Boston Area LAN/Gaming Center

[misery]

Hi all,

I am new here, and I currently work for Bose Corporation in Framingham, MA as a software engineer.

So I am going to venture into the gamers dream and hope to start a successful LAN center. I realize 90% of LAN centers usually end up closing within a year or two of opening, mostly due to poor management, or lack of business planning ahead of time.

I hope to change that with my business ideas. I'm really looking for anyone in the Boston area that would like to make this effort with me. I think it's a prime area for a LAN (large city, lots of clientele)and there are no LAN centers within a 50 mile radius of Boston so I see no competition.

I have already started working on a business plan with Business Plan Pro software. E-mail me or pm me if you want to talk ideas, or if you live in the area we can meet up and talk about it. I'm in Framingham, MA.

Thanks

[bostonbrian]

This is very interesting, how large of a facility would be required?

[yourhostingspot.com]

I'm down in Dartmouth and majored in IS with programming experience. I would like to talk some about the project.

[sk8ramp]

Funny I have been toying with the idea of a LAN center/indoor skatepark/shop combo where if people get sick of skating/biking/rollerblading they could do some gaming or vice versa. The demographics match up really well. PM me if you are looking for any help on yours though. I may be able to help you with projections since 99% of our marketing and research would match your target clientelle. Beantown is untapped in this regard IMO.

[misery]

I'm looking for a fairly large facility, depending on how many members (more members means more PC's and Consoles). I want it to be more then just a LAN center. I want people to come and be able to shoot pool, watch a movie, relax and have fun. Now most LAN Centers do an hourly system. Customer comes in pays for 2-3 hours of gaming up front (usually 4-5 dollars an hour) then leaves. I think this is the downfall of LAN Centers (no guaranteed revenue).

I’ve been thinking of a membership type of deal. New customers can trial run the center for 2 hours, and we hope they like it and decide on a membership. Or maybe I can offer a week trail period where they pay a minimal hourly fee (something like 3-4 dollars an hour) then after that week they can either decide to become a member or not? I don’t know if that's a good thing or a bad thing though, could work against me because maybe people want to come to the center and only want to pay hourly not monthly (and that would lose me business).

I would run different levels of membership (for instance basic, gold and premium) each membership having it's own incentives. Something where if they pay 160/200/240/month they get unlimited access to use the computers/XBOX/PS3/WII as well as referral type programs and discounts depending on what membership they purchase. Discounts off snacks and drinks. Giving the highest membership program something like guaranteed play time no matter what, whenever they come I guarantee them a machine to play on. Just some ideas I’m throwing around.

I was also thinking of having 3-4 pool tables, a ping-pong table and a student lounge type area. The student lounge would consist of computers with limited access to the internet (for work related stuff only) and printers set up.

I realize starting a LAN Center is kind of cliché in the gaming community. Everyone wants to do it, and they usually end up failing cause they make no money in the business. What sparked me to do it is not having any LAN centers even remotely close to Boston (meaning no competition) and a large city (lots of clientele).

I'm a gamer my self, and I understand what it will take to make people want to come back. I want it to be that way. Word of mouth will be my biggest advertisement.

Anyways send me a PM or e-mail if you think you are interested.

Thanks

[stlsmoore]

That membership idea is an amazing idea I think you have something there. You also hit the head on the nail when you mentioned that many LAN areas are ran with poor management or many times marketing. I hate to say it as I am one but I think the reason this is, is because all of the LAN Center owners I met were complete geeks. They weren't very sociable and if they were they didn't talk in Layman terms. I remember one LAN center in our area thought it would be a good idea to put their location right behind a very big nightclub. Literally they were facing the back end of a night club and did no advertising what so ever. The owner mentioned to me that "True Gamers will find out about our shop without having to do advertising because we're the only one in town". Needless to say the shop only lasted a few months.

[GuyBBY]

Hi Misery,

If you are interested in meeting, and I also think the idea is something worth pursuing, I have got together a Boston Area YE group. We have met (bostonbrian above had joined in) and we are looking for those who wish to gain and give help/advice, run ideas by the group for feedback (protected against "stealing" of ideas), and basically see what fruitful relationships and partnerships come out of it.

Please PM me if you are interested in meeting and I am also interested in this idea you mentioned above.

Best

Guy

[misery]

You are absolutely correct stlsmoore. I have been to lan centers, and I have seen how they are run. Horrid management and poor business planning, they rely solely on word of mouth for more customers.

