I’ve really enjoyed the J LANs in the past, I wouldn’t keep coming back if I didn’t…

… but …

It really did feel like no one could be really bothered to take responsibility for the problems, it is not a nice feeling when those in charge seem to bury their heads in the sand when there is a LAN breaking issue afoot…

From no staff taking notice when some participants needed the router rebooted (just so they can connect to Steam in the 2 minutes the bandwidth cleared) to certain staff allegedly sabotaging their own server for god knows what reason… You really have to ask yourself, how did the LAN and the staff look to the punters who paid good money to be there?

Now as far as the kitchen issues go, as far as I could see, most people used the microwave/panini press for cooking, from what I saw that caused a little bit of mess at best, which should be cleaned yes HOWEVER, as far as I know not many of us cooked a shit load of sausages and burgers on the last day, an activity that would have caused alot of the kitchen mess described in your post… Just a thought…

Why did none of you check the kitchen? Allot of us were still pottering around after 8, it woulden’t have taken much to go “Oi, this place is a mess; give us a hand cleaning up.” I’m pretty sure none of us would have refused…

I agree that the thievery was off and people really should clean up their own vom (I mean SEARIOUSLY?), but I think the tone of your post is very much insulting and condescending… We're all friends here and it is indeed sad that some of us got a little slobby and yes I think people need to know that they have to be more responsible while they have a good time but I really don't think you should take this approach.

"Uhoh it looks like Timmy ate all of his PVA glue so you all lose your glue privileges this week" – I mean seriously? That kind of psychology works in infant school but not here.

Anyway I guess my point is a less elegantly worded point that has already been made: We all have a responsibility on the way we act yes, but YOU have responsibility for the LAN and the facilities the LAN encompasses and to pass it ALL and blame it ALL on your customers is NOT good business.

Forgive me if this sounds harsh but: It’s your LAN, act like it… There is already talk of people turning back to iSeries, I really don’t want to see that happen….

Lanraiders feels like it is in a limbo at the moment. Stuck between a business out to get gamers together for an awesome LAN while trying to make a profit - and between a group of friends who got lucky with a hall that allows them to sleep over and bring their PC’s.

This indecisiveness as an event is dangerous because everyone from yourselves, to your clients and to your liaisons are completely unsure of how to act when things go right, or wrong. An example being this last LAN.  I don’t pretend to know everything about how to run a LAN, but I do know that if you are going to charge your friends/people to come to something you are organising, its common decency to make sure they get their money’s worth. That doesn’t mean hiring the most expensive equipment or laying red carpets down, all it means is having the respect to put effort into having their needs met – or at least showing that you are trying.

In all honesty, I think lanraiders as a team slapped everyone who attended in the face with your organisation and with your above post. Here’s why I think so…

THE LAN:

We all know there was the internet problem. Now, I’m not going to point fingers at anyone and blame them, because… well I don’t know what the hell the problem was. There was never an announcement to acknowledge there was a problem (cowardice? Maybe not, but it felt like it from a customer’s point of view) nor any communication of what was being done to fix it (Which would have been reassuring and comforting that the staff were actually DOING something to fix the issue) and there was certainly, and I know for a fact… no apology.

One very important aspect of a business that you have to always remember is that through all the middle men (BT, the hall) helping you (lanraiders) to provide a service (the lan, internet) whatever happens during the event… it is YOUR RESPONSIBILTY. Think about it, if I bought a remote from Currys and the rubber broke off one of the buttons, do you think they would say to me “Bring it back to the store we’ll fix it” or “you’ll have to find an oil field and make your own plastic or a gum tree of god knows what to make your own bit of rubber to put back over it”. Obviously not the second because that is bad customer relation. It’s about making things easy for the customer and trying to win them back in the case of an issue. The team never made me feel like you were really doing your very best to fix the issue. This was evident with little or no proper communication and with staff members playing their own personal games.

If I was running the LAN I would have been CONSTANTLY on the phone trying to fix the issue, hounding down to the companies to fix it. I would have made everyone aware of this and apologised profusely. I would NOT make a non staff member the contact between lanraiders and the internet service provider, nor would I give up or snap at customers who were poking fun at the issue – at the end of the day the customer is always right.

