Gathering of gamers

The world of the gamer was once mysterious and misunderstood. The gamer was once a rare breed in Sri Lanka. That is not the case any longer. The exploding $10 billion industry has made inroads here and Sri Lankans have even ventured to the pinnacles of gaming. Some of them have teamed up under one banner: Death Company.

This isn't the first time we've heard of Death Company. The Mirror Magazine covered Death Company (DC) before DC's 5th LAN Party, L5 which concluded recently with great success. Held over the space of a weekend at Capital Mall, Thalawathugoda, L5 was probably the largest single gathering of gamers in Sri Lanka with over 150 gamers from all over the island attending. All you needed to bring were yourself, your PC, and some network cable.

Even though the majority of attendees were from in and around Colombo, it was heartening to see that there were a few from Kandy, and other towns. The players ranged from 15 to 30 years. The main games that were played were Call of Duty 4, Warcraft III: Defence of the Ancients, Unreal Tournament and CounterStrike. However the roster was never meant to be set in stone and other games such as Need for Speed and Call of Duty 2 were also played. Everyone had a lot of fun that weekend.

DC thanked e-Wis for being the official networking service provider for L5 and their team headed by Revantha Udugampola. The LAN party is DC's main cause for fame. A LAN party is when people gather with their computers, network them together and proceed with playing multiplayer computer games.

Multiplayer is so much more rewarding than single player computer games as you are playing with people who are more challenging, more skilful, and more helpful and have more team spirit than any computer could ever have. It's that ingredient that makes multiplayer so wonderful and it's what makes a LAN party so interesting. This is no tournament, but just pure fun with fellow gamers regardless of age or gender.

It's all about healthy competition, meeting like-minded people, broadening your horizons, a sense of belonging and just plain old fun. Several intersting projects are on the cards. DC is currently looking into providing much needed game servers for the Sri Lankan gaming community.

A blood donation by the DC members is also planned. But the biggest upcoming event for DC is L6, the 6th LAN party with even a possibility of an international twist. Contact DC at: contactus@deathcompany.org for further details.