Now let's be real, what kind of people come to a LAN center? The die hard computer gamers generally who play FPS (first person shooters; CS, CSS, COD4 etc). While that may work for awhile (1 year at most usually) my main goal is to target the mass console gamers, the casual PC gamers, and the WoW players. Whether it be doing local TV commercials or running ads in magazines, you need to do lots of promoting and advertising to get the mass public. I will go door to door and drop off ads on every doorstep if I have to. Giving out free t-shirts to new members is an easy way for free advertising.

It's an untapped market in Boston and I think there are plenty of people willing to game around a fun atmosphere like the one I am trying to start. Now instead of kids sitting at home alone playing WoW, they can come to this LAN/Gaming Center and play with 10-15 friends on the same servers. Or come and play XBOX and the Nintendo WII with friends. While they are at it they can hang out, shoot pool if they want, or just relax and watch a movie.

GuyBBY you have a new PM

[rossco1]

mate,

do a search for 'windsor gaming' .. a bloke on hear set up a gaming centre. Windsor Gaming Center

The biggest problem with gaming centers is that internet is so common now and so many games are available through the internet, a lot of the time, people find it far more convenient to just play at home. You have the point that it would be much funner at the lan center, but still that may be only once a week.. twice a month. Back when lan's were profitable was when you'd get people coming in every day.

All the best though, like the idea of the membership.

Rossco

[GuyBBY]

Got the PM bud, and responded with my email.

I think it would be valuable to you to get on board with the Boston YE group and see where this idea can go.

Talk soon

Guy

[misery]

Good point Rossco and I have for sure thought about that. I still think people are willing to come to the LAN center though for a few reasons.

I compare it to going to the movies (I know this isn’t the best comparison). Everyone has a DVD player nowadays, and movies come out on DVD so fast that you can just wait till they are out on DVD rather then spending a lot of money and going to the movies. But, people still go to get out of the house, and have a good time.

Ok so that was really a bad analogy lol. So maybe compare it to going out to eat? Everyone can eat at home, but some people like to go out 2-3 times a week to socialize with friends and get out of the house. I don’t know I just see gamers wanting to come for the atmosphere and fun.

I don't want to stereotype, but in the real world, most people who are 'gamers' tend to stay at home quite often. This LAN center will give them a way to get out of the house in a social setting and have fun doing something they love. It will not only be for games, but will have other activities as well (pool, ping pong, perhaps a little movie center with reclining chairs).

The toughest task I would have is making people want to come back over and over again, multiple times a week. Causes like you said, some people may just come once a week, and would never pay that kind of membership fee. It’s a tough task no doubt.

It’s still a work in progress that’s for sure.

[MacOgma]

Misery,
I'm interested in what you are working on. I am out West in Phoenix. There are a few LAN centers here, but of those I have been in, they are not run very well. I have never seen an ad for one, nor any other form of promotion. Personally, I would also love to open a center as well. I work in marketing and am currently working on my business management masters degree...

I think you are absolutely right about the marketing and advertising. One more issue you might want to consider is diversifying your revenue stream a little. Don't focus solely on your gamers... Having those computers sitting there during the day is a resource waste. Look to providing classes and other uses for those systems when most of your customers are probably in school. This could be in the form of basic MS Office classes, digital scrapbooking for the scrapbook junkies, typing classes, maybe even some Photoshop Elements or basic HTML classes.

It might even be worth your while to provide free Internet Security classes to the parents of your teenage members.

But as far as the marketing goes, that's really a whole different ballgame. Be very careful and VERY selective about where you spend your money. And SERRRIOUSLY look for places where you can get press/promotion for free.

[bostonbrian]

^^ Along those lines, it would be possible to utilize the systems for distributed computational excersizes perhaps for universities. I know from the chemistry side of things, a lot of computational power is needed at lower cost rather than purchasing large servers.

[misery]

So I have two people who want to give this a go. Now I just have a quick question about getting the capital to start this. A business like this requires a LOT of money to get started, the software and hardware alone cost $150,000.

For people who have started a business, what's the best way for someone like me to get money to start this? The three of us are all between 24-26 years old. We have decent credit, but we need a hell of a lot of money to get this going. Any ideas would be great.

Thanks

[rossco1]

Would be a struggle I reckon...

Also remember.. it may not be the best time to enter the market... with the economy not doing so well.. many of us do not have as much disposable income.

haha, nice analogy's though.. definitely see your point, do some research on your target market, that will be the best way to find out.

Funding wise.. you probably would look to get some investors, in which you will definitely need a good business plan with lots of good research etc etc.

All the best!