You will have to forgive my fellow DFWer in either the folly of his youth, or missunderstanding of the differances between us and the rest of the world. (Im from the northeast side ft w mayne, HOLLA!)
There are a few key points to be made on the buisness side of things and this topic.
Things a LAN center needs to survive:
1. Enough users/customers willing to utlize their services.
2. Its all about location. Proximity and ease of access the consumer base.
3. Advertisement
4. Enough capital to survive with a fully up and running center for atleast 3-4 months.
Now I'm going to relate this to different scenarios (especially our here in texas) hopefully I'll clear up why this was a topic.
Numero Uno: The Users and customers willing.
~~~~~ Here in Texas where everything is spread out and the cost of living just really isnt that high to begin with, why go to a place to use their systems? Our priorities simply arenot centered around gaming or technology the way some other communities are. When you think of Texas some stereo types arise... few of them true. We do LOVE our football, well really just sports in general. And we simply still find it VERY odd for an individual to spend his entire day (or most of it) in a single location and not venture outside that often. For a gamer, thats an avg day. So why wouldnt we use a LAN center here? Games just arnt a priority enough to warrant needing a place like that. There just isnt that high of a demand on games. Its getting better, and we've come long long way, but for the most part even if you do find a gamer in Texas (and were getting alot of them in the next few generations) they still ussually play games that are more our tastes. You know... NBA live, NCAA (w/e the sport here), Shooting games. All of which can be done from home with friends. While our mommies make us lunch
Numero Dos: Location
~~~~~In larger communities and cities that can be classified as "URBAN", LAN centers are an awsome idea! You have people walking alot of places, and you can actually get away with not having a car in some cases (see new york, detroit, chicago, reallyhugecity). Some people living in these areas have a school, mall, corner store, hospital, and a park all within walking distance. So sure why not put a LAN center in? Its a short walk and cheap to use! It's no different for you guys than going to the bank or dinner. In a more rural setting however, LAN center are a HORRIBLE idea. If i had a dime for every northerner who came down here and started up a mom and pop computer store with dreams of starting a LAN center Id be rich. I havent seen one keep theri store open loner than 6 months to a few years, and generally the LAN center idea is what drove them under. We are too spread out of a community and we literally drive everywhere. To school, to work, to the corner store for milk, even to a park. We have just as many people as some "urban" communities up north, the differance is that we are spread out over more (sometimes 5 - 6 times as many) square miles. If we ever even hear of a LAN center open its usually just to far out of the way to make us want to go there. Oh and god help the next LAN center that opens up in a mall down here. Gamers that are hardcore enough to want to game that much rarely go into a mall. So why put it there?
4: advertisement
Why should we come to you? jim down the street has the internet/an x box/playstation/old school nintendo... Now if it was in an urban place... Ppl will walk by your store, but in suberbia hell, with the store owned by some gamer himself on alow budget, how do we know you exist? We dont... and those flier the guy coming down from the north had printed off at kinkos and put on my windshield while i was in the movies onyl pissed me off... and i might have read 2 words on it.
5: Capital
If your store isnt fully up and running with enough features to warrant me coming back after i check it out... I wont be coming back. SO be sure to be up and running when i get there. If a LAN center can operate long enough for ppl to come in and see all the bells and whistles, its going to go under. In a Urban area where ppl know you opened up and see yoru buisness, they will pick up on it faster. In a rural area where we may not have been to that side of town in 10 years (its sometimes a 20-30 min drive jsut in a small town) it is going to take longer for us to get to know what you have and if we want to come there. So youd better have a bank account that can run income free for awhile.
There are probably alot of spelling errors in this... Ill check it later. Anyhow if you dissagree with anything let me know.
