Topics

[we have decided to transition to 1 LAN per year.This means for 2026 we will be dropping the April LAN. The October LAN will go ahead as planned.]

Hi all,

So with the most recent LAN drawing smaller numbers that expected, we have had a chat about the future of the events and how best to try to support their continued existence.

I'll cut right to it, we have decided to transition to 1 LAN per year.

This means for 2026 we will be dropping the April LAN.
The October LAN will go ahead as planned.

As a reminder, this is 8th- 11th October 2026.

For 2027 onward, we will aim to poll the Community to see if a different time of year would be preferable, and will try to go with the majority.
It is perhaps worth me mentioning that we are also exploring alternate venues for the LAN, but have yet to find something that adequately meets our needs while remaining cost-sustainable.

I know there will be mixed feelings here, but I hope all understand the decision. This isn't something we want to do, but feel that with dwindling numbers and rising costs, we have little choice.

What we will be looking to do is arrange a yearly WAN to fill the gap. More on this in the months to come.
Thanks to all who continue to support the Community and the LANs. I look forward to seeing you in October!


Please do feel free to share your thoughts on this here, as always the running of the Community is open for discussion. Please speak up!

Cheers,
Council.

[Account Name]

Hello all,

If you haven't yet had a read of the posts over in 'Seriously Though' relating to Gibbo's recent tough time, go and have a look now ->

https://forum.deadmen.co.uk/index.php?topic=46145.0

We have decided to chip in as a community to show some love to the bloke, and so are organising a fundraiser to chip in for some gifts for him.

These will no doubt include some vouchers for JustEat (food is one of his current loves) and perhaps some other entertainment related bits and pieces.

To give, please donate directly to either the dMw Bank Account, or the PayPal.
Bank account is preferable, as PayPal take a (small) piece of any donations.

Account Name
Dead Men Walking
Bank
Lloyds TSB
Account Number
01489500
Sort Code
30-99-77

https://www.paypal.com/pool/9j5Ll3Svj7?sr=wccr

If you give via the bank account, please just pop 'Gibbo' as the reference.

We will aim to leave donations open for the next 3 weeks (until 2/11/25 inclusive), when we will aim to purchase the goodies with whatever funds we have gathered.

I'll keep this thread updated every so often with info on donations, and what we end up getting him at the end.

Cheers!

[after negotiation with the hotel, we remain able to bring in a sensible amount of outside food and drink into the function room.]

Hello all,

A fairly important LAN related update for you today.


As many will know, there has been a recent change of ownership at the hotel.

The new owners have reached out to discuss the LANs, and in particular the bringing in of outside food and drink. We were expecting this conversation, as we know that over the years we have brought more and more into the LAN room and that this would be noticed by new management.

We have been incredibly fortunate so far with what we have been allowed to do - I don't think any other venue would have tolerated our shenanigans to the extent that the OC has. I am pleased to report that after negotiation with the hotel, we remain able to bring in a sensible amount of outside food and drink into the function room.

This will continue at a small cost to the Community (essentially a corkage fee), which will be paid for with LAN fees. For now the LAN fees will not change (they have remained the same for years), but please be aware that they may need to increase slightly in the future to cover the additional cost - we will let you know if that needs to happen.

I must stress the sensible part of this arrangement. In short, we are asking for attendees to not take the proverbial. Soft drinks and snacks are fine. Take away is fine. Beer and cider should be purchased at the bar. Spirits should ideally be purchased at the bar also, but a bottle of specific fancy tipple to share with friends in the early hours is not forbidden - but let's try to be discrete and reasonable here.

Please keep in mind that despite this change (and any other potential doom and gloom we might have discussed with recent events), we are still being given the function room entirely for free. Without this, the LANs could not continue in their current form - it would simply not be affordable.


Thanks to all for reading. I am sorry that I won't be able to join you at the next LAN, things are still manic as we get used to life down under. I hope to make an event in 2026 to catch up with you all then.

All the best,
Ben, on behalf of Council.

Hello all, I hope this message finds you well.

First of all, let me apologise to you all for the lack of noise out of Camp Council recently.

When Toby and I took the reins from TL and Pen we wanted to do a little spring cleaning, and ensure the Community was safely on the same track it was put upon all of those years ago. We had meetings and made plans (schemes?), and then as often happens life got in the way. A mixture of good and bad hit various members of Council, and things sort of ground to a halt.

