lan party

LAN party
 /lan par'tee/

   An event to which several users bring their boxes and hook them up to
   a common LAN (Local Area Network), often for the purpose of playing
   multiplayer computer games, especially action games such as Quake or
   Unreal Tournament. This is also a good venue for people to show-off
   their fancy new hardware. Such events can get pretty large, several
   hundred people attend the annual QuakeCon in Texas. The theoretical
   rationale behind LAN parties is that playing over the Internet often
   introduces too much lag in the playing experience -- but just as
   important is the special quality of trash-talking each other across
   the room while playing, and the instinctive social ritual of consuming
   vast amounts of food and drink together.