If I edited it, then it would’ve been a page long.
nobody wants to read a novel, so I split it into palatable chunks to digest.
Jesus, you guys aren’t really reading WHY a lot of us are saying why arcades here in DFW don’t work!
Try if you’d like, but a lot of us guys who’ve been here long enough in the scene know the trends of the area.
OMG let’s do a quick summary:
horrible distance between Dallas and Fort Worth 30 - +1 hour drives = FAIL)
scattered player base
broke-ass/cheap-ass niggas
lack of strong commitment with the majority of said player base
no real place with dedicated/strong traffic for clientele
online play is convenient for a lot of lazy players who don’t want to make the trek
you’d be lucky enough to scrape by every month on the lease. Just because of SFIV, doesn’t mean like this magical player base will have the balls to actually venture into an arcade, you know.
P.S.
Roger is a nice guy that made his arcade player-centric…and it still failed.
I understand your opinion, but like I’ve said, we’ve done research around our area.
In our own area, we believe there’s enough to at least stay open. We posted here to see if anyone here would want to come out and get some ideas for more machines.
So far, we have some great ideas, and it seems there’s at least a few people that are interested in seeing what we will have to offer.
In reference to your “summary”:
If you really think about it, 30min to 1hr isn’t that long. Once again, we’re opening it as an alternative for driving 4 hours to get to Austin or Houston.
Read the first paragraph.
you really shouldn’t judge people you don’t know. Our area really isn’t that broke. I work at Gamestop and see people come in all the time and drop $200-$300 on just games.
It’s hard to say if people are committed or not to a place that isn’t open yet. That’s something people will have to decide for themselves. We’ll try our best to keep it interesting and fun. Our arcade is going to be geared towards what everyone wants. We’re not just gonna go buy a new game unless the majority of people want it in there.
OK, you guys live in Hurst? I used to live in Hurst, North Richland Hills, and Watauga/Keller. My folks still live in Keller, and I go there every once in a while. 15 years, more or less around the Mid-Cities…
I know the area quite well. The renovations and little things to beautify “certain” parts of the place doesn’t change very much that it’s full of lower-mid to mid-income families. upper-mid and above live in North Dallas.
Not many dedicated fools will go all the way to the HEB area to go to an arcade…
again, TCC is nothing compared to UofH and Austin.
uh-oh, you’re an “optimistic” 20-yr old college kid working at Gamestop… groans
Changing the culture/trends/habits/nature of the community in DFW is a fruitless effort. You’d have to be a miracle worker, seriously. I’m being real.
if you get an arcade going, dont expect much from dfw as a whole.(as far as srk is concerned)
there are dedicated players, and players that WILL make the effort to go out there but overall most are “fickle” LOL
Also you have to make your arcade community oriented rather than player oriented, give to the community and the community will give back. If you show people that your arcade isn’t a shady place and talk to some parents or something, I’d think they wouldn’t mind giving their kid 10-20 bucks to go blow on games somewhere! As far as location goes, again I’d look at plano or in the up and coming north dallas area, plenty of mid-high income families and plenty of bored teens.
I can and you should also be able understand how the veterans of the area would be jaded with the scene here, I didn’t get to experience it because I’m a “Young’un” but still it sounds pretty bad. But thinking about it, I think we all have at least one friend who plays fighting games casually. Bring him. Another friend who doesn’t play on stick at all? Bring him. I’ve converted at least 10 people from smash/halo (ewww) to street fighter 4, then from street fighter 4 to third strike/ST. I think it’s possible with some commitment, then again I wasn’t here before so I don’t know the scene like that.
Also, just had to put in that UTD probably has one of the biggest gaming communities in any southwest university. And when I say gaming, I don’t just mean casual get togethers, but professional involvement in the industry. A lot of studios (epic, iguana, gearbox, retro, etc.) hire directly from UTD, not to mention industry ties are extremely strong. 4 of my friends that just graduated have already moved on to industry positions, one of them being the Motion Capture Lead for Doom 4.
