big screen (34 inch ultra-wide I think) and 4 xbone controllers so we play 4 player games like Overcooked, Stardew Valley, Sackboy, Tux Cart.
Generally we don't have screens on when their friends come over but perhaps when they are a bit older they might still have a chance for that gaming with friends experience.
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Millennial parents could buy some $30 8bitdo controllers (they're very good dual stick controllers for the price), and then download and set up a series of games that have four player split screen...
...tell their kidso they're doing a games night and should invite their buddies. Then see what happens.
If you can still hear them at 1 am, it worked. Make sure to provide snacks and cola.
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Can still have it. I have semi regular Mario Kart and Smash Bros nights. Loads of fun, always stay up until way too late. Finish off with a dumb movie.
You're only chasing that high because you don't embrace whimsy
Ah yes, let me just embrace whimsy with all these... friends... that I totally have!
I started the smash bros nights specifically to make friends post college as most of my college friends moved away. One of the guys I met online only once through a TTRPG discord and now he brings the good beer.
Also, whimsy can be everywhere. Step outside and watch a flower dance in the wind. Bam, whimsy. Go visit a cemetery and make up funny stories about what led to inscriptions on the tombstones as you map it for findagrave.com , bam, whimsy. You need zero friends for whimsy, but whimsy has led to many friends in my experience.
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Having 4 or 5 PCs in different rooms at a LAN party is a whole different vibe than multiplayer, shouts coming from all the bedrooms, stuff like that.
That's why we switched to smash Bros. Not everyone has a laptop or desktop they want to bring but I can pull out a bunch of controllers. It's so much fun actually seeing someone groan when they miss a super smash.
We all bring our favorite snack and pass bowls around. Case of whatever beers. We're debating setting up a running leaderboard.
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I've spent thousands on gaming and home theater equipment to realize I don't love TV/movies/gaming, I loved hanging out with my friends.
Over here on the other side, I minmax'd "buddies" over "home theater equipment" so now whenever I have someone over to watch a movie it's on my fucking laptop lmao.
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I feel like there is a whole generation of millennials who has this feeling about MMOs - always chasing the high they felt playing WoW back in 2004, always on the lookout for the next up-and-coming MMO thinking this surely will be the one, never realising that they're longing for a moment in time that can never be recaptured, a version of themselves and a place in their life they'll never re-experience.
This happens to a lot of people in one way or another. Family traditions, vacations to the same place or event, favorite restaurants, and on and on. Once you recognize the pattern it is freeing to be able to say goodbye to the things that can't be recaptured, remember them lightning in a bottle they were, and move on.
Wouldn't turn down a halo lan party though.
Are you telling me that WoW Forever isn't going to do the trick for me in a couple of weeks?
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I stopped chasing it and now I just get baked every weekend after the kids go to bed then sit and cry in my beanbag chair while eating oreos out of a cup of milk with a spoon
this is also the title of my isekai manga.
Have you tried eating Oreos in a beanbag chair while playing Halo with your kids?
It's pretty much the LAN party experience, but you will probably win more games 😜
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You can play all of the Master Chief collection in VR now. It's fantastic!
VR mods have been going crazy lately. I'm getting some serious FOMO.
I also saw Mount and Blade: Lord of the Rings, Diablo 2, and a bunch of cool AR games.
How the fuck does diablo 2 work in vr?
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What!!!!!!!!
I had a couple lan parties a while ago. That shit is so fun. Soldat was really popular.
Last year i had my cousins kids over for a tiny lan with them, me and my sis. We played UT99 for ages and they loved it.
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Battlefield Vietnam
StarCraft Brood war
Supreme commander
Unreal Tournament Edition
Counterstrike 1.6 (I think) These were my 2001 lan party gaming experiences I wish I could reclaim.
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Honestly its not too hard to get an xbox emulator running, and you can find a match fairly quickly. I think the main community night is Thursday, but you can find a game most nights.
The point isn't the game. It is being carefree with few responsibilities and having friends to share the time with. If the point is finding a multiplayer game, there are plenty of options.
The point is also to be chilling in the same space between matches and gut punching people if they started shit talking too much.
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Pretty much me, except it was Halo 2 and probably 2006. We schlepped a heavy ass tube TV over from someone else's house a few blocks away.
I was all about GoldenEye back in the day for me.
Afterwards, CounterStrike and StarCraft:BW was the cause of many nights lack of sleep.
Playing counterstrike and broodwar on the labs at the highschool <3
My English teacher used to come play StarCraft with us after school. Formative memories for sure
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Ours was people bringing over their desktops to one person's house and we played Aliens vs predator on a LAN. When we were done we played risk for the rest of the night.
Was much fun.
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Peak for me was modded Minecraft around… what. 1.7.10?
I found this whitelist Resonant Rise server that was just the right size; big, but not too populated. I made a community workshop close to spawn to help people start out.
Haven’t found that experience since, in any game.
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Gone forever....
For me it was Mario Kart Wii...
We should have a fucking Fediverse game night somewhere.
Uhm, not Halo.
The peak moments were Friday nights with the gang; pizza ordered; Goldeneye, pyramid level, slaps only, no Oddjob; an ongoing Lego collaboration being worked on for the ones who there weren't enough controllers for in that round (you'd cycle out that spot); and first-gen Super Smash Brothers waiting on the side.
For me it was all that you said, plus Halo.
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