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Theater Morphing Into Multi-Player Gaming Arena
J3zmund writes "This article highlights the attempt by ESports Arena to bring gaming to the masses. They're building what looks like a command center with gaming equipment, comfy chairs, and big screens to follow the action. For the price of a movie, patrons can frag to their hearts' content for 2 hours (extra time available, of course). This could sprawn some interesting events (once gaming goes beyond 'kill'). With The Sims ready to go online this month, it could open this up to a much larger audience than the "young males" they currently identify. How 'bout some Sim Rocky Horror Online Saturday nights..."
Did they attempt this in the 90's. I remember in chicago go to Pier One and playing the BattleTech Mech games. Expensive but fun as hell.
I also remember they went out of business as soon as the pc had a good cable connection and mechwarrior2 came out. What do they think is different now?
thanks
Sigs are dangerous coy things
Thousands of nerds...one big room... Glad I won't be there to smell it.
I'm doing this simply to piss you off, and to parade around the fact that I could write out this whole saga faster than you could write a pathetic little "first post"!
But not, apparently, faster than someone could write "Woo" and "1st Post"...
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just imagine. going to the local 'game theater'. paying your 10 bucks or so. then getting in a flight simulator type game along with 30 other gamers and fighting against each other, deathmatch style or cap the flag style or completing missions.
esp when VR becomes a bit more of a reality. i am kinda surprised this hasn't happened sooner.
"The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and hoping for different results"
with Fred Savage and they played Nintendo at the World Video Game Championships. What I remember was where Fred's character's brother was playing Super Mario 3 with a power glove, and I was like, hey, that's not possible. Anyone remember (I should probably go to imdb and look it up but I'm too lazy :)?
"The whole LAN party scene has been kind of like a geeky cult thing," he said. "These guys are making it more mainstream."
They make the article sound like only total geeks and kids go to lan parties..wtf I originally lived in wa state and found lan parties all over..not everyone was geeks or zit faced teenagers... There are alot of mid 30's-40's adults that attend the lans Ive gone to. I recently moved to arizona this summer and got a job at office max. Turns out they hold a monthly lan with all of the employees and its a blast. Some of these guys barely know how to operate their computer but they enjoy lanning. Welcome to the new age of entertainment...its been around for a while.
.[[erax0r]].
Now, with a video game, why would I pay $10 (or whatever) to play with the same kind of setup I have at home? I would imagine that the people who would be interested in this already have a very good setup at home and this would be a waste of time for a lot of people.
This isn't an arcade where one game is a quarter - the price they are asking is prohibitively expensive for what is received. I would rather even rent a game and play it at home or at a lan party.
That they offer play to the multiplayer version of Barbie Fashion designer.
My little sad piece of the internet: www.mtndewd
...some people will pay admission, drop a vat of popcorn over the keyboard, idly look at the screen, speak loudly to their neighbor during the whole game, and then leave saying the movie sucked on their cellphones... ^^
The ENIAC Demo Competition
...that you didn't went to see LoTR opening night.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
Think of it this way... You're sitting in a comfy leather chair in an air conditioned arena. The replay of you bringing in the winning flag-capture is flashing on one of the giant screens at the front of the arena. A waiter/watress brings you the vat of scotch you ordered, and you slowly nurse it whilst clamoring with your local clanmates as you ready for the next match...
It'd be like going to the clubs, only slightly better in that no obnoxious idiots would look at you funny for just sitting at the bar soaking in the scenes and sounds.
This will only be really successful if they can make the gaming experience people get at home better. They have to offer things like cigars, drinks (free refils on sodas), snacks, and whatnot. Furthermore, if they REALLY want the bucks from the men of that age bracket, have cute women be the waitresses. Think about it. What horny male gamer 21+ wouldn't like to game in a big comfy chair while an attractive woman brings them drinks and their success is trumpeted to all there? I'd be there in a heartbeat.
Without the ammeneties though, say it's just a movie theater converted to an arena for gaming, and all they do for you is give you a terminal and some time. That will fail. There has to be a draw.
----- I want my LART.
Might be fun to try out, but for the price of a movie ticket you can rent two games and hang on to them for days instead of two hours. Besides, with XBox Live and PS2's online system, it doesn't strike me as necessary to pay a fee for player matchmaking. Sure, with this the players are actually physically there, but aren't the only people you want to be talking to your gaming buddies anyhow? And if that's the case why not just have all of them cover over to one geek's house and all play from there?
have cute women be the waitresses. Think about it. What horny male gamer 21+ wouldn't like to game in a big comfy chair while an attractive woman brings them drinks and their success is trumpeted to all there? I'd be there in a heartbeat.
Yeah, they could call it BOOTERS.
I think you might be a tad over-optimistic with your idea. It sounds like a good idea, but really.. how many 'wonderful' things really exist out there?
I'm sure lots of people would like cinemas where you got a blowjob from a beautiful woman throughout the film while being given free Jack Daniels refills, but they don't exist.
mogorific carpentry experiments
"How 'bout some Sim Rocky Horror Online Saturday nights..."
Hmmmmmm, how about not.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
Gaming environments such as these will rely on having better and more hardware than home users have. How will this affect their business model when they have to upgrade their hardware every 6 months to be able to play the newest games? Also, will they be buying 20 to 30 licenses of every game that comes out that is heavily played? I am interested in the cost of sustaining such a complex focused at gaming.
I do security
Two things:
1) $10 for 2 hours of gaming in a nice comfy theatre? What a steal! That would get a LOT of people interested.
