We are looking into having our comic and card shop have a Dreamcast and PS3 setup inside so people can play fighting games (only fighting games) in the shop and I’ve got a few issues I’d like opinions on.
Games lineup:
Dreamcast: MvC & MvC2
PS3:SF4, SSF2HD
Hardware:
Amazon HRAP2 w/Sanwa buttons. Total Control Plus adapter for PS2->DC and inPin PS2->PS3 adapter . Two of each of the above.
The Sticks:
Price:
Two dollars all day.
Rules:
You may bring your own controller if you like.
Abuse of the equipment will cost you your privlidge to play for the day, week, month or indefinitely @ the discretion of Drom’s Comics & Cards.
The winner of each round may stay on until they have played one full rotation of the line.
Keep the trash-talking fun for everybody. Don’t make it personal and don’t let it be personal.
No betting!
No fighting! If there is a fight, we will call the police and those involved may be banned.
I understand most fighting game enthusiasts have these games at home, but not everybody has access to a good stick and a variety of opponents (minus online matches with a bit of lag).
We now have weeklies on Mondays @ 4pm with a $5 entry fee. We are coming up on our 5th week on 5-18 and attendance has been: 10-8-10-14. The second week was smaller because we had to change days after we found out we were competing with another group for that day.
Well, first off, I think it’s a fantastic idea to have fighting games in there.
Second of all, I think $2.00 is reasonable. You wanna draw the younger crowd in and majority of them won’t have much money. It’d be nice if you set up tournaments for those games, on different days base on their popularity. I do think it’s a good idea, but in the end, how much would this cost on your over head, that’s what matters the most.
edit: also, there’s a comic book section on here, you might want to ask over there, but I’ll leave this thread here and see what the responses are.
The biggest problem isn’t the initial gear cost or the electricity, it’s people jacking up/stealing your stuff and getting into fights.
The area needs to be away from the door, but out in the open to where it can easily be seen and needs to always be watched and inspected by people you can trust who work there. I would even have a security camera on it as well. Rules like no gum or food or drink could literally save you thousands of $$$.
Watch what type of crowd your games attracts and be wary. Changing the game line-up to something more childish can be an easy way to get rid of these people.
Also, I think you might have pay for some kind of license or something for pay-per-play type stuff with consoles in a store/arcade. A simple way to get around that is to sell some card pack or other merchandise and as a added bonus you get to access to the game.
Thanks for the input. I agree with keeping everything away from the door. I don’t believe we need to worry too much since everybody employed there is very trustworthy and the store is always full of regulars who care very much about the store’s success (if we leave they no longer have a local shop to hang out at). Those regulars would help keep new people in check.
Right now the idea is to start off with a Dreamcast with MvC1&2 and a couple of sticks and see how things go. If it proves to be worthwhile, I’ll invest the $300-400 in a used 60gb PS3 and bring the rest of the titles from home. I already have the DC and I’m going to trade my PS2 version of MvC2 for the DC versions of MvC1&2 today (yay craigslist!) so that will be a cheap way of testing the waters.
I did this at a card shop I worked for back in high school. It’s a good idea. It’s a good atmosphere to learn since there isn’t technically any competition or money on the line once people get comfortable with the idea of fighting games or comfortable with the tournament aspects of it you can start asking regulars if they’d like to have tournaments, try to find a day that works for everyone…etc…
Free play is a great floor to build something on. I did it with all the new TCG/CCG’s that came out. We’d do a week or two of free play and free drafts, if people liked the game enough we’d hold tourneys, if not, we wouldn’t.
Same could be applied for SF/Marvel/Whatever. Longer than a week though. But like other people said, expenses would become an issue. 2-3 dollars for all day would be fine like Pryde said.
IMO, $2 is too low, considering you’re gonna have those kids that will literally camp out because they have nothing else to do. I even know some adults that have nothing to do that would probably linger around.
You might get away with $4-$5 for an all day thing.
Maybe we’ll start with $3 all day. The real idea here is to break even off the first guy and start to make some money off the rest. If we had 1 player every single day @ $2 that’d be somewhere around $60 a month, which should easily cover the electricity used by a single console and TV. If we can get a healthy group of 3-5 people daily @ $2 each, then that’s around $180 a month (after electricity is paid for) that we didn’t have before.
As far as protecting the gear, I think I’m going to keep a legal copy of all DC games on hand but only let them play with backups, and keep the consoles in a locked box similar to how Gamestop does it. I know there needs to be a lot of ventilation and there will be.
I can get the Mayflash sticks @ wholesale price so I think I’m going to grab a few of those and see what happens with them, and I also think that’s what I’m going to base the store’s sticks on. So they’ll be Mayflash PS2/PS3/PC sticks with Sanwa parts. If the sticks don’t sell, they eBay for more than double my cost so it won’t be too hard to get the money back. Also, I’m trying to find a source so I can carry Sanwa/Seimetsu parts.
More or less, the only money that will be spent up front is to build the two sticks for the store, to buy the adapters and to buy the 60gb PS3. I already own all the games (but I’m not about to part with SF4 so I guess I need to spend money there) and a 60gb PS3 can now be found for around $300-350. The products will be money up front as well but they are pretty safe investments since eBay seems to love fighting game-related items.
Sounds like a great idea. I know if I was in that area I’d be down for that from time to time.
The first concern I had upon reading was, something might get broken. People aren’t always delicate with equipment, and stuff that’s out in the open tends to generate that old “Wal-Mart, display unit” kind of impression - ie. no respect for it.
I think it would be awesome so long as you make it very clear: you break it, you buy it. Have them sign a document stating that they will be held responsible if they break anything.
I’ve decided to go with a pair of the orange Amazon HRAP2 sticks. I was trying to scrounge up enough parts around my house to build some but I came up short, and with the delay on good parts I’d rather just order a couple of ready to go sticks. Plus the orange HRAP looks sexy. Also, I think I’ll put out a jar for an HDTV fund once everything is moving. Next stop is a 60gb PS3!
I’d like to get some discussion on rules. Any abuse costs you the privildge to use the equipment for the day with no refunds. Once you have beaten everybody in line, your turn is up (assuming any of those people got back in line). More ideas please! Thanks for the input!
First of all the PS2 MvsC2 is a gem, getting rid of that is like giving away a kidney. From what i’ve seen the DC version is much cheaper and readily available than the PS2 one.
MVC2 for playstation is highly valued as a collectors item because it is so rare but it is by far the shittiest version of MVC2 sold as far as actually playing it. I wouldn’t shed a tear to rid myself of it, especially since if it ever gets reissued the price for the PS2 version will plummet.
Also, I have owned a few copies of the PS2 version, but never actually played it since I got my DC. The last copy I grabbed for $13 at a local record store. I regularly check out the local usual suspects for good deals on out of print rpg’s and fighters. I’m confident I’ll find another at some point, but until then I couldn’t have people playing illegal copies and paying money for it.
Just be aware that your shop might be camped by school kids who have nothing better to do than hang and play games all day, getting in the way of customers and annoying you endlessly with their screaming and shouting.
You might draw a totally different crowd than you expected. I.e those kids who just hang at a gameshop playing Guitar Hero for free and never buy anything, leaving their clothes and accessories on the floor to annoy customers.
One of the hobby cafes (ie can play cards/board games) here is doing something similar, in that they hold friendlies + mini tourneys every once in a while. Charge for entering to play? One meal, or alternatively, RM10 worth of purchase in anything (Malaysian currency).
EDIT: Then again, I dunno if you serve food/drinks. If you don’t, you might want to look into supplying some, at least for hte gamers, who probably wouldn’t want to move to have nourishments.
