Playing multiplayer games is much more fun when your opponent is in range of verbal abuse

A gathering usually consisting of a group of friends, for fun or competition. This gathering involves either a Xbox, and/or a PC. Including games such as Counter Strike and/or Halo. LAN Parties usually go on all night due to extensive junk food consumption and caffeine, resulting in elongated sleep the night after the LAN Party.

the phrase "lan" is derived from the abbreviation Local access network, pronounced phonetically.

Having hosted a few myself, I know there usually isnt gay orgy/porn transfer involved...

"lan party" as defined by thinkgeek.com:

A New Social Ritual Amongst The Elite

If you've never been to a LAN Party, you haven't lived properly (or you suck at gaming). If you suck at gaming, dont despair, you can still go to a LAN party, jack in, and just sniff packets and write code and still have some fun. Or you can be the sysadmin and setup the networking or you can just handle the food and beverages (get me my Bawls!)

Ah, sweet LAN parties...The stimulating scent of caffeine, the verbal jousting, the smell of pepperoni lingering in the air, the floor a tangled infestation of cat5, the neon lights of case mods poking through the scene like lasers in fog. Nothing quite like it. And 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 unnamed player, there an elite commando with uncanny aim. Over time, the LAN party itself, a single organism, breathing, hunting....

Or something like that.

It's like group sex for nerds

A Party, Usually involving A "Lot 'a' Nerds"

Lan Party, Group of computers connected to Play games and share porn.

xbox lan party
lan parties are just for computer nerds. I myself love lan parties because we can always bring our xboxes to other people's house. The main point of a lan party is the play games with your fellow friends. Some people perfer games such as Halo2 or NBA football, we all have different taste. Usually the games arent taken seriously and mainly have fun.

pc lan parties
It is where I bunch of people who bring there PC to other places and game together. Main games are counterstrike, Halo etc.

like a normal party but with more computers, less alcohol and no girls.

A LAN party is where a large number of albinos, almost always male, gather in darkened rooms to protect them from the harshness of the sun and the corrosive effects of oxygen, and the bears, which as we all know, live "outside", and can only be guarded against by being inside. They engage in various mental exercises, most often simulated battle, to prepare them for any possible future hostile action taken by "others". These simulations are loaded into computers, which are usually owned and brought by the participants. There is often a small supply of sustenance available at the start, though it is ignored by most of the participants for the first many hours. In fact, many of the participants subsit solely on the copious amounts of stimulants that are available, usually dissolved into liquids with a high energy content. The event usually occurs until the participants are drawn away to other pursuits, most often infiltration missions into the general population.