About every quarter, I get together with a group of friends a few hours away and we have an all-weekend LAN party. They all live in the same area, and have wives & kids so usually people are in and out as their schedule permits, but we all hole in up a house and play games for a few days. It's fantastic.
It's also allowed me to completely deal with any video game addict urges that I get. If I feel the urge to start playing some recently released game, I just tell myself "Ah, I'll play it at LAN", and then I don't need to play in the moment. The urge goes away. So now I only play 2 days a quarter at LANs (maybe 8 days a year total), whereas previously years of my life would go into games. It's been a hugely positive thing for me.
It's also allowed me to completely deal with any video game addict urges that I get. If I feel the urge to start playing some recently released game, I just tell myself "Ah, I'll play it at LAN", and then I don't need to play in the moment. The urge goes away. So now I only play 2 days a quarter at LANs (maybe 8 days a year total), whereas previously years of my life would go into games. It's been a hugely positive thing for me.