We are still (slowly) working on tidying things up here, optimising the Discord as much as we can, and on considering the future of the Community and how we best support its continued growth. The most important bit here to us all is that this happens in a way that protects what dMw has always stood for, and that has not changed.

Again, let me (personally) apologise that things are slow. I wish I could give more time to you all. I love this place, it has meant an awful lot to me over the years. I hope that I will be able to put a bit more energy in soon, as my life is about to undergo a bit of a transformation. Despite how it may seem, this will result in a bit more free time - at least for a while. I am referring to my emigration to Australia, which happens at the end of the month. Yes, despite the time zone difference I intend to carry on with dMw in much the same capacity, at least for now.

Getting back to the wider Council and the aforementioned 'life gets in the way', I am sorry to say that Gortex has to step down from the Council role for personal reasons. The seat remains open to him should he wish to return in the future, and we all thank him for stepping up to help in the first place.

Moving on to an update around the LANs, the recent event marked Gortex and my last as admins, with GhostMjr having stepped down the one before. As I said at the event, it has been an absolute pleasure to run the LANs with these two over the last few years, and something I will miss dearly. I want to thank them both again for their help, support, and perhaps above all else, tolerance of my BS. We would all like to thank everyone who has supported the events and made them what they are.

For future events, I want to thank uni for stepping up to help with the server admin side of things. He took charge of the servers at the April LAN and knocked it out of the park. I have no doubt he will continue to do so going forwards.

As for the other LAN roles, we are going to open this up to attendees at each event for now. Council will continue to help with the nuts and bolts organisation, but we will invite anyone present to have a go at roles such as the 'LAN MC' and other key on the day roles as required. That said, if anyone is keen to get involved in a more permanent role going forwards, don't hesitate to get in touch with Toby or myself. We are happy to support the events and those going in whatever way we can.

And to finish on that note, despite the distance, I look forward to seeing you guys and gals at a LAN again soon. I won't be able to make the Autumn LAN this year, but I will be aiming to come along to the 2026 Spring LAN.

Cheers all,
Chaos, on behalf of dMw Council.

Hello all,

We would like to share with you an email from Amy, who many of you will know well from our time at the LANs.

"Hi guys,
It's with sadness that I am letting you know that as of today I will no longer be working at the Oliver Cromwell.

As you all know it has been difficult working here of late. And as much as I love my job and love working here, I no longer feel like I can work here.

Not to worry I will still pop up and see you, if you continue to stay at the OC.

Much love to all.

Amy the drunken receptionist."


I have replied with (what I hope counts as!) some love and thanks, as Amy has done an awful lot for us over the years and I know we have all much appreciated her support along the way.

Part of my reply is perhaps important to note -

"Despite the doom and gloom, I suspect that for as long as we are able to we will keep coming back, so no doubt we will all look forward to seeing you there at the LANs!"

For now the LANs will continue as planned, but with a recent change of ownership at the Oliver Cromwell, we are in turbulent waters.

We will do our best to keep you updated if we hear any news, good or bad. For now, it remains business as usual.

Cheers,
dMw Council.

Hello all!

With the recent move of the forum to a new platform, the existing Supporting Member subscriptions have been disrupted.

We managed to pull a list of active supporting members, and when current subscriptions expire, and have transferred these over to the new forum.

However, NONE of these old  subscriptions will automatically renew. This means that if you want to continue to support dMw in this way, you will need to make a new subscription when your current sub expires.

To see when your subscription expires -

1) Log in to the your account

2) Click on your username at the TOP LEFT, click on 'Subscriptions'.

You cannot view this attachment.

The end date of your active subscription is shown at the bottom.

You cannot view this attachment.

To restart a new subscription, follow the 2 steps above and click on 'Order'.

You cannot view this attachment.

We will TRY to contact people as their supporting memberships expire as a reminder, due to the disruption. However I would suggest putting a note in your calendar of your expiry date as well, should you wish to restart your subscription when your old one lapses.

My apologies for the slow pace with all of this, we've all been quite busy outside of dMw and things have been moving slowly as a result. Thanks for your patience!

Happy Sunday all!

I am pleased to say that we seem to have a working forum back up and running. A huge thanks to all involved in the process, in particular @Whitey and @smilodon. Not only have they managed to get us back on our feet, they have managed to preserve most of the old forum along the way.

