POLL: LAN gaming "cafe." What's a reasonable fee?

[Malladine]

I'm thinking 10 rigs, with enough popularity to fill them all. Your favourite LAN games are available.

 

[clamum]

Anywhere from $5 to about $8 would be reasonable IMO.

 

[Anubis]

something less then 10$/h

 

[thenerdguy]

There is a gaming cafe where I go some times that charges $1.00 to play for an hour. They have 20 systems!

AMD XP 3000
1 Gig of Ram
40 GIG 7200 Rpm HD
Nvidia Geforce 4TI4600 Graphic cards
Win XP Pro
Asus Mobos I dont know what the board number is but im asuming that they are the A7N8X type.
20 Inch LCD Monitors

I dont know much more about the systems.

We Play UT,UT2003,QuakeIII,SS,SSTSE,AvP2, and a few other games.

 

[RossMAN]

Start out charging $5/hr.

After 1 year if your business is still alive, raise your prices to around $8/yr.

 

[mooojojojo]

I think that $5/hr sounds ridiculously expensive... sorry.. but maybe that's because around here it's like 50c an hour.

 

[codeyf]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Start out charging $5/hr.

After 1 year if your business is still alive, raise your prices to around $8/yr.

If you follow Ross' business plan, you'll be bankrupt after a couple months!

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: codeyf

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Start out charging $5/hr.

After 1 year if your business is still alive, raise your prices to around $8/yr.

If you follow Ross' business plan, you'll be bankrupt after a couple months!

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: codeyf

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Start out charging $5/hr.

After 1 year if your business is still alive, raise your prices to around $8/yr.

If you follow Ross' business plan, you'll be bankrupt after a couple months!

You won't be bankrupt, Ross is just setting the situation for his next hot deal: buying an internet cafe dirt cheap.

 

[codeyf]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: codeyf

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Start out charging $5/hr.

After 1 year if your business is still alive, raise your prices to around $8/yr.

If you follow Ross' business plan, you'll be bankrupt after a couple months!

You won't be bankrupt, Ross is just setting the situation for his next hot deal: buying an internet cafe dirt cheap.

Of course! I should've known!

 

[lozina]

Dont charge over $2 (which itself is too high). The key is to get their money from beverages and food. And make sure you have rubber keyboards!

 

[Kenny]

Around my area the LANs go for $1 an hour, sometimes two for a dollar deals. Only because there are about five within two miles. If there aren't any in the area then $5 an hour would be fine.

 

[gordy]

there's a website around that offers a complete "how-to" setup i can't remember it tho..

google would help

IIRC, the biggest obstacle is the licensing of the games... Valve wanted something in the neighborhood of a couple grand per year for a modest sized cafe...

 

[LeeTJ]

find out what your local billiards room charges and go about 20% below that.

for someone blindly commenting that it's expensive cause they get it for less elsewhere, at least try and understand that there are differences in pricing based on regions.

a movie about 2 hours will cost the average individual about 5 to 7 / hour. bowling costs about the same.

most anything you do has costs. adjust accordingly.

 

[Malladine]

Thanks for the responses so far

nerdguy: 20inch LCD monitors?! Are you serious?

Gordy: Didn't consider licencing. How naive am I, I just figured i'd buy one copy of each game for each rig and that's it

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: thenerdguy
There is a gaming cafe where I go some times that charges $1.00 to play for an hour. They have 20 systems!

AMD XP 3000
1 Gig of Ram
40 GIG 7200 Rpm HD
Nvidia Geforce 4TI4600 Graphic cards
Win XP Pro
Asus Mobos I dont know what the board number is but im asuming that they are the A7N8X type.
20 Inch LCD Monitors

I dont know much more about the systems.

We Play UT,UT2003,QuakeIII,SS,SSTSE,AvP2, and a few other games.

How long have they been around?

 

[gordy]

http://www.igames.org

http://www.igames.org/forums/index.php

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

The LAN gaming place here like you're describing charges $4 an hour, $10 for 3 hours, and on Mondays and Thursdays $10 from 5-10pm. But, if you're in the C&C Generals league you can come in and play it any time you want for free (there was a $20 signup fee) and you'll probably end up playing some CS too =)

edit: the site of the one here is http://www.twilightgaming.com

 

[Gulzakar]

sell food and soda.

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: gordy
http://www.igames.org

http://www.igames.org/forums/index.php[/q

Thanks Gordy

gul: Of course

 

[Gulzakar]

about the region comment... its so true.

For an evening movie here, it's about 9.75

 

[Dragnov]

What the hell? $5+/hr?! Where the heck do you guys live.

The average price here is $2/hr, and I wouldnt pay a cent more than that. I don't go to them but I've been to them like twice due to the lack of computer on very rare occasions.

 

[Malladine]

Grimlock: The thing is, you may have a computer, but do you have 9 others with with room and the friends (ok, who cares, anyone) to occupy each one? That's the thing

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: Malladine
Grimlock: The thing is, you may have a computer, but do you have 9 others with with room and the friends (ok, who cares, anyone) to occupy each one? That's the thing

I know. They've existed here for years already now. I remember them about 6 years ago, I always thought of them as a dead market now though. I can't believe anyone would pay $5+/hr, but I guess it depends on the demand in your place. Here, everyone has computers and broadband so no one is willing to pay more than $2/hr.

And for me personally, I'm not a counterstriker of FPS person so LAN isn't much of an appeal. RTS games like Starcraft and Warcraft which I play are virtually pointless to be in near vicinity, its even worse if you don't have headphones and can't block out the sound.

 

[Malladine]

IMO there's no substitute for actually hearing your enemys' cries of dismay!

This is why i'm confident in the LAN gaming market and probably always will be. Granted though, RTS games have less appeal than FPS. Still, i'm of the opinion that any game is better over LAN than in any other format. It brings gamers out of the dark and into the light of personal contact :Q

And have you noticed that people tend to be less irritating when their opponent is in the same room?

Plus (and arguably this is the #1 reason LANs rule) cheating can be 100% regulated! WOO!