I Am Setting Up A Networked Gaming Centre
<div class="IPBDescription">in Jersey</div> Hey,
I've finally got the loan from the bank I was after, and i have the premises, and so I shall be creating my very own LAN gaming centre in Jersey. I think its going to do really well as the main entertainment place in the area got burnt down so theres nout for kids to do.
Its only starting off with 16 machines, but if it gets popular, more machines perhaps.
We shall be playing Half Life and its mods, including NS2, as well as other games like BF1942, MOHAA etc
I'm really excited, and can't wait.
All i need now is a name
Any Ideas? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
I've finally got the loan from the bank I was after, and i have the premises, and so I shall be creating my very own LAN gaming centre in Jersey. I think its going to do really well as the main entertainment place in the area got burnt down so theres nout for kids to do.
Its only starting off with 16 machines, but if it gets popular, more machines perhaps.
We shall be playing Half Life and its mods, including NS2, as well as other games like BF1942, MOHAA etc
I'm really excited, and can't wait.
All i need now is a name
Any Ideas? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
How about:
The Readyroom
The Hive
LOL! Now thats a name.
AllUrHiveRBelong2Us: The street name is Les Jardin de la Mers, which is french for the gardens by the sea. I don't think thats gonna be any good, lol
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I was thinking of naming it Bad Influence after the fantastic ITV Games review show with the fit Violet Berlin
t3h l33720|2z.
You gotta have the period though.
Anyone who plays games would understand it, and you'd get big fast.
Avoid 'nerdy' stuff like "Cyborg Destructionville" or other names that seem childish. Kids may like games, but they don't have money. I suggest something like X-Arena. (Xtreme Arena). Its 'cool', and its not distinclty nerdy. Maybe a little on the lame side... but you get the idea.
Second, I suggest running LOTS of special events to get people in there. Ladies Nights, Kids nights, Action Days (All day pass for $$$) Also, not everything has to cost money. Maybe running free 'Learning Nights' every once and while would help get newbies into the game, and thus into your store. Be sure to run tournaments and leauges.
Third, think about the experience of being at this place. If it gets as popular as you want it to be, people will probably have to wait to play. To remedy that, set up spectator areas. Get 2 big tvs and a 2 couchs. hook 1 up to 4 player gaming system, the other up to cable. Try to make it a place where you can spend time without spending an exhorbatant amount of money there, and make it so you don't need to play for 3 hours straight to enjoy yourself.
Finally, try to aim as adult as possible. Kids likes games, but adults have more money. Also, don't be afraid to kick people out. Letting the place turn into a druggie teen hang out will kill more buisness than they give you.
Also, where in Jersey is this? I'm in the Philadelphia area, and I'd come by if it was close enough :-)
Thx for all your ideas, I will take them in mind.
I was mainly aiming for teenagers and young adults, i don't think i will even allow some ppl in because I know they will cause trouble!
I like your idea about the viewing couch, very good.
One thing I am happy about is that I have been granted a liqueur license, so the adults that do go there can drink a bit of alcohol whilst they are playing, so that is a good thing!
As for where is it. I'm not talking about New Jersey, I'm talking about the ORIGINAL Jersey, which is an island off the south west of the United Kingdom, New Jersey was named after it. So quite a long way to go to get there. The Island is only 9 miles long by 5, so i have all the kids right near the place, muhahah!
Name: Something like "Torn".... think about what potential customers will call it by. "Hey lets go to 'TORN'," or "Hey, lets go to X-arena"... Something short, sexy, unique and suitable [for conversation] would do better than something excessively relevant to a LAN house of doom.
Staff: I suggest getting avid gamers... ! Think of the grown up, 'cool' [well, among the gaming community <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->] knowledgable players as potential future staff members <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> Treat them as such
Customers: Play with the customers... ! The newbies can learn by watching you, and the experienced ones will be like "hehe, this is one sick dude" and they will become friends wiht you <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> And we all know friends = money !! And if you don't, then... bah! Bah to you! But yeah, be a friendly, sociable gamer <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> Instead of a capitalist pig-dog swine!
Machines: I'm not sure if you only allow games, not internet access for webpages, msn, icq, yahoo, irc, whatever... But in either case I suggest you get someone [not a professional, as they overcharge for something that a coder that codes for fun could do for a lot less, or even open source programs that you/someone else can modify] or something that can/will manage your computer... i.e for games only, you might want to lock EVERYTHING, and then make a portal program that will: let you choose what game you want to play. List all the current game servers. Make your own game server. Load a config* [make sure you automatically backup and restore default configs before and after the person changes them].
Machines[cont]: Or if you allow interne access, you might want to limit each computer to 10 KB/s and if the user goes over a certain cap limit [say, 10MB -- just an example] they get warned and/or capped [or simply lower download rate to 2 KB/s, and given info on how to change their usage type [i.e Gamer, E-mail, Website browse, Bill Payment [ this one not so sure about, cos of safety reasons], and then automatically change hte restrictions accordingly]. etc etc
Safety: You might want to read up on hacking/trojan/keylogger/security issues etc etc... I'm not going to go into it, but don't be cheap on the security... If need be get a talented young scamp in to check out your system [voluntary, but give him/her a small reward] <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Deals: Deals are great, especially if they are focused more on what you specifically want to use the computers for... As I said about, about like "E-mail access, WWW, Gaming, IRC, Homework" etc. Also special deals, as someone suggested before... 'Ladies Day', 'NS 2.0 comps', and of course your standard time-limit, usage-limit, etc deals...
