Internet Cafe

[PokerManiac]

Hey guys,

I moved here in South Africa from Greece two years ago and I am amazed by the lack of Gaming Internet Cafes in this country... I live in Pretoria and I've only seen one Internet Cafe that has like 6 pc's and doesn't look very inviting for gamers and stuff. I use to work in an Internet Cafe back in Greece and that was 24/7 and was busy all day and night. If one existed here that was meant for gamers with proper keyboard, mouses, pc specs, monitors, proper ambiance for gamers... especially for games WoW, Diablo, LoL, HoN and etc... would you go? Because I would..

ps. if anyone knows any internet cafes here in pretoria plz pm me

 

[azbob]

Hatfield. Near Kung Fu kitchen.

 

[PokerManiac]

Hartield. Near Kung Fu kitchen.

Whats the name?

 

[azbob]

Whats the name?

Not sure. It's Chinese.

 

[AniV]

Internet Cafes aren't a very profitable market segment in SA, especially not Gaming Cafes.
The equipment is expensive to own and maintain, and most gamers will own their own stuff.

What few internet cafes do exist go out of business very quickly (internet can be easily had in other forms) or charge ludicrous rates for internet usage, usually time-based instead of cap-based.

 

[PokerManiac]

Internet Cafes aren't a very profitable market segment in SA, especially not Gaming Cafes.
The equipment is expensive to own and maintain, and most gamers will own their own stuff.

What few internet cafes do exist go out of business very quickly (internet can be easily had in other forms) or charge ludicrous rates for internet usage, usually time-based instead of cap-based.

In Greece people own pc's and fast internet as well... but the reason we used to go there was for the fun of being with your friends playing the same game in the same room with 20 other person playing the same game... its not the same playing in a room by yourself.. that's the way I feel though... People here may like playing by themselves instead with friends...

 

[AniV]

In Greece people own pc's and fast internet as well... but the reason we used to go there was for the fun of being with your friends playing the same game in the same room with 20 other person playing the same game... its not the same playing in a room by yourself.. that's the way I feel though... People here may like playing by themselves instead with friends...

We used to do that a lot too - but we would just pack up our own PCs and take them with us. Our PCs are all configured in a specific way for each of us, we have our personal preferences on our headsets, mice, keyboards, chairs, screens, settings etc. I hate playing games on someone else's PC.
Nowadays we are too lazy to pack up our stuff, so we just play over the internet. But if we want to LAN we will still take our own stuff along.
I guess we simply don't have the same gamer culture here.

 

[Creepster]

Use to run a internet cafe.22 pc's running CS starcraft,diablo 2 Gta 3 and lot more.We were always capped with up to 60 people on a waiting list.place was making mega bucks.and it just died 4 years later.internet is just so cheap now alot of people has it. and since more people has pc's more lans was going on every weekend.and ja its imposible to run a gaming internet cafe nowadays.and you also cant have 20 people playing COD on a 4Mb line and some guy trying to download stuff next to you.and some moron crashing the internet every now and then.And those was the days of the good old 17'' CRT's overheated a lot of plugs as well

 

[snugglez64]

In Greece people own pc's and fast internet as well... but the reason we used to go there was for the fun of being with your friends playing the same game in the same room with 20 other person playing the same game... its not the same playing in a room by yourself.. that's the way I feel though... People here may like playing by themselves instead with friends...

Interesting.. I would go to such a place if it had the games that I play (Most FPS - BF3 right now).

It's lekker jamming with buddies IRL! I'm always having mates over at my place doing a LAN.

The thing is, I like my setup and I think other gamers like theirs too..

But if the setup/atmosphere of the place is good, you could be on a winner here.

 

[PokerManiac]

Interesting.. I would go to such a place if it had the games that I play (Most FPS - BF3 right now).

It's lekker jamming with buddies IRL! I'm always having mates over at my place doing a LAN.

The thing is, I like my setup and I think other gamers like theirs too..

But if the setup/atmosphere of the place is good, you could be on a winner here.

Believe me we had all kinds of games.. you could find the most weird games... And we had always people playing Cod and BF and even CS.... But WoW was the most popular.. we had like 20 people at all times playing together.. but all of them were there almost every day so everyone knew everyone.. fun times...

