The interhuman relationships at a computerparty
Orignally published on VRP/SW 8th of June 2004. Republished 12th of May 2005 on Haul.
As a 20-something-yearold I sometimes find myself at a computer party with lots of teenagers and lots of computers. After more than ten years on the Internet, and with more than 20 computer and LANparties behind me I now feel it is time to put in words a theory I have been talking about for
the past two-three years. This article describe the theory and is in no way to be seen as sience, its just my very own thoughts.
The main idea behind these parties are to create cool stuff, teach eachother new things about computers, play games, and eventually, meet people you have chattered with online. These partyes are offen refered to as LANparties, and I will use these terms overlaping each other. The idea of any such event is to have fun and connect with people. Keep that thought.
At the beginning of a computerparty everyone and their dog is a bit shy, especialy if its their first showdown at such an event. The standard attendee at a computerparty in Norway these days seem to be a 15 year old male with a loose idea of that he is the grand champion of all first person shooting games (FPSG). He is not. He may to some level know how to fire a digital welldesigned replica of a M16 or even a Glock, but that is also the very limit of the FPSG-geeks, or maybe not. Some of these gamers also have a certain something towards listening to local rapgroups, metal and even trance. That being said, the attendees at a computerparty is in no way a homogenic group of people any longer. They come from all kinds of layers of the Internet community.
Now, since we have a loose description of the average attendee, we might put in some music-composers, some graphical artists and some plain IRC-nerds. These people mix well with each other, and offen find themself chatting nicely along on all kinds of topics. There is also another group that have grown among the partygoers the past 4 years: the young, somewhat attractive female attendees. Within their limited scope the female attendees fill a role mixed up from the old game played outside in the kindergarden: “mum and dad”. They nurse their FPSG-geeks around and try to make the unpleasant loss in the semifinals of Counter-Strike as easy as possible, offen with a little massage of the neck or a quiet holding of hands. Oh how cute they are. The mix of young female attendees that offen are there just for the mere chance of meeting mr. special and the FPSG-gamers are cute. I find myself leaning back behind my laptop and giggle. (Now you may argue that I myself have been to computerparties and been spotted chatting with females there. Sure I have, but thats diffrent. I am not a FPSG-gamer, and I don’t fit into the category of young attractive females either.)
The average computerparty lasts for 3 days. Some last longer, like The Gathering, with its 5 days. The first night at a computerparty is always special. When the lights in the roof go off the first evening you can usually hear clapping among the people present. After the lights go out there are offen some kind of scene-related event with a little multimedia show. It is during the period after this event and in the early stages of the first night that the computerparty turns into a major flirting arena. Boys and girls meet up after chatting with each other on IRC, on MSN and webforums. They chat more, person to person and some end up holding hands rather quickly. When the clock passes 2pm in the morning the first pairs have gone to rest. They do that, resting peacefuly knowing that their parents think they are at one of the most innocent places in the world – a computerparty. Reality is soon to pick
that up.
There is some unnoficial statistics out there that claims that during the now 11 years of The Gathering more than 70 babies have been born in total 9 months after the party ended. That gives a nice average of 7 babies each year. I do know some of the people who have had these babies, and I can tell you, computerparties are not a innocent place any more. They are a dating scene of grand scale. This clearly shows when you put 14-15 year old males and females in a mixed environment with no or little parental guidance. You quickly get groups/gangs of youngsters who walk around looking for people to flirt with. There have even been cases of people showing up at computerparties and paying the full price for the party without a computer. They were just there for the flirting. Amazing!
Now again, lets go back to the part with the FPSG-gamers. What is it with 15 year old nerdy boys who listens to local rapgroups and spitting tobacco after almost chocking to death by the huge bits they put in their mouths? I think that you have to look at the psychological effect of being at a closed community like a computerparty to get the grip on wh even the most nerdy FPSG-gamers and not-cute girls find someone to hook up with. By the end of day 2 most are settled in with their dates or have been planning dates for the evening. When I refer to “most” here I point to the maximum of the number of female single girls present as that number for the forseable future will be lower than the number of single boys present. The psychologial effect of putting these groups together is quite amazing. After some while the hormones start kicking in, and people who before may have seemed unattractive now seem like beauties from another world. This is because the biological clocks we humans are equiped with tell us that there is a race to survive here, the genes must be carried onto a new generation. Hence, the flirting and dating at a computerparty will be raw and uncut as both sexes strive to find their best possible partners to pass the genes on. Think about it for a moment. These kind of things happen in all kinds of closed-community environments and a computerparty is no exception.
So when you the next time bump into someone talking about how great the computerparty they were at during the weekend was, put on that soft smile and bare with them. They have been to Teenville and back again.
Orignally published on VRP/SW 8th of June 2004. Republished 12th of May 2005 on Haul.
-Anders Kringstad Hanssen, June 2004.
