Started in June of 2012, LAN Party
is a gaming program featured on the YouTube channel Node, originally created by Freddie Wong, Brandon Laatsch, Sam Gorski, and Niko Peuringer of Rocket Jump and Corridor Digital. Originally one of several programs featured on the channel, the overall lack of popularity of other programs lead to LAN Party taking over the channel entirely.
Unlike the majority of gaming-based YouTube channels, which follow specific games until their completion, LAN Party follows a very loose structure that boils down to "you get to see what we want to play". Videos can vary between several games uploaded Mondays and Fridays, and non-video game content launched on Wednesdays. The main focus of the videos revolves around the four-man band, D*, Brandon, Sam, and Niko hanging out with each other at The Den, LAN Party's signature headquarters.
LAN Party provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Unicorn, one of their guest stars when the crew goes to play airsoft. Also Heldine on occasion.
- Ax-Crazy: Jet got really into character during a round of Airsoft Murder and started running around slaying everyone in his path like a madman. This became a
Moment of Awesome to the fans. - Bad "Bad Acting": Parodied during the Airsoft SpyParty episodes. The players are supposed to be acting like NPCs, and as a result everyone moves quite mechanically, restate the same thing multiple times, and pause between many words for fake emphasis.
- Badass Crew: The LAN Party crew, of course. Especially prominent when they go out to play airsoft, where their guests also join in on the fun.
- The Cameo: Despite being phased out, Freddie Wong appeared briefly in voice for an episode of DayZ. Fans quickly noticed how uncharacteristically mean he was during his time onscreen.
- Crossover: With Smosh, for the first (and currently only) Video Game Olympics.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Almost every round in Due Process - Revenge of the Devs, delivered by the developers, as the name implies.
- Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Occasionally pops up when someone gets the "Traitor" card in Airsoft Trouble in Terrorist Town multiple times in a row. After they don't get the "Traitor" card, everyone remains wary of him/her regardless because he/she's been the "Traitor" the last X number of times.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Some of the crew have a bad habit of trying to fight Zarya's shield with brute force. Shooting her shield is generally a very bad idea, since it gives her more strength.
- Double Take: One event in an Airsoft Murder episode that doubled as a Funny Moment: As Jet runs around gleefully stabbing his victims to death, he runs past a small room with only a nondescript table. As soon as he's out the door, he hears something, stops, says "Wait a minute...", backs up... and finds Sam hiding from him under the table. Sam realizes that he's been discovered and Jet chases Sam around the table until Jet catches him and murders him.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: If you watch the newer videos, then watch the older ones, you may notice some oddities, including the presence of Freddie, the absence of D, no guest stars, and the lack of their signature den.
- Exact Words: One video's title mentions that they are going to be playing Halo on the Xbox One. In the video itself, they're playing Halo: Combat Evolved on the Xbox One... as in the original Xbox.
- Forest Ranger: Darien the Ranger (played by D) in their Dungeons & Dragons session.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Leukine: D.
- Choleric: Sam.
- Melancholic: Brandon.
- Phlegmatic: Niko.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Invoked in Airsoft Metal Gear Solid. In order to keep it fair for the player who is Snake, the guards are only allowed to chase Snake if they make direct visual contact with him. Partially subverted in that unlike an AI, the guards have all the sight range of a normal person, and can detect Snake at a fair range.
- Holiday Mode: For Halloween 2014, the crew decided to play some rounds of Airsoft Murder, in the dark.
- Joke Weapon: The spring pistol, a plastic revolver that needs to be cocked after every shot and is fairly inaccurate. It is given to a player who shoots someone on the same side as him/her in Airsoft Trouble in Terrorist Town. The one time Sam gets it after winning via "Scorched Earth" policy, he wins the round with it.
- Large Ham: Sam can get very loud at times when he's seeing a success streak in online competitive multiplayer games.
