Presentation given at 2012 American Anthropological Association conference

1. It Makes It More Real:
Collocation and
Copresence at LAN Parties
Bryan-Mitchell Young
bryyoung@indiana.edu
@jccalhoun

3. Collocation Vs. Copresence
• Collocation is about being together
• Copresence is about feeling together
• Everyone at a LAN party is collocated
• Not everyone is copresent.

7. Ventrilo Recording
Boondocks: Just spam the Heavy… Focus fire… Where you at medic?
Me: Right here. With you.
Boondocks: Alright. Let’s go this way.
Recono: Watch the stickies
[…]
Boondocks: There’s a sniper down there.
Recono: Pyro behind us! Pyro behind us! Pyro behind us!
[…]
Recono: Good cap – Get on the point! Get on the point! Get on
the point! Get on the point!
[…]
Boondocks: We’re pushing….Uh, where’s that sentry [gun]?
Disco: I got it
Boondocks: Sentry’s down. Just turn off the uber.
Disco: Touch [the point]
Me: Almost
Boondocks: There we go.

8. Ventrilo
• At LAN parties is it almost
exclusively used for game-related
talk
• At home this is not always the case

9. Ventrilo at home can be used socially
• When you’re in Ventrilo you bullshit a lot
• always have people in it. So when [they]’re
not playing [they] just hang out in there.

10. Ventrilo at home can be used socially
• “[couldn’t] even do homework without being on
Ventrilo. It’s kind of just like having someone
there, always”
• “like five or six people that whenever [they are]
doing homework or just sitting at home – if [they]
are at home they are probably in Ventrilo talk to
each other.”
• “a lot of times [they do] not say anything for an
hour but at least we’re on Ventrilo and we can
hear each other.”

11. • Not a hack
• Not accommodation
• Assimilation

12. When Ventrilo is not enough
• “when something is urgent and you
want everybody to hear it, then you
shout it and it just promotes urgency, I
think.”
• Non-verbal communication in games

13. Computer Mediated Communication
• Allows them to talk when they
wouldn’t be able to normally
• Can create feelings of copresence
when it would not normally be
possible.
• Use tech to overcome seating
limitations.