As someone who's actually organised one, although 'only' for ~40 people, I can tell you a thing or two. Atleast, I'll try, it's proving to be somewhat hard to explain certain things in English.
At 3/25/09 02:00 AM, I-Am-A-Pirate wrote:
1. How do you organize something like that? Where 300+ people come just to play FPS' online. Where? How do they get the facility it's run in?
It's usually a large hall, like an exposition hall or sports hall, ... You get it by paying for it.
One thing that's very important: heavy electrics, preferably the kind of stuff they use at markets etc.
1a. How would you go about signing up for one? Is there an age limit?
A registration form on a website. Age limit would be 18ish, unless consent is given by the parents.
2. Who pays for all of it? I'm sure you need to pay admission to get in, but do you need to pay before you go so the organizers can set it all up?
Payment needs to be done before, so the hall can be rented, food can be bought, etc. So yes, admission (and on a larger event sponsoring) should cover it.
3. Where the fuck do they get all of the computers from? Do the player bring their own? If not, what kind of hardware are in them?
People bring their own. The only computers there not by participants are those to run the projectors, catering, ...
4. What kind of internet connection do they use? I can only assume it doesn't have to be fantastic seeing that it's only a LAN.
Internet is irrelevant, and at a large LAN, you wouldn't want it without extensive monitoring. I've heard the routers/switches could be configured linked to a MySQL database, thus giving the administration control over who gets to use the internet. Coupled with network monitoring tools, this could work.
5. How long are they run for each day? All night? Certain hours?
Yes, all day and night. Usually an event like this is 2-3 days.
We had two professional 100mbit switches with a gigabit backbone, they came to ~90% load in the CS:S compo, and held up perfectly.
