Oakers

I am considering the following:

Who would consider going to a shop in the "High Street" to play networked games, ie UT2003, BF1942 etc. I don't mean any of these poky little shops that get scattered around, I mean a big plush shop, which has catering, social areas, maybe alchohol etc.

There would be 32 High spec PC's all networked together for network gaming. XBOX's all linked, Internet connectivity for players to get out or players to get in. Competetions with big prizes, national events/tournaments, parties etc. Discounts on software/hardware, membership schemes.

The costs would be about £3 per hour per PC. Competitions would have entry fees. Opened between 9am and say 11PM.

Would this be a viable venture or has it been tried before on this scale and died a death.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers

dogmaul

i would give it a go if there was one but the chances of that happening up north are slim

Darren (M3)

Sort of an extension to the internet cafe theme ?

I think you'd be better keeping both bases covered and offer internet surfing for the casual person and multiplayer games as well.

They did this at the Lightening Cafe on Pier39 in SanFranCisco when I was over there on my holiberries. That way the business was pretty constant and they made a mint serving cafe lattes, etc...

snowcrash

they do this at my local bowling arena.

scoob_dood

High initial investment cost, and I would imagine it's difficult to gauge the success it might recieve.

I would probably consider using facilities like that, but at the end of the day 'most' online gamers are likely to have their own high spec PC in the comfort of their own home.

nice idea, for sure - and I think the side ventures you can incorporate are more likely to turn the profit.

Oh, edited to add -one of the best features would be a low latency internet link, and these are not cheap (also bear in mind any outage would render any online activity out, and thus cost money)

- Jon

[Edited by scoob_dood - 10/22/2002 1:13:40 PM]

Oakers

Thanks chaps, good replies.

The site would offer more, definately the standard web browsing facilities, maybe a seperate section for training services during the day.

I except people will still play with themselves - excuse the pun!! but we still go down the pubs of an evening don't we!!

As far as redundancy is concerned, diverse lan connects would be used (depending on location) offering upto 100Mpbs. So it may be a goer, my research will go a bit further than this board... maybe SIDC too.

Keep it coming, 70 odd views and only 4 replies, yes or no will suffice.

Cheers

Any other ideas that could be used would be useful.

krankyd

There used to be one in croydon that I frequented alot.

Just a normal cyber-cafe type thing, but there were weekly quake matches and multiplayer frag games..

If there are a load of people playing multiplayer games at the same time, you don't really need that fast an internet connection (only playing lan type games)..

We once did a 24hr quake-a-thon that was quite fun. One guy stopped being able to see for a while cause he was looking at his monitor for 20hours! :O

Prices were quiet good, I think it was 3quid for half an hour?

They had a good steady crowd on at the weekends playing multiplayer games and the like.. - it was a real blast playing multiplayer quake really loud in the cyber cafe with 15 mates!

Scooby Snax

There was something like this in nottingham called lan arena i think. dunno if its still there or not!
My yes or no answer.... Its an ok idea

Dream Weaver

Sounds pretty cool.

Just make sure you have the following signs on the door:

No kids
No pony tails
No BO

And it will be a winner

Oakers

LOL - That goes without saying!!

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Went to a place called The Playing Fields in London (near Warren Street tube), but it has now closed down.

They were charging £6/hour and a 12 hour (10pm to 10am - Firday/Saturday) for £30.

The usual lan games, but there were beardies, ponytail & BO there! That's to be expected! The kids shouldn't be allowed as they normally show me up!!!

Good fun though!

ptholt

The playing fields closed down as it started well, but then lost its way, the staff were more interested watching p0rn late at night then seeing to customers, the kids couldnt play during the day couldnt get in due to licensing law issues (cos it was a bar as well in an underground scenario in one big room).

I actaully still have a business plan and model for my own version of this from 2 years ago called 'fragnet'.

It can be set up with VERY LITTLE outlay actually, the only money i needed was for the premises which were VERY expensive (was looking south london) as was decent bandwidth at the time (tho adsl will have improved this) all kit etc was sourced from my own contacts for various arrangements and would actually cost nothing, that was pc's, consoles and all curent and future software.