- Let's You and Him Fight: During the first Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor episode, Brandon manages to unleash a pack of caged hungry beasts on enemies residing in a town. This allows him to run safely past the distracted enemies and head straight for his target.
- Lighter and Softer: Literally. The crew arrived at a warehouse to play another round of Airsoft Trouble in Terrorist Town, but with Nerf guns.
- Mission Control: In Airsoft Metal Gear Solid, the player on the balcony takes the role of Otacon, who can talk through Snake through a radio. That doesn't mean that "Otacon" is particularly helpful...
- The Movie: Minecraft - The Movie was eventually released on their channel, which is their Minecraft mini-series videos compiled into one continuous, 40-minute episode.
- No Fair Cheating: When they played Johann Sebastian Joust from Sportsfriends, Sam attempted to hide under a desk to avoid being pushed. He knocked himself out while trying to crawl underneath.
- Once an Episode: Every Attack On Titan Tribute Game video they do contains small pieces of information about the show
- One-Hit Kill: Everyone dies in one hit in the airsoft games.
- Plant People: Nohki the Druid (played by Niko) in their Dungeons & Dragons session.
- Poor Communication Kills: Comes with the territory in Trouble in Terrorist Town and Murder, both in the Garry's Mod games and airsoft versions. People often start yelling at each other because they're not sure who they can trust and who's a Traitor. On earlier occasions, failure of the Detective to explain who he is can easily cause tension between himself and another Innocent.
- Precision F-Strike: Sam occasionally likes to drop these in case something goes horribly wrong.
- Product Placement: Before they started playing the Attack On Titan Tribute Game, Niko plugged Attack on Titan at least once.
- The Quiet One: Nate. Niko or Brandon can be this sometimes.
- Serious Business: Depending on who becomes the Detective in Airsoft Trouble in Terrorist Town, their job can devolve into this as they try to force everyone into a single room.
- Shout-Out: The crew keeps a replica of Mjölnir, Thor's legendary hammer from Thor, on a desk on the second floor of their den. During the first Airsoft SpyParty episode, Brandon rolls over to it and pretends to be unable to pick it up.
- After Jet lets loose in one Airsoft Murder episode and goes on a full-on killing spree, he sings the Invincibility theme from Super Mario Bros. to himself.
- The den itself has a couple of notable knick-knacks, including a replica of Raiden's HF Blade that they "borrowed" from Konami and wound up never returning, a life-sized statue of Pyramid Head, and a couple of Master Chief helmets.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Being one with nature, Nohki can use this ability. He attempts it on a nearby owl to gain information on Bran's missing wife and child, who were kidnapped.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Of the Node channel
- The Smurfette Principle: If a video features any women, there's usually only one, and the rest are all guys. This tends to apply to Heldine and Unicorn.
- Team Pet: Bandit, Heldine's dog.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The Detective's ability to check the alignment of people in Airsoft Trouble in Terrorist Town is hardly useful. It is used very rarely and only when someone unsure of his/her target's alignment shoots that person.
- Trust Me, I'm A Detective: Used most times in Airsoft Trouble in Terrorist Town by the Detective to protect himself/herself from other Innocents, actual detective skill be damned.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: In their airsoft games, there is no rule saying that it is illegal to shoot an ally. However, this leads into...
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Shooting an ally in the airsoft games results in negative retribution. In Trouble in Terrorist Town, you get the Joke Weapon next round. In Murder, you lose your gun (which isn't saying an ally can't just pick up your gun).
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: As a Druid, Nohki naturally has this power. He temporarily transforms into a cat to scout out a nearby town for enemies and guardsmen.
- Welcome to Corneria: In their Airsoft SpyParty episodes, the people pretending to be NPC's repeat most lines over and over
- Would Hurt a Child: In-universe, Nohki the Druid convinces his fellow teammates Darien the Ranger and Bran the Barbarian to kill a sleeping kid and his mother, and later a whole family, which includes another kid.
