Starting a Lan Center

A

aikjo2

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 24, 2007
Messages
299
Well, no better place than here to post such a question.
first off, I am serious, I have the line of credit, but might not even need said credit for fact that I may have enough investors to start one of these suckers up myself.

Now...

1) Giving the costs of insurance, rent, computers, software, employment, etc... what am I missing?

4) How do I select area.?

5) what costs surprised any of you Lan center starters out there? (I am in LA / TN, so no competition)

6) what else am I missing?

7) any general words to the wise, situations to be wary of, or tips / tricks?

here are the specs I will be running -

# Processor: Intel E6400 Core 2 Duo
# Memory: 2x1gb g.skill
# Motherboard: msi matx
# Video: nVidia 8800GTS 320MB video card.
# Audio: onboard
# Storage: 200gb wd
# Optical: 18x dual layer DVD burner.
# Case: found a colorful case with intrusion detection.
# Power Supply: Apevia 500w

ty in advance.

GAMES:
have a good list, its huge, and i need the hd

keep teh comments coming!

Gr8 comments

updated specs, ty guys you are the most helpful.

azn community? hrm, we have a huge vietnamese population, but...

Anyone have thoughts on attracting people?
 
4) How do I select area.?

In a large city near a university or in an area that sees a lot of student traffic..

7) any general words to the wise, situations to be wary of, or tips / tricks?

Pay lots of attention to concessions.. That will be where you actually make real money..
A coffee shop / sandwich bar sort of affair.. Make the place a wi-fi hot spot..
Hire a bouncer ;)
 
maybe a good internet connection and good game servers would be good, unless the computers will be playing on online game servers :D
 
I plan to have a large host of games, and I just bought a server from a hospital that they did not need, they had two, needed one. It was a steal. It is a dual quad core xeon setup, 16gb ram, 8tb data, a 7600 (wtf? everything top of line but this! wtf?), and 64 ports of gigabit lan goodness.

there will be a lan server up for every game i have on that, cs, cs source, bf, quake, ut 2k4, etc.

Concessions are a large source of income? really... :evil grin:

seriously, if you had a lan center, or have one, post any and everything you can think of pls. ty
 
aikjo2 said:
I plan to have a large host of games, and I just bought a server from a hospital that they did not need, they had two, needed one. It was a steal. It is a dual quad core xeon setup, 16gb ram, 8tb data, a 7600 (wtf? everything top of line but this! wtf?), and 64 ports of gigabit lan goodness.
Click to expand...

Er, well, it's a server. You're lucky it has a PCIe x16 slot, you could have had 8MB ATI Rage XL video.

Looks like you've the backbone and equipment to get it running. Decor and atmosphere would swing me as a customer. Obnoxious place full of annoying 12 year olds? No thanks, but it does happen. Friday/Saturday nights, 18 (or 21) and over, cheap drinks...I'm so there.
 
first off... good luck :) i would love to see one around me (Ft.myers fl)

i would say... make sure its comfortable

i dont think you would get much repeat business if its plastic chairs and folding tables

dont make it look cheap (all seen those computer stores in the malls that start up look cheesy as hell and next time your at the mall its gone already)

Look for something in a strip mall maybe? parents will see it when they are doing whatever and say "hey did you see that new computer place.... " word of mouth FTW

make it affordable also... if you want alot of buisness dont make it to expensive for the average teenager w/ a minimum wage job not to be able to afford it (most will probly be teenagers)

someone said friday/saturday night 18+ that might kill some buisness for the younger crowd... and 21+ with cheap drinks would cause and issue... cause you would need a liquor licence.. and those i dont think come easy/cheap

also the most important thing i would say is ADVERTISING

make sure to have posters/flyer/newspaper/radio (all within your budget of course)

and again good luck :) hopefully it works out for you... i think that would be a blast to own a place like that

EDIT: just thought of a good idea... when you open... hold some sort of tournement with a nice prize... people will come play in it... tell there friends and so on... also hold monthly or every few months a tournament.... maybe set up leagues (guarenteed repeat business)
 
I used to spend LOTS of time at a local LAN center when I was in high school (read as 12+ hours a week).

$4/hour is a fair price, maybe an incremental discount for each hour past there.

=====================

My group of friends ended up abandoning the place, and here's how to avoid the reasons that we had:

-MAKE SURE IT'S CLEAN! Keep the place dusted, pick up the trash, vacuum when it's visible. Do NOT allow food/drinks in the area with the computers, you'll get sticky keyboards and smudgy monitors.

