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So, I do not have any idea where to post this without getting flamed, so I figured I would attempt to post it here in the Blog section =).
So, I live in Southern California (Orange County-Inland Empire area), and I am in the process of planning a lan center. My plan is a lan center with 32 computers all capable of running SC:2 on low settings without any lag, and good FPS.
Also in my Lan center there will be 2 Professional style "booths" like those used in the GSL and at other major SC:2 tournaments.
The plan is to host weekly or bi-weekly cash-prize tournaments in-house on the weekends, as well as hosting weekly cash-prize on-line tournaments during the week.
The two Professional style booths would also each have tv screens on the front of the booth with the player's point of view, and One big-screen 50+ inch. TV that would be controlled by a caster, who will be doing commentary during the matches.
This would give everyone who plays SC:2 a chance to feel what it's like to compete in a major SC:2 tournament. The plan is also to host major players like members of Liquid or EG, and we could have cash-prize show matches.
Would people in Southern california be interested in such a place? Or is there not enough of a demand for a place like this for it to remain open ?
 
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nooooo if only you had thought of this 2 years ago (and blizzard had released sc2 2 years earlier) before i moved from LA to michigannnnn
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I don't live in California, but I think you'd be limiting your customer base by the fact that you're focusing on running SC:2 on low. I doubt you'd be able to make a profit only offering SC2 on low graphics, as compared to getting decked out rigs which play most games on high and offering a wide variety of games to bring in customers.
edit: I think if you expanded your games and upgraded the rigs you'd be able to see better profits while also being able to follow up on your SC2-centered plans.
Whenever I go to pc cafes in Calgary, the prices are always kinda silly and 80% of the people play WoW by themselves. ~_~
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I live around that area and I would love a place like this. Unfortunately I'm really unsure how the demand is for LAN centers in the area.
I was in the Redlands area before I went to college and their was a pretty awesome LAN center called Toad's. They had xbox 360's and PC's and it would be moderately filled when I went, but I heard it closed down recently and that made my sadface =(. I know opening something like that would be expensive, and especially since SC2 is LAN deficient that also adds to more of a challenge.
Most people I know would always wonder why we would consider going to a LAN center when we could just play at home, so you should also consider that. I'm not a LAN center expert but all the ones that popped up in my area appeared to do decently well but still went away =( Also the prices were pretty high too.
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Well i would offer other games/tournaments also such as:
HoN, LoL, Wc3:FT,MW, BC2, WoW(obviously...any lan center without this would be FAIL!...12+ million subscribers??), and other popular computer games.
The computers would be $800 rigs that COULD run the game on med-high for stuff like the campaign, but for tourneys would be on low always.
also i figure if i open close enough to LA, i could get Day9 to do visits/casting occasionally (paid for ofcourse)
Also the rate would be around 4$ an hour.
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Profiting from this is pretty hard outside of Korea imo. It costs way too much money to get 32 gaming computers(with decent specs for newer games), all the monitors, a building, a few workers, etc. Not to mention since it is a legal buisness, you have to actually pay for games on all of your computers. There are a ton of games you HAVE to buy as a lan center(counter strike, left4dead2, tf2, starcraft 2, warcraft 3, etc. all the popular ones). It adds up.
As far as rates go, you pretty much have to charge $2-3 an hour(3 is pushing it imo), and give good deals for people that stay longer. It is going to take a VERY long time to begin to profit.
There is a really nice lan center in my home neighborhood called netfragz that is open 24/7, has good spec computers (i5's + gtx 460's on everything), with big 1920x1080 monitors. They charged $3 an hour or $10 for 4 hours, and gave the option of a $24 for 24 hour all day pass. Just by doing a really fast calculation, their rigs+monitors+games(they had ALOT) alone would have been at least $50,000. That means they had to sell about 17,000 full price hours just to break even from there.
But if you can get a loyal fan base and keep the place packed all the time(netfragz is always busy and always open), I can see it doing potentially well.
Of course to cut costs on games you would just need maybe 16 active steam accounts and maybe 10 SC2 accounts(for the people that don't have their own), and get the software that automatically logs in for people that request it. It's a really cool software that most internet cafes use, can't remember the name of it though. Then split up sections that contain different types of games, etc. But holy shit games do cost a lot of money =P
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ya I am going to be visiting Netfragz this week to check em out. They are like 20 miles away from me, but im looking for to start mine in a place near irvine/fullerton or somewhere in LA.
