LAN Gaming Center Tips, Tricks and Advice.
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?