-Have the lighting at an appropriate level. If needed wall/curtain off the LAN area or just have a desk lamp for your area and lower level lighting for the gaming. Glare will definitely turn away the hardcore gamers who will stay there for hours on end.

-Keep the chairs in a good state of repair. As soon as it won't go up/down or swivel chuck it out. The less comfy chairs you have the less business you'll get.

-Keep your PCs up and running. It doesn't reflect well on you when your company can't repair a PC and you just let it sit there for weeks on end.

-SECURITY! Have security cameras running 24/7 on the LAN area and of course on all entrances/exits. It's very possible you'll attract the shady customers and it's great to be able to keep them away. Also a large deterrent to vandalism of your machines in any form.

-Servers: Keep your game servers up and running. For Counterstrike for example (and any other privately hosted games) run three servers. LAN PUB, WAN Private, WAN PUB. That way you can easily host in-house/out-of-house tournaments without having to change anything. Keep up with the latest CAL server configs and all that jazz.

-Licensing: Make sure you've actually got the licenses for your games. The WORST thing possible is when a group comes in and only 8 of the 12 of them can log on to a game server because you were too lazy to do the installs with the right CD-keys.

-Kick out the douchebags. No one wants to be gaming with someone who yells at their screen every time they die. KickBan them :p

===============

As for advertising, try to get ads running in the local high school/college newspapers.
 
ft meyers fl eh? not to terribly far from my cousins place.... hrm. what point of life are you at? high school, college, work? just from your post i would like to talk to you about that. if my business plan is accurate, I might be there in 3 years or so...

dude, pm me.

keep em coming. i got a gigabit card to the best posts (same thread on 3 forums, so bing it home to the h)
 
Opening a business isn't really something that you could just do overnight. I don't mean to be totally discouraging, but realistically, if you have to ask all of these questions, is this really something that you think will work out in the long run?

My biggest problem with gaming centers is the business you'll get. You might be lucky, but from what I can see, if you open in a busy location, people who just need to browse the internet would have brought their laptops and visit Starbucks. Most serious gamers have their own rigs, and you'll lose business on kids whenever their in school, so that leaves you with the weekends and vacations to really make anything.

Rent, equipment, power / other services, and licensing fees (especially with Valve from what I can remember) aren't cheap. Just realize that you're making a huge investment above anything else, because spending money now without a proper business plan or direction will get you no where.
 
Dont forget to think about buisness hours? do you want to be a 24 hour center? in which you will have to make sure you limit some people (im sure you have seen the stories of people playing for like 3 days then dieing the bathroom or something...)

location location location... we all know this... strip mall near a school or some busy mall or something in a high traffic area

maybe have a few computers off to the side (nothing powerfull.. non-gaming machines) w/ a networked printer (charge per page) for the local mom or dad college kid that would like to use it for email or something

someone mentioned WiFi hotspot... thats probly a pretty cheap investment for one of those... people that come in for some coffee/danish (those places always seem to have pastries hehe :)

Support your locals?... ive noticed in some coffee shops local artists hang there paintings w/ a buisness card or something and sell them via the coffee shop... maybe charge a local artist 20-30 a month to hang up a few paintings.... ive personally thought about taking some of my photos and going to a local place to have them sold... some i see in there are nothing special but im sure they sell...

maybe a few consoles too? (those are usually big) few xbox's linked on some big tvs...

Now dont going doing all this cause it might get a little busy in there... to much going on to control... these are just ideas/comments on the type of place i would like to see or something that apeals to more than just one type of person also all this depends on the size of the place you looking for and budget alowed

Sponsors... find some of those too... for example... all the machines running e6600 talk to intel... im sure they will sponsor you (when i was younger they seemed to sponsor local lan events...ones of 100 or fewer people so im sure they might offer something) and maybe even give you a deal on buying stuff from them.... all things to cut costs anywhere you can...

Bake your own muffins daily... mmmm i do enjoy a nice muffin :p (jk)


Also doing a little searching online i found this for you

Blizzard
http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/gamingcenterinfo.shtml

Valve
https://cafe.steampowered.com/index.php?area=cafe/program
I did a little looking into Valve as well... they have 2 plans you can either purchase Unlimited Time through a "seat licence" which i looked and if you pay yearly its about $108 a computer or you can buy hourly which seems to be more expensive and not something you would do because you dont know the amount of business you have yet

actually i got this site from EA and they seem to cover alot of info on the site licences and such
http://www.igames.org/Licenses_Intro_Public.asp

search around the net to find a few places... all over the country and call them to ask... what type of buisness do you get get? kids? adults? all sorts of questions to get a jump on how/what/where would be best for you
 
Originally posted by B.W.