Also like i stated the plan is to host Major recognized players from SC2 pro foreigner scene.
It would be run mostly by myself, and a couple of friends/my brother whenever I was not around.
Right now the big cost = the lease... sometimes living in SoCal makes things rough!
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I thought there were already a lot of LAN centers in SoCal. Besides, it really takes away from the experience if you're playing on low setting. I would say that if you do it the way you have proposed here, it won't last very long for many obvious reasons... You should think about it a bit more carefully from both a business perspective and a customer perspective.
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I always thought the main competitor with LAN centers were the fact that it's not uncommon for most everyone to have a computer that can run the games they want to play these days. At least in California, from what I've seen.
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I think people are confusing my "running Sc2 on low settings" with "im going to be using cheap PoS computers that can only run it on low".
im still going with $800+ rigs with i5 processors and ATI 5770's.so this will run it on medium-high. i just wanted people to know that the rigs will be capable of running the games on low FLAWLESSLY.
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I have an i5750 and ati 5850 and I run scII on ultra on a 24 inch monitor
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On October 13 2010 14:21 mnofstl007 wrote:
I think people are confusing my "running Sc2 on low settings" with "im going to be using cheap PoS computers that can only run it on low".
im still going with $800+ rigs with i5 processors and ATI 5770's.so this will run it on medium-high. i just wanted people to know that the rigs will be capable of running the games on low FLAWLESSLY.
6850's/6870's are replacing the 57xx series and coming out this month, look into those =D! Should be priced well. The 5770 is pretty weak for high res monitors and slightly more demanding games.
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Where about do you live at? I go to the Claremont Colleges!
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Can i recommend you go drive around to all the lan centers you can in the LA area? I go to a lan center in Arcadia called Dreamlab to play street fighter occasionally.. From what i can see that place makes money by trying to keep the place lively so its more like a hangout for late teens and 20-somethings than anything else. They have console setups with comfy chairs and people go in groups to play LOL, SC2 and HON together in person. Im sure much of their actual profit comes from people buying drinks like most of those types of places, also during the day i would imagine a lot of people come in there who are on the road and need to use a computer for IM, email and internet.
Its definitely not a glamorous thing at all. I would think more about how you could make a place that is profitable instead of how you can make it a good hotspot for SC players(Who btw dont care and most likely will only come out to your establishment for tournaments)
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If you do get a SC focus lan up, you would need to have a weekly tournament to get people to come regularly. Talk to various computer companies about doing a small business deal on 32 computer with some amount of performance (like dell) or talk to places about getting the components in bulk to reduce your price and build them all yourself. I don't know if you have ever worked small business but be ready to spend 16+ hours a day 7 days a week on the place for the first couple years.
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Unfortunately, I think it would go bankrupt in no time at all. People are already playing for free at home. I've seen to many internet gaming places go bust.
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LAN Centers definitely take a long time to see actual profits unless you have a jam-packed store every night. You HAVE to have ultra rigged computers for people to even want to come to your LAN Center. Before you even try to start this venture, you should try to get a loyal fan base, so you can start well right off the bat(Do promos like.. grand opening weekend is completely free,half price Sundays, etc..). People don't want to go to empty Lan Centers, really no point. Also, like what other posters said, it will be insanely hard if you're basing your whole customer base on SC2 only. You're gonna need to load the computers all with the popular games that are out. Lastly, visit all the Lan centers in the area and research all the popular ones around the country/Korea... See what you can do to make yours more unique than others.. I really like the booth idea and maybe you can expand it somehow.
GL
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I have already contacted companies regarding partial sponshorship/bulk deals, i have gotten some no's and some maybe's but most all of them say they do reduced prices for bulk orders.
the plan is to build the computers, myself and a friend who does it for his other job.
Also i understand running a small business, my father and brother both work at business they started themselves and i have worked for both of them the entire time i was in high school and now while im at college.
I would have probably 2 xbox 360's and for computer games, i would def have more than just SC2.
Every MMO would be installed, every popular title, maybe not 32 copies of everything but i would have a bit of everything.
The plan is to host events to make it THE lan center that everyone who plays SC2 at a lan center, would like to play at. I would like to have gues appearances frequently from the likes of Day9 and any other professional player i could bribe into coming and hanging out.
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I would definantly come to these tournaments as much as I possibly could. There are so few LANs out here and it would be amazing if what your goal is happens. Because of this I would also maybe help out time to time if you needed it ^^. But great idea I would really love it if this comes together
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EPT
