Why does this feel like a 12 step program? Anyhoo. Hi to everyone. A little background on why I'm here. I've been looking to attend a LAN for a while but had been dismayed for the longest time that I couldn't seem to find a LAN party in this area (that is around NYC). Maybe I was just looking in the wrong place who knows. Lo and behold on a whim I was looking through the Big List and found 7hm. I was beyond thrilled to find you guys playing not just in the tristate area but practically in my back yard. Sign up I did (late but did). Attend I must.
Preparation came in the form of ditching the idea of a new laptop (was gonna get a T42 like noodles but maybe someday) and specing out a new system to game on. I had previously used an Asus A7n8x with an Athlon XP 3200+ and Radeon 9600SE (also Sounblaster Live with optical outputs and SVHS outputs to the a/v system for watching bittorrented TV shows). I decided I'd rather bump that back to a secondary system for hobby work (linux, os/2, etc [yes I said OS/2 but thats for another time]) and piece together a new system.
To newegg I went (is there really any place better?) and picked up a few more sticks of Crucial Ballisitx RAM (total in this for now is 1 gig, eventually 2), an Asus A8N-Sli and an Athlon 64 3000+. Working on a budget I waited until a week before the LAN (new credit card cycle) to buy the video card. Decided to get an XFX made NVidia GeForce 6600GT since it had both SLI capabilities, reasonable RAM (128 - would have liked 256 but didn't want to break the bank) and dual DVI outputs for eventual use in a dual monitor setup. For now am using a 120gig WD PATA drive carried over from my old system but will eventually get a few 10k SATA drives and RAID em together. Also plan to get a matching vid card to SLI into the setup. Slapped it all into an IStar 3U rackmount chassis and was off to the races. [It's function over style but if people want pictures I will gladly provide].
Got Steam Silver on the suggestion of Proper (I think?) and spent the few days before LAN downloading the programs like a fiend and getting familiar with Source gameplay and playing CounterStrike. I'd previously played MOHAA and was okay at that (no expert by any means). Hopped on a few servers to play a few rounds and quickly got up a to a reasonable level of playability. Went from getting owned by every player on the Doggy Pound to getting by reasonably well for a new guy. Discovered that knowing the boards is integral to survival (WTF is Long A, where the hell is B i was wondering at first). Didn't expect to learn everything overnight (as it was only one night that I actually played before going) but with help I shall get by.
To the LAN I go with chassis, Samsung 192T LCD and gear in hand. Set up we did. Smoothly it went. Got a friends machine going as well. [Big props to props for that....wait...did I just say props to props?] Play we did. Owned I was. Pimped out as bitch to the masses I was. Care did I? Fuck no. This shit is FUN. Learn I will. play I will. Be better than all yo asses I will....NOT. I did get a few good licks in and was happy at that - love being able to hear a person scream in agony from another station.
Anyways. Happy to be here. Hope to learn a lot, hope to teach a little. Hope to have fun and not piss people off in the process. See you guys soon.
BTW, do you guys play on any particular servers?