Opening a business isn't really something that you could just do overnight. I don't mean to be totally discouraging, but realistically, if you have to ask all of these questions, is this really something that you think will work out in the long run?

My biggest problem with gaming centers is the business you'll get. You might be lucky, but from what I can see, if you open in a busy location, people who just need to browse the internet would have brought their laptops and visit Starbucks. Most serious gamers have their own rigs, and you'll lose business on kids whenever their in school, so that leaves you with the weekends and vacations to really make anything.

Rent, equipment, power / other services, and licensing fees (especially with Valve from what I can remember) aren't cheap. Just realize that you're making a huge investment above anything else, because spending money now without a proper business plan or direction will get you no where.
Click to expand...

I do agree with what you have said (big part is to make sure you have a really good business plan)

Another thing to think about is not letting this be your only source of income.
I would only have it open from say 4:00pm to 8:00pm on school days and longer hours obviously when school is out. Also I wouldn't sink a bunch of money into this business until I was 100% sure there was a demand for the service, IMO a service like this has a probability of flopping.
 
mitcity22 said:
I do agree with what you have said (big part is to make sure you have a really good business plan)

Another thing to think about is not letting this be your only source of income.
I would only have it open from say 4:00pm to 8:00pm on school days and longer hours obviously when school is out. Also I wouldn't sink a bunch of money into this business until I was 100% sure there was a demand for the service, IMO a service like this has a probability of flopping.
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i agree with that also....

i think if done right you could do pretty well

as for the school hours... doesnt mean it has to be shut... coffee shop by day (moms doing there shopping want to stop for a coffee and bagel...) lan center by night....

apealing to more than 1 typer of person (not just a gamer) is what is key to sucess of this place

but that also means that the design (interior/exterior/name) all have to apeal to everyone

a name like KANES HOUSE OF PAIN... you wont see mom and dad in there for coffee during the day but if it is DAVEYS PASTRIES AND PC's you probly wont see many kids... this will take lots of effort and research before you even start to look for locations and stuff... create a detailed plan... dont leave anything out and cover every penny of what this will cost you and what you need to make in order to break even and start to earning a proffit

has this thred is gonna drive me nuts :) every 2 seconds i get a new idea or something

Create an Internet Cafe first that will apeal to a lot of people.... then have a "backroom" for the gaming LAN center... "battleground @ the Shop" or something like that...
 
aikjo2 said:
here are the specs I will be running -

# Processor: Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo
# Memory: Corsair XMS2 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800
# Motherboard: Asus P5N32-SLI Premium
# Video: nVidia 8800GTS 640MB video card.
# Audio: onboard
# Storage: 500GB SATA
# Optical: 18x dual layer DVD burner.
# Case: Black Cooler Master Mystique 632 ATX w/ side window.
# Power Supply: Cooler Maser Real Power 550W psu w/ SATA and dual GPU
Click to expand...
Paying for rigs like that per machine would be foolish. You don't need top-end components in your systems, especially if you only plan on offering certain games (what's the point of having a 500GB hard drive for a few games that would take up ~10GB at most?).
 
This is a subject I've talked many hours with friends about. In our town we've had 7 gaming centers ... all have gone under. One almost made it were it not for poor management. We came to the conclusion that what was special and separated it from the rest were the following:

ATMOSPHERE

It was an industrial-type setting, almost gritty. Dark inside with some glowing neon in certain areas and high ceilings. People can game anywhere but they come to a gaming center for the social aspects & atmosphere.

LOCATION

It was in an industrial area, away from crowded strip centers. Plenty of parking as their clientele came late, well after the day crowd in other businesses left. Industrial buildings tend to have upgraded electrical also. The location also didn't piss off their neighbors ... or the scrutiny of cops and stigma that's attached to anything 'gaming' like a billiard or poolhall place.

WELL MANAGED WEB SITE

It was always up, had an active forum, and most importantly HAD A LIVE WEB CAM. Seeing people gaming away was an instant invitation to come on down. Photo galleries of previous tournaments were kept.

PART/ACCESSORIES

They sold power supplies, vid cards, games, etc. What not a better place to get something late when everyone else is closed. Every computer they had was for sale, all dressed up with side acrylic windows and customized interior case lighting. The 'wow factor' resulted in so many sales (at a profit I might add) they had a hard time keeping computers in stock.

