LAN Gaming Shop in Warrnambool

HI, Folks dunno if this is an appropriate post for this forum but here goes anyway.

im throwing around the idea of setting up a 16-24 pc lan shop in the warrnambool area.

will have decent hardware ( amd 2gig XP's and 100 meg switches with giga uplinks )

was just wondering if i could get an expression of interest from you guys, who potentially could be my main clients.

firstly would you use such a service?
( maybe a discount program could be offered for users of this forum? )

i was thinking if charging somewhere in the range of 2-3$ per hour with discounts for large amounts of hours.

if people use the site would you be prepared to pay this much? ( or little )


also this place could be used for lanning events as the networking infrastructure will already be there, and it would be good advertising :)

thanks alot for your time in reading this

WiErD-

It's a great idea, but is it really viable? It's going to cost a fortune to set it all up, then pay for premises, advertising, etc... plus you've got to get all the computer / networking equipment.

Then, what hours do you open and work / how many people do you employ? Or do you rely on volunteers?

I can't see many people turning up during weekdays, as they'll be at school / work. Weekends are a different story. You'd probably get a full house then.

Next, would you offer Internet access as well? What kind of connection? If so, would you let people play online?

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I'm not trying to dissuade you from the idea here, I just hope that you have seriously thought out everything before you jump into it. Like I said at the start, it is a great idea, if you can make it work for you.

sounds like an internet cafe on steroids to tell the truth

I know i wouldnt go elsewhere to play games myself, but as a pre-configured small-lan venue it could be a hit.

but I agree that it would be hard to make viable - has a business plan been drawn up for such a thing, hate to see a store disappear like the great "Big E's" did

ay yes it was a tragity big E's dies, i played my first game of halflife there.... Anyway lan shop would be good but as beefy said you wouldnt get much business in the weekdays if you made it like weekend only and did somtin else with the store during the week to keep profits rollin in you could be ok. Id like the idea of sittin at home bored then realisin theres a 24 hr lan shop goin theres ben to many times when ive just wished there was a lan goin on the weekend for somthin to do

it would also be great to book it out for groups and stuff that wanna play something against each other and stuff like that. Perhaps if you ran a tech shop / computer classes and stuff on site as well, it might sustain itself.

yes well it will cost alot to setup this is why i need soem way to see if there is the amount of people required to pull it off,

i worked it out that i needed just over 13 hours per week to break even, on hardware wages, rental electric etc.

if its not used at all during the week and the weekend has all the pcs used for an average of 13 hours i make money on this.

alot of outlay for a guess though hence the expression of interest.

the other option is to buy the networking switches and hold a lan every weekend.. hehe i know many of you would have no problems with this ;)

as for internet, it would be offered using a dsl line to start with and expanded when need be.

online gameplay is another story, obvioulsy costing more per hour and because of telstras excellent broadband data rates its cheap as @!!

no sarcasm intended!

as for running something else during the week, i currently run a pc business from home ( hardware and the likes ) so i was thinking of stepping that up a level to a shop.

dunno about lanning every w/end, especially when i do have that incredibly cheap broadband internet with telstra - i can play online with near-to-low-enuff pings on game servers that the download doesnt count on...

now lets say the average gamer that attends a LAN-shop was to play for say 4 hours, thats $8 for that day, if they did that every w/end, thats $32 for the month, and given the amount of people that struggle to save up the cash to get in the door at my LANs every 6 months, i think that would way as an annoying expense.

maybe a simple "ready-hire LAN" is an option?

costs are the major concern tho, u got space rental, electricity, and then u got PCs, their maintenance - and of course you have to upgrade them regularly...

'tall sounds a little too much of a dent in the bank account..

edit: actually to catch more of a general market you would nearly want to start another big-E's style place, so, given its previous failure to maintain business, I would have to nay that idea

If you acted as an internet cafe during the week it might help cover costs. I worked in a computer shop for a few months and we always had tourists coming in asking for an internet cafe.

that's why I asked about internet access. You could just let people use the computers, not necessarily to play games, and charge them.

