Starting a LAN at my college

[Karter]

Hi, im 18 years old and participated at i30, i31 and i32 which was awesome. Now theres a young enterprise set up at my college event name - Dragons den. My idea is to set up a LAN of multi-player gaming for a few months up to march. We have a location of high spec computers within the college and my proposal speech is tomorrow! :P I have ideas about having tournaments like at the I-series where prizes can be won and have found the licenses needed to run the games on 30 machines.

My question would be is there any issues that could help my LAN going or major points consider while trying to convince that this business is a successful one, during the speech.

- Thank you for reading from Karter

[Dentist]

Having a setup of high-spec computers and licences for the games already secured will cut out 90% of the common problems affecting new LAN parties. However, how are you planning on running the events, just an all-day affair? Only a one-off or more regularly?

[Karter]

every working day from 3 - 5 ...charge about £1.45 for half an hour £2.45 for 2 hours

[ez64]

so are these the uni's machines if so you are one lucky guy.

[her0n]

So more of a net-cafe than a lan party then?

[Karter]

well its focussed on just gaming and organized tournaments and stuff so i would say LAN party but without BYOC.

should be awesome as the connection means a ping of 0 :P

[Mastacheif]

You will never get a 0 ping less you are the host. Typically college machines don't have the graphics capabilities for modern games.

[rick_2k]

The major points of doing this in my opinion are:

Price. IMO anything over £2 a hour i never pay at lan cafes.. hours fly by and i hate spending lots. I know most people are even stingyer(sp?) most of my mates think even £2/hr is a ripoff. Most people would rather play for free at home nowdays.

Time available. Do your customers have the time at college/uni? If not will they come? (im sure most will value getting something to eat very importaint ;P) I know the longest breaks i get are 1 hour obviously i dont know the situations where you are.

Location. Ok you are at college/uni but do those kids want to play games? well enough of them anyway. Done any research? what if no one is intrested!

Just a few points i think of. Not being funny or anything but just think about it instead of putting in alot of effort just to go to waste.

I have seen all 4 of my local lan shops go under the past few years so i think its very hard to make work(yeah different situation to you but same business)

Sweet idea anyway though.. i wish my college had a proper lan area (well technically we do! but we keep it hush ;))

[Karter]

thx for you help, i do appreciate your suggestions. I just had my speech and it went awesome ....5 out of 6 have invested so its all good baby! iv already found about the specs such as graphics cards and the students who are interested in the idea to show up.

We might do it 3 times a week instead of 5 to aid the fact that all computers will be more likely to be used. The connection is a 100mb and these graphics cards should be able to handle call of duty 4 on low graphics.

Its not uni, its up to a-levels :P

Thx 4 the help all - Karter