The new forum can be found via deadmen.co.uk , or directly via forum.deadmen.co.uk .
 Your accounts are still there, but WILL require a password reset!
Select Log in
Select 'Forgotten your password'
Enter the e-mail tied to your old forum account
Wait for the password reset and off you go!

SOME members might experience issues with this process, please let us know (@Smilodon is the best point of contact) and we will sort out any issues.

The MEDIA tied to the forum has sadly not carried over. LAN photos and so on. We do however still have said media, and will aim to get it back up and visible in the near future.

I'm going to write up a longer explanation of what has happened over the last few weeks soon, and post it on the forums. I'll include an update around where we are up to with the community in general, and where we want to go next.

Last but certainly not least, I wish to note that the change to the new forum reflects a move away from our previous host, Gandalf, who helped support the Community in this endeavour for what was quite literally decades. This support continued long after other commitments took him away from regular dMw involvement. It would have been much easier (and entirely understandable) for him to ask us to look elsewhere years ago, but he continued to help the Community regardless. We remain hugely grateful for the years and years of support he has given us!

As always, any questions or issues please let us know!
https://forum.deadmen.co.uk/index.php

We have started to prune the chit chat areas of the forum.

We have moved a few select threads / areas over (Birthdays and Music, for example).

If there is anything from the old area (visible at the bottom of the main forum) that needs bringing over please let us know and we will do so!

Let us know if anything is missing!


Do also feel free to create new threads if desired!

Cheers.

You might notice some changes in the forum over the coming weeks.

For now the OLD 'dMw Gaming' section has been MOVED to an archive at the very bottom.

Everyone should be able to see this area, but not be able to create new threads / posts...

There is a NEW 'dMw Gaming' section which (for now) mirrors the discord. This is of course empty, as it is new!

Feel free to make whatever threads you would like within this new area!

If there is anything anyone wants moving from the archive INTO the new area, let me know!



Things may well change in due time. Work in progress!

Hi all,

Here are the set dates for the next 3 YEARS of LANs.

No, you cannot book your rooms yet!



12th - 15th October 2023

[FONT=&]11th-14th April 2024
10th-13th October 2024

10th-13th April 2025
9th-12th October 2025

9th-12th April 2026
8th- 11th October 2026[/FONT]




The sign up process for ALL LANs is -

1) Complete the online form when the booking thread goes live. This will usually go up a few months before the event, with early booking for supporting members and internationals.
2) Phone the hotel to book your room.

If you do not complete the form, you will not be given a gaming space!

:taz:

I believe Mr Salazzar is looking for a PC if anyone happens to have a spare laptop floating around.

Just needs to be able to run NW

Just want to let everyone know there are some fairly significant forum and discord changes inbound.

There will be a space in discord for feedback and/or suggestions!

Please bear with us if there are initial issues, we will try to fix them asap!

Cheers!

[We are trying to make decisions based on what the majority want.]

Hi all,

First of all, thank you for your patience while we work through the survey. There is a lot of information for us to digest and discuss, and finding times when all 5 of us can get together can be difficult!

We appreciate also that it is one thing to talk through the survey, and another to actually begin to implement change. For now, we are focussed on the first bit â€" deciding what we want to do with the information you have given us.

Once we have gone through it all and made a plan of action, we will start to get things moving. Some things will be straightforward and take no time at all, but others might require a bit more time.

We are keen to bring you updates as we go through the process, both in the interests of transparency and to reassure you that we are in fact working on it all behind the scenes.

In our first chat, we spoke through some key things relating to community structure and communication â€" i.e. the forums and discord.

We are trying to make decisions based on what the majority want.

Here is a brief summary of our musings.

• Game admins / teams helped, but a genre (rather than game) specific structure might be the way to go. Hopefully this helps us keep up with an ever-changing list of active games.

This will involve a re-do of the current Community Admin set-up, which has not achieved what we had initially hoped. The main aim here is to organise and advertise set game nights to encourage community activity.

• WANs and community nights are popular and need to return.

We’ve enjoyed running these events in the past, and are keen to do so again. We will need to think more on the best timing and frequency of such events, but so far we are looking at running 1 or 2 WANs between the LANs.

• Supporting membership costs are low, but bring little value to those who do not attend the LANs or regularly use the server.

We are keen to look at adding value to supporting membership. We feel there is more that we could do within discord to recognise and reward those who support the community in this way.

• The forums still have their use for key organisational / structural work, but the day to day chat has moved to the discord.

