Squeaky-clean and fresh, ready for rAge 2010

[KraMGarD]

Any news yet on that internet connection at the LAN?

[Guardien]

Nope - we're still working on that really really hard :)

[KraMGarD]

Thanks a 1000000! We truly appreciate the effort! You have no idea how many peoples' day you guys would make if you can pull it off.

[PLAGUE]

Cant wait, already got the money to buy the tickets R800 rand saved should be enough to buy the tickets dont you think.

[ShadowBurn]

Is it just me or are people posting in the rAge thread getting dumber by the year, FFS people do some research before just blabbering away and asking questions that have the answers here http://www.rageexpo.co.za/ and please use your keyboard to its full extend, its not mxit for crying out loud!

PS : I am exited for this year rAge W00t!

[Chevron]

I know the policy on external hard drives is a no no due to the plug issue and the fact you guys have to plan the power requirements very carefully.

What if a person will be gaming on a laptop? My G73 uses max 150watts when plugged in which is half of what mst other pcs use. Would an external hard drive be allowed then?

[DefecTalisman]

Forgive my noobness.
I wish to attend rage this year, but not sure of a few things as I have never been before :(

Firstly, is there any point in me coming(silly way of putting it) ? I am not a pro-gamer and in fact spend more time on the xbox than my computer.

Second, what games are played ? Must you have your own copies of these games and with patches ?

Third, being S.A, should I bring a chain to lock my setup together or just never leave it alone ?

Fourth are dual/triple monitor set-ups allowed(not that I have either :(, but I am sure I can get another monitor before October) ?

Also I notice you say no external drives, does that include flash drives and non powered external drives ? I would guess anything I can power from my rig should be allowed as long as its not malicious.

[Chaosekie]

WOOOT for rAge!!!

Well seeing as alot of these post are from n00bs wanting to know about rAge I have decided to write a rAge noob guide in this horribly cold morning hours (yay for student holidays).
What qualifies me to write a guide, well this year will be my 6th expo and 5th lan so by that score only a hand full of people are more qualified than me.

Ok wel first things first: Ticket sales...
Tickets go on sale 1st August @ R300 per ticket... (a ticket entails you to bring into the dome 1 device that you are going to connect to the network, that means 1 computer or 1 laptop or 1 xbox/ xbox 360 you will be hard pressed to find someone else with a regular xbox but i'm sure if you can arrange with enough friends to make the 300 moolas viable no one will object if you bring a ps1/ps2/ps3/xbox just remember 1 ticket allows you 1 device that can be connected on the network. So you cant bring your pc and xbox 360 with only 1 ticket. As for xbox 360 , for the past two years a few people have brought their xboxes and laned, they even have xbox zones sometimes just setup for xboxes)
... but heres the thing
2006: one month ticket sell out
2007: 3 week ticket sell out
2008: 1-2 week ticket sell out
2009: 3 day ticket sell out(if I remember correctly)

so if you want that ticket habberdash badly you better be ready at 12:01 AM to hit NAG Lan @ rage into Computicket's search box ( yes type in NAG Lan @ rAge), you should have your credit card ready thats my preferred method of payment and the only one I can comment on. There is no seat selection, if there is a "venue map" just select any where you can on the map, as you sit where you want to on a first come first serve basis.( on that note every year they announce first come first serve, but when you get there 30th person in the dome the upper part is always reserved for c&c 3 wtf? someone from NAG please verify no seat bookings). [Comment from NAG: No official seat bookings can be made when purchasing your ticket from Computicket, however VC does open up a thread on this forum closer to the event where you can request block bookings, so keep an eye open for it]

Ok now that you have your tickets start wishing for August and September to fly past.(Remember to pick up your tickets at a computicket outlet close to you, most Checkers now have such an outlet, at least a week before hand you never know in SA when "the system is [going to be] down")

Preperation
Ok here's what you need:
a mouse
a keyboard
a mouse pad
headphones PS. as someone mentioned earlier don't be a dommie and bring speakers, no one will love you for that
a pc
a screen
a power cord

Note 1: none of these are requirements for you to enter if you use a laptop and this laptop just so happens to have a built in keyboard, don't be a idiot and ask if you have to bring a keyboard if you use the laptop's built in one.