Also, if you are only running a DSL connection, then internet gaming is sort of out of the picture. Have you ever tried to run more than half a dozen computers or so on the one connection, playing the same game on the same server? If everyone wanted to play via the net at once, I'd hate to see what happened. Though I could be wrong, it's just another thing to take into account.

Like skullshot said, I doubt all the people with broadband at home would wanna fork out $2 an hour playing games somewhere else. Especially when you can get sucked into playing some games and not realise how much time flies. how would you go about charging people? how would you know if they were playin after their allocated time?

Personally, I don't quite think that the warrnambool community as a whole has enough people / interest for you to successfully pull it off. But if you opened a shop with general purpose, like a net cafe / tech shop / second hand sales maybe, you'd have more luck. I don't know what this Big E's place was, but from the sounds of it it suffered a similar fate.

Yeah, Big E's Entertainment when it initially opened was a boom, people realised this and another joint called 'Replay' opened up in the city centre

Big E's rented out games for consoles and PCs, some videos, as well as had consoles that u could pay by the hour to use, and several PCs to play games on, u could play any game off the shelf on any of these. there were also pool tables and pinball/arcade games, and it made for a great youth entertainment venue.

replay was purely Arcade stuff, and i spent a fortune there, people basically forgot about Big E's i think. It was huge in the days of quake 2 when they ran a Quake night every friday at Big E's.

Basically now u get what u used to get from Big E's by going to a video store, Jacks Games, or the Rollerbowl (they have arcade games etc.)

I agree with Beefy, there isnt enough support for specifically that, but if you diversify the purposes enough u might get away with it

maybe working out a better way of charging people to use the store rather then by the hour, and i agrre with sKs youll have to keep the computers upgraded regulary to keep up with new games constantly coming out requiring system with grater specs each time.
also another way to make more money of this idea is host competitions for games and clan games and maybe work a lader system. But over all i dont think a lan only shop would work you would deffinatly have to throw somthing else in to keep it going.

Another big E's is a good idea, and the reason the last one closed down was because rodney (the owner) got food posioning overseas so he had to close it and stick with his sercurity gaurd business from home

I've prolly got ya wrong or were you going to supply pc's coz liek that'd cost a crapload

on another note tho you could really easily get pinged with piracy charges if you didn't take that into account

otherwise i reckon its a great idea
but u could put the price up to like $5 or somefin coz its a pain carryin around coins and $5 there's no change from a note ;)
-smurf

I'd have to say that i aggree with Smurf on the piracy issue,
im sure that u had already taken that into consideration though.
but the whole idea sounds feasible.
have u thought about going into SEAL and asking about the NEISE program or what ever it is called they may be able to help out.

yeh sorry to say this but i don't reckon u'd get enuff customers to keep you going
its a good idea tho

Munch]
have u thought about going into SEAL and asking about the NEISE program or what ever it is called they may be able to help out.

A good point I think, it would certainly be worth looking into.

good advice regarding NEIS program New Enterprise Incentive Scheme However the best advice would be to ring The Executive Manager Business & Multimedia Warrnambool City Council
located at the Warrnambool Business Incubator at Fletcher Jones
tel 5561 7804

I would not dimiss the viability of the idea at this point a a samll amount of research will provide you with a good picture of th e potential viability of a venture such as that and may also allow for some other avenues for revenue generation to occur...

Hmm I think ppl would be surprised at the amout of kids an what they would pay for the pleasure of playing computer games.

$5 an hour would be a better price an running things like after school comps (ie: Quick quake3 comps an stuff with a small prize for the afternoons winner) an also a ladder comp. Be cool to have a local CS or DoD comp.

I looked into the same thing just after Big E's closed but never did much about it except a bit of reaserch.

What i did find was that people didn't think big E's was any good but went there because it was the only place like it. Jacks games did a better job at hiring out games an stuff so ppl flocked to him. Now he's got that huge store next to La porchettas an is making money.

PC's, Pool tables, some arcade machines an air hockey. Thats what is needed.

U would also wanna do things like have an internet cafe.

If U want some advice on it give me a yell ICQ:36529655