{"product_id":"lan-party-by-merritt-k-9780500026953","title":"LAN Party","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA loving photographic celebration of the energy-drink-fuelled, furniture-rearranging, multiplayer gaming trend and its nocturnal participants.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBefore high-speed internet connections and online servers, playing a multiplayer PC game meant hauling your bulky monitors and towers to a friend's place, convention centre or church basement for a LAN (local area network) party. These sweaty, junk-food-enriched glory days represented the origins of real community spirit in computer gaming's early days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMany LAN party attendees were early adopters of new tech, so digital cameras abounded at these events. The photos produced by these devices were often low-resolution, blurry and badly lit. In their imperfections and limitations, they represent the messy, ad-hoc approach to computing typical of the LAN party - network cables snaking across recreation centre floors, a monitor perched on a kitchen counter, burned CD copies of games labelled in marker pen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to documenting the nostalgic era of LAN parties, the photographs in \u003cem\u003eLAN Party\u003c\/em\u003e are unique artefacts of a peculiar cultural and technological moment, when gaming was tipping over from niche hobby to mainstream obsession. This is the first full-size photobook on this beloved subculture, one that existed before the internet took shape and we started carrying it around with us in our pockets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46854633717996,"sku":"9780500026953","price":85.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/e412c310ed2596836bf3f6c33f0a828d.jpg?v=1759267211","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/lan-party-by-merritt-k-9780500026953","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}