2) "The Sims"' primary demographic is "young males"???? Funny, though there are certainly many young males who enjoy The Sims, I find it is popular with everyone who DOESNT fit the young male stereotype (ie those who dont like FPS games, etc)
siri
The article claims that this is not really a video arcade but I don't buy it. Other than the fact that they are using game consoles and have "executive leather chairs" how does this differ than an arcade? Sounds like a video arcade of the 21st century, but still an arcade.
Multi-Player Gaming Arena Morphs Into Theater!
Hey Taco! Looks like you're using the "infinite monkeys and typewriters" scheme to generate Ask Slashdots again...
My handle gives away my favorite character.
I just hope this doesn't end up being like a lot of other things that identify themselves with videogaming but don't actually include anything without a HUD and a BFG or an arcade with someone doing a jump kick followed by a medium punch canceled into a dragon punch.
I see you shiver with antici.....* AAAH LAG!! * pation!
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
It's a LAN party, they'll all be virgins.
Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
This sounds like it will be another case of Simulator Sickness on a grand scale for me. Anyone else who suffers from this knows that since the dawn of Doom, video gaming has been a nightmare for us. I used to play hours upon hours of video games when it was just nice side-scrolling or over-the-head aspects. Now after about 40 seconds of Unreal I'm ready to pass out. The majority of games that come out now that are worth anything are 3D, and I can only manage to play very few of them.
Sound waves should be free!
Now something I think would be cool would to hook up some EASports NBA Live or NBA2k3 on multitap. If you can sit in a big theatre and play a pickup basketball game on a huge screen with 9 other people, I think it can be pretty decent. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm fscking out of shape and white. Plus, it would be cool to drink (if you could) during it.
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"Duffman says a lot of things, OH YEAH!" - Duffman
I'd observe that there's a little problem with this theory: a lot of people won't pay 1/5 the cost of a game just to play it for two hours with people they know. Perhaps for 2h. with people they don't- but then, that's what netplay is for.
A version which would be far more likely to be succesful would be where the games are exclusive to the "gamevie halls-" not released to the public yet, and it won't be until it goes out of the game theatres. (Sort of like movies that go to home video, as opposed to those released to video the day they go to the movie theatre. Which gets a better turnout?)
Warning: Poster of this comment is a nerd. Just like everybody else here.
If that's really what it looks like, what are they going to be playing on the screen ?
Recordings of previous games ? For chrisstake, that would beat out Arnold Rimmer's Risk Story for boredom.
Current Games ? Gee, well I guess I'd have to choose a seat where I can see the main screen while playing. Give a little bit of an edge. Who needs cheats when your opponents screen is being projected at 20 x 14 foot resolution above their head.
Places like this theatre are just going to fill up with the same sort of arseholes that ruin Internet Cafes.
MASTERKILLA - "Fragged again?! WTF! It's my keyboard and mouse! They're all F*CKED an backwards!!"
0WNZU - "5ur3 th3y 4r3, LAM3RZ! w0ot!!!! 1 rU!3 t1M3 4nD 5P@C3!!!! U SUxxx00rs B4D!!!!!!!!!!!"
It amazes me that there is so much difference between USA and some other countries...
Back in Russia and Korea (slashdot reported this wired article a while ago, look for baang word) they are so popular.
In fact, I used to work in one in Moscow. They are called gaming clubs back there. Huge market.
The funny thing is the economy... I mean one hour costs from 0.5 to 1.5 US$ back there and there are always people there (some regulars too), even if they have computer at home. Most of the market is covered by small clubs though, 20 or so computers with average hardware (for a gaming machine) and internet access.
Back here in USA all you have is internet cafes, and you really can't find one... people do LAN parties, but that's it.
I am not sure if that is the reason for World Computer Games results (if you even know what that is)
The equipment there is not replaced every 6 months. Much of it is inferior to my modest Athlon 600 with a 1 year old video card.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
If this is going to succeed anywhere, San Diego's Gaslamp district is probably one of the better places to start. I live in San Diego, and I can tell you that the Pacific Theater is dead center of one of the biggest party zones outside of Los Angeles. Add that to the very high local population of 18 to 24-year olds from all the local colleges, universities and the Navy and Marine bases, and you've got what looks like a good chance of making a buck or two.
Personally, I wish them success. I wouldn't mind giving it a try myself. It will be interesting to see just what they've got set up come January.
This is a brilliant concept. There was a 3d game called Chasm-The Rift, which enabled the server to actually split the display into 4 quadrants , so that one could see the players fragging each other - i guess it was ahead of its time. I wonder how they are gonna make the costing work ; will they charge the same as a movie ticket for 2 hrs of gameplay? And why only consoles ? Why not PCs ? I guess we'll have publishers like EA sponsering events, with banners (and maybe pompom girls) all over the place. I'd be spending the better part of my weekend at such a venue !!!!
|/________
|\A|ALYS|
It moved to Fox Valley Mall in Aurora. It may have gone out of business AFTER that, I don't know. I do still have my mechwarrior ID card around somewhere.
So no, this isn't new, HOWEVER...
I'm actually going to (this makes me feel young) a Mechwarrior IV party in a couple weeks. Still need to buy the game so I can. We're all going to be carting our computers over there and networking them together.
I think people would pay $8 to NOT have to cart over their computers, get the immersive cockpit experience that the Battletech center offerred, and be able to have parties with their friends.
Lord only knows how many tokens I've dropped in that infernal Star Wars machine at the arcade.
paintball
Get an old Cyrix chip and a regular PCI video card.
Once you get UT down to about 2 - 3 frames per second I'm sure you won't have any 'simulator sickness' problems.
Personally, Decent was the only one that really got me confused. (I'd keep trying to "flip the world" in my head to figure out which why my ship was flying.)
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.