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In high school I had some friends who would go out to play CS at PC Cafes. I asked them why they would bother to do so, since you can just play at home. They said they liked the feeling of playing with friends, whereas playing CS at home felt more detached. This was also before voice chat though, so I'm sure things have changed with Ventrilo and all that.
If I'm with a bunch of gamer friends and we wanted to play a PC game, we'd think of going to go a PC cafe. I think last year one of my friends and I wanted to play BW so we could see how we play in real life (he was wondering how I was more than 120 APM)... funny enough though, we hit up the PC cafe at 1 AM and there was line until 4 AM, with almost everyone playing DOTA.
If PC Cafes are viewed in the same light as arcades though, then cities don't like them. The famous arcade in my area, Arcade Infinity, is always facing pressure from local homeowners and the city. Arcades encourage gang behavior and decrease land value, they say. It may be difficult to get a license if they have it out for them.
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there are no internet cafes anywhere in your area
trust me i live there
i know
best thing to do is dont associate with those kinds of people
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I remember going to a few LAN centers in the Salt Lake City area when I was in middle school.My buddies and I would play counterstrike and some Warcraft 3 custom games, probably the most fun I had gaming during those times was at LAN centers or internet cafes. Well now 6 years have passed since that time and one of the LAN centers has been driven out of business the other one which also doubles as a hobby shop is still open and surprisingly my friend tells me it always has a good number of people. I always wished that Internet Cafes caught on more here in the states.
On September 10 2010 05:22 Hawk wrote:
It's also limited to a fairly small demographic. Sure, there's a lot of gamers who work full time and shit. You think we wanna go to a place where a bunch of retarded 13 year olds screaming out 4chan memes are gonna be hanging out in large groups?? People in lan centers are terrible.
Hahahaha tell me about it. There are definitely some characters in those LAN centers and surprisingly some people you wouldn't expect to be into PC gaming at Internet cafes. Sometimes one of the regs would threaten to kick you out because you were doing something in the game and the people who actually worked there wouldn't give a shit haha good times.
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In california there are tons of Internet Cafes, I worked at a LAN cafe called PC Bang in Eagle Rock, CA (the original owners were Korean) and it's one of the oldest LAN cafes in existence in the US. The locals have been going there for years and theres usually 15~ kiddies playing HoN and the rest on WoW or SC2. During 2001-2005, LAN centers were at their peak and everyone playing CS.
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I can only give me own experience from a European perspective. In my town there is pretty much one Internet Café that's doing good, and it was doing so mainly becuase of it being heavily marketed to be the place for people playing MtG. I think the main reason is simply, it's not needed, almost every single kid over here owns a laptop if he is into gaming (At least if he is 15+) meaning that you really don't need an internet café. For example, me and my fellow classmates used to play alot to gether, yet we never ever played with each other, other than when we actually were in the same room. After school we would borrow a classroom, set up a projector with a PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/N64 and duke it out, aswell as everyone bringing their laptops playing stuff like. Dota, Heroes 3, Diablo II, BW and Railroad Tycoon (12 player RT? Fuck yea!) It gave us a much better experience than any Internet Café could ever bring.
I will say that playing with someone in the same room is 200 times better than playing apart.
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America seems much more console-focused than other parts of the world (specifically Asia). Even Savannah GA has a successful console "lan" center at the local mall. But I guarantee a PC cafe here would fail miserably.
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There was once a successful LAN center in my area, and it was always super packed when they were only charging 2/hr, now they're charge something closer to 3.50 or 4 and it's a ghost town. The causes and effects, I dunno... =\
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I'm sure there might be more, but I've only ever been aware of two net cafes in Vegas (well dedicated purely to gaming/internet - there are a few food joints that offer a few computers/wifi.)
One is Cybernetics Core, which is run by a Team Liquid member; I've never been, but Kingkosi speaks highly of it. The other was an amazing place that I spent many hours of my childhood, called Cyber X. Was before I was aware of the StarCraft pro-scene, but it was run by a cool Asian guy. Played many hours of StarCraft, WarCraft, Counter Strike and a few other games there. Was a cool place, but guess it wasn't very profitable as it died out 4-5 years ago. 