I had a membership scheme in place that brought in monthly returns (scoobyshop anyone hehe) in exchange for free game/surfing time and a host of other ideas like pc upgrade bar where you could buy a grpahics card and get it installed for a small fee (like pc world but without the clueless morons). There are also some very good 'trade' events you can get on the back of to help the revenue stream.

All was going great till the .coms went belly up and the banks got a severe cold with any business with the word 'internet' anywhere in its business plan.

Need any help then give me a call, chances are i've already been down the street, bought the t-shirt and eaten the pie. My idea just fizzled due to the reason above and venture capitalists were just to damn expensive.

Edited to say online gamers that havent been to a lan party event etc really don't know just much fun it is playing online BUT with the other players being in shouting distance for you to abuse the only real competition being the savlan type organised lan parties that tour the uk using leisure centres and hotels etc, though they normally have power issues and really do stink by sunday morning, specially when you have to pick dribble out your keyboard where you fell asleep and you can find your mouse for empty beer tins and half smoked reefers The main downside to these events is lugging your own pc there and hoping it doesnt get stripped/nicked when you go to reception to collect your dominos pizza delivery hehehe.

I was also the chap responsible for introducing quite a few scoobynetters to the delights of the playing fields, and killing the majority of them at UT in the process hehehe


[Edited by ptholt - 10/22/2002 5:02:38 PM]

Richard Curtis

I have also been to the playing fields in the past - seemed a bit hardcore for the casual gamer (console types) that you'll probably want to attract.

Also been to a place in Boston about 4 years ago that had a good setup (for the time). All games were pre-installed and seemed to be running under a custom menu screen. You had to purchase a swipe card which could be re-credited. Each machine had a card reader that deducted credit per amount of time used.

The usual applied, the more credit you bought the more extra bonus time you got giving you an incentive to buy more time..

X-box's would be a good alternative to PC's with a much lower outlay. Some of the multiplayer games are excellent wit the promise of x-box live in the near future getting round the problem of Johnny no friends turning up with no-one to play with on the LAN.

Rich

super_si

Sounds wicked. Youd need to pick Big citys London, Newcastle, Leeds etc..........


Si

exesspeed

count me in man great idea

P1Fanatic

To make it big youve got to get involved with the LAN gaming giants like CPL (CyberAthlete Professional League) and WCG (World Cyber Games). The Playing Fields did a lot of CPL comps and theyve still struggled. Diversity maybe the way to go but it will mean more apps needed and staff (who know what they are talking about) to look after it.

For sure the BW side of things is a lot better with ADSL now in abundance - as normal leased lines are going to be very expensive for anything over 2mbit. And for such a critical business use you will definetely require resilient services that are dual homed i.e. diff hardward onsite, diff telco line, diff ISP network etc - this all adds up.

Computer hardware is also pricey as you need good specs to play the latest games.

LanArena are one company that already do the Lan Gaming side of things - not sure how well they are doing these days.

I personally think there isnt enough demand as people these days mostly have Broadband so can play games online 24*7 from their own home, on their own setup, talk to friends/team members on VOIP apps and even rent their own servers for peanuts. I think it would only work in a highly populated city like London, Milton Keynes etc.

ptholt

Computer hardware isnt expensive when you call up your suppliers (i have a computer sales company as well, selling geforce cards, speakers, cpus etc) and tell them what your doing and that you want top of the range kit to run the latest games, the idea being it advertises how good there products are, i actually had all my servers and 30 pc's in place running top of the range video/sound/cpu/memory/drives/monitors etc all for nothing, nada, zip. In fact some companies were fighting to make sure there products were the ones in use, so hardware costs should be very negligable in my exp.

So i shouldnt worry about the cost of kit, so long as you know who to call and talk to.

the playing fields did get involved in cpl tournaments etc and it was quite good for the hardcore gamers, but as stated above it could be a bit over whelming for someone who wants a 5 minute blast while there other halfs gone shopping and has only played gt3 before.
But other areas to look at would be corporate entertainment, trade activities (games companies like inviting the public to try up and coming gmes to gauge reaction, get ideas and feedback etc, they dont like doing this on there own premises, so let them rent yours, game launch evenings for big titles where you stay open till midnight for the release of say quake4, have a build up from 11:30, let them play it from midnight then buy it before anywhere else in town etc.)

Oakers

Thanks Guys, All good info. I may contact a few of you in the near future to discuss a few ideas.

Cheers