BYOC

Some gamers refuse to play on anything other than their own pc. They charged a $1/hr less and reserved approx 25% of total space. When in came to tournaments with prizes they had alot more that brought their own pc's. When money is on the line they go with what they know best.

GAMES

Mostly first person shooters as they lend itself best to this environment. They had a couple guys tho who turned out to be C&C Generals national champs and used the facility constantly during the cyberathlete league competitions.

OPEN HOUSES

They had a few free nights, especially over the holidays. One that came to mind was their New Years special. Free for everyone, even provided burgers/hot dogs out back. The cost made up more than ever by the PR they got outta that one.

BIRTHDAY PARTIES

What better way to get a group in at once? On my 12 yr old's birthday he and 7 of his buddies gamed away for a few hours. Of course the moms were told it wasn't going to be too violent :)

These are just some observations. Good luck!
 
Very good word of mouth. When I was running a game center back in the 98-01 era most gamers didnt read the paper and radio and tv was too expensive. Get a kid at local high school or college to pass out some flyer's for free game time.

Game cards. Offer like 100 hours for a certain lower price per hour than standard, always a big seller.

Atmosphere, can say that word enough.

Low number of employees is always good. Pay too many people, you wont make much of a profit.

Buy candy and soda in bulk then sell for cheaper than a local gas station, makes a pretty decent profit sometimes.

Game rooms, have like 2 rooms you can close off that have 4 computers in them apiece, very nice for 4 on 4 tourneys so teams can communicate and the other team cant hear them.

Try to encourage a LAN environment, inet is good for mmo's and occasional pickup game when not too many people are around and too many people have broadband. Not too many people can have a LAN with 8 friends any night of the week.

Defiantly make and sell some of your own computer, very good profit.

I had it easy back in the day. We never paid license fees and such. Companies didnt really enforce stuff since we were selling time "in game" we were selling time on our computers, heh.

To prove that a game center can survive with the right attitude, you can look at my old friends gaming center, still in bussiness since 1997. Impact Gaming Cener God, I remember playing Quake endlessly back then.
 
keep em rolling.

more notes...

- iGames, wow, you are a hero!

- updated the list at top

- working with family friend / golfing buddy / entrepreneur who started his own business and is now worth 300 million to work out a business plan. I am sure it will be fine on that front.

You guys rock, please keep posting. Think, if you were to have a lan center what would you do with it? you guys rock. hardforums just got 2nd on the list of number of posts, and 1st for quality (its a tie though)! keep it coming!
 
Thats good to have someone who knows how to create a good buisness plan... cause that will be key

research... that person listed that site and said its been in buisness for 10 years now... call them try and talk to the owner im sure he will be more that willing to give his knowledge to you... i mean your not buidling one 2 blocks away so its not hurting his buisness... its just adding to the buisness that i wish we could see more of

i have my own rig that is decent enought to play pretty much all games i throw at it... but if i had a lan center or cafe or whatever you wanna call it... im sure i would visit it often because of the atmosphere.... actually being able to talk to the people you play with...

apealing the widest audiance also... Thats why i personally like the idea i had... i dont know you area where you live so i dont know the average age-group and stuff around there... but a "cafe" type place... with a few non-gaming machines for the local mom and dad to email photos to there friends or maybe even learn how to use a computer... i know plenty of older people that dont have computer because they dont know what to do on them... a small socal atmosphere... like a startbucks or a panera bread type place... but also have it as a Lan center as well... in a walled off section... could be a 1/2 wall divider type thing... ill sketch up something (im not a great artist) but a "layout" idea.... well i will once i get my machine back up (installing vista...got a hand full of stuff i gotta install)

thats also maximizing profit as well... probly a smaller amount due to the extra running costs of few more business hours....

there has been a lot of good ideas.... create a list of the key ideas that have been given in these posts (and you other forums which are btw? pm me with them i always enjoy reading forums)
 
inline with creating a good atmosphere ..make sure that whom ever is running things at any given time , that they are people persons ... able to develop a repoire (sp?) with customers , good with names , knowledgeable with everything that you are offering so they can be helpful when a game causes one of your comps to lock up or be able to possibly answer computer related questions or give advice on latest hardware (of which I'm sure that will come up) or just shoot the poop with whomever regardless of age or people type .. (all without being intrusive of course).. kinda like a bartender you see on those tv shows or in movies (the good friendly kind ..lol) .

