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Me and my cousin are planning on establishing an Internet/Gaming Cafe so I just want to ask you guys if ever you were our client what do you want to see for your money's worth?
and I'm planning to make the client side computers approach to clients a lil different rather than the basic click icons on desktop. I would like it more stylish and a lil futuristic. if you know some apps and stuffs to achieve this I would really appreciate that.
So bottom-line is I want to ask you guys:
**What type of games will I install?
**Do you know some apps that can make this kind of business more progressive?
**Do you know some apps for client side computers to be more stylish in design and better interactivity with the customers?
**If ever you had the chance on establishing your own Internet/Gaming Cafe what ideas do you have for it?
**Can you lend me some tips and tricks on this kind of business?
want to thank you guys in advance yo.
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never been to one before but if you want SC:BW might not want windows 7 because I heard theres a new internet cafe in town here that holds game tournaments every weekend but they can't have SC because they have Windows 7.
I think the whole tournament idea is pretty cool though. would definately have me going all the time if they had the games I played.
good luck and I hope you're really successful with this.
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one tip: make damn sure that whatever system you use allows for things like mousefix and different drivers. some internet cafes (fuck you, switchbox). have no way for you to do this and it's retarded. while i personally prefer the default (almost always windows) interface because it's easier to get at settings, a more streamlined presentation of gaming options is fine, as long as it's possible to change things like mouse speed and the like. basically don't sacrifice the ability to customize for a streamlined experience. on a similar note: usb ports should be easily accessible.
chairs, while less important than the above, are probably more important than having the most amazing computers on the planet. comfortable chairs matter, a lot.
also, be prepared to deal with angry disruptive DOTA players who scream at the monitor on occasion.
another good idea is to have special rates at certain times, one of my favourite netcafes, for example, has a special where you can play from 12am to 8am for something slightly less than half the normally hourly rate
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is awesome32282 Posts
Im guessing selling snacks / drinks would give an extra income, but I would start small, don't try to have everything when you just open, too big of an investment.
As for games, LAN classics (a sports game of each kind). Im guessing depending on who you target a gamepad available would be good. Some racing games.
Then just internet classics. L4D? Counter Strike, W3 (dota), Star.
MMORpgs players should make your best costumers 
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you dont have to overwork yourself to make the menus look that futuristic;
most gamers spend like 5 seconds on the main desktop screen before they are immersed in their game for the next 6 hours and never look at the main screen again.
you should definitely look into durable keyboards and mice for this business, trust me, public peripherals get abused like MAD. and being a frequent netcafe goer, i am not exactly nice to those peripherals.
last but not least, put a no outside food or drink policy in your store. and make sure you have food available, cup noodles, bowl noodles, chips, hot dogs, pogo sticks, and pop. you overprice those, and that's where the money comes rolling in. staying at a net cafe for long periods of time and not eating is.....a horrible feeling.
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It varies by countries so I think you should just go to other internet cafes and see how they're doing.
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If i had an idea for a lanshop i would like to make it a starcraft 2 competitive and hold tournaments in my shop. However i dont know how is blizzard going to cater for lan shops =(
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I guess the number one issue would be that the computers be maintained properly (doesn't crash randomly & no networking issues) and that the mouse/keyboard actually function well enough. it happens to me all too often esp with pirated copies : S
Questions, what age group of customers will/might your cyber cafe most likely entice? and where is your cafe going to be set up? customer targeting is really important.
example: if your cafe is located in the city nearby a school, it would be best if you price your service really well or if your cafe is located in a rural housing area, then maybe your customers will be in the >18 group and will be interested in playing single player games like GTA/NFS (ewww). Or if your cafe is located to nearby a mall, then selling a wide range of over-priced water/snacks might not work out.
all the best!! EDIT: owh yea, statistic tracking might prove to be useful in the long run. like what steam does
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I see you are from the Philippines too! So I guess Warcraft TFT is a must since DOTA is such a big deal here.
And btw, make sure it can run Starcraft II smoothly! 
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yeah over here the government replaces all their office furniture every2 or 3 years
so go to a government auction and pick up all the good furniture and chairs for cheap
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StarCraft
DOTA
CS
WC3
KOD
Diablo
and all the shooting + car games!
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I go to Internet Cafe's quite often, a few times a week. Probably the most played games are:
WoW
HoN
WC3
Steam for Cafes
SC2 has a small following, not many got into the beta. The bigger name the game is, the more likely people want to play it. MW2 would be a safe bet. As would FF14. RPG's less so, Internet cafes should be centered around games which people can just pick up and play without saves - so FPS, RTS and MMO's mainly.
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In our town, we've had like 5 different LAN-cafés during the past years, all of them shutting down within a year or so... It's a tricky business to maintain, especially in these times where it's very common for people to have great broadband solutions set up at home.
I have no business experience in this field, but if I were to set up a LAN-café, I would put heavy emphasis on tournaments and various gaming events and try to appeal to as big of a crowd as possible. Maybe get a few consoles and TV's and have a SF4-tournament going. What about boardgames? Maybe start up an in-house clan/team/guild?
Try to get a feel of what kind of services that is in demand, and try to appeal to that market!
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United States22883 Posts
On July 01 2010 19:48 Garnet wrote:
It varies by countries so I think you should just go to other internet cafes and see how they're doing.
I think this is a super important point. Not that you necessarily have to copy other ideas, but that you realize the experience from an American or German lan center may not be helpful to you. I know someone that opened up a very successful lan center in Virginia (for a while, it's hard to run them in the US) but I don't think you'd have the same environment or types of gamers.
See what's at the other shops and see what they do right and wrong.
For me, things like well maintained keyboards, chairs, desks are important. I'd probably bring my own mouse and earbuds, but I can't bring these things. Good lighting and sound control, so it's not super noisy with other games. For competitive gaming, making sure the desks are angled properly so people can't see your screen (web2zone in NYC is TERRIBLE in this regard.)
Snacks are nice, but not necessary. Drinks definitely though. Also, running some kind of weekly tournaments to create more of a community than just a store.
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Depending on the korean population you may want to add Sudden Attack too, at a PC cafe near where I live that's a very popular game played there. There are also the occasional people who go there simply for web browsing, but I see a lot of people playing SC, L4D2, CS, and sudden attack whenever I go to that PC Cafe.
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maybe you should buy that garena thing so that all your computers have gold membership, and stuff like that
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On July 01 2010 19:35 zekie wrote:
never been to one before but if you want SC:BW might not want windows 7 because I heard theres a new internet cafe in town here that holds game tournaments every weekend but they can't have SC because they have Windows 7.
I think the whole tournament idea is pretty cool though. would definately have me going all the time if they had the games I played.
good luck and I hope you're really successful with this.
Windows 7 only makes the colours all messed up. Other than that, the game runs perfectly fine.
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FPS:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
RTS:
Warcraft 3: TFT (for DotA)
StarCraft: Broodwar
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (when it's out)
RPG:
RF Online
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On July 01 2010 19:48 Garnet wrote:
It varies by countries so I think you should just go to other internet cafes and see how they're doing.
This. I feel bad for leaving the basic content of my post at that, but stepping into the shoes of the customer is an excellent way to learn how things work from the seller's end. In fact, while I'm not at liberty to disclose any details at this point in time, such secret-agent investigations forms the basis of my current job :p
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Games i would say the 2 must haves are WC3 - DOTA and L4D2
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EPT
