LinkBack URL
About LinkBacksOriginally Posted by kalniel
Kalniel: "Nice review Tarinder - would it be possible to get a picture of the case when the components are installed (with the side off obviously)?"
CAT-THE-FIFTH: "The Antec 300 is a case which has an understated and clean appearance which many people like. Not everyone is into e-peen looking computers which look like a cross between the imagination of a hyperactive 10 year old and a Frog."
TKPeters: "Off to AVForum better Deal - £20+Vat for Free Shipping @ Scan"
for all intents it seems to be the same card minus some gays name on it and a shielded cover ? with OEM added to it - GoNz0.
There is a place where I live that does a similar thing but with Xbox 360's, its been open nearly
about 2 years. I have never been in there but they have those on the floor gaming seats in front
of 32 inch TV's. They have been marketing themselves by running it a bit like a youth club sort of
thing and they get in the papers a lot so thats one way to get advertising. Also xbox wise you could
get red ring ones and fix them for £30 each.
I think consoles would be easier and cheaper and possibly more successful, the PC lan place shut
down around here. That way you wouldn't have to worry about keeping things up to date to much
and you can have a lot of variety. I would still go to a SFII Turbo on the snes tournament even
now. You could get a 60 inch plasma for about £1500 now I reckon.
I don't need to, there's proof that it can work as a business twenty minutes from my front door. I don't have access to their financial information and it sounds like your friend ran a bigger centre than the one near me but they employ several staff and have managed to stay afloat despite nearly every other shop on the high street having closed down/changed hands over the last eight years. I have no doubt that it's a difficult game (sorry about the pun) to be in but it can and does work for some, provided you don't call your company Omega Sektor anyway.
There was one near us, got a lot of great press because it was "keeping kids off the street" and so on, and to be fair it did.
I didn't go though, because the kids who it "kept off the street" were pretty vile pieces of scum. Although they weren't exactly causing trouble (they might've been a bit careless with peripherals I guess), they were always in trouble. So everything would be fine, then some bunch would come in to "get" some kid who was sitting down on machine no.5. Ensuing scrap then causes varying degrees of damage. In the end, a big mob turned up outside and hurled bricks through the windows to get at some guy, and consequently destroyed everything inside - the owners then gave up, packed up, and sodded off.
So I like the idea, but in my experience it just attracts the wrong kind of people, so I steer well clear. Much prefer the idea of playing online, as if there's any grief you can just disconnect, or playing at a LAN, where the list of people going is a bit more streamlined to prevent any idiots arriving and causing trouble.
Just a gut reaction, but hey
personally i am maybe a bit too old. The closest i have been to LAN gaming is 4 player golden eye on the N64 and mario cart on the snes. The only time i ventured into a place similar to what you suggest is when i was in Athens last year and could not find a bar.. me and my mate stumbled across a large LAN gaming place and stopped there only to get a beer at a reasonableish price.
I think that the type of place you suggest, will have appeal to younger people, unfortunately younger people tend to be skint. When i was 11-14 all the money i could muster was spent on Nintendo... 14 onwards most of my cash was on fags and beer + some Nintendo. I also find that people who like to spend long hours gaming also in my opinion tend to be people who are happy to socialise from a distance, IE from the comfort of their own PC/xbox/PS.. these people (like me) are happy to meet one in a while, but can go a long time without a meeting.
The place i visited in athens was not empty but only had 1 member of staff with about 50 mid spec gaming PCs. there was about 6 people gaming and me and my friend drinking. the overheads of a place like this are massive... also a huge security risk. Theft from a place like this, (unless housed next to a police station or next to the Grand Hotel) would be high. also the cost of insurance, and the equipment (that will need replacing) from attrition and upgrading. feel you would be better off investing the money in a less risky venture. I think the only way a place like this can make money is through side lines.. money laundering, illegal casino front, body disposable etc
but i think people will genuinely wish you and your friend luck!! but it would be a bad business model IMHO.
The HMV in the town I live has just set up a "Gamerbase" - a whole floor just for gaming with PCs, Xboxes and PS3s all available to play on large screens with sofas etc. I'm guessing they must have thought it was economically viable, although I note they already had the premises in the first place.
The difference with that sort of setup is that they'll be prepared to make minimal profit, or possibly even a small loss, on the basis that it will not only get a lot of extra footfall in the store (which is the last big highstreet CD/DVD/Game retailer) but the games the kids are playing will advertise themselves, they'll nip upstairs and buy a copy.
It's a kind of setup which wouldn't work half so well without a major retailer tacked on the side.
I realise that there are a few gaming centres up and down the country that work but if the idea was really profitable they would be far more prolific. It would take a bullet proof business plan, a lot of luck and masses of hard work to get something like this working on a long term.
____
(='.'=)
(")_(")
Having given this a lot of thought, I think trying to set up a Lan-party-bar / LAN-party-cafe is going on a hiding to nothing, because you're not going to get the cafe crowd or the LAN crowd. I think one element needs to be the focus: so have a cafe with a few PCs at the back that people can book for a gaming session, or run a lan house where people can also buy coffee if they want to. Trying to be the two things equally sounds like a recipe for disaster to me...
Of these a cafe seems the easier to get finance, requires less investment and would be easier to run. Servers for advertising, wiFi etc.
Society's to blame,
Or possibly Atari.
nail, head there.
Will add my perspective later.
Something that's predominantly a cafe with gaming elements is not going to work. I've never been in a LAN party type building, but I imagine that either a) you want to be able to hear the sound and music and/or b) chat/heckle your mates as you get your head blown off with a rocket launcher for the fifth time.
That sort of activity is going to disturb people who want to have a quiet drink and chat.
Sure, you could insist gamers wear headphones/headsets, but if you did that then why not just play at home?
I suppose soundproofing is one solution, or perhaps if it's particularly large premises but aside from the expense that also shifts the atmosphere of the place.
PK
I tel you what I'd expect.
Good ... no.. GREAT coffee.
tbh, I'm inclined to agree. LAN gaming is unlikely to draw people into a cafe, whereas really good coffee *might* draw some extra people into a LAN gaming den
What would work in a cafe is the kind of thing kalniel said: Wii's on big screens, touchscreen gaming tables, the proper casual stuff. You might need to consider putting the gaming in booths, so you could partly soundproof them to separate the gaming crowd from the 'just drinking coffee' crowd. But I think that people who'd just finished shopping on a Saturday might be quite interested in going for a coffee and playing some Wii tennis, for instance
It could be done like karaoke places in Japan, sound proof booths like scaryjim suggested.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
SCAN.care@HEXUS
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
