Krosswirz.net

“ A Club For Pure Gamers, Made By Gamers !! “

Krosswirz.net is a non-profit organization based in Quincy, Illinois and Hannibal Missouri. The club was developed in November of 2002 for the purpose of hosting Local Area Network opportunities or, “LAN Parties”, for the Midwest Region of the United States.   This would allow individuals with personal computers access to a location once a month where they could play computer games together in a intranet setting.

            While it is true that individuals have a similar opportunity to “ GAME ” as it is called, using the internet, there are several severe disadvantages to internet play that are over come in a LAN party situation. The advantages of the LAN party out weigh that of the internet by such a large margin that in one weekend of October 2002, 1008 people from all over the United States drove to a University Gymnasium in Louisville, Kentucky with their computers, paid $45 dollars per person, just to have the opportunity to game with, and against each other for a 48 hour period.  Quincy would have the advantage of offering the first opportunity for individuals in a multi-state spectrum to come to one central location to simply GAME.

            There are companies that host “gaming” sites on the internet however there are several disadvantages.  Gaming sites on the internet involve what gamers call “downtime”.  This means that once you find the website that offers gaming there is considerable time spent where you are not playing and games.  First you have to purchase the game CD which generally costs between $40-$100 dollars per game, then you have to register just to have access to the site which usually requires that the HOST company e-mail you a password and login after you provide extensive information, even then you may not be able to access the site because the site is already overloaded with so many world wide players that it is not capable of hosting anymore. Once you are on the site the host sets up a link between your computer and the individual or individuals computer (s) that you are intending to game with.

            This could take up to 30 minutes. Once you are linked with the other player (s) the game begins, however many times you are immediately booted off the game back to the host site because the difference between the two or more linked computers capabilities (I.E. processing speed, Random Access Memory, And Video Card Memory) is to great to allow a continued connection or worse yet you are booted off the internet completely by your internet provider which means you start the accessing process over again.  If you are fortunate enough to be able to stay connected to the game then you often have to expect computer “lag” which means that when you tell your computer to move a character or game piece that may take the computer anywhere from two to ten seconds to respond.  This can become extremely frustrating to the gamer who has invested hours of time for a few minutes of slow, laggy, game play.

           The Advantages of local Area Network game play far exceed those on the internet gaming.  LAN parties provide many hours of game play with a few minutes of setup time. The computers are brought to a hosting facility and are directly linked using network cards and cables that are then connected to network switches which in turn are all connected together and then connected to gaming servers also know as Server Row.

           You are provided an access name when you walk in the door so there is no registration, no waiting for email confirmations and, no need to provide personal information.  You would never be booted from the site by your internet provider since it is all hard wired to the network.  Once you have logged on the host server reserves your port and spot throughout the event.  There is no waiting to link to other computers via the internet, the link is instantaneous once you log into the LAN.  Computers that are linked by the host server help all computers regardless of type and configuration significantly increasing gaming speed.  Game play cannot be stopped by the internet provider since you are not gaming on the internet.  You are not sending signals across the world wide web, you are sending signals to a serving computer a few feet from where you are located so the reaction of the computer is again instantaneous. When you click your mouse to move a game piece or character the response is immediate, slow laggy game play  ( the gamers Nightmare) is non-existent.

         There are other advantages to being connected with the LAN.  One is able to see and play new and different games that some gamers didn’t even know existed.  For a low entry fee (around $20 dollars) one would be able to game for up to 28 hours at 1/20^th the cost of arcade play.  One would be able to view the latest computer gaming and information transferring technology in operation. One would actually meet the people that one games with and be able to share gaming strategies and information about the latest computer hard and software available.  With the computer owners permission one would be able to download games, movies, and other information at a much faster speed then from the internet.