NVISION 36-hour LAN party: nirvana through sleep deprivation

NVISION 08 promises to be the most visually intense three days of your life, crammed with events like the final rounds of the Electronic Sports World Cup, workshops for everything from using the latest 3D digital content tools to owning the TF2 battleground, even a multimedia video game music concert.  What better way for your eyes to spend 36 hours than mesmerized in front of big, big screens covered in pretty, pretty pictures?

Well, 288 gaming enthusiasts, ranging from teenagers to quinquagenarians, have opted to sit in front of their laptops LANning it up in the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose while these wonders transpire just doors away.  Not just for a few hours, or a single day, but the entire three days of the conference, only accumulating the privilege of a ten-minute break after every sixty minutes of non-stop gaming.  36 mandatory near-sleepless hours in a chair while wonderful dramatic sounds and phrases like “holy shit” come drifting down the hall.  And for what?  For Guinness Book glory, of course.  Well, and a refund of the entry fee along with a hundred dollars of gift cards.

The gamers will not have to completely submerge themselves in their laptops.  A “concierge service” will attend to all junk food and soda needs, although the gamers would be advised to keep their eyes on the screen while they eat.  Breaks can last longer than ten minutes if a gamer games for multiple consecutive sixty-minute sessions; five hours of fragging earns a fifty minute rest, long enough to actually check out a few other events, or possibly sleep.  Also within the LAN party: several tournaments and a case mod contest.

Part of the area has been designated the “Girl Gamer Zone,” where girl gamers may sit together to emphasize their femininity.  But despite this encouragement, there is only one girl profiled (currently) on the Guinness list.  Her name is Susie and she actually looks kind of hot.  The preceding sentence contains intentionally tasteless humor.

So while you’re cheering on your favorite Olympians in Beijing, why not throw in a woo-hoo for these truly dedicated gamers?