[lordnacho]

Some of my best memories are LAN parties. I've spent many times more time playing online with strangers, but it's so not the same.

- In my early days at a major chip manufacturer, they used to allow people to use the demo hardware. We'd come in on a Saturday and play Age of Empires for the entire day, on state-of-the-art machines. It's still a major talking point among that group of friends.

- The alternative history provided by Civilization games is more vivid than actual history. I still talk about the strategy of building a discrete city on Svalbard (looking forward to nukes), which my Europe-dominating friend discovered to his chagrin. Him and the other guy I was playing with were my best men.

- Another group of friends was cemented when someone's parents were out for a week, leaving the whole house to a dozen or so guys. Counterstrike and AoE seemed to balance out who got to win. Which is good, because I was getting murdered a bit too often by the younger kids.