A New Social Ritual amongst the Elite

Ah, sweet Borg parties… The stimulating scent of caffeine, the verbal jousting, the smell of pepperoni lingering in the air, the floor a tangled infestation of CAT5 cables, the neon lights of case mods poking though the scene like lasers in fog. This is where a load of ‘cool’ people get together in one place with their computers, connect them all together, and then have some fun. A Borg party is a social event – it’s Main Street for geeks. Instead of cruising your hot rod down the main drag, you’re taking your GeForce 4 out for a spin.

Where would you take this marvelous specimen of engineering? Someplace where it would be appreciated by those with the same interests as you. Someplace where others feel the same way as you do, and would never, EVER, think about harming something of such epic beauty. Geeks love computers in the same way wrench-heads love their classic cars. Just like Carol Shelby wouldn’t beat on the hood of a Ferrari with his wrench, a fellow geek gamer would never harm your family computer. As an added bonus, your computer may return in better condition than when it left your own home. Borg parties are havens for experts in technology. Having a problem in Windows? There is sure to be at least twenty people there that can help you out. Need an upgrade? Let little Johnny win one for you instead of shelling out the cash yourself. Think of it as a free tune-up for your computer.

Borg parties are a growing phenomenon among devoted PC game players and techies who take over private garages or rented hotel ballrooms for no-sleep weekend marathons where everyone brings their personal computers (PCs), which are connected to a hastily assembled local area network (LAN). The players are then free to blast away at each other for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours fueled by carefully regulated intakes of caffeine and sugar playing in multi-player games such as Halo, Age of Empires, or war-themed games where combat readiness, adaptive intelligence, and defensive posturing pack so much from-the-future military heat, it’s surprising that half the titles aren’t classified. Techies battle it out for the title of “The Winner” from brawn-boosting boots to stealth suits, war-game power-ups are more real than you think.

From borrowing servers to running the temporary network to designating nap spots for those who want to roll out their sleeping bags, there are a myriad of details to attend to, including the ever-present challenge of coming up with enough electricity. A maze of extension cords tangled on the floor, a Borg party isn’t official until a circuit breaker blows. When the gaming starts, everybody becomes so intense. One frag leads to the next, emotions wax and wane as gibs amass and levels change, here an unmanned player, there an elite commando with uncanny aim. Over time, the Borg party itself, becomes a single organism, breathing, hunting.

After twenty hours of mostly nonstop gaming, players were noticeably groggy but still loudly cheer spectacular kills. The whole event is based around the players. From the moment you enter to the moment you leave, you are well taken care of. Come 3:00 am, you can walk out on the patio and there is a gathering of five to ten people talking about the sweet moves they just pulled to beat out their competitor. Every night you will find different people talking, except of course the normal group of smokers hanging out. But then, you can walk inside and there would be another group of five to ten people just sitting either in the kitchen area or living room eating out of pizza boxes, open packages of potato chips all the while downing cans of Red Bull, and talking mostly about the newest and latest releases of their favorite games.

Dakota Brooks*, a computer technician, said Borg party action can reveal the true personality of the player much more than online gaming. “Some people are really timid online, but you get them in this kind of environment, and they’re wild men,” he said. “It’s a lot like a good, old-fashioned sporting event, where the adrenaline just builds up. I’ve seen people who get really worked up, to the point where they jump up and throw the keyboard out the window when they get killed. The loser also likes to make excuses as to why they were unsuccessful in winning. Either they experience too much lag from the network, or their PC is outdated.”

Aesthetics are huge for this audience. There is a fair share of beige boxes, and gamers spend much of their down time admiring the most tricked-out PC rigs. It’s sort of like a fashion show – they want a system that’s going to attract a lot of attention when they walk in the door. Dakota’s homemade system included half a dozen fans and homebrew water-cooling system for overclocking. None of this, he acknowledged, was strictly necessary for game performance.

Let’s face it; aren’t we all just a little bit turned on when somebody overclocks his or her processor?

“Mainly it’s just to prove a point, to get bragging rights,” said Dakota. He also adds, “It’s like pulling up to a car swap in a perfectly restored Camaro.” Peer pressure among gamers helps push them to invest in the latest technology and spring for aesthetic extras such as PC cases with custom paint jobs and lighting elements. One player with a tricked-out Hypersonic PC can influence many others when they decide it’s time to upgrade.

Society at large has developed a notion that people who play video games or congregate in large groups to play video games are dangerous, unstable people just waiting for an excuse to erupt into violent behavior. People point to the oft-cited incidents of Columbine and the Washington ‘Sniper’ attacks as evidence that computer-generated imagery is wearing away at society’s ethical fiber. When was the last time that reading Lord of the Rings made you want to grab a kitchen knife and stage a bloody battle with your neighbors? When was the last time that watching Hogan’s Heroes made you want to be a prisoner of war, forsaking personal liberty for the sake of making fun of the German’s funny accents? Games, like any other art medium, in their essence are created to convey a rich tapestry of emotion. Some games are new releases, some games are action packed, and some are greater than chess in terms of strategic complexity.

Are gamers not connoisseurs of these offerings?

*Names have been changed to protect identity.