Game Selection for Your Lan Center

[RsteeleAUG]

It pretty much goes without saying that you will want to have the big name titles for your customers to play.

Halo
COD
Battlefield
WoW

What about after they've played those.

From my limited experience here I've found that customers will play pretty much anything you suggest to them. Why would I suggest games they already know about or play regularly.
Once I get them to try any number less popular or lesser known games they have another game to play here. To me that means when they want a break from one of the "major" titles (that they probably own already) they'll be able to pick up something like Uncharted 2 and play for a whole different experience.

Dead Island is hot right now. To the point of not being able to find ANY copies at ANY store in town. I've got several used copies coming my way for whatever reason some people didn't enjoy the game. If I had 8 copies I could have had them all being used yesterday. Even the developers didn't expect this kind of buzz.
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/716410/dead-island-ships-over-a-million-copies-in-north-america
This one could easily replace Left 4 Dead or Black Ops (Zombies) as the most played Zombie game here. If I can just get enough copies to satisfy the demand.

[Alomax]

Sad annoyance of consoles, gotta have physical media still

PC - need more Dead Island? Ok *clicks "Buy" button on Steam*

[RsteeleAUG]

PC version of Dead Island was so broken at the time of release it wouldn't have done us any good either.

Gears of War 3 releases tonight so that might get some attention off of Dead Island for a minute or two anyway.

[johnlarson]

I think a list of games that game centers have would be cool, for both PC and console.  I will put something together on Monday or Tuesday.  It is on a spread sheet.  I once saw a web site with a cool list of game titles and pictures of the box.  Man my web site sucks.

[xenli]

Searching around, i've seen this pretty big LAN Center in Kelowna BC, Canada that seems to have pretty much everything for games they are using. http://www.pcbang.ca/

Awsome looking place, but they can't have commercial licensing for even half those games, that seems so risky!   Must have spent a hell of a lot for all the online games that require their own cdkeys!

I hope they do well though, looks epic.

[johnlarson]

I am not even sure if they are open any more.

[johnlarson]

I take that back, looks like they re-opened.  I am fairly sure he has all of his licenses as far as Steam and iGames goes.

[Alomax]

I know the owner of that LAN in Kelowna, we chat on the phone often actually.  He has about 2TB worth of games on his server, and a custom coded solution for dynamically deploying them to the clients on-demand. It's pretty nifty.  He's planning on licensing the software that does it out sometime soon.

@john he did close actually, twice. He's now on his 3rd location, due to some legal issues with his last landlord.  If you ever want a case study in location location location, there's your guy to talk too.

[RsteeleAUG]

Is this Gordo? that we're talking about?

[johnlarson]

Yes, Gordo runs PC Bang.

[xenli]

wow, that sounds like a great setup!  Sounds like someone who should be active on these forums to help others too

[Deeds]

Honestly this is the most active people at one time...Everyone comes and goes in "spurts" and will return later.. This is actually nice having a variety of things to read each day...

-deeds

[xenli]

well im thankful for your boards here, its been good info.  Im instead going for 10 pcs, not 8 anymore.   So 12 with the server and pos system.

Though my place is going to rely around PC repair, im still going to make my LAN center a great place to entertain, and keep my own life interesting at the same time.   Theres incredibly limited things to do here.  Bonus for me.  Lots of gamers with nothing else to do really.

[johnlarson]

well im thankful for your boards here, its been good info.  Im instead going for 10 pcs, not 8 anymore.   So 12 with the server and pos system.

Though my place is going to rely around PC repair, im still going to make my LAN center a great place to entertain, and keep my own life interesting at the same time.   Theres incredibly limited things to do here.  Bonus for me.  Lots of gamers with nothing else to do really.

Since you are going to offer PC repair along with 10 computers, what might be cool to offer is computer workshops.  You could offer MS Office training (even breaking it down to word, power point ect), windows training, and even hardware classes such as installing RAM or printers.

I find plenty of adults that can't work word.  It amazes me.  I have a friend who is 49 that is frustrated because a web site is asking him to copy and paste something, and he has no clue how to do that.  There is no way he could write a letter in word.  What would go well is teaching people to make a power point presentation with photos.

Just a thought.  One of these days we will have more computers and I want to do this stuff.  My idea is to have a "personal trainer" available for customers.

[Deeds]

Since you are going to offer PC repair along with 10 computers, what might be cool to offer is computer workshops.  You could offer MS Office training (even breaking it down to word, power point ect), windows training, and even hardware classes such as installing RAM or printers.

I find plenty of adults that can't work word.  It amazes me.  I have a friend who is 49 that is frustrated because a web site is asking him to copy and paste something, and he has no clue how to do that.  There is no way he could write a letter in word.  What would go well is teaching people to make a power point presentation with photos.

Just a thought.  One of these days we will have more computers and I want to do this stuff.  My idea is to have a "personal trainer" available for customers.

I had someone that would rent my computers in the mornings before I opened to run a training class.  It was pure awesome. I would open just for these people and it was awesome.

-deeds