 

[PokerManiac]

Use to run a internet cafe.22 pc's running CS starcraft,diablo 2 Gta 3 and lot more.We were always capped with up to 60 people on a waiting list.place was making mega bucks.and it just died 4 years later.internet is just so cheap now alot of people has it. and since more people has pc's more lans was going on every weekend.and ja its imposible to run a gaming internet cafe nowadays.and you also cant have 20 people playing COD on a 4Mb line and some guy trying to download stuff next to you.and some moron crashing the internet every now and then.And those was the days of the good old 17'' CRT's overheated a lot of plugs as well

That's sad to hear... After all in Greece as I told you it's not about the fast Internet and the pc's... it's about hanging out together having fun.. and the pc's in the Internet cafe were not that bad... But we had 4 x 24mbps lines. You are right about the ADSL... 4 mbps is tragic... I miss Greece

remember playing Diablo II in the CRT monitors.. eyes were burning after 24 hour sessions.. I remember people sleeping next to me... once one guy crapped his pants and we through him out.. what a legend this guy was... best Diablo and WoW player I ever knew...

 

[Creepster]

That's sad to hear... After all in Greece as I told you it's not about the fast Internet and the pc's... it's about hanging out together having fun.. and the pc's in the Internet cafe were not that bad... But we had 4 x 24mbps lines. You are right about the ADSL... 4 mbps is tragic... I miss Greece

remember playing Diablo II in the CRT monitors.. eyes were burning after 24 hour sessions.. I remember people sleeping next to me... once one guy crapped his pants and we through him out.. what a legend this guy was... best Diablo and WoW player I ever knew...

Hey we were rocking dual DSL at that time.it was 128 Kbps on 2 lines I think.

 

[PokerManiac]

Hey we were rocking dual DSL at that time.it was 128 Kbps on 2 lines I think.

Good times... Remember playing Diablo II at home with a pstn connection.. 56k... Internet cafe had 5-6 isdn connections

 

[Gozzy]

Internet cafe's use to be a lot of fun, I remember playing Quake 2 on LAN at an Internet Cafe back in the day.... but yeah, gamers in SA are very specific about their settings/mice/keyboard/PC and the adsl we have here ain't fast enough for 20ppl playing online... bottom line it's like our Video Stores...eventually they will die out too, why bother going to an internet cafe where u can play in the comfort of your own home, not be bothered about your time being up, lag free, I guess it's just too much hassle to game at internet cafe's these days.

Make no mistake, it was fun while it lasted....

Other than that, there's still hope for you tho, its called, MAYHEM LAN (www.mayhem.co.za) as far as I know it happens once a month.... I've seen people spending their entire weekends there

 

[PokerManiac]

Internet cafe's use to be a lot of fun, I remember playing Quake 2 on LAN at an Internet Cafe back in the day.... but yeah, gamers in SA are very specific about their settings/mice/keyboard/PC and the adsl we have here ain't fast enough for 20ppl playing online... bottom line it's like our Video Stores...eventually they will die out too, why bother going to an internet cafe where u can play in the comfort of your own home, not be bothered about your time being up, lag free, I guess it's just too much hassle to game at internet cafe's these days.

Make no mistake, it was fun while it lasted....

Other than that, there's still hope for you tho, its called, MAYHEM LAN (www.mayhem.co.za) as far as I know it happens once a month.... I've seen people spending their entire weekends there

That looks fun.. I guess everyone brings their own equipment...

 

[Avenue]

One of the biggest problems with internet cafe's in south africa is that it just works out too expensive and the time is waaaay too limited- we would play warcraft 2 or something, and then have to rush our games at the end because our time was running out.

I think the whole model would have to be relooked at- getting the people in and keeping them there somehow, then making money off drinks and food and cigarettes- I dont know, maybe have chill areas etc to encourage that sense of community. But every internet cafe that I have ever seen here only lasts a short time, before closing down.

 

[Wikkels88]

The only place I can think of is Game-net in Starkey Avenue Waverley Pretoria, man did I have some fun gaming days there MANY moons ago, I dunno if their still in business though, I see their listed on hotfrog http://www.hotfrog.co.za/Companies/Game-Net maybe give them a call, the place always had the best vibes, and the owner (Chinese dude) is a real cool guy!