The forums need a good tidy up. We plan to archive much of the content and streamline what you see and how we use it. They will remain essential for certain things (for example, LAN planning), but much of the gaming-related content and planning will move to the discord â€" we may need to further expand how we use the discord to facilitate this.

We feel that the forum platform we have now, although outdated, is still fit for purpose. An upgrade makes no financial sense, especially given the aforementioned reduction in use. As previously mentioned, it is in need of a good tidy up to ensure key information is easily accessible / visible.

We will continue to require forum signup for full discord functionality, but want to look at changing what new members see when they join us at either source to ensure there are no unintended barriers to entry.


We have another chat planned soon to go through the next section of the Survey â€" which focusses on Community Standards. The LAN admins will also plan to sit down in the near future and talk through the LAN-related content. I suspect changes here will impact the 2024 events more than the ones planned for this year.

Post here if you're looking for someone to bunk with (twin or double :flirty:) to share the cost of a room. See the main booking thread for the price breakdown.

Post here if you need a lift to the LAN, or flight details if you need pickup from an Airport. The main London ones are usually best, if possible. We will do our best to sort you out!

[READ CAREFULLY!]

READ CAREFULLY!

ROOM PRICES HAVE CHANGED AT THE HOTEL

As per THIS POST, room prices at the Hotel have gone up.

"As of this year, rooms will be charged at £62.50 for single occupancy (one person, one room), and £75 for double occupancy (two people, one room)."

This is the first time the Hotel has put its prices up for us for years. We still pay nothing whatsoever for the use of the LAN room. Keep in mind that such a room would cost us hundreds of pounds per day elsewhere, which would dramatically increase the dMw-end cost for the events.

With that out of the way...

11th - 14th May!


LAN 41!

As per usual, a few of us (myself included) will be arriving on the Wednesday. This will be a strict NO PC evening - card / board games only!

We don't have a great deal planned for this LAN beyond a curry and the core Counter Strike based tournaments.
There are several reasons for this, which we will probably go into more when we get back to you all with some feedback from the Survey.

For now, I would look to this LAN to be a more laid back and 'ad hoc' affair.
That said, if there are any particular games you want to see, let us know in the booking form and we will see what we can do!

Thursday
- Curry, ~18:00.

Friday
- Steak Night at the OC, ~18:00.

Saturday
- Tournaments.



How to book your place at LAN XLI -

• Call the Oliver Cromwell Hotel - 01354 602890 - book a room, mentioning that you are booking for the dMw LAN to get the reduced rates (see below).
  
• Complete THIS FORM. Without this form, you have NOT booked your place at the LAN. If we fill up, someone could still steal your spot if they get this in before you!
  

The form REQUIRES sign in with a Google account. This lets you to go back and edit your response at any time, just follow the link above and click through to the bit you want to amend.

With your room booked and the booking form completed, you have booked your room! I will add you to the list below!



The Booking Form


Your food order will be visible HERE for reference.

If you wish to amend your order, or any other info on the form, please do so by clicking on the link to the form above and editing your response.


The LAN
We hope to make it a great weekend for all. Kick off is Thursday afternoon, but don't fret if you can't make it til later! There is stuff going on all weekend.

The Oliver Cromwell Hotel offers:
The Noble Suite - an air conditioned conference room
24/7 access to the suite
dMw control of entry to the suite
Late night bar
Gymnasium
Large indoor swimming pool
Eight-person Jacuzzi
Sauna and Steam room

Room Costs
As of this year, rooms will be charged at £62.50 for single occupancy (one person, one room), and £75 for double occupancy (two people, one room).

dMw Costs:
LAN ATTENDEES
Supporting Member:- £10 (this has not changed)
Non-Supporting Member:- £25 (this includes an automatic upgrade to Supporting Member status for one year)

SOCIAL ATTENDEES
Supporting Member:- £0 (this has not changed)
Non-Supporting Member:- £12 (this includes an automatic upgrade to Supporting Member status for one year)


[FONT=&]Hardware[/FONT][FONT=&]
PC and Monitor - 1 only. Don't forget your power cables!
Keyboard, Mouse, Mousepad.
Joystick, Xbox Controller, etc.
Headphones - no speakers!
Duct tape - to tape your cables down!
Ethernet Cable - Cat6, ideally 3m+ in case you are far from the switch.
Extension cord, preferably a 4-way ([/FONT][FONT=&]:norty:[/FONT][FONT=&]) and surge protected.[/FONT][FONT=&]
Money - how else will you buy us beer? [/FONT][FONT=&]

There is a bar 10 yards from the LAN room, and a highstreet (with a fine Kebab establishment) 20 yards away.


