The Clackamas print., March 14, 2007, Page 6, Image 6

Clackamas Print
6
’ ment
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Geeks, Clackamas invade™^
Tayo Stalnaker
A&E Editor
Twice a year, 500 self-pro­
claimed geeks gather at Columbia
Boulevard’s
Holiday
Inn
Conference Center in Portland for
four straight days of computer­
gaming.
The event, called PDXLAN, is
what is known as a LAN (Local
Area Network) party. What this
entails is a bunch of people hook­
ing their computers together so that
they can play games with and/or
against each other.
I had the opportunity to attend
PDXLAN in February and witness
geeks of all ages “frag” each other
on Battlefield 2 and show off their
modified computer cases.
Normally when major LAN
events like this occur, they’re
mostly for competitive gaming, i.e.
tournaments. PDXLAN does have
tournaments, but its main focus,
according to PDXLAN founder
Matt Conwell (who also runs the
PDXLAN events across the coun­
try), is to create a fun-loving social
atmosphere that offers up more
than just gaming.
“[PDXLAN] was an MBA
project at George Fox University,”
Conwell said. “The teacher said, ‘I
want you to make a business that
has never been created before.’”
Some of the events that
take place at PDXLAN include
Dodgeball, Poker, popsicle bridge
tournaments (contestants try to
make the largest one) and a com­
puter case modification contest
While wandering around the
Conference Center, I ran into a
couple of Clackamas Community
College students gaming with their
friends. Justin Parcher, 19, and 18-
year-old Scott Poole have been
attending PDXLAN regularly.
“It’s a whole lot of fun to just
come and hang with a bunch of
friends,” said Parcher, who’s cur­
rently working on his Transfer
Degree at Clackamas.
Business major Poole said that
PDXLAN is “a time where I can
get away from school.”
Poole and Parcher consider
themselves “casual” gamers, mean­
ing they don’t play video games all
the time; they actually have a fife.
“This is the first time I’ve gamed
in three weeks,” Poole said.
Since they’ve been coming to
PDXLAN, they’ve noticed quite
a few changes in the PC gaming
scene.
“[Games] at these everts are a
lot more diversified now,” Parcher
said. “Gamers aren’t just playing
the new games; they’re playing
older ones, too. It’s not just first-
person shooters anymore.”
Parcher and Poole have been
attending LAN parties for quite a
while. In fact, when they went to
Clackamas High School, they cre­
ated their own LAN group called
All photos by Jeff Sorensen Clackamas Print
Clackamas Community College students Justin Parcher (front) and Scott Poole (back) enjoy an episode
of Aqua Teen Hunger Force in between game sessions at PDXLAN in the Holiday Inn’s Conference Center.
LANCLACK.
“We’re trying to eventually
revive LANCLACK at CCC,”
Parcher said.
They said that there’s a big
gaming scene at Clackamas, so
creating a LAN group would defi­
nitely work on campus.
“About a quarter of my class
games,” Poole said. “[Clackamas]
has a good population that doesn’t
discriminate [against gamers].”
The next PDXLAN event will
take place in late August of this
year. There are still plenty of
seats available, and reservations
are only $60. To register, visit
www.pdxlan.com.
A staff member tosses schwag to a crowd of about 500 gamers. There were many prize give-aways
that took place throughout the entire LAN event, most of which were supplied by sponsors.
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PDXLAN founder Matt Conwell, and his wife, give a gamer a gift
card to an online store as he turns in his winning raffle ticket^