Did you hear the news? QuakeCon 2012 kicked off today, and for the next 96 hours, gamers from around the world will descend on Dallas, Texas to engage in what is hailed as the largest LAN party in the United States (and some say the world). Thousands of gamers equipped with powerful, polygon crunching gaming rigs loaded up with a variant of Quake, the iconic First Person Shooter (FPS) created by id Software, will frag their way through each pulse pounding, rocket jumping round as they gib their opponents in the quest for victory, all while competing for over $30,000 in cash and prizes.

The event specifics can be found at the official QuakeCon website located here, so I'm not going to go into great detail telling you about the QuakeCon Pack that's now available on Steam, the Lost Mission in the DOOM 3 BFG Edition, or the event schedule for the weekend. If you're really that interested in finding out more information about it you'd probably be better off reading it straight from the source so I don't screw it up.

What I am going to talk about is why after 17 years of annual events, QuakeCon still matters.

Public Access: With many of our industry events being exclusive to those who are actually employed within the industry or simply cost prohibitive due to ticket price (not to mention travel and lodging accommodations) it's refreshing to see that even after the growth of the event it still remains free and open to the public (id Software funds most of the event). Sure, you still have to pay to get there and everything that comes along with that, but once you're there you have the opportunity to see, hear and participate in a truly spectacular event highlighted by the fact that it now includes much more than gamers slugging it out in a free for all melee; from time to time it even includes unique opportunities like sneak peeks at upcoming releases, access to closed betas, and the chance to hear keynote speeches by the legendary John Carmack, arguably the biggest name in the FPS business. Personally, I'd like to sit in on the "The Game of Making Games" presentation.

This article by the Dallas Observer states, "Exhibitors include Minecraft, Bethesda Softworks and iD software. Be sure to stop by the Bethesda booth for hands-on testing of the steampunk stealth-based game Dishonored, and the iD booth for testing of Doom 3: BFG Edition. There is also word going around that John Carmack will also be showing off his new VR setup that was a hit at this year's E3."

That's pretty cool.

Popularity: It's said the first QuakeCon (1996) started with about 30 gamers and by the end of the weekend the numbers rounded out to about 100 gamers participating in the event. The winners walked away with t-shirts. Fast forward to last year's event that witnessed an estimated 8,500 participants, where each of the top 3 teams in the different divisions walked away with thousands of dollars in prize money, not to mention all the other cash prizes and goodies that were awarded. Some of the winning teams were given high end video cards, which can be a few hundred bucks for each lucky winner. Not a bad haul for doing something you enjoy, like playing video games. This year's event is expected to be no different and could reach 10,000 gamers.

Also worth mentioning is the international presence that often attends the event. Former winners include gamers from Canada, Russia, Sweden, Italy and others.

While attendance at one particular industry event doesn't represent the vitality of the PC platform as a whole; and 10,000 gamers is a very small percentage when compared to the numbers logging on to Xbox Live and the Playstation network every day, I still think the fact the event continues to witness continued growth, expansion and participation at an event with a specific audience is reflective of a stable and healthy platform; PC gaming isn't dead just yet.

Progress: In 17 years of QuakeCon events, no doubt some progress has been made, and I don't mean just in the format of the actual event. The advances in hardware have jumped by leaps and bounds. I can remember playing Doom and Doom II in the mid 90s via modem to modem connection, so in 1996 when Quake was released and the first QuakeCon event occurred, the network connectivity paled in comparison to the data rates and capability we see today. It was during the mid 90s when the biggest, tallest, beigest computers were considered state of the art. Shortly thereafter is when the industry really witnessed the explosion in custom PCs and LAN PCs (smaller, easier to transport gaming machines). Since its inception, QuakeCon has been a Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) event, so this gives gamers an opportunity to show off their ultimate gaming rig and even compete in the sanctioned Modders-Inc Case Modding Contest (rules here). Of course this means you also get to see all sorts of high tech computers, accessories and peripherals too.

Professionals: Despite being a free, public access industry event for regular gamers to attend, it shouldn't be a surprise that a few noteworthy names can be seen running around the event. Besides the aforementioned John Carmack, other notable attendees include Blair Herter (G4TV), Ted Price (Insomniac), Todd Howard (Bethesda Game Studios), Geoff Keighley (GameTrailers TV), Adam Sessler (Industry Veteran), Michael Pachter (Wedbush Securities), and other folks from Valve and id Software. Some of the previous contestants in the official competitions have gone on to gain some degree of stardom - names like Fatal1ty and event co-creator yossman. Heck, Mr. Carmack met his wife at QuakeCon, so who knows who you will run into. Anytime regular ole gamers like you and I can go to an event and rub elbows with the big names in the industry, that's an awesome opportunity.

Prizes: Let's be honest, gamers don't compete for fortune and fame. We compete because we enjoy the games we play, and perhaps even more than that, we enjoy when we're good at something and the recognition that comes with it; when we can toe the line and vanquish our opponent(s); when we earn the admiration and respect of our peers cheering us on; when we invoke the rage and ire of those who can't handle defeat; we enjoy conquering our opponents and we enjoy conquering the game.

Since we're being honest though, there's nothing wrong with enjoying the above and winning a prize out of the deal. If you told gamers from the early days of gaming they could actually make money playing video games, they probably would've laughed at you. I know I would have. But the level of video game competition around the world continues to rise and we now have what are considered professional gamers. Well, events like QuakeCon don't just reward the professionals; it also hooks up event attendees with an awesome experience, swag and the opportunity to win cool prizes.

By the way, if you're interested in finding out more about id Software and the significant impact they've had on the video game industry, I would highly recommend reading Masters of Doom.

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history-Doom and Quake- until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry-a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.

It's a great book about one of the most prominent game developers and influential video games in the history of the video game industry. For those old school gamers familiar with IDKFA, it's definitely a must read.

In closing...QuakeCon. It's truly an event by gamers for gamers.

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