..also , stick to your guns with policy/rules for your establishment . Most people like structure and order so they can come to your establishment knowing what to expect and know that you dont tolerate riff raff ..

[F]old|[H]ard
 
Pay the fee that IGames wants to get great deals on game licences and more information than you thought possible.
 
I recommend near a university. Colleges tend to have gaming clubs anyway, and what better way to game than to play at a LAN center instead of having members bring computers to a campus room? You might also offer gaming clubs memberships at a discount, like say if they game weekly or monthly. Plus, flyers posted on campus would be cheap and effective advertising. You could also try to sponser something on campus, hold contests, etc., and maybe advertise in the campus email (my school had a daily events and news email sent to everyone with a school email address).
 
University housing already has a LAN set up (I am sure most would), so you don't need to go to a gaming center or bring your pc into someones room, though coffee houses are very popular near college campuses so your day business would be good.
 
If you have enough money and want to invest it properly, let me suggest to you a market research firm to do some analysis for you.
 
I wouldnt go with the 8800 for gfx right now. The games people are going to play are not going to need it. Your big draws will probably be Counterstrike and DotA, both of which won't see a benefit from an 8800 over a 1900
 
Let me just say that as a college student with a pretty decent rig (FX55 and 7900GS) I would still go to one if it existed nearby just to have fun for a couple hours. So just because you can game on your own pc, doesn't mean you will. Basically all of my friends dont really have good computers, they cant handle AoE3 (so we play AoE2 entirely too much). And I know those people would go with me to play the BF games that lag so much on their computers.

University housing already has a LAN set up (I am sure most would), so you don't need to go to a gaming center or bring your pc into someones room, though coffee houses are very popular near college campuses so your day business would be good.
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Not exactly true, at my college (ECU) and most others that I've been to, only 1 dorm is all on a lan, each has their own separate one, so if you have friends in a different dorm you try to game with you cant do a LAN game. But if you do TCP/IP you're fine since most colleges have extremely fast connections.

Also, not everyone in college lives in the dorms, I dont anymore and my internet connection here is terrible, which is why I rarely play internet games, they just lag way too much. CS(not Source) is practically unplayable. Another reason I would go to a LAN center
 
Location:

in my city there are multiple colleges. Tulane, Loyola, Xavier, UNO...
I found a place on main road, smack between 3 of them. BOOYAH!

keep up the comments.

especially the ones "how to have the right atmosphere" and "i have some experience in this area" ones. hardforum is now tied for first with no. of posts, and 1st in content

8800 gts justification - i found a good deal on some 640mb models by bfg, asus, or pny (like a large quantity discount on either of them, leaning towards asus), and I will not have upgrade issues later on down the road (the only other lan center in the metropolitan area just upgraded to 7900's) also planning on having a crysis tournament to showcase the product, and to get interest, since it is being touted as a killer app
 
Loyola?? Chicago?? where in chicago? i'm in the south suburbs not even 20 miles away!
 
ive done some research and actually helped a friend launch his very own lan center with my input.

Key things:
*make sure you use smartlaunch, I HIGHLY recommend getting it. http://www.smartlaunch.net for more info

*KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!
If i were you i would host a series of lan parties, big lan parties in a rented warehouse before you open your doors. Get to know the people that live around the area where you want to be opening your lan center. Befriend the local high school kids who goto your lans, establish trust with them and they will spread the word for you. High school kids also know their area better than you, they have GREAT ideas, they are passionate, and they're willing to work hard for minimum wage especially if its a cool working environment. When my buddy opened his lan center, he got some high school kid to design his website, trouble shoot his computers, help set up the network in exchange for minimum wage pay and free play whenever he was off.

*THE ASIAN FACTOR
Try and open a place where theres a relatively large amount of asian population. Pc gaming, lanning, is very big in Korean and Chinese culture. I know a place that only caters to koreans around here and they crap for computers, but they're always busy.

ADVERTISE!!
One of the best ways to spread the word about your place is the local rock station,
buy some time at a local station. It's not terribly expensive, and you get the word out to a bigger audience than just grassroots marketing.

*ATMOSPHERE
The best places are the ones that have good atmosphere, clean, and most of all a social environment. Hire a cute girl in the front, someone personable and slightly nerdy. Remember your customers are males ;).

