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Money
This year I have decieded to institute a very small
entrance fee for WinterLan 2000. First of all it should be said
that I am NOT making money off this. It will be $15 required to
get in. Anyone who goes to these will tell you that you really need
to bring that much anyway for just a one day Lan. You might wanna
bring a few extra dollars as well, because this $15 will not cover
food and other expenses (hookers, booze, gambling, etc ... J/K).
What will the money be going towards:
Electric- Ok, so the electric isn't gonna cost
too much, it's still a cost. My parents have been freaking
out about the electric bill lately because of my computer, even
though I don't think it is my fault. To help make them happy I am
gonna pay them about $25-$30 to take care of the electric. Figure
this, 24 people. Just counting the computer cases, which on average
are 300 watt cases (I hope no one is running redundant power supplies).
I don't think I have ever seem people really turn off their computers
for long at these Lans. So for 3 days, 24 people are running 300
watt cases. 24 people * 300 watt cases is 7200. That is 7200 watts
per hour outta the walls. Run that for 72 hours. That is 518400
watt hours total. That is 518 kw hours!!! That costs some
real money there! And that is just the cases. Monitors take a bit
to power as well as speakers. Normally this isn't a big problem
at a Lan, just 6-8 people playing for a day or so. But 20-24 people
really gets the cost up there.
Drinks- Everyone will be happy to know that
I will be stocking the refrigerator downstairs with drinks. Last
year I got a steal on drinks, plus I was working at Harris Teeter
at the time so I had some employee coupons. I am gonna stock the
fridge downstairs top to bottom, front to back with drinks. Mail
me if you need anything special in there. This will also cost a
good bit, probably not more than $50-$60 though.
Munchies- I will also be buying alot of chips,
crackers, candy and chips for people. You may be wondering why I
am gonna buy these, asides from the fact that people will like it,
instead of telling everyone to get their own stuff. I am gonna do
this so everyone doesn't have to run out to the store every time
that they want something. Everyone will be there for more gaming
if hourly trips to the store aren't a big thing.
Games- While I am assuming that everyone "owns"
every new game that comes into existance or at least a license to
it, you might "forget" to bring it, or have "lost"
or "scratched" the CD. If you have I will have "backups"
of each game that we plan on playing for you to keep, just in case
something bad happened to yours. On the server I will have copies
of all the patches for each game, as well as the installs and the
source and server to each mod we play. I am guessing that we will
buy about 3-4 games, and they are about $40 - $50 each, so that's
about $180 there
Tables- I think with this many people i am
gonna have to buy or rent some tables for downstairs as well as
upstairs. I am gonna have to produce some chairs from somewhere,
although it would be nice if everyone just brought their own chair.
Tourament Prizes- We might have prizes
for touraments. This hasn't ever been done with this group before,
but I think it would be fun. We don't wanna make this into something
that people are gonna take too seriously though, It's all really
in fun, not about beating everyone else. If we do have prizes for
them we will have some odd ones for those who don't have all the
mad skillz such as "most harmless" or "Lord
of Cheese" for kills.
Cables and Wiring- I think I will have
to wire up some new circuits in the garage. It is advised to have
only about 8-10 people per circuit. I have 3 that we can plug into,
but I need to make sure that they are reachable by everyone and
that we don't start the "Chain 'o powerstrips". I will
buy about 5 extra power strips so that when someone has to leave
and needs their strip, they take everyone's computer down with them.
Sleeping houses- I am gonna try to do something
nice for each person who hosts a "sleeping house". Each
of them are being kind enough to open their houses to a few people,
some of which they might not even know that well. I was thinking
of nullifiying the cover charge if you had one of these, but then
everyone would say that they were hosting one, and just them sleep
their, and not pay anything. I am too smart for that trick. If you
sleep at your own house and don't drag a few people with you, then
it's not hosting one.
If we don't use all the money then it will be equally
distributed among everyone again. We aren't trying to make money
off of this, I just don't wanna kill my own pocketbook in being
a "good host".
There are some things that you will want to bring
some money for that I am not budgeting into the normal cost:
Pizza- There will be pizzas ordered. I am gonna
try to get a deal with Pizza Hut or somewhere. Tim said that he
has something that he can get pizza for cheap. Not everyone eats
pizza and not everyone eats as much as others do, so I am gonna
leave this up to someone else to get dealt with.
SuperFrapicinos- I know i misspelled that.
Some of you may be asking. "What the hell is one of those?".
It's basically pure caffieene, but in a tasty form. If you know
what they are, you know they cost a good bit for all of the parts
however. We have spent $30 easily on just 8 people before. Some
people can't handle them though, I personally am not gonna have
any because of my blood sugar levels, but that's a personal problem.
If you have diabetes or something simalar, BEWARE. These are really
gonna mess up your sugar levels if you have them and don't be careful.
Otherwise they are perfectly safe. They shouldn't cost you more
than $5.
Misc computer parts- God knows why, but you
might need to buy something computer related. Fans, Hard drives,
CD-Rs, some game that is one-player, etc...
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