advice

[andyswork@beci.net]

I am putting together a gaming room, and plan on having Lan Parties.
Need help on pricing. I am thinking of setting up a small space for internet use, like checking e mail and surfing the Net.
I have no idea on what to charge. Membership fees for a month, or hourly rates?
Any other suggestions would help.

[Jiggy]

Hi Andy,

Theres a Lan place down the road from me and they charge (gaming) £20.00 membership a year wich includes 3 free hours (taken to suit you) and a £1.00 off the hourley rate (£4.00, with membership £3.00 per hour).
And it always good when the owner lets you stay past closing time if lots of people there.

As for games you will need a copy of each for every puter (mainly for online games) and all the updates, patches, map packs.

Games list.

Half Life.
Counter Strike (half life online add on).
Quake, Quake arena.
Unreal
Unreal touriment 03.
Day of defeat.

Ask your customers what they would like to play, then get it, also get some headphones with mics.

[andyswork@beci.net]

Jiggy, thanks. But I am a redneck, can you change that to US Dollars, please. E Mail me all the details.
Jiggy, I have been talking to you for over 2 years, I think you are grown up now, and not young. Keep up the good work.

[Jiggy]

Ok.

Im 30 on the 20Aug, but dont tell anyone, ssshhhh.

[saphalline]

The current conversion is 1.60089 USD per UK pound, so Jiggy's amounts are (approximate):

Membership = $32.02
Hourly rate w/o membership = $6.40
Hourly rate w/ membership = $4.80

So, for the US, charge $32 per year, $6.50 per hour, and $5 per hour with membership. That doesn't sound too bad, but personally I'd rather pay more for the yearly membership and less for the hourly rate. More like $60-100 per year and $2-3 per hour, and keep the $6-6.50 hourly figure for non-members. That will help with start-up costs because the large gap in member/non-member hourly rate will convince most customers to fork over the membership fee right away. ;)

Another idea is to charge different hourly rates for gaming vs plain internet use, because the hardware costs vastly different amounts for these! :p Any 100MHz junk computer with a network card can surf the net, but gaming requires heavy-duty processors & graphics cards. Maybe only charge 50 cents per hour for members and $3 for non-members. Just a thought...

I also agree that you should ask your customers what games they want, but you can't go wrong with the Half-Life add-ons! These games are built on a 5-year-old game and are still going strong! UT 2003 is a good choice, and of course the current favorite Battlefield 1942 online game (and expansion) should be included. The headphones & mic are an excellent idea, one not to be ignored. Those should be first on the list!!

Beyond the pricing, games, and organization, have you given much thought to the hardware? Where are you getting the computers? How many? Who's setting this up? Do you have a big pipe at this building? Is it at least rated at 1 megabit per second?

[andyswork@beci.net]

My computer shop is next door. I have built 2 high end gaming machines. I am putting in Starband for connection.
To avoind some promblems ask them to bring their own computers and network them to a group of friends and play.
Thinking about going wireless network.
I and my tech will be setting em up.
You guys gave me some great ideas.
Virus might be a problem.

This old man needs all the help he can get.




Many Thanks.

[tweeky]

I would stick with the higher prices in the beginning and adjust them depending on the popularity and the total running cost. You definitely don't want your prices too low in the beginning, £40 to £50 membership sounds fair. Also check the prices for game rooms in a 10 to 20 mile radius around you. After seeing their prices you should choose the prices that would be competitive and would not end up with you making a loss. You could also run a special offer like if a member gets a friend to join the member gets three free hours.

Also one thing I would like to know is have you thought about special software licenses, the reason I am asking is that most games state that you cannot use them for commercial reasons like game rooms. These licenses increase the cost of the games and in some cases you will need to buy multiple games. To my knowledge there are four types of licenses available.

I am very interested in your response.

