How to Start an LAN Gaming Center
Local area network (LAN) gaming centers, or Internet cafes, are small businesses with a large number of computers connected to each other and to the Internet. They are popular sites for gamers to assemble to play video games together. More and more LAN gaming centers are beginning to emerge in the United States as professional gaming becomes a more lucrative and attractive occupation.
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Instructions
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Decide on a location to open your LAN gaming center. Malls and shopping plazas are great places to look for visible sites to lease. Places near video-game shops and video-rental stores are also favorable, as your target demographic tends to visit those types of stores. Increase the visibility of your gaming center by creating fliers and signs.
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Construct your own desktop computers and obtain a DSL Internet connection. Your gaming center should have 15 to 25 computers, and each computer should be part of the same local area network. Furthermore, having your own personalized computers will make it easier to customize and repair, as you will best understand a computer you built yourself. Be sure to purchase top-of-the-line graphics cards, sound cards, fans, RAM cards and processors, as those are the most important parts of a gaming computer.
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Purchase a few popular multiplayer games. Popular games include "StarCraft," "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty," "Counter-Strike," "Team Fortress 2," "World of Warcraft" and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare." Some games will require one license per computer, but others will only require you to buy one copy of the game for all of your computers. You can also download free popular massively multiplayer online games such as "Knight Online" or "MapleStory." Do not buy single-player games, as gaming centers are sites of social activity; people go to gaming centers to congregate and play together.
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Serve food and drinks to your customers. Make your gaming center a second home to your customers. They should be comfortable spending hours playing at your gaming center. Furthermore, providing food and drinks will create a more casual environment, which will attract new and novice gamers to your store, increasing your market size. Energy drinks such as Monster or Rockstar are popular among gamers. Serve snacks rather than entrees, as gamers prefer food that is easy and quick to consume so that they can focus on playing.
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