Down to the Last Save

This article the first in a series of articles I am writing for ILANCA. Hopefully my insights on helping out at a LAN center will help potential owners get on the right path to opening their own lan center.

So how does one start up a LAN gaming center?; lots of research and hard work. I am not a game center owner myself, but I have been a helper for the past 7 years at the local lan center. While being a lowly assistant might not count for much, but the staying power of the LAN center I help out is a testament of how anybody can run their own game center.

Now, I have been a gamer pretty much all my life (go SimAnt) and being in a small town it was a godsend when the local lan center opened up in early 2002. I was literally their first customer; in fact I was there the night before opening helping setup/test their initial six computers (now he has 14 + the four xbox 360s). It’s what I have absorbed and picked up over these past couple of years that I hope to either start mine own some day, or help other people get started on opening their own LAN center.

Make no mistake; it is tough to open a successful LAN center in today’s world. With the rising penetration of broadband connections to homes and the reduced cost of building your own gaming computer, many gamers don’t see the need to come down to a LAN center. What I have seen is that you don’t have to have the best computers in your LAN gaming center, what you need is a friendly and open community that lures people into your LAN center. The community and camaraderie of the players is what is going to keep your business alive and profitable.

You don’t need über expensive gaming pcs, and large flat screen monitors; many of your customers will probably have some super 1337 rig at home (and will brag about it non stop…). Just stick with games that people have fun with as a group, games like Left 4 Dead 2, Call of Duty 4, etc. Games that are accessible to a large portion of your gamers and everybody can have fun with. This doesn’t mean single player games are bad at all. In fact, I used the local LAN center as my rental; I would play the game down there and decide whether I needed to buy it or pass it up.

For building that community, I have found that just playing the occasional game or two with the customers goes a LONG way in getting them to come back and bring their friends. Face it, you as the owner/operator will be the biggest part of how the customers see your store. The problem is striking that balance between playing videogames all day and running your store. As a LAN center owner, you won’t be around long if you sit around playing video games all day.

My advice is from the viewpoint of both the gamer and somebody who helps and may not always be right for running your own LAN center. Things can be different in your area, but I want to impart my experience and lessons learned to anybody who is looking to open up/run their own LAN center. Hopefully these tips, tricks and advice will help give you an idea of how to build your LAN center community.

Since your store is a community for local gamers, why not make ILANCA your community?

Looks like Santa Valve has released the L4D2 authoring tools to all the nice boys and girls. Well, Valve released the authoring and Add on support tools to everybody, but it’s the thought that counts. The authoring tools allow players to create/and or play custom content for Left 4 Dead 2.

How to install Left 4 Dead 2 Add-On Support:
Go into steam and open up the Tools tab. Look for the entry labeled Left 4 Dead 2 – Add-on Support; Click and install it. The download is a bit on the large side, but it will update the L4D2 installation to allow running ANY map, including custom maps made for the original Left 4 Dead. Thats it; once the Add On support is installed, you do not need to run it. Now you can use all of those custom Left 4 Dead maps again; Although there is no word on how it is done on the server side.

TL:DR If you just want to play custom content, only install the L4D2 Add-On Support.

How to install Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools:
You Left 4 Dead 2 designers out there will have to install the L4D2 Add-On support package along with the Left 4 Dead 2 – Authoring Tools.The Authoring Tools will add applications, examples and other files that will help build L4D2 add-ons. A few of the useful ones:

• Gamemode Logic
• Director Logic
• Scavenge Mode Support

The Gamemode logic allows designers to make a single map that behaves differently depending on the gamemode. The L4D2 Director logic module can allow the director A.I. to change the map depending on how “angry” he gets. If you are looking for more information on the Left 4 Dead 2 authoring tools, hit up the L4D blog.

Just got an email in my inbox describing the pre-order bonuses that are available for Star Trek Online. Star Trek Online is breaking the usual pre-order mold and will offer different rewards depending on which retailer you pre-order STO from. In addition, pre-order customers also receive access to the Star Trek Online Open Beta (January 12 through January 26, 2010) and the Star Trek Online Head Start, which offers gamers an opportunity to begin playing Star Trek Online days before it releases.

Each retailer has it’s own unique pre order bonus, so it is going to be a tough decision on where to get Star Trek Online. If you go with Gamestop, you get to pilot the Enterprise from the original series. On the other hand, if you go with Direct 2 Drive, you get a Multi-Spatial Personal Shield that regenerates both your shield AND health constantly. So if you are going to pre-order Star Trek Online, make sure to hit up the list below and figure out which retailer you need to get it from. At least everybody won’t have the same exact bonus, thus you never know what you will encounter in the final frontier.

GameStop customers receive the ability to command the classic USS Enterprise from Star Trek The Original Series.

Amazon is offering an exclusive “Liberated Borg” Bridge Officer. This bridge officer, who comes with unique nanotechnology augmentations, assists in missions and gains experience as the player does.

Best Buy is offering their customers a fun in-game pet. As a Federation Captain, players own a Tribble of Star Trek lore that will accompany them on their travels into the final frontier. If you play a Klingon commander, you will control the boar-like Targ, a beast found on the Klingon home world of Qo’noS.

Wal-Mart has the Bonus Skill Points package. Players will receive addition skill points that enable players to improve their characters quickly.

Target customers who pre-order Star Trek Online receive a unique ground weapon – a TR-116. This rare projectile weapon is used in dampening fields and other challenging environments. The TR-116 is modified with a micro-transporter which beams the fired projectiles to targets at close range so that a user can fire without a direct line of site.

Direct2Drive customers receive an exclusive Multi-Spatial Personal Shield. This advanced personal shield system is based on Borg technology, which constantly regenerates itself and the health of its wearer.

STEAM is offering customers Chromodynamic Armor. This armor is based on technology brought back from the Delta Quadrant by U.S.S. Voyager improves the damage and critical hits of energy weapons.

Enjoying killing zombies in L4D 2, but expected a bit more…flair? Well, have no fear, The Island of Dr. Ned (not his totally not made up brother Dr. Zed) DLC lands today for the Xbox and PS3 and brings what you need. And by what you need, I totally mean awesome visuals, new levels and zombie faces being punched into exploding bits. Oh yeah, watch out for the bird. The visuals of the levels really is quite stunning; although you can see where they re-used bits. The price of the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC for the Xbox/PS3 is 800/$9.99. No word yet on when owners of the PC game will get the DLC.

In a semi serious manner, Gearbox has responded to everybody who was disappointed by the ending in Borderlands.

We went through lots of different iterations on what the ending of the game was,” said Helquist. “We ultimately ended up with what you get to play. We didn’t know how people were going to react to it. Obviously the reaction hasn’t been as strong as we had hoped [laughs]. That’s something we’re going to be keeping in mind as we do new things, whether it’s download content or other games in the future. We’re gonna think more about it and try to get more user feedback before the game comes out so we can ensure that we’ll have endings that you guys like in the future.”

Scary, vagina faced monsters aside, I thought the ending was clever. It could have used some more work though, the last half of the game was very quick and was pretty much hurry up and get through everything. I do like the fact that they are open to many possibilities of DLC (such as the Island of Dr. Ned) and they can continue to explore the mythology of the vault.