We built our house for LAN parties

ffittingopposite 3 days ago 35 commentsRead Article on lanparty.house

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pringk02•28 minutes ago

I'm not usually one to comment on other people's home decor but this house looks like living inside a generic office building. The board game room looks like somewhere you'd have a conference call. I'm somewhat fascinated. I can't imagine choosing to make your living space look like this willingly. And yet they have! So they must enjoy it and it must feel like home to them.

usrme•10 minutes ago

Agreed. It's clear that the owners have considerable financial resources, but seemingly no one thought to hire an interior designer/architect to consider how the place looks or functions outside of the gaming aspect. If that's their style, then more power to them; it just seems incredibly generic and like wasted potential.

darkwater•7 minutes ago

If you read TFA you will see that the house was architected by his father, an accomplished architect.

temp0826•3 minutes ago

"Invite only", ok I get they're rich but I wonder about the airbnb potential for recouping some of that cost.

swiftcoder•about 2 hours ago

God, imagine having a big enough friend group as an adult to justify an 18-gaming-PC LAN. These folks are doing something right

ssl-3•about 1 hour ago

We had LAN parties like that once upon a time when we had a space that supported it.

Friends of friends would show up. Not everyone knew everyone else and this was fine. Cold drinks of every sort were available at the carry-out next door, and some would bring things to share. Donations were had for pizza or burgers (sometimes nowhere near enough donations, and sometimes more than plenty; it averaged OK). The social aspects of it really worked OK. Cleanup wasn't bad.

The biggest problem was that the first ~couple of hours were spent getting all of the PCs connected, updated, and working properly-enough.

By providing gaming stations, this dude has the big problem completely solved: All of these machines can be known to be on the same page when things start.

(The second-largest problem -- the smell -- is a different issue entirely. It usually ramped up pretty well by the time the first problem was approaching being solved.)

cammikebrown•about 1 hour ago

As a bartender, I have a bunch of friends, but none of them have the same night off!

senectus1•about 2 hours ago

I... jeepers. I dont think i have enough friends for a 4 person LAN party in my adult life.

nerd life seems to get lonelier the older you get.

MrDresden•about 2 hours ago

I can't speak to your situation, but I know that in mine the main blocker for a LAN party with adult friends wouldn't be a lack of interest nor lack of friends (though I don't have a giant pool, and can't even count 18 people I'd be able to even suggest such a thing to) it would be lack of time due to other life responsibilities, that tend to increase as we get older.

My solution has been to play boardgames remote using BoardgameArena[0].

I usually have 2x turn based games going with two separate groups along with a dedicated chat channel, and then do 1-2 live evening sessions over video call with other groups. But all setup to be flexible and made to fit with the constraints of adult life, so sometimes we play and sometimes we reschedule.

[0]: https://boardgamearena.com

Aeolun•about 1 hour ago

This is why it is perfect to have two brothers and a brother-in-law. We can at least get the four of us together to do something. Pretty sure we could manage 8-12 with friends, but none of our houses would be big enough.

dcminter•about 1 hour ago

> it is perfect to have two brothers and a brother-in-law

This is difficult to arrange at short notice :)

embedding-shape•about 1 hour ago

> nerd life seems to get lonelier the older you get.

Nerds always thinks they're special :) This is the same for most people in the world.

swiftcoder•about 2 hours ago

I'm more or less in your boat, but I also know several folks who play D&D or warhammer every weekend in big groups. It's kind of a choices-one-makes and where-one-lives deal, I think

voidUpdate•about 2 hours ago

I shudder to think of an 18 person DND group... 5 is enough for me

alpineman•1 minute ago

Late stage capitalism

28304283409234•26 minutes ago

The basement is awesome, but I would not feel cozy and welcome there. From the pictures it feels like any serverroom I've ever been into. Unwanted tips: Put some plants in there, some color, some wall-to-wall gaming art prints on the closet-doors and floors. <3

tristanj•about 2 hours ago

This LAN house was featured in a LTT video. There's an entire house walkthrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Y0MVUgjOw

elAhmo•22 minutes ago

Wholesome read. These guys are enjoying life and I loved reading the FAQ in the end, as well as them acknowledging they are very lucky!

darkwater•3 minutes ago

They are lucky, coming (at least Kenton) from a good family with money and, I surely believe, parents that pushed him in the right direction, helping him to fully develop his natural talents. And you definitely needed raw brain power (which is a natural gift) to join Google in 2005.

r0ckarong•about 2 hours ago

I hope they invested similar money in their home security.

m4tthumphrey•15 minutes ago

Just came here to say, everything about this is incredible. The house itself, the site, the FAQs but most of all, the attention that went into the cat's needs.

11/10.

We want(ed) to do something similar (re the cats needs) when renovating our house but just could never decide!

joaquincabezas•about 1 hour ago

I recently landed (again) at this website while reading about Kenton Varda‘s work on Cloudflare workers. It was a nice “aha” moment!

Aeolun•about 1 hour ago

I've seen this so many times, and every time it makes me smile. Especially the 'how the hell did we manage this' section.

wizerno•about 2 hours ago

Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42156977

Havoc•about 1 hour ago

Ngl having a house with a hot side for rack cooling sounds like homelab fun

lifestyleguru•about 2 hours ago

Rich people are rich, ok I get it.

vincnetas•about 1 hour ago

"This house has normal parts, too!" got me triggered :) Yeah our "normal" house : swimming pool (heated by servers?), panoramic view, guest room bigger than my whole house, roof deck, 30-mile view...

greggsy•about 1 hour ago

They’re a pretty accomplished couple if you read their bio.

Aeolun•43 minutes ago

Yeah, but not so much that it's not relatable.

lifestyleguru•36 minutes ago

Behind every accomplished person stands an accomplished parent.

kev009•32 minutes ago

Definitely an accomplished architect, there are a lot of fine construction details in these photos. So much that it makes the IT/low voltage installation look like a hack job.

shotgan•about 1 hour ago

I came here to say exactly the same XD

bhtru•about 2 hours ago

Dude this is so freaking cool.

Especially the cat entrances / infra to allow them access throughout the home and while human doors are closed. Would love to see a cat POV via an action cam of them running through the home.

bitwize•about 1 hour ago

At the former apartment, my office/work area had an opening to the living area high on the wall that might've been for a window, or something. My cat spent a lot of time staring at that opening. Not just the opening itself, but he'd work his way backwards, along some exposed AC ducting (it was a loft with 20' ceilings), trying to plot a route from the floor over the ducting to the hole. If we'd had a high enough shelf in the living area he would have gotten in.

Igrom•about 2 hours ago

(2024)