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On September 10 2010 08:07 So no fek wrote:I'm sure there might be more, but I've only ever been aware of two net cafes in Vegas (well dedicated purely to gaming/internet - there are a few food joints that offer a few computers/wifi.) One is Cybernetics Core, which is run by a Team Liquid member; I've never been, but Kingkosi speaks highly of it. The other was an amazing place that I spent many hours of my childhood, called Cyber X. Was before I was aware of the StarCraft pro-scene, but it was run by a cool Asian guy. Played many hours of StarCraft, WarCraft, Counter Strike and a few other games there. Was a cool place, but guess it wasn't very profitable as it died out 4-5 years ago.
When i went to Las Vegas i actually went to a cyber cafe there called 8wire LAN. This was back when i was addicted to WoW and HAD to log in to get 10 games of arena done so i would get points, even if it was in the middle of my vegas vacation XD.
The place was nice enough, there were 15-20 computers there, but there were only 5 people there when i went, and they were all playing WoW and it looked like they practically lived there and fed off the In-n-out across the street. They were all huge and probably hadnt showered in weeks.
Anyways, i walked in and they were sitting in vent doing some raid and yelling at eachother in vent. Probably the rudest entrance to a store ive ever been in lol XD.
Anyways, thats pretty much the only time ive ever been to a cyber cafe.
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Maybe another reason why internet cafes are big in asia because piracy is also big in asia.
You can get a nice rig decent enough to run sc2 for only around $300.
That includes windows, antivirus, games software, etc.
I'm not saying that all of asia are like this. But some third world countries have high number of internet cafes because starting isn't as expensive as starting it in the US.
Also, most of the internet cafes I've been to are in ghetto areas. Pretty dirty and not very well kept.
Also, a lot of people inside are just hanging out and not playing at all.
Don't be surprised if a couple of people pulls a chair and sits behind you while you play.
So yeah internet cafes pretty much target the poor to middle-class people.
Its just sad to see that people choose to spend their money to play DOTA for an hour instead of buying dinner for their families or for themselves.
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I'm assuming Internet cafes aren't popular in the US because Americans can buy their own computers. Also gaming is not that big there.
edit: plus cost of running one compared to asian internet cafes, yeah.
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There was one in San Diego at Mission Valley mall, but I can't remember the name of it. It had a good location with tons of people and pretty good concession sales on top of it all. In the end, it closed down.
I moved to a large city in KY and there was one cafe, but it closed down after a few years, too.
These cafes simply aren't profitable enough, require lots of capital for such a shitty return, appeals to a limited market, and the wrong market (PCs instead of consoles). The dominance of PC gaming in America is nothing now. Just look at the gaming industry. . . FPSs are no longer mostly being designed on the PC and ported to the console. It is mostly the other way around now, which is fucking outrageous. There are PC exclusives, just not enough PC gamers in America. . . Per capita in developed countries, we probably have the lowest amount of PC gamers and the highest amount of console gamers.
Also, "Internet" or PC cafes were a lot more popular since people not only used PCs to game, but also to check email, chat, browse the web, etc. But now that you can do all that on your phone, that's one less thing the cafe has to offer.
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A few years ago, Internet cafes were fun. Usually alot of people to an extent. Though it was located in Richmond Hill that's pretty much asian populated, it was pretty popular. With a legit arcade nearby, a good korean bbq, etc etc. Good place man.
But now? that internet cafe is preeettyy... dead. The boss that I knew was no longer there, moved to somewhere else and the current internet cafe is pretty shiets. Barely any people now (there's a good amount of people in this one internet cafe in finch and there was another one nearby but it looked so ghetto that no one was there. Though the computers were fucking bomb) Hell, the legit arcade I go to had more people.
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Why go pay money to go listen to other nerds rage and play pirated games when you can do the same in the comfort of your home for free? And the snacks are free(ish) too. I live in western mass, and pc cafe's are pretty rare besides at college.