What this all means is that you have an educated crowd that would more than likely support an arcade. We use to have a tekken 5 in our student union, and the machine got a lot of volume until it broke down and never got replaced. Obviously, most of this is anecdotal, but I’m sure the insight won’t hurt. Also, UTD is in Richardson/Plano. Please believe when I say there’s a lot of money over here lol.
i liked animation town. it got boring after a while when the only games i played there were cvs2 single player and beatmania with broken right side, but that’s to be expected since I don’t think any fighting game arcade could have survived the game drought of 2004-2006 (i think the only games that came out then were tekken 5 which roger couldn’t realistically make money off of and gg slash).
but also, if you’re trying to make a fighting game arcade, you’ll never make money. you’ll be lucky just to break even on a t6 or an sf4. those two machines alone (with good cabinets) are going to at least set you back $20k. and i don’t make any money like “you won’t be retiring at 20!” i mean you aren’t going to come close to recouping energy costs alone, let alone lease, cabinet maintainance and new product.
i don’t know what you mean by “regular arcade games” since there aren’t those anymore. there’s gun games, card-based racing games, fighting games, and rhythm games, and rhythm games are on the way out. unless it’s guitar hero arcade, and even then sighs.
your arcade’s also close enough to the gameworks that you won’t steal any business from them attraction-wise, so that’s not really important anyway.
the only real way to succeed as an arcade in dfw is to sell ramune at $5 a bottle, but even then you can buy that at central market.
What I liked most about Einsteins when it was around was the atmosphere inside and out. If I wanted to drink I could head to the pizza place next door. Get filled up with pizza and beer or walk around and get some asian food and keep playing. Plus the comp was fierce.
I like UFO cause the strip isn’t that long of a walk and its in a nice area, and the hookah bar plus they sell beer next door.
PZ is cool cause of the atmosphere and lots of places around to drink and eat.
Plus it wasn’t just fighting games I would play there, I hit the all the machines, shooters, DDR, racing games. Shit was mad fun.
Just putting my two cents in what makes me keep going somewhere is the scene around the venue. If its boring and no one goes cause its to far or lame Im not going even it the only arcade in the area. Booze is a big factor to some people like me. Seriously though Uptown, North Dallas , Richardson/Plano area are very nice and accessible I think for most people. Shit people drive an hour or more just to get a few hours of games for one night cause comp is there. Just saying.
It’s already been touched upon but I’ll paraphrase it again:
DO NOT CATER TO THIS COMMUNITY!!! DO NOT CATER TO THIS COMMUNITY!!! DO NOT CATER TO THIS COMMUNITY!!!
Eitherway, some notes:
Redemption games are bank; look at how many people throw money away at those “Stacker” games in hoping they’ll win a DSi or Wii. It’s pretty much like a slot machine: we know a payout is going to happen but it seldom does.
A real while back Roger got an upgrade for his IIDX machine after a million people promised that they’ll make it worth his while. What happened? Machine is dead most of the time, devoid of the hardcore players and no where near justifying the $15K(?) he spent on bringing it other here. Don’t bet on hopes and well wishes because dropped him in the hole for even more money.
Another SRKer and I touched on it lightly but Plano is devoid of anything to do for the younger crowd so you might want to look into that area. No universities or colleges in that city but it’s 250K strong and is a notably affluent city to boot.
Once again I thank everyone for there positive and insightful feedback, honestly no one will know if it works unless we try right?
from here on out please no more flaming us, just say a neutral response and move on, don’t be bias and tell us stuff that can’t be proved. just play nice.
Guys, I think the deal is basically going to come down to demographics and target market, which is the same for any business. The key is to be specific but not to the point where you would eliminate general sales. There are many variables that you have to consider in your thought process. Will you be a destination based business or a business based on visibility? What is your target market? What is your target age group? What are your overhead costs? What is your static costs? What are your variable costs? Startup costs with depreciation? All of these things are just the tipping point?
If you are a neighborhood arcade that will cater to all ages, how much money are you wanting to generate from the children crowd, and how close is the Chuck E. Cheese to you? Will you be a compliment to them or can you draw business away? If you are catering to the older crowd what will draw them away from Gameworks/Dave And Busters that will have alcohol?
I am not trying to dissuade you from doing anything, but I can tell you right now although interest rates are very good, is this venture worth going into debt for?
What will be your marketing plan? Do you plan on marketing? If you are truly truly curious about this, I would ask poonage to fully discuss the operating costs and Profit & Loss statements for an arcade since he is currently involved with one now.
A lot can go into any business and it sounds like you guys are really serious about it, so just as a personal piece of advice I would try and put in as much research as possible. And just make sure that there is not a question that can go unanswered before making your decision.
