It's a harsh statement, I Know. It's true, nevertheless.

Just think about it, when was the last time that you attended a lan where everyone would join the same game? Odds are that either you cannot answer the question or answer is "never". I can assure you, though, that just a couple of years back, whenever someone loaded up a game it would not take long until everyone was playing this game.

To me it seems not that long ago, maybe because I look back at those days with longing. I do remember the last of those lans:
We had just finished a massive race in Need for Speed, when I looked up and saw my best friend playing a roleplaying game. I told him that he didn't like RPG's, and he replied that this wasn't an RPG, this was World of Warcraft. It seemed innocent, so I let him play. Had I known then, than this game would forever set us apart, I would have not let him touch it.

His life soon revolved around this game. I didn't like not having my best friend around, so I bought the game and thought that we could play together then. We played for 2 weeks, when I too got sucked completely into the universe. My friend had left the server to play alliance, but by then I had grown a strong hatred for the alliance players, so I stuck around with my Orc Rogue. I played the game for a good two years, until I finally woke up from my nightmare and realised that I no longer played for the enjoyment of playing, I played because it had turned into a fulltime job, with no payment or achievements. I immidietly stopped playing the game, and went back to play other games, mostly RTS and FPS games.

I went back to attending lan parties, hopig for the same excitement I got from lan gaming before I started playing World of Warcraft. Much to my dismay, I quickly noticed that over half of those attending the lan parties would do nothing but play World of Warcraft during the length of the lan. No matter what game you try to organise, it's impossible to make people stop playing World of Warcraft. If you close the ports that World fo Warcraft uses, the people will just start leaving instead of playing other games.

It's with sadness I have to admit that lan gaming as I knew it is dead and the murderer is Blizzard!