Please respect the arrangement we have had with them for many years and the relationship we have built. [/FONT][FONT=&]Do not[/FONT][FONT=&] bring in alcohol from outside. There is a bar for that. Snacks and the odd salted seahorse latte from Costa are generally ok, but please bring such things in discretely (i.e. through the door leading directly to the LAN room, not via the public bar), and don't take the proverbial.[/FONT]


*Do not mess with another member's gear.

It might seem funny to screw around with someone's desktop as a joke, but the LAN room is not the place. Things can easily be taken the wrong way.

*Do not smoke in your hotel room, in proximity to it, or near the LAN room.

The hotel has a no smoking policy when in, or in proximity to, the rooms. Ignore this and face a hefty cleaning fee.

*The hotel has a strict no drugs policy, and the right to call the police should they find evidence of drug use on hotel grounds.

The use of such substances in the hotel or grounds is strictly forbidden.


Travel:- we will do our best to arrange pick up and drop off from the major London airports. If you find yourself stuck or simply want to share a lift, post in the travel plans thread.


Seating:- seating details will be released closer to the event.


Please note that we have now included the LAN Disclaimer into the booking form. If you have any questions about this, please get in touch. You have not secured your LAN place until you have accepted the Disclaimer and completed the rest of the booking form it is attached to.

[Room prices]

Hi all,

Let's get the bad news out of the way...


Room prices at the OC are going up.

As of this year, rooms will be charged at £62.50 for single occupancy (one person, one room), and £75 for double occupancy (two people, one room).

Unfortunately this is out of our control.

Keep in mind that this increase is after years of them holding the prices for us, and at less than they charge other parties. We also don't pay a penny for the use of the LAN room itself, which keeps our costs (and thus any fee to attend) low.


LAN Dates

For 2023 we have the following booked with the OC -

11-14th May 2023 - booking for the Spring LAN will open within the next few weeks, keep your eyes on the forums / discord!
12-15th Oct 2023

Part of the survey asks about the LANs and how many we should run a year. We aim to have both of these LANs go ahead - i.e. any significant change to LAN frequency or timing will not affect 2023.

Speaking of the survey, we plan to run it for 1 more week - so PLEASE take some time to fill it in if you haven't already!

 (CLICK ME IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED IT  YET!)

Cheers all!

[CLICK ME IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED IT YET!]

Part 1 can be found HERE!

Hi all!

With the changing of the guard at dMw, Brother Tobious and I knew we would need to bring on a new team of Council members to help us steer the ship in the right direction going forwards.

We aim to use the information gathered in the survey (CLICK ME IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED IT  YET!) to help shape dMw in line with what YOU, the community, want. We know we couldn’t hope to achieve this alone.
 
So please join us in welcoming Gortex, Gunda, and Sparko into the Council team.

We looked towards these 3 due to their enthusiasm and continued long term support for dMw, but also as we both felt they were individuals we could work closely with to make the most of the opportunities to come.
Thank you, guys, for being so willing to step up and help us move forwards.

We’ve gathered a lot of useful information from the survey so far â€" at some point in the (hopefully) not too distant future we will get back to you all with the results and try to outline what we plan to do with what you’ve told us.

Cheers all, see you in the discord soon.

:yahoo:

[OVERWATCH 2 IS FREE TO PLAY]

Hi all,

OVERWATCH 2 IS FREE TO PLAY

And it is launching on the 4th, that's Tuesday!



I know I will be playing a lot of it at the LAN, and I'm sure some others will be joining me.

If you want to join in PLEASE try to download it in advance - you can preload now.



To do so just run the Battle.net launcher and install / update Overwatch. The OW2 content will download in the background.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6161[/ATTACH]

:yahoo:

[RIB EYE]

Hi all,

Apologies this is such short notice, but the OC has just given me the steak night menu - the RIB EYE and STEAK PIE are now back on the menu!

Prices are also slightly different. What is shown below is what you will pay -

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6155[/ATTACH]



Below is WHAT YOU HAVE CURRENTLY ORDERED.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6156[/ATTACH]

If anyone wants to change their order, please either reply here or send me a message (here, discord, homing pigeon).



I need to get them a rough idea of the cuts a few days prior to the LAN so please let me know ASAP if you want to change.

Cheers!