Note 2: Check that everything you intend to bring to the lan is in near perfect working order. And if your pc works I suggest you lock it away in a titanium vault rapped in tin foil to protect it from the magical pc breaking fairies that every avid lanner knows all to well about, and just as a safety measure talk to and reasure your pc that a new environment is not that scary, as pc's generally hate being taken out of their native environment. Just remember to not make any funny or new changes to your pc before the lan if you will not be able to fix them (that means if you cant build a pc from the ground up blindfolded in less than 2 minutes, then don't install new equipment and dont install new hardware as you will most likely not be able to fix your pc at the lan not if but when it fails) SOOOO just on a reasuring note if you take care to safely transport your pc and not fiddel around inside of the box beforehand then almost nothing can go wrong.

ok now a few do's an don'ts
Like mentioned do not bring multiadapters, charges or anything other than your pc that you would plug into a power outlet, if it can run off of your power supply of your computer then there is nothing to worry about. The reason for this is imagine your pc with it's ATI 5970 6 1.5TB HDD's i7 extreme ... you get the point , most of the lanners will have a fairly modern pc which will be a powerhouse in it's own right, now multiply that by the usual 1800 people, the lights, the aircon keeping the o so lovely week old gamer smell out and you have a nifty electric bill, the power has been thoroughly and extensively calculated to keep the power on and keep the gamers happy (ever seen a mad gamer riot? not a pretty sight). So if you plug in a device that uses too much power or something and the power trips, ooh boy, everyone's gonna blame you and the noob who was finally top in the dota match is gonna hate you for life and your gonna have to send out 1800+ I'm super sorry kity greeting cards but most of all you'll have ruined it for everyone and the only way you would be able to argue that it was not your fault and get us to believe it, is if you have a masters in Electrical engineering and can do third year calculus problems in your head. So please the rules are there for a reason not just to make your life miserable.

Ok now sleeping arrangements: You say you are gonna book into a hotel for the weekend? I say n00b(sorry to the guys who can pawn be at anything who book into hotels), but come on the whole experience is going to the dome staying up until 3 sleeping for an hour which gets interrupted every 15mins with cheering. Here is what most people do, they take a sleeping bag and or a matress wich you keep at your feet. When sleepy time comes you simply move your chair out of the way lay down your matress/sleeping bag halfway under your table and start singging a bediby song in your head if youre tired enough you can go for the ever so classic "wasd" fore head imprint and just lay your head down on your keyboard, all acceptable and no one will disturb you. A quick note if you see a bean bag dont be like me and think wow thats a nice idea, a chill area! i'm gonna rest here later, no that the wrong response, grab it before any body else sees it! If your brave enough challenge that bigger fellow to a fisticuffs for it. Every year they make a nice little resting area but people always steal the bean bags so dont count on that as your place of refuge. Please note you can brush your teeth and change your clothes in the bathroom but I don't recall any showers so if you have to show (pff who showers at a lan?) then that hotel is a good idea.

Now what you should also consider bringing with you is a copy of every game you would want to play and its serial key, and also a copy of your operating system, all your drivers and patches for your games and software, if something fails you dont want it to ruin your entire weekend. Usually you will be able to find the patches you need and nag usually has an intranet up and running, before you ask what an intranet is google it as it is your best friend to find drivers patches and definitions of words, and just read!!!!


Yeah!!!rAge morning!!!
Ok get there as early as you can or at 12, you will never be the first inline so get over it, unless you go and wait right at this very instant. If you arrive at 6 in the morning someone will be in front of you in line but hey my first year I had sticker number 7 yeah mee!! Part of the fun at least for me is standing outside socialising and swearing at the organizers for not opening the doors earlier.
When the doors finally do open and you get to the front of the line you will be greeted by the best and most awsomest sight of your life: rows and rows of tables and in the background more stalls than you can swing an inflatable axe at. A guy dressed like a guard will ask you for your ticket, and apoint you to an open space at the row of tables. You will then have to go stand at that open space infront of a guy holding a power cord in his hands, all he will do is plug the cord in to your pc box and ask you to switch it on, if it goes on youre safe and you can stop praying (lol dont worry if you can turn on your pc at home without haxoring the mains then you will have nothing to worry about) this is only a test to see if there is no short inside your box causing it to use excessive amounts of power. If you pass the test you may move on to the ladies at the next table. They will give you a bag full of goodies and info, a wrist band type thing (like they use at water parks and the hospital) that will serve as an ID that you are a gamer and allowed into the lan area and expo, if you need they can also give you a secure parking pass [Comment from NAG: This year when you go and collect your official NAG LAN ticket from Computicket, you will also be given a second ticket which is your official parking pass - do not eat this or burn it or lose it, or you wont be able to park in the free LAN parking area.], and the most important thing: a card with a number on it and a few stickers with that same number on it, (lol read the stickers they say "headphone" or "keyboard" and so forth honest mistake like a noob I din't read the first time) Stick these onto the appropriate gear. This is the method used to identify your gear as your own, keep that card in the safest place imaginable as you wont be able to take any of your pc parts out of the dome without that card. The "friday this time to that time" or "saturday this time to that time" means that you will only be allowed to take in or out pc parts between those specified times. This makes it nearly imposible for anyone to steal anything. But do keep smaller valuables such as flash drives and cellfones safe and do not leave them un attended. In my 5 years of rage lanning only once did someone try to steal something (a keyboard i beleave) I was'nt there myself, catching some zzz's, but he was caught and escorted out of the dome by the police, your stuff is safer in the dome than at home if you think about it, there will always be someone close which you can ask to watch your stuff and someone will notice a guy taking only a keyboard and walking off with it tucked in his shirt.