[andyswork@beci.net]

I am about ten minutes from an army base.
Age group of 18 to 25 single soldiers.
No gaming room around for 50 or 60 miles, but we do have more then 1 stop light.
I am legal in my shop and will be legal in all ways in this gaming room.
That is one reason I was thinking of them bringing their own computers, I will furnish the monitors, and nic cables and network.
Your ideas are great.
I will rent the rooms out for a weekend to a group of 10 to 15.
I am planing on having a high score and a prize each month for each game, and of course a 5% discount at my shop and store.
I plan on stocking high end vidio cards, boards, cpus, and ram.
The snacks and cokes they will buy from me.
Most of my games will be played between 2 or more players with thier own computers networked together. Braging rights here on the fastest system, and more upgrades for me.
Some will be played over the internet.
This old redneck will take all the help he can get, I do listen to new ideas.

[tweeky]

Did you say that the customers would bring their own computers :confused:. I don't think that would be good for business. You should check with a lawyer as to what licences you would need. You should more than likely need at least one general user licence per game.

Also if you thought that the customers bringing in their own computers would get you around the licences i'm afraid that you are more than likely wrong. You should check with a lawyer who has had some experience in the computer/gaming industry. I do not known US law on gaming but I do know that a lot of games companys do say in their licence agreement that their games are not allowed to be used in gaming rooms (read the games licence very carefully). That is why there is a special licence. Every game comes with a licence, the licence is usally a single user licence or a non commercial licence.

[Dangerous]

Hi Andy,

I like the idea of games rooms. The problem is I'm just not sure how they'd make any money. Your idea of using it to springboard people into your shop is a good one though!
I have seen several games rooms start up and fail (in my area, SE England) in the past 5 years. Perhaps the start-up and running costs are just too high.

Although, maybe now that broadband is readily available and cheap things will change, you'd be able to offer better speeds and it wouldn't cost you too much. Of course you still have to keep up with technology and games, and as people were pointing out, the commercial licences can be a killer.

I was wondering if the idea of people bringing their own systems would work... you'd have to install the software and join them to the network, etc. They may have different versions of windows etc. If they are really hardcore and have great kit, I'd imagine they already have a group of friends that get together!
Viruses from the web wouldn't be too much trouble as you could get a firewall between the router and the network, but of course if people are bringing their own PC's then they may have all sorts of nastiness!

Have you had any thoughts about any of these issues, I'm interested to hear :)

Dave

I often think that if I came into ALOT of money I'd link 16 or so HIGH spec machines together and offer free gaming / web access in my area!

[Abbadon]

hmmm, bringing their own pc's? Sounds like a normal LAN-party to me (which is no bad thing :) ) and of course: it can be an advantage for the gamers as well: personaly I'd prefer my own system if possible 'cause all the game settings etc are the way I like them. Why not set up a few pc in network and provide the possibility for people to bring their own machines as well? That way, you have both! Hooking brought-in machines up to the network shouldn't be harder than on any given LAN so that should be all right.

Of course: if and when they bring their own machine, make sure it is clear that you carry no responsibility yourself should they become damaged in a power outage or beverage-spilling or whatever.

The games you're offering are indeed a good selection, but they're all FPS's, so I'd include some RTS in there as well. C&C Generals is a sure bet in this department and around here, Rise Of Nations is pretty popular as well (don't know in the States).

Once the gamesroom is up and running there's plenty of possibilities to make it special! Gaming competitions are the first thing that come to mind, but why not organize a casemod award, an overclock award, (these two wouldn't hurt the shop either ;) ) birthday-members get a free day of playing,... ,...

I don't know what prices are for such things here in Belgium but the numbers mentioned seem like some I would pay without much need to think it over.

Also: be sure to let game companies (and hardware-manufacturers) know what you're doing, I'm sure some will be interested to give you a hand (or discounts) in return for some advertisement in the game room (which gives you some decoration right there :) )

Just some thoughts of mine... It's a cool idea, wish you the best of luck!

[Whyzman]

personaly I'd prefer my own system if possible 'cause all the game settings etc are the way I like themAbbadon brings up a good point!

There are boxes out there now-a-days designed for the portability surrounding the LAN concept. This might lend itself to selling some systems that the folks will be using to also pay hourly...

http://www.thetechzone.com/display.php?i=22&p=1