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This is the premise.

Okay. Work with me here...

You invite one or two friends over to your place for an evening, or maybe you just have a few hours to kill before dinner and a movie, or maybe you wanted to come up with a cheap date. Whatever the reason, let's assume for the sake of argument that you and one or two friends are at your house and this idea dawns on you for a moment that the most interesting thing in your house is your computer.

Well it interests you anyway.

Why PCs rarely liven up a party..

And let's assume for the moment that you are like most people with computers and access to the Internet. This may change in a few years (or months), but right now the average computer user has only one working computer (if you have more than one then you're one of the reasons why this paragraph will be out of date in a few years or months). Let's assume you don't have a T-3 line directly into your home. You just got an average Pentium PC or Mac, and your multimedia functionality is okay but you don't have multiple joysticks and you don't have multiple monitors hooked up to multiple CPUs hooked up to a server so you can play DeathMatch Quake all night. You got modem Internet access on one computer, or if you're really lucky you got a cable modem or an ASDL line, and you foolishly thought for a moment this would be enough to entertain your friends. However, when you sit in front of your computer, about five minutes go by and your friends are already bored. They may have gone to sleep. Or maybe they get fidgetty and wonder what's on TV. Or maybe they're talking amongst themselves about how boring you are or maybe your mutual friend Johnnie's not doing anything tonight and they're planning on leaving you to go see some real people who don't live on their computer. ¹

Your worst enemy is boredom.

Despite the fact that you may or may not in fact live on your computer and when your friends come over perhaps the last thing you should do is show off your computer ², there are some factors to consider if you're going to go through with this.To involve other people in the goings on of your computer, you need to consider things like interactivity, variety and fun.

interactivity

Admittedly (and speaking as not only a field researcher but also a Sub-editor for h2g2.com I may get raked over the hot coals for admitting this), you can't just log on and go to h2g2.com and read to your friends all night. They'll hate you forever. H2G2 is a lot of things, but I don't think entertainment at a flesh and blood party is one of them³. An easy solution would be to have two or three separate computer systems hooked up to a server, so each person has their hands busy blowing one another away in any number of shootemup games available today. Purposefully I'm limiting this to one machine, one Internet connection, and one or two friends. There are places on the 'Net you can go.

You're gonna have to find them though. I used to have a neato link here but it was a year or two old and now it's dead. There's others out there though. Some games require one person at the keyboard, but you need to find one where people can take turns playing, or different keys on the keyboard apply to other people.. Or maybe this is time to just go out to the backyard and play football. Well, ShockRave is still around as of this writing, and offers a wide assortment of cartoon videos, games and other attractions, some of which are interactive. Some of the cartoon videos include trivia games or other things during the brief downloads of the graphics and sound, to keep you and your friends busy. ShockRave requires the installation of ShockWave software⁴ but is well worth it, especially if you and your friends are fans of Dilbert, South Park or Doctor Katz. Experiment before you invite friends over though. Some stuff requires downloads which would slow down the party dreadfully. Also, strategy and adventure games are more involved and may easily bore some people.

variety

Ira Glass of This American Life once explained that in order to keep his radio program interesting, he likes to do something different in the course of the show about once every forty-five seconds. Sometimes it's just adding music to the background, or another person speaking. Something. The point is, if the SAME thing goes on repetitively without something new going on, the average person can easily get bored. This isn't limited to radio. It's a good rule of thumb for any attempt to entertain and\or enlighten others. During the hour or two that you subject your friends to the Internet, keep half an eye on their body language and facial expressions. Are they honestly enjoying themselves or just humoring you? Don't ask them because that's a dead give-away. Just keep an eye on the clock and insure that their interest is kept alive. When it looks like you're losing them, opt for a change-up. Suggest letting one of the others having the keyboard for awhile, or perhaps consider trying a different online activity.