Once you get in go pick a nice spot at a table to your likeing you get two 3pin plugs one for your pc and one for your monitor, if your pc only uses 1 plug to power both then you dont have 1 to do with as you like. They have always recomended you get the cords with the flattened earth pins (these plugs short out if a too high current passes through them to protect your equipment) most of the adapters accept only these plugs but you can find plugs that will allow regular pins and someone usually takes the plug with regular pins from those who did not listen and burn them in a molten mosh of doom just kidding, they usually take them and sand them down, but i'm sure further announcements on this will be made available closer to the event. On the table there will be a sticker with an ip and subnet mask, change your computers ip to these, the thing on the bottom of the sticker that looks like http://example thats the intranet site type that into a browser like internet explorer and or firefox or chrome or opera or safari or download the html if youre that good, but it works like a regular website and on it you will find info about the lan competitions a small forum and patches.

Well thats about everything I can think of oh wait, there are lots of stalls for food (shwarmas FTW!) in the expo and the are also pizzas and stuff for sale in the lanning area when the expo closes two litres are cheaper than 350ml cans no seriously I think last year it was 10rand a can and 15rand a 2litre. Games that will be played: most definitly dota you will even be able to find a game of dota at 1am, also css but it's getting fased out. And remember it is an open lan that means if you and 10 friends want to play halo 1 (I love halo 1) then go for it. (Kinda stupid to mention but people have asked this is a byoc (I'll save you the google - Bring Your Own Computer, No one is gonna sponsor you one or or send you one for free espescially not any of NAG's staff, review items do not just lay around their offices but most of the time needs to be sent back to the manufacturer) ) Now thats really all I can think of. If I left anything out pm me and I'll edit this post, 2:12 AM wonder if anyones is playing bfbc2?

[easy]

Ticket price is going to be R300 not R350 \:D/ Do the bogey with me!

[Karnalli3]

Hi all Forumtees

will this year seat more than 1800 lanners like the previous year? or will they try and go for 2000??

another thing

This internet connectivity thing.....wich we need nowadays to be able to play our games.......I'm scared people, I'm so scared that Lanning as we know it will die, because of it.

I host LAN's myself and I hear it everytime the moans and groans of the games that start getting boring and old, and we end up leaching the whole night. What are your feeling about this?

For the love of Gaming

Karnallie

[Karnalli3]

Are you sure it's gonna be R300? where did you read or see that? on the site it still says R350

[Destroy]

Hey Im Gonna be goin to rAge for the First time this year, I just wanted to know is there any way around Bringing an external Hard drive?

[Spindleshanks]

Not really no. No extra plugs. That's one for your pc and another for the monitor. As a daisy-chain. =1 plug

[Spindleshanks]

bogey

at six o' clock!

[Destroy]

They say they are "buying some fancy new kit for lan - think fibre optic" in 06.2010 NAG. Whats that all about?

[Marcraffy]

Fibre optics boost network performance

[Chevron]

Not really no. No extra plugs. That's one for your pc and another for the monitor. As a daisy-chain. =1 plug

What if a person is using a laptop? Then they only need one plug and even a laptop like a G73 uses max 150watts which is far less than any pc will consume. Most likely less than half actually.

[phant1m]

They said they will have internet connectivity which will be limited for certain gaming required stuff. They will probably need it for a sc2 tournament which is 90% chance going to happen and yea. Don't bring externals that require external power. Just end up getting ****ed you cant use it. Try and get usb flash drives that you can take around for easy leeching (if youa re lucky, people will let you connect).

[easy]

Are you sure it's gonna be R300? where did you read or see that? on the site it still says R350

Yes Dead sure its R300. Site will update soon.

[Gobby]

YO!!

so...300rand? 350s a bit pricey to be honest...but who cares :D

anyone know what competitions will be held this year?