The "get together mood" problem

RedKat360 · April 26

In reference to the WAN Show April 11, 2025 - Timestamp 1:11:48 (important part starting at 1:27:50)

Linus described a problem on his latest test run of the whale lan in the badminton centre, versus the previous lan at his own house. The tl;dr is that even tho the guests present at both events were the same employees+family+friends group, the mood was vastly different. He described that most guests enjoyed the lan party at his house more, than at the badminton centre. Watch the wan show segment for details. There are some other aspects of the "whale lan identity crisis" Linus described, that I'm not touching here.

From my perspective Linus just encountered what I call the "get together mood" problem: Throwing a bunch of random people in a room will most likely not result in a good time for most of them. The mood is just not right, people feel disconnected, overwhelmed or sometimes lonely, even tho there are a lot of people around them. This can also occur in a group with a common interest (e.g. gaming) and also if most people know each other already, and even in a circle of friends. Heck even extroverted people are affected (talking from personal experience as one).

This is a super interesting topic for me. I love events and everything to do with it, so I want to share my experience and helpful approaches and hope to get some insights and ideas from the community on how to tackle this problem.

I host a home party twice a year with around 30 to 50 guests, of which some meet for the first time at this event. I don't encounter the "get together mood" problem there much, which is in part similar to why Linus didn't encounter it at his house lan party: The guests are scattered around the event location in different corners, that are to some extent separated from each other. (Linus described the mood in the garage, which was isolated from the rest of the house). I find that the most fun social interactions are to be had in very small groups. The best ones I ever had were in one on one deep talks. The layout of the event location has a huge impact on how people spread and move around. Small corners invite introverts to stay and relax, and extroverts to roam and tune in at any spot. You could say this reduces the friction to socially bond.

Contrary is the badminton centre. In a big open room, people will still cluster together in groups, but these tend to get bigger and bigger until most of their members are just bystanders and don't feel connected. Additionally any person not yet part of a group will feel very awkward and out of place when entering one, because there are no 'walls' that define the size of the group and there are not really a designated number of chairs, which would send the signal that people may join if they are empty. It's just terrible. You can mitigate this, but it requires moderation and social science skills (like get-to-know-you games and such, which don't always fit the theme of a party.)

So my solution is simple: Create somewhat separated small areas all around the event location. Which is hard to archive in big open spaces. (I mostly choose the location of an event primarily with this criteria in mind, so I don't have any experience on how to deal with open spaces.) Linus suggested to add gaming stations like arcade machines or a big tv corner, which would help a lot in my opinion.

I would like to improve the "get together mood" even further. People at my party should have fun and feel connected. I want to avoid feelings of loneliness by all means. Do you know how I could archive this? I’m very interested in an insights you might have. (oh and of course please correct me Linus/LTT-Team, if any of my asumptions don't quite fit.)

~Red

CasualExtremist · April 28

So modular cubicle wall systems or it remaining open, but intentionally placing seating/furniture to encourage smaller group arrangements? I am intrigued by the idea of bringing everyone together by isolating them into smaller groups. Might seem counter intuitive at a glance, but seems plausible from other angles. Never had any experience in this realm, so I would be interested on how you expand on that proposed solution and the expectations.