Also don't limit it to JUST visual stuff or JUST audio stuff. Maybe in between actual game activities, you could pop over to your temp directory where you recently downloaded the latest MP3 by the american political comedy group Capitol Steps and subject them to that. Do be careful, because showing off wave files, midis, or even porn graphics all night is not interactive (see above). Also if you follow Ira Glass' ''45-second rule'', you won't necessarily want to play an entire song, unless your friends are obviously enjoying it.

Another way to offer variety is to focus on Bad Web Sites. Believe it or not, sometimes bad websites can be strangely good for brief periods of time. I'm not talking about websites that take forever to load or that crash your browser because they're so poorly done. I'm talking about tried and proven websites which have either purposefully or inadvertently brought entertainment to countless websurfers in the past. Places like Worst of the Web, WebWorst.About.Com, [more examples needed here] and Yahoo Internet Life Magazine's Pretty Strange and ''Yippie Yahooey'' departments can sometimes uncover surprises and diversions.

Other places like Cool Site of the Day,
Odd-Ball, Glassdog.Net and [more examples needed here] do not claim to offer the worst of the Web, but one surfer's crash and burn is another surfer's hang ten. I highly recommend Glassdog.Net, by the way. While it doesn't claim either the best or the worst of the 'Net, what it does is offer some of the most prolific, creative and artistic projects by countless enthusiasts. In many cases, you can get involved. Also, places like Bittersweets and So There give brief text pieces that are almost always worth the read, and you can usually share the latest updates at those sites with friends in less than 45 seconds.

There are even sites that I call Stupid Web Tricks which can be briefly entertaining. Metababy comes to mind. By sending an email to [email protected], you can immediately put whatever you type into the body of the email directly to the front page of the Metababy website.

blah.org is a very stupid, brief page, but might illicit a laugh from people⁵. Mixing the good with the bad will also improve variety. This option won't work for everyone though. You'd need a fast Internet connection, and often deleting the cache temporarily saved to your hard drive by your web browser could also help.

fun

While I'm sure the Electric Library is very educational and mentally stimulating, it may cause your friends to revolt against you. Whatever you subject them to, keep it light, fun and silly. Don't read off to them the latest news stories, depressing accounts of homelessness, or cooking recipes unless you are 100% certain they are really into that kind of stuff.

Planning ahead is a very good idea. Chances are, in your personal excursions on the 'Net, you've uncovered several places that you'd like to share. Write them down⁶ or keep a bookmark\favorite list especially for places you hope to share with friends (both online and offline). Also, make sure that you've done necessary preparations before getting involved in the more intensive interactive sites on the 'Net.

Some of them require a download, or may necessitate you update your browser, multimedia drivers, or other software. Much of this software preparation can be done for free over the 'Net. Nothing is more boring though than waiting for Troops the StarWars parody to download. Download it before your friends come over, and play it from your hard drive, but only if they've seen the movie.

Perhaps have a ready prepared list of places you've checked ahead of time for their interactivity, variety, and fun potential. Briefly describe the websites to your friends and ask them which one they'd like to try first. Most importantly, keep them involved.

If you're going to explore really bad websites, perhaps come up with a drinking game (adults only please) or other interactive ways to make surfing the 'Net fun. Gamble with poker chips on when the next misspelling or bad link will pop up. Concoct an Internet Truth or Dare game, or something else from your own sick and twisted imagination ⁷.

Your Turn...

Yes this page is extensive and long-winded, but it's far from done. Perhaps in the future this idea will be broken up into several pages each covering different criteria. Much of the above will eventually be edited or replaced with ideas from people like you. Feel free to click on the link(s) below offering the h2g2 forums for this guide entry, and add your two cents into the pot. Do you know of particularly neat or nasty websites that fit the above criteria? Have you done things on the Internet with friends that was a lot of fun?

Keep in mind the premise. We're not talking about fun with friends online or networking games that require more than one computer. Please offer suggestions on Internet related adventures that would be entertaining for two or three people, in the same room, requiring only one computer. It's a challenge I know.

That's what makes this so fun! I'll see you in the forums.