LAN Games

[Undeadlord]

Hey guys, I am looking for some advice. I work full time now as a computer support specialist, or Proffesional Geek as I like to say. Anyway in my spare time, I would like to start a small company that hosts LAN games. Nothing huge like max of 50 people. Here are some of my ideas and I would love to here other people, comments, info or critiscims.

Space: Most hotels have conference rooms and such that can be rented and setup how I owuld need. Plus this is handy becuase LAN games tend to last into the evening and people would have a place to crash as well

Systems: BYOS, Bring your own system. People would come and setup their boxes, hell thats half the fun of going to a LAN game is seeing what other people have.

Games: BYOG, Bring your own game. This is a tough one. My thoughts are here, you come in play on the LAN and your game works, I am not asking questions about where you got it. If your system keeps saying "Identical Serial # in use" then we have problems, but otheriwise I wasn't planning on doing a system by system check. I would have copies of the games we would be playing on sale though.

Servers: I would provide the servers for the games that need them. Myabe have a system up and running for DHCP. Would be easier than users all having to set their system to certain IP's.

Networking: Some them and some me, I would provide the switches and power outlets for everyone. Network cables would be for sale if you didn't have them, but you can bring your own. All cables would be checked before setting up your machine to make sure it works.

Just some thoughts. Any ideas.


Undeadlord

[BobOmega]

ok i can give you a little bit of advice now and some more when i get home.
first if you have the money then a hotel hall is the way to go. but it will be hard for you to get your money back on it. me and a friend are workign on having our own lan parties and so far the hall is the bigest bottle-neck. i found a real nice one but it would be over 600 for 12 hours. so if you figure in 30+ people it will be hard to get you money back on the hall. we are looking for a hall for jsut about 100. its hard. but i got to go back to class so i'll give more later.

[Undeadlord]

Hmm thats true .. My church has a very un-church like hall next to the church .. I wonder if they would let me use it for cheap Even has a computer video-projection unit and screen in it .. hmmmmm Would anyone feel weird playing video games in a quasi-church hall?

Undeadlord

[Epyon9283]

Hmm.... Killing virtual people in a church... Thats got to be some sort of sin.

[Undeadlord]

I don't know .. have you read the Old Testamnet lately ... God used to do his fair share of killing Plus this hall is for church, but its just a big hall, it has a stage and folding chairs. They use it for the contemporary service. The only way you would know its a church and not a rental hall or something is a small cross in the back. The idea sounds good, but in practice I don't know if people would be comfy there.

Undeadlord

[SickPup404]

What about an Elk's club, Moose lodge, etc.? I seem to remember when I got married, we got our local Elk's club for about $150. However, somebody who is a member had to get it for us. The bonus was (at that time), you could get drinks there.

[Undeadlord]

hehe 50 drunk gamers now thats fun .. Yea I believe you are right, I think a member must reserve it. I wonder how much these conference centers in the smaller hotels cost? I mean at a Holiday Inn I know they are expensive, but there is a Days Inn up the road abit that has one and I am sure the other budgest hotels have some around. I will be doing some checking into that.

Undeadlord

[J-Excel]

Township Halls are cheap on weekdays. Here anyway. I could get a hall that seats over 100 for around 50 bucks. Power may be an issue.

[zskillz]

eh.. maybe a small warehouse of some sort man.... you need somewhere where 50 drunk gamers won't wake up the whole neighborhood with their loud games and loud behavior

you need to make it easy to set things up.

you need to have a separate area for using the internet (IMO only!.... it sucks when Lan bandwidth is sucked up by people surfing)

you need to have access to an outside area (fresh air... smokers... etc.)

you need to have control of the network... IT level control. Nothing goes in or out of the warehouse unless you know about it...

probably think of some others later

-Z

[Undeadlord]

Yea a wharehouse would be very cool .. have to see what I can find around here.

One nice thing about a hotel is that they would have chairs and tables there to use.

Internet surfing is not a priority. I mean yea it would be nice , but I am not planning on it right away.

Yep I figure a decent amout of gamers smoke or will want a fresh air break.

What do you mean control of the wharehouse? Do you mean data, hardware? what exactly?

ANy comments on my ideas about software? Thats probably the area I am sketchy about.

Undeadlord