at a standard lan, just playing games is great fun in itself, but it's also good to add in
a few things to liven it up.

tournaments
these are the most obivous, done properly, can be the highlight of any lan party.
   done improperly, they're only fun for the one dude who kicks all your asses,
assuming the tourney finishes in the first place.   it's wise to put a single
person at least in charge of each tourney.  the best advice for running a tourney is
to get it ready beforehand; prepare all your charts.  we won't explain the standard
tournament format, i'm sure you already know that anyway.

once your tourney is over, be sure to give the winner his
or her due.  pausing the party for a little awards ceremony is a nice touch.
  everyone gets the warm fuzzies. alternatively, you can jump the winner in the
parking lot and kick his spindly ass for smackin' you around.

prizes
well these is all based on whether or not you have prizes, if you have sponsers then maybe
they can line you up with some really nice prizes to award.  if not, well you can buy
prizes.  some advice, don't try to get something good, it can be expensive. maybe get
something corny? like a nice mexican hat

mods
for games like quake and half-life there are plenty of fun mods out there, just for having
a laugh.  check out the various sites such as target="_blank">planetquake and target="_blank">planethalflife and you should be able to find some nice mods.
  for example, king of the hill is good mod, released by the same people that bring
you osp tourney for quake.

music
get a cd player or if you have a large mp3 collection, just stick a pc to play them out to
the crowd.   music gives a bit of an atmosphere and what not


sure there is more... just have to write it down ... or invent it.  if it is fun it
is good >