You really need to tighten your communication as staff. You need to forget your games and welfare because unfortunately, it’s not about you, it’s about US. You need to give up sleep, food and fuck knows what else to make sure everyone else is happy. Even if the issue isn’t solved, at least you can prove that you were doing your very best to fix it.

THE POST:

It’s obvious that there are a few lazy dirty bastards out there who seem to think its ok to be sick and leave it for someone else to clean up, and who think stealing other people’s food and drink is acceptable. It’s not, and this is an issue you need to solve.

However, I think it is very unfair that you blame pretty much everyone for the hike in prices. Again, as explained above it is YOUR responsibility to ensure your liaisons (the hall) are happy with your event. You can’t blame a single attendee for the mess because the hall are asking LANRAIDERS to keep it clean, not Bob and Steve. What I want to know is why they hell didn’t you guys check the hall thoroughly before handing it back over to the owners? Did you really check everywhere for mess? If so why did they spot the oil and the sick? If you’re excuse is “we didn’t have time” then you need to make more time. The LAN doesn’t have to run till 8pm at night, you could have finished at 6pm and had more time to clean.

In a perfect world everyone would take no shits, never get sick and never need to eat. That doesn’t happen. You need to know that people having fun will let themselves go a little. So you need to pick up someone’s rubbish or get some elbow grease to wash off some oil, its your job as the hall renters to make sure its tidy and your job to make sure your staff give back the hall as it was given to you.

Now…All this talk of “we will be watching and will ban you”… seriously?  It’s absolute bullshit. If you were really watching and banning then there wouldn’t have been any of this mess. Your words are empty threats and if you really want them to hone true, you need to start watching people more or hiring more staff.

I can’t think of anything else just yet, but I am dead tired and my brain is frazzled.

Just… decide what you want to be. A proper respected LAN as a business, or a group of friends playing games for a few days.

Sorry if my syntax, grammar and spelling is all over the place, I’ve just finished an 18 shift and am up in 4 hours for work. Any questions or comments feel free to reply here or on msn. Msn probably better.

Smirnoff

"When I was at the hall with the BT engineer on Monday morning our cleaner was very unhappy about the condition your group had left the hall in.  The kitchen was left in a dreadful state with fat was spilt over the work surfaces and food was spilt and walked over on the floor. Food was left out in the kitchen.  One of your members had been sick in the toilet and had not cleared it up.  The upshot of this was that we had to pay our cleaner for two extra hours in clear up your mess."
 

Because of this, along with the price increase of the venue, we are now going to be charged at least £50 more to hire the hall each LAN. Because it seems that all of our previous efforts to keep the rubbish to a minimum + keep the kitchen tidy have failed, and that a fair few people at the LAN's are ruining it for the majority, I am now forced with the decision to completely lock the kitchen, and prohibit all and any future use.

It appears to me that there are a few participants who don't care about the Venue, nor have the mental capacity to know what a bin is. Neither myself nor any other particular staff member / participant should have to play the role of cleaner / mother for the people who can't be bothered to clean up their mess during the event. What dissapoints me is that people don't understand the ramifications of ignoring what we have been trying to tell them with regards to keeping the venue clean, and now because of this the events will cost more, but everyone will be getting less.

Ignoring all of this, personally i'm annoyed that some people / someone had the nerve to start stealing food during the LAN. I know its not much or expensive, but if whoever it was had simply asked they would have more than likely been given something to eat or drink. I managed to find that my entire crate of mountain dew had been emptied into the fridge, and had also had a few cans taken.

Because of all  of the above We have two changes which will be implementing as of J9:

1) The kitchen will now be fully closed off from use. This includes access to the coolers, fridge, oven and sinks. We will place a microwave on the bar ledge so that you can microwave ready meals / burgers, however all mess will be monitored and you will be warned if you are found to be leaving a mess. A 3rd warning will result in removal from the LAN.

2) We now ask that all participants CLEARLY label all food and drink they enter the venue with. We hope that this will stop any theft, as well as helping us to track down any mess left behind.

I would finally like to thank all those who stayed behind to help clear up the mess of others.

If you have any comments or suggestions please reply below and let us know what you think.