CUT COSTS WHERE YOU CAN!!!
I think someone else mention it, but i just like to re-emphasize... you dont need 500 gig harddrives. It is however important your establishment has cutting edge tech, but its not the end all or be all. Get sponsors! Establish business relationships!! My friend partnered with the local dominoes, and also a internet vendor who had a location near his place. He got gear and pizza cheap, and sold pre built computers with parts bought from the vendor.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME!!
Many places sell games, computer gear, tech support, coffee, candy and snacks, because income from gaming itself just wont be enough. There is a place near where i live which makes BANK selling bubble tea and fruit smoothies to thirsty gamers.

I'm not going to lie, you have to be able to sweat and bleed for your business. If you dont have any small business experience I recommend getting someone else who shares the same dream as you, as your business partner. But with more business experience. 100 hour work weeks are gonna be the norm. Loads of start up problems, tech problems will hit you hard in the beginning, even if you weather the storm, theres no guarentee you're still gonna be around in 2 years.

All i gotta say is you gotta love it to go all the way with it.
 
sMiLeYz said:
I'm not going to lie, you have to be able to sweat and bleed for your business. If you dont have any small business experience I recommend getting someone else who shares the same dream as you, as your business partner. But with more business experience. 100 hour work weeks are gonna be the norm. Loads of start up problems, tech problems will hit you hard in the beginning, even if you weather the storm, theres no guarentee you're still gonna be around in 2 years.

All i gotta say is you gotta love it to go all the way with it.
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this is the truth, if you haven't ever run a business before I think you'll need as much help as you can get because I see lan centers around here last maybe 6 months tops because they are run poorly on at least one level or another.
 
Between colleges? If you are in walking distance from both, you will be very well off if you do this right.

First off, you need to drop the specs on the systems some. I like the idea of selling the systems to customers, so make each unique.

You need to remember that no game that you will have everyone there playing will need an 8800GTS unless it is in high-res, and you probably should have everyone at a default res of 1280x1024. No one really needs more. FPS whores that are good will be turning the res down anyways. You may want to wait on the 8600GTS and go with it instead.

The e6600 is overkill, and the added L2 doesn't show too much improvement. With the RAM you plan on getting, get an e6300 and overclock it past the speed of the e6600. You can buy cheap, but good (Scythe Ninja, Arctic Cooling Freezer, etc) aircooling heatsinks and sell the systems, advertising that they come pre-overclocked for maximum pwnage. Noobs everywhere will want them :p

You don't need a raptor either, get a Deathstar or a Spinpoint. I think most of your money will come from selling systems and food, most LAN centers keep rates low enough to pay the rent and try to get profits from parties and food. So advertise that people can have b-day parties and LAN parties there.

You might want to get 1Gb of RAM for now too. 2Gb isn't quite needed yet.


On to the center itself. Cleanliness is NECESSARY. Or at least to me. I hate playing on greasy keyboards with sticky mice. The majority of your job running the center will become being janitor, trust me. To make the job easier, also get two HUGE trash cans (like the ones janitors use at schools) and place them conveniently so that people throw out their trash.

Layout is also critical. Make a layout that does not allow people to "ghost" off one another in FPS games. I recommend having a setup where there are tables lining the outer walls, so that gamers face them. Then, have "islands" of circular tables with 4-8 computers stationed on them. People who play WoW love the circular tables, and they are great to organize teams for competitions.

Atmosphere is important, as people have said. It should be dark, but not DARK. Use of blue tube lighting with black walls and grey carpet, along with mostly black and silver computers looks pimp as hell. UV is always good too, but don't overdo it. Make the entrance inviting though. About the entrance-- you probably want to set up two counters, one as a "control station" for the servers and monitoring all the computers, and the other for food and controlling admission. You should be able to run the entire place with only two people there at one time, three at most, unless you have more than 30 computers. Since it will be dark, get two bright table lamps and put them on the counters so that customers can go there if they need light.

Oh yea, one more thing. Rolling chairs rock. Don't go with normal chairs. Try to make the floor carpet too. If it is tile, it will get dusty and nasty really fast and will require much more maintenance than tile.

Also, be weary of your customers. I stopped going to LANs with some kids in my neighborhood because they would steal components and peripherals from the computers. Keep cameras on everywhere, as both a deterrent (I really like the online livecam thing too), and so that you can catch the little bastards.

There is so much more I could think of, it would be so fun to build one of these places. Good luck. :)
 
Well, if he overclocks its going to create ALOT of heat which means he's going to be heating his place even though in the summe its already SUPER HOT and STICKY. I Strongly Suggest AGAINST going with the lower CPUs. Also, since you are within the proximity of all 3 colleges i would print out 100's of flyers and post them all over the place when you open advertising your grand opening event/tournaments.:D
 
synaps3 said:
Between colleges? If you are in walking distance from both, you will be very well off if you do this right.

