new gaming cafe?

[RefractedAhav]

I would like to start a internet/gaming cafe. I want to offer healthier foods and beverages than are people normally eat. what Kind of stuff do you look for in a Cyber cafe?

[mechana2015]

I don't anymore, though I used them the most when I was in europe, where I looked for ones that had wireless access for sale. I didn't care about the food or anything else, since the internet was my only way to contact home.

[RefractedAhav]

since free wifi is the thing now, I'm not sure how well that would go over. However it is worth considering

[mechana2015]

since free wifi is the thing now, I'm not sure how well that would go over. However it is worth considering

I think that in most areas the era of the gaming cafe is over, really. If someone wants to play PC games they buy a computer. Cafe's are for playing multiplayer games generally, and security and updating are a HUGE issue for keeping one running, as well as affording the games for each computer. I used to work at an internet cafe and we got every single virus that cropped up on the internet, and eventually couldn't do gaming anymore because we lost so many computers to virus related errors and a general unwillingness by our managers to pay to keep the computers updated. In addition, longer games won't be playable since they'd require spending 30-40 hours in a cafe, and somehow securely saving an protecting the savefiles for each user of a game in a public cafe.

Another gaming cafe issue is keeping hardware up to date for new games, if one wants to present the best possible gaming location, and that can cost a small fortune to pull off.

[Rusty Claymore]

Espresso is good, and people buy it. But you'd have to get to know it or hire someone who did to make it stand out. And then location of course. I can't give you advice there, sorry >.<
I guess I've never been to a gaming cafe', but I head to my local coffee house to meet with friends and bring our games with us. Wii remotes, jumpdrives, and server based games like guildwars don't make savefiles an issue, and most alot of big mmorpg's just require a client then have server accounts.
As for food, I would shy from labelorganic, cause it tends to be more expencive, and not too nutritionally different. Up here, anyways.
I religeously order Frappechinos, so that'd be expresso, for what I look for.
I also look for cinnamon rolls, but i don't think thats what you are looking for... >.<

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Healthy food... at a gaming cafe?

[Rusty Claymore]

It's a novelty, you can charge more. 0.<
I'd go for it. Samwiches are always more sating than candybars. Nuthin against candybars... now I'm starving...
Elowen, maybe you could scout out some successful gaming cafe/internet/just cafes and ask them what works. You could get really good advice!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I've never met a gamer, who went to gaming cafes, to be health conscious.

[Rusty Claymore]

That's not the point. They go to game, and it just so happens there is more hearty food, not vicea versa.
But this is wandering off topic, in the sesne I don't think Elowen was concerned just with food, but furnishings and appliances... You could start a thread about health food vs gamers which could get interesting XD

[RefractedAhav]

lol

RC yes food was only part of what I was looking for suggestions on.

one more thing I've been thinking about, if I could get a space large enough, what do you all think about having multiple rooms some designated for wii or ddr? Maybe even karake?

[Cap'n Nick]

DDR sounds good. I know I've sought out many establishments specifically for this, no matter what else they happen to contain.

[minakichan]

I've hit some gaming cafes in Taiwan, and a board game cafe in Singapore. There's definitely your soda and crap, which people are going for, but I think having healthy stuff in ADDITION to junk food would be awesome. Especially since people go there and play for like hours or even days on end. The Singaporean cafe I went to has real food, and if you order a specific amount per number of people (like if everyone gets a meal and dessert or something), you get free play time.

As for what I look for, I don't like being too close to my neighbors, though I don't know if you're looking at just rows of computers or cubicles. Also, since I'll be engrossed in playing, I'll expect prompt service at the call button. Since a lot of people have computers at home, it might be cool to have more interactive areas that a lot of people can play together at-- maybe the ability to book more isolated sections of computers (imagine a group of customers coming in and saying "table for four"!). Would you consider having non-digital gaming too like DnD or TCGs? It'd be cool if you sold gaming merchandise and stuff too. <s>And it'd be really cool to have all the waitstaff be maids</s> no don't do that.

But this sounds awesome, tell us how you do!

[RefractedAhav]

I'll think about it. The rooms would be moniterd by camera if I have isolated rooms. This would be for security purposes and the monitors would in a private place them selves. Also I would have first aid in all rooms.

[Mithrandir]

Given the virus and hardware limitation issues, I'd really recommend going with console gaming (XBox 360/PS3) stations rather than full-on computers. It's easier to replace the controllers, if nothing else. XD

This pretty efficiently removes the virus issue and keeps you from having to upgrade every 8 months.

When considering food choices, you may want to make sure you're not serving things that are extremely messy, as that could cut into your profits when controllers, etc get gunked up.

HIH

[RefractedAhav]

I just thought of something....If I did not heed mith's warnings ( not that I don't appreciate your advice) against pcs and replaced machines once a year...I could then donate completed machines to underprivileged homes, churches and other charitably originations. This would mean better supplying people in need with better computers than they could get at wal mart or best buy and possible a tax break for the business. This means I could spend more money on advetising, computer camps, and better employee wages.

or I could not take the risks involved with maintaning abunch of power hungry technical monstrites and takes mith's advice to go console only.

about the food issue, how well would Hint or Vitaman water and Fruit and nut or granola bars go over in a cyber cafe.

[Mithrandir]

If you're open to comment:

First, the financial part of this... If you buy a PS3, it's about $300.00 new. You can use the same system for at least 2 years. How much would it cost to build a high-end gaming PC? I'm pretty sure you cannot get away with it for $150.00. What's the cost-benefit analysis of spending more on hardware for the tax write-off (which will be assessed by lowering your profit and therefor your taxable income)?

As for donating the old machines, that seems like quite a bit of yearly overhead. Plus, you'd want to blast the machines so that any customer information (not to mention viruses, etc) aren't being transferred to the needy organization(s).

[minakichan]

I've actually never seen a gaming cafes with consoles. I don't know how they do it though. Like, virus protection is a must, but there really isn't a way to make sure people aren't doing crazy stuff. I guess having security cams everywhere could help.