Its unanimous, next to WoW, Real Time Strategy games are the big ticket games for a lan center.  Let me explain this statement.  Gamers get to develop their own RTS community and actively “train” to make their team better.  And RTS are big hour purchase titles.  No one can seriously play Heroes of Newerth, Defense of the Ancients, Company of Heroes, or any of the big RTS games in only an hour.

The largest following I was able to generate was for the Dawn of War games.  (Probably helped because we had people playing the actual tabletop Warhammer game in the store).  The second largest following is for the  Dota based games (Defense of the Ancients, its a mod for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne).  These include titles such as Demigod, Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends, and well Dota itself.  In fact for these games groups of gamers schedule times for them all to come into the game center to play lan games or practice.  Some of these guys are serious ladder fiends.

Honestly without these type games and catering to this style of gamer I wouldn’t have had the success I have.  The average hardcore RTS fan buys at minimum 20 hours of game time a week.   I had a gamer that spent at least 40+ hours a week in the center challenge all the new rts players to a game.  This guy was awesome thou he would beat the hell outta them and then start teaching them how to be better.  (He knew if he absolutely demolished them and then wiped it in their face, he would never have anyone to play with)  He actually started the DoW2 group that comes in each week.

So if your a shooter fan and want to cater to shooter fans that is great.  But don’t forget about these gold mine players.  You keep them happy they will keep you happy.  So here’s the list of games you definitely need to carry.

• Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne (Defense of the Ancients)
• Heroes of Newerth (As of this post its still in beta but its incredibly easy to get into their beta)
• Demigod (Its like Dota with Training wheels)
• League of Legends (Another Dota Clone. This one had potential but in my opinion flopped, but I still have a small group of gamers that play it)
• Dawn of War 2 (This is a game for the non-dota fans that love real-time strategy)
• Company of Heroes (This one is great and more realistic it does really well)
• Starcraft (RTS with training wheels)

Cultivate the crowds that gravitate to these games and you’ll be happy you did.

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