First off, you need to drop the specs on the systems some. I like the idea of selling the systems to customers, so make each unique.

You need to remember that no game that you will have everyone there playing will need an 8800GTS unless it is in high-res, and you probably should have everyone at a default res of 1280x1024. No one really needs more. FPS whores that are good will be turning the res down anyways. You may want to wait on the 8600GTS and go with it instead.

The e6600 is overkill, and the added L2 doesn't show too much improvement. With the RAM you plan on getting, get an e6300 and overclock it past the speed of the e6600. You can buy cheap, but good (Scythe Ninja, Arctic Cooling Freezer, etc) aircooling heatsinks and sell the systems, advertising that they come pre-overclocked for maximum pwnage. Noobs everywhere will want them :p

You don't need a raptor either, get a Deathstar or a Spinpoint. I think most of your money will come from selling systems and food, most LAN centers keep rates low enough to pay the rent and try to get profits from parties and food. So advertise that people can have b-day parties and LAN parties there.

You might want to get 1Gb of RAM for now too. 2Gb isn't quite needed yet.


On to the center itself. Cleanliness is NECESSARY. Or at least to me. I hate playing on greasy keyboards with sticky mice. The majority of your job running the center will become being janitor, trust me. To make the job easier, also get two HUGE trash cans (like the ones janitors use at schools) and place them conveniently so that people throw out their trash.

Layout is also critical. Make a layout that does not allow people to "ghost" off one another in FPS games. I recommend having a setup where there are tables lining the outer walls, so that gamers face them. Then, have "islands" of circular tables with 4-8 computers stationed on them. People who play WoW love the circular tables, and they are great to organize teams for competitions.

Atmosphere is important, as people have said. It should be dark, but not DARK. Use of blue tube lighting with black walls and grey carpet, along with mostly black and silver computers looks pimp as hell. UV is always good too, but don't overdo it. Make the entrance inviting though. About the entrance-- you probably want to set up two counters, one as a "control station" for the servers and monitoring all the computers, and the other for food and controlling admission. You should be able to run the entire place with only two people there at one time, three at most, unless you have more than 30 computers. Since it will be dark, get two bright table lamps and put them on the counters so that customers can go there if they need light.

Oh yea, one more thing. Rolling chairs rock. Don't go with normal chairs. Try to make the floor carpet too. If it is tile, it will get dusty and nasty really fast and will require much more maintenance than tile.

Also, be weary of your customers. I stopped going to LANs with some kids in my neighborhood because they would steal components and peripherals from the computers. Keep cameras on everywhere, as both a deterrent (I really like the online livecam thing too), and so that you can catch the little bastards.

There is so much more I could think of, it would be so fun to build one of these places. Good luck. :)
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He's building this LAN center to be future ready for all DX10 games unlike the competition.... thats why hes going 2GB/8800GTS. Oh and you might want to look into a steamcafe account... you get like 10 games for one low price per each computer, but i dont remember how much it costs to liscence each computer.
 
be sure to password protect bios' and setup limited user accounts from which your clients will play from .. :p

use optical mice of course ..and look into open source type programs for things like typing programs (openoffice.org) or other "peripheral" type things that your lan boxes might be used for other than just gaming ..

..does one have to pay extra to setup up consoles in a lan environment ..like say 8 or so x360's...?

the idea of a cute nerdy girl at the front desk would be a nice touch .. your pimplie faced twelve year old clientelle would certainly sore with that .. :cool:

get a deal with whatever cool radio station(s) there to play their station exsclusively all the time or during certain time segments thru out the day in exchange for free advertisement or something like that ..

use a busy floral or similar pattern for your carpet on the floor which will keep eyes looking up at your computers and whatever you might have on the shelves instead of looking down .. that's what they do in casino's and the like .. or maybe check out some popular local clubs and see what they got going ..tone down a few notches or so and that might give you some ideas for your own place.

make the place wheel chair accessable or at least in part ,to cater to wheelchair bound individuals ..

don't just be another business ..but be proactive in your community.. maybe talk with the colleges and see about getting volunteers that would be interested in getting involved in kids in that areas lives ...and use your establishment as a spring board for that ..

