Toronto - CIV III LAN Party @ Amico's Pizza - 15 Jan 2017

[Arob]

Do you live in Toronto and enjoy playing CIV III multiplayer? Do you have a particular strategy for winning big multiplayer games? Have you ever been to a LAN party ? Bring your game system and jack in - desktop or laptop it doesnt matter - we all play on old pcs. Come show us how to win!. We may even have a live audience watching the wining player on the big screen. that guy or girl is sure to get free slices

TIMELINE - The game begins at 10am on that snowy Sunday morning - we set a long turn timer. We hope to have six players at the start , but you know... someone will end up in the arctic..
So.,.
We end up playing the best of three starts- the one scenario that the majority of the six players vote to accept. Its a pain in the butt, but that's the best way to go forward in multiplayer games with 6-8 players.
January 15th upstairs at Amico's Pizza , 1648 Queen St W in Toronto

There will be one awesome prize donated by sponsor . . .plus a free pizza to take home to family for sure
If anyone expresses any interest I will arc out the event - sponsors and prizes

There will be no other CIV isotopes played - only CIV III. The two organizers firmly believe, and I'm in agreement, that CIV III is the very best evolution for a multiplayer civilization game. We would play Conquest s if everyone has it ...

We hope to be finished by five. But in such a game the turns are sure to take forever. . .

Full story will be on Amico's Pizza blog . I'm going to write the challenge piece now

It will be a fun day .I'm already looking forward to it..

 

[Nathiri]

Sounds like alot of fun, but not in Toronto nor is it the best day for me if I was.

 

[Arob]

how could i promote this to CIV III players more locally? any ideas?

 

[Nathiri]

how could i promote this to CIV III players more locally? any ideas?

Maybe try and get a front page highlight on this site. There are some players that may not look at the civ3 forum, as they play mostly other civ games, but may return for a LAN party.

Also maybe realmsbeyond.net?

I've linked a few MP players, and civplayers league that may have some people there or who can contact others.

 

[robbus]

Has something like this ever happened before?

BTW I can't be there

 

[Quintillus]

This is intriguing; if it weren't a full drive's day each way and in the middle of winter I may be up for it. There may still be a 5% chance as it so happens that the following Monday is a holiday in the U.S., but for now I'll wish you the best of luck in finding some more local players.

I suppose it couldn't hurt to put something on the local Craigslist, and perhaps a local events site if there are any good ones? Perhaps local gaming groups as well, even not video-game-specific; it's a rare enough event that if the right people hear about it they'll probably dust off their discs.

Wish I could get a nice group of 6-8 people in a game locally; the best I've done in a multi-session strategy game was 3. Unless you count in-person Diplomacy in college, then 7... but we were fortunate then to have lots of people with interest living very closely.

 

[Arob]

Thanks for your interest. Please help me share this here; I'm going to be tweeting and using classifieds locally too. . .

I put this post on Amico's Pizza blog, http://amicospizza.com/home/lan-party-civ3-multiplayer-crush-human-opponents-sunday-15jan2017/

yes this has happened before - not at Amicos though , but we commonly had three man and even a four and a five man, er person LAN party in the past. We didn't all need CDs btw , but I do have doubles and even triples of all CIV isotopes. hahah
We used to play CivII Test of Time, Can you imagine? its rigid turn based . but you could do admin in other people's turns.
now
CIV III allows simultaneous turns which is very thrilling in a live game. The common turn-timer will MAX out if two or more nations are watching their borders for last minute invasions. Live games are very very different than playing the computers and I would like to make or save the end-of-game video and combine it with real pictures of us playing and maybe video using Storify or some such platform. Stay tuned for more updates and let me know what else I can do to get players to drive for a day - to gloriously 'game it' . Do you need a place to stay?
Your meals are covered , as long as you don't mind unlimited pepperoni pizza and Pepsi.

 

[Lanzelot]

If you can't get enough local players, would it be possible to join via Internet? (If you open the right ports on your firewall, that should be no problem.)

I remember, many many years ago we did this successfully: 3 friends playing in a LAN at my home and a 4th person joining in from another town, using "Direct IP". I had to mail him "today's IP" of my cable modem, and on the modem I set up port-forwarding to the machine that hosted the game. Worked like a charm. We played a bit Civ3 and Civ4 that way.
Chatting/diplomacy would be possible via TeamSpeak.

The time zone might be a bit of a challange... Toronto is GMT-5, I'm in GMT+1, so if the game lasts until like 10pm, that whould be 4am Monday morning for me... I would need to take a day off...

 

[Arob]

absolutely - but 6-8 local players they get precedence
Remote players dont eat pizza and drink pop which is why the restaurant is interested.
in light of the current interest level locally, i'd say you have a great chance at it - we will do a test run on Sat night from the venue to test the connections etc
We have all manner of devices and Ahmad from A2ZPC as mentioned in the blog post

 

[Arob]

its real and happening - tomorrow morning 10am
Frankie at Amico's Pizza tells me people have been calling the restaurant! which he wasn't actually all that happy about, but It thrills the heck outa me. I put an ad in Craigslist... no replies.

But now we do expect some sudden arrivals! some mysterious strangers . .
My core gang is assembling on site at the appointed time at any rate - there will be free coffee and biscuits

Start time is 10 am, but we'll be there as early as 9:30

The grand prize is a family sized pizza as I said before, and some new information
DRUM ROLL please, as of last week, now the winner gets a brand new, still in the package, Nortel compatible sound tube phone headset from Standard Telecom .This generous sponsor wants pics and the story for their blog - he's a CIV Gold player from a way back
When their CEO John Conn told me that, he said 'I bet you don't even know what CIV Gold is?' and I savored the irony (we are playing CIV III also obsolete) as I smiled and nodded yes, I am familiar with the title and the experience. John won't be there, but the company's donated prize awaits...

I will update this thread on Monday with pics and details and the winner + prizes. Thanks all.

 

[ThERat]

sounds amazing. Have fun

 

[Lanzelot]

Ok, how did it go? Hope you had enough local players and an interesting game! I couldn't make it after all. Relatives visiting over the weekend...

 

[Arob]

It was a complete and total disaster. Absolutely nobody showed up. The restaurant owner was and remains disgusted with me and my big ideas. Today only one thing is certain - I'll never eat free pizza at Amicos again...

 

[Lanzelot]

OMG...
Take my sincere expression of condolences.

 

[Nanuk]

Reality is too depressing. I was hoping this would be on the news, a celebrity would show up and photobomb every single picture taken there, and a nostalgia ride of tears would close the night.

 

[agonistes]

I'm banned from Canada, or I might have gone.