Online Demo Party?

Written by Makke

I've just read Seffren's article in Hugi #16 about having "Internet-based demo parties" and I think this idea is rather "silly". Why would you want to attend a demo party where you don't actually meet the other people attending the party? That would be like sitting in IRC, and we do that every day. Demo parties have a social meaning as well as a competitive one. Sure, without the compos it wouldn't be a demo party, but without the actual presence of people it wouldn't be much of a "party", right? It would only be an "online demo-compo", and I don't really fall for that.

I can see that people from across the great sea find it expensive to travel here. And that's probably because it is expensive to travel here. However, holding a "online demoparty" because it's cheaper doesn't really involve Europe. Most people in Europe are connected with a modem, thus they use the telephone lines. Calling in Europe is quite expensive in many countries. Sitting online for hours will not be that cheap. It might still be cheaper than going to a "real" demoparty, but I think the extra cost is compensated by the party-feeling and the opportunity to meet fellow sceners in real life. I for one have been to too few demo parties. That's because I don't have the money, and don't have a drivers license. As soon as I get my license I intend to vitiate more parties, because I'm a Swedish scener, yet I don't know very many Swedish sceners. Thus I want to make some contacts and go meet them at parties, because no matter how swell it is to have friends in Germany, USA, Italy etc. it's still not the same as having friends that you actually meet a couple of times every year and drink a few beers with.

Okey, I can see Seffren's frustration that there are no parties over seas, but I don't think the people who have attended a real party want to trade that with an online party. Sorry, but real life encounters are more exciting than online ones. Just take for instance when Trid/Visuale called me from Germany. We had only talked on IRC and via e-mail before that. Then he called me, and that way you kind of got confirmed that this was a real person (not that I doubted that before, Trid! *grin*). Trid had a voice, he had things to talk about, he had a weird German-English, and this really felt good to hear. He was a person, not just an IRC nick.

And if we lost all the flaws that real life demo parties have (such as failing networks, organizers making mistakes) we'd have nothing to complain about, right? And really, that's what I do best. No really, flaws are part of the demo party. That's what makes us remember them...

Makke/Visuale/Hugi/Trebel