..or see what youth programs are currently going on and give them free access or huge discount one night a week/month ..whatever ...stuff like that makes for good PR

if your in New Orleans ..try and get Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to stand outside your place with all their kids handing out flyers .. :D


 
LOL.

Does anyone here have experience with licensing games? How does that work?

I am havign a problem with finding space as well; the zoning board is a fubar as anything else down here. I called them and they told me the zone and then when asked about what that meant replied:

"You need to call enforcement to find that out. We are just zoning, we can tell you what zone a property is and help you change the zoning, but we are not able to tell you what the zoning codes mean."

Nice job.

wow.
 
All of this sounds really exciting. Hopefully, OP, this works out great for you! Seems like you have a few people here that know what they're talking about!

Makes me wish I had such a place where I live (west-central Wisconsin) :(
 
l3ender said:
All of this sounds really exciting. Hopefully, OP, this works out great for you! Seems like you have a few people here that know what they're talking about!

Makes me wish I had such a place where I live (west-central Wisconsin) :(
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[threadjack]
born and bread in Madison until I turned 19 and moved to Montana .. no lan centers here in this little hick town either , but there is one 100miles away in Missoula (college town like Madison but not near as big)
[/threadjack]

:)

 
Good luck with this. If you can stick with it, and if you have a strong clientele, then yes, there is good money to be made doing this, but be prepared for many long work weeks, and many headaches.

You already know of the old adage, that "it takes money to make money." Get the word out that your place is in existence. Ask the local radio stations about advertising. Ask your local newspapers (and yes, even school newspapers) about advertising. You may find that a high school newspaper is quite willing to sell you advertising space at a cheap price, and you'll get good exposure from its students.

Once in a while, hold tournaments, special events, etc. Have some decent prizes for the tournaments, and keep your tournament participants well-fed. You can easily work out some sort of deal with your local Domino's or Papa John's pizza parlors to get you a bulk order, at a cheap price.

Not only will people be enjoying the gaming, but they'll also remember you for being a terriffic host, and they'll be back.

Be a friend to your customers. You're going to some kids in your place that probably have rotten excuses for parents, if they even have a full set of parents. While it's not your job to be their father, at least you can be a good role model to them. Sometimes, it just takes a few helpful people in someone's life to make that much of a difference.

Adopt a "have fun, but no excessive nonsense" policy for your place, by being firm, but fair. While an occasional curse word here and there uttered by a frustrated player (hey, we've ALL been there before) won't hurt someone, your clientele will probably not be too happy if there's some kid (or adult) constantly howling at his computer, screaming curse words, cheat accusations, etc.

Adopt a more strict curfew for the young folks. The last thing you want to face are irate parents who think that you are taking advantage of their pre-teen and younger teenage kids.





In terms of hardware, you want maximum stability. As long as your systems can play the latest games with aggressive settings, and do so reliably, then nobody's going to care whether or not you squeezed out that last 3-5% of extra performance.

I know that many people are probably going to yell "Burn the Heretic" for my saying this, but overclocking is something you don't want to do with your rigs, if you're running a LAN center.

Hardware can, and will break down, and repairs will need to be made, no matter how good of components you selected in the first place.

At least you can minimize hardware breakdowns, though, since each computer that isn't available and running = lost money for every hour not there. Keep your systems relatively standardized, and keep spare components on hand, just in case. Power supplies and motherboards are often times the first to die.



aikjo2 said:
# Optical: 18x dual layer DVD burner.
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Probably not necessary? You can save yourself some $$$ by going with DVD-ROM drives, since your customers are probably not going to use your systems for burning CD's / DVD's.

Even if they are, you don't want them doing anything unlawful on your computers. Even though you're not really responsible for their actions, there's always someone who wants to blame the ice cream companies for making their beloved Rosie O'Donnell morbidly obese. Really!




The most important thing, though, is that you will always be looking for new customers. People grow older, move away, lose interest in gaming, pass away, etc., and if you only focus on retaining your current customers, then your place will be dying a slow death of its own. It's up to you to constantly be bringing in new blood, which is why you can never rest on your advertising laurels for very long.
 
I too was interested in starting a LAN center and did a lot of research on it in the past. I was a tech advisor for a friend on it. I may have over engineered it, but in the end I found a lot of software that is available for that particular market. If you would like I might still have a copy of my spreadsheet that I had prices and what not.

If you would like a copy shoot me an email at axeldoomeyer [at] sbcglobal [dot] net.

It is pretty recent. I think it was around the Nov Dec time frame that I was doing the research.

-Axel
 
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