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Its a social issue. You dont go out to eat because you cant afford to build a kitchen at your house. Same for having PCs at your home in korea.
Culturally here, people don't see a reason to go, which makes it more expensive, which make people less likely to go. and on and on. So, it just doesnt work here for many reasons.
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On September 10 2010 10:42 NIJ wrote:
Its a social issue. You dont go out to eat because you cant afford to build a kitchen at your house. Same for having PCs at your home in korea.
Culturally here, people don't see a reason to go, which makes it more expensive, which make people less likely to go. and on and on. So, it just doesnt work here for many reasons.
This. The main reason why PC Bangs were so popular in Asia (or at least China, where I've been to) is the price. The biggest things for PC Bangs are the free MMOs from random Asian companies. Many people in China usually do not have enough money for crazy computers with high-speed internet. Going to a PC Bang allows them to have all that for a pretty cheap price.
Here, on the other hand, if you enjoy PC gaming chances are you have your own computer with a decent connection. It would make absolutely no sense to pay up to play when you could just play at home or even LAN with your friends. That, and chances are you don't play those free MMOs pretty much means that you have no reason to go to PC Bangs.
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On September 10 2010 12:48 vindKtiv wrote:Show nested quote +On September 10 2010 10:42 NIJ wrote:
Its a social issue. You dont go out to eat because you cant afford to build a kitchen at your house. Same for having PCs at your home in korea.
Culturally here, people don't see a reason to go, which makes it more expensive, which make people less likely to go. and on and on. So, it just doesnt work here for many reasons. This. The main reason why PC Bangs were so popular in Asia (or at least China, where I've been to) is the price. The biggest things for PC Bangs are the free MMOs from random Asian companies. Many people in China usually do not have enough money for crazy computers with high-speed internet. Going to a PC Bang allows them to have all that for a pretty cheap price. Here, on the other hand, if you enjoy PC gaming chances are you have your own computer with a decent connection. It would make absolutely no sense to pay up to play when you could just play at home or even LAN with your friends. That, and chances are you don't play those free MMOs pretty much means that you have no reason to go to PC Bangs.
I agree as well... It sucks that cyber cafes are pretty much non-existent outside of Asia now. The only cyber cafe left I know in my area is probably euphNET. I'm surprised they've been around since 2002/2003 since so many stores closed down around 2005/2006.
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I went to a PC cafe in Mexico once. Made the mistake of not washing my hands after touching the keyboard.
I got the worst stomach flu in my entire life. Woke up in the middle night and vomited 5 inches from my cousins head.
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On September 10 2010 10:42 NIJ wrote:
Its a social issue. You dont go out to eat because you cant afford to build a kitchen at your house. Same for having PCs at your home in korea.
Culturally here, people don't see a reason to go, which makes it more expensive, which make people less likely to go. and on and on. So, it just doesnt work here for many reasons.
They're all over the place in brazil... my father and I discussed this and came to the same conclusion.
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I'd say that in the Philippines, it's part piracy (I'm willing to bet 95% of WC III installed PCs here are pirated), part price (ever heard of twenty cents per hour of play?) and part internet access (when net is 22$ a month for 1mbps down/500kbps up in a place where the minimum wage per day is 9$; you know the drill).
The largest and best-maintained shops here though charge like 40-50 cents an hour, and somewhere between fifty to a hundred units. They're marketed primarily to yuppies and rich college student bums who play DotA or HoN (many on some competitive level), some raiders from WoW, and the occasional gaming freak who doesn't want to buy x/y/z game but wants to do a single play-through. They also cater to high school and college buddies who want to have a good time together in playing games. Some offer console gaming on XBOX or PS3 with Rock Band / Guitar Hero in parallel with the PC games. I know of only TWO shops who have SC 2.
The typical shop though is something of a mess. Anywhere from 10-25 units at 25-30 cents an hour and caters to the CS and DotA crowd who LOVE TO BET ON GAMES. These bets can run from either "loser pays for game time" matches to series games that will see a hundred dollars or so change hands.
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EPT
