In news that holds particular significance for Badgers and the members of Drinkers with Gaming Problems, the event where everything started seems to have gone under.
For those of us old enough to remember, gaming with mates wasn't easy back in the days of dial-up. Even if your connection was stable and fast enough it would still use up the family phone-line. That's where LAN parties came in.
You'd hump your PC (yes - the old CRT monitor included) over to a mates house, connect your PCs via a switch and enjoy as much Counter Strike, Age of Empires, and Delta Force as you could handle.
It was as about as social as gaming got. And as with all things pure and good, someone decided to commercialise it.
Multiplay UK held its first LAN party - Insomnia - in 1999. Thereafter called the I-series, then later the Insomnia Gaming Festival, it took place at various venues including the racecourses at Newbury and Stratford, Telford International Centre, the Ricoh Arena, and the National Exhibition Centre.
The company was sold to GAME in 2015, and rebranded as Player1 Events. As of Easter this year, seventy-two Insomnia gaming events had been held. There was even a set of spin-off events: StratLan, held 3 times a year at the Stratford-Upon-Avon racecourse.
On the 14th May, the unthinkable happened. ESports News UK was contacted by multiple staff all with the same story. They had been laid off. Insomnia's web page redirects to a page saying the site has expired. Tickets for their upcoming event, I73 to be held this August, are unavailable with the message "Event cannot be found"
I've been creating content about Star Citizen since IAE 2019 as Drinkers with Gaming Problems. What isn't common knowledge is that DGP actually predates that by about five years, It started - as you might have guessed by now - at the Insomnia Gaming Festival.
I had been attending these events on and off since I17, way back in the early 2000's. But in 2014, with Alex, Inndy, Simon, Beth, Scotty, Joe, Sarah and I attending, DGP was born. It was just a random name - something to unite us as a clan tag. Sarah, now a very successful freelance artist, created the logo you can see on the website and the channel. We got hoodies with it and our clan tag.
Whilst we found time to game throughout the year, Insomnia was the highlight. Four days of pure gaming goodness. No responsibility. Sleep when you want (clue's in the name!), order food and drink to your seat. Community games. Competitions with some crazy prizes. Sneak peaks and tries of games yet to be released.
And something far more valuable than all that. It was social, in the best way. Many came with friends, some came alone. Clans would turn up with open invites for newbies to help them enjoy the event. People genuinely got on and helped each other out. And it's not just nostalgia talking, either. Poor behaviour was cracked down on - not just by staff, but by the community.
I'd always intended on going back. It would have been great to attend with friends that I have made through having my YouTube channel. I don't want to speculate as to why Player1 Events have gone under, though the pandemic must've been incredibly tough for them as a company whose purpose is to bring gamers together under one roof.
Maybe someone will pick up the challenge and carry the torch for a social gaming setting in the UK. I really don't want to entertain the notion that the sun has set on LAN parties. Dreamhack is still going - the next one is this weekend, in fact - so there's hope.
For now, we can take solace that Player1 agreed to StratLan being be run by the community using the same name - so an element of this part of gaming history will survive in the hands of people passionate about it.
I've previously written about the joys of LAN parties: you can read about them here.
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