<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> If you do it well, it could go great. If you do something wrongly or screw up, you're gonna be in a lot of ****. If you need ANY help whatsoever, don't hesitate to ask, because I think EVERYONE here would prefer to see some more posts about how you need help with your [interesting] game place, than "Oh god, I'm in debt $x hundred thousand dollars, and counting, and i need help!!!!!!!!!!!"... <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Edit: Forgot the * footnote.
*Load a config: Experienced gamers may save their personalised configs to save time/effort... I know I have a HEAVILY personalised config [t is my forward, etc etc] and I hate having to change it manually every single lan place i go to [well, none, really. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> But hypothetically], so allow like access from floppy, usb disks, or even hosting place [for example, you could have on your website a "Upload your personalised config.cfg files for your specific games here, so you can access it inside $name easily!" or something to that effect. 50KB max per user, and for whoever uses it [not many] it will be useful... and just a small perk that affects you, oh, NOTHING. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->] for configs that you can allow access to the files on the server machine, or if the site is hosted remotely, <a href='http://www.yourname.com/hosted/configs/user/NS/config.cfg' target='_blank'>http://www.yourname.com/hosted/configs/use...r/NS/config.cfg</a>
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The machines I will be building myself as I have checked into the specs and I found that i can build 16 top quality machines for £8000. I have already created a portal program which shall be used to access the certain elements that the customers need, i will not be giving them full access to the machines, god knows what they might do the h3x0rs!
I was going to go for the standard time-limit setup. But some1 did mention to me how paying for a certain amount of lives would be a good idea, however it would be really difficult to keep moderated, but we'll see how it goes!
I was going to allow Internet access too, as ppl don't want games all the time, and plus just normal ppl can come in during the day when all the kids are at school, and i'll open at night for the gamers.
I intend to play with the customers, and the staff i am going to hire will be people i know, i am not getting strangers in, you can't trust them unless they have a good CV and where I live if u have a good CV you already have a job, know what i mean.
As for security, this is going to be the big thing. I was considering TFT monitors, but i am sticking with 19' CRTs for many reasons. One is that you can't slash the screen, CRTs are less easy to steal because they are so heavy, also CRT is much cheaper and better quality in some cases too. The monitors and the machines will be nailed to the tables, so if they want the machines, they'll have to take then entire floor, which i doubt will happen.
For deals, you might want to have a personalised thing... i.e an "order menu" etc
They can choose a basic plan: "Gamer, World Wide Web access" etc
or they can customise it by going "I'd like 2 hours of Gaming on the local network, 10 MB of WWW access for an hour, access to the local irc network" etc etc and then the price is worked out... <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> instead of "2 and a half hours please" <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Don't worry about the "per death" thing, that wouldnt work... Newbies would get pwned and feel ripped off [and rightly, too], and experienced gamers will get way too much value for money <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Also, you might want to think about the "switching of keys around"... people do that, and its easy, not noticeable, etc. Maybe even put a cover over the keys so they cant take em out, but then the covers get slashed.. I dont know, i guess its all about "is this worth doing this to counter any problems that might arise" etc etc
And security of the actual computer/network itself is important as well. Even system administrators [for schools, companies, etc] have exploits in their systems that they neglected to take out, or simply dont know about, and hackers can just go on the computer, get past the security, disable it, and then hack into somewhere using your computer <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> so its worth it looking out for who might be an avid computerist [usually teenagers, etc... but make sure you get the nice ones <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> no punks] and then asking htem to take a look at your computers... <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Yeah as my job is IT Administrator at local college I have to deal with the little gits who like to cause trouble, so i think i can handle most of em without a bother, and if they do mess up, i kick em out!!
One thing we do at college to stop viruses spreading is re-ghost the machines every month, so thats what i might do, perhaps adding extra mods and games into the image at the same time
Also, monitor the computers...
I don't mean to the extent of keyloggers, but monitor port connections, programs run, stem websites [by stem i mean www.natural-selection.org instead of www.natural-selection.org/forums/index.php] they go to [i.e if they go to like www.subseven.ws or whatever the url is, then you know its going to be sus <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->] this would just be essentially for any websites that are.. unsuitable, and your blockers miss. And log all information on a secure server machine <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> [or your machine that youre on, so you get alerted to sus activity on the port] So they cant just edit the log files on their own computer
And for computer security, block EVERY program [well, i mean non-essential windows programs hehe] except for key ones, like notepad, microsoft word, internet explorer/netscape, outlookexpress, your gaming portal, MS paint, msn, yahoo chat.
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And when/if the little buggers screw up/around, find out what they were doing before you kick them out <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
edit: re-phrased something
Yeah my little portal i made is sort of a Windows 2000 version of poledit, where you could disallow/allow certain programs/facilities. I made it originally for a Programming project at college, but i've adapted it now <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
just seriously consider the 'deal' suggestions, as it could set you aside from the other [or simply the standard] gaming lan place, and make it worth going to for the value-for-money <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Pick up one or two <i>really</i> high quality printers and a good scanner or two, and let people come in and print off their really high-res stuff. I don't know about most other universities/colleges, but the university here doesn't even come close to providing these services.
Most dorms here have one very high-quality printer, paid for by the residents. The printer is on that building's network, which is also paid for and maintained by the residents.