Gaming Cork/Dublin in the dust

mar|<

I realise this has been discussed so many times over but i was hoping for something more recent. Are there ANY gaming cafes in dublin(city centre)?? There seems to be none, just simple little places where tourists can contact their families or college students can print stuff. I was in cork last week and spent one night in an excellent gaming cafe called area 51 (heard of it?) it has 24 alienware area51 pcs with all the games anyone could need, a well stocked fridge and half price pizza orders! This is a recent addition to cork, there are other places which are almost as good such as webworkhouse. Why is it that dublin is left in the dust in this matter, is there a bigger gamer base in cork? i find it hard to believe that a hardcore gaming cafe cannot find customers in a city of over 1.5 million people. I am not a hardcore gamer(perhaps with the exception of an MMO) but me and friends would love something like area51/wwh in dublin, as im sure many more would, so how is it that there has been a few failed attempts and none in existance? am i missing one? are there any coming? a while ago i read a post from a captwillard claiming he was planning something, anything happened on that front? a place other than dnc with crap comps and badly patched starcraft would be great, is there ANYWHERE????

BLITZ_Molloy

They have one in Ennis (population of about 22k), but it's 5euro an hour. I'm not prepared to pay that.

Now that cheap broadband is so readily avalable I don't see much of a demand for gaming cafes. LAN partys have become far less popular in the last couple of years for the same reason.

I just wish Dublin had a decent arcade. I got to Dr. Quirkies every 6 months or so and they rarely have any new games. They need to get in a load of jamma cabinets with shooters and fighters priced at 3 games for a credit. The over emphasis on expensive gimmick cabinets wrecks my head. There's no scope for vs play, or showboating your mad skillz. Only thing worth playing in there is Outrun 2 SP.

mar|<

bb is certainly more availbale now, but is there not a certain social factor in gaming cafes? its great fun to have all your firends around u playin the same game and hearing thier reactions, with nice snacks readily available. I would have thought this could influence people in to paying a reasonable fee and enjoys hours on end of online fun i have broadband and i would prefer to do an all nighter in a cafe... arcades are fun, alot of fun, but i would think they are far more expensive than gaming cafes. u could play 10 games or so for an hour or 2 for the same price as 4 hrs in a gaming cafe(basing tht on lovley area51 prices

Zapp Brannigan

I remember the days of DNC (Does not Compute) Counter Strike lock-ins. Nothing beats wandering town at 4 in the morning looking for food!

Tusky

Slurms wrote:

Nothing beats wandering town at 4 in the morning looking for food!

You must not get out much. Alot of things beat that.

Ri_Nollaig

i find most of those places annoying... area51 has got good computers while webworkhouse and wired to the world are just sh.ite but its always full of little kids just finished school and shouting out "omg! no haxor!" over and over again its like listening the chat in counter strike

1huge1

theres definetely a few in limerick

Cake Fiend

Ri_Nollaig wrote:

i find most of those places annoying... area51 has got good computers while webworkhouse and wired to the world are just sh.ite but its always full of little kids just finished school and shouting out "omg! no haxor!" over and over again its like listening the chat in counter strike

Imagining this in a cork accent is teh funney...

Gaming cafes in Dublin are not commercially viable anymore. The start-up cost is way too high (you'd need to buy the current cutting-edge to be still able to offer gaming in a year or two's time, plus Dublin premises rental is more expensive), the punters are too fickle (the minute another cafe gets an upgrade, the gamers disappear) and the return simply isn't big enough (most gamers are schoolkids or students with a limited amount of expendable income). Add to this the serious downturn in cafe gamers due to cheaper and more available home broadband.

Because of minimum charges, lower overheads, etc, an internet cafe makes far more money off people checking their email for 10 minutes or typing up their CV. The internet cafe market in dublin is now so competetive that there is no room for anything that won't turn a definite profit.

JackKelly

Unfortunate but true.

When i was in Barcelona, they had a thing like Area51 locally, and it was great. Internet,Games, Food and Drink. All for cheap. Would be a great place to go and relax. I would love there to be one in Dublin but i doubt it would work.

Zapp Brannigan

Tusky wrote:

You must not get out much. Alot of things beat that.

Azza

I disagree about broadband effecting attendance of lans. Lans in other countrys have not suffered because of broadband....why should here be any different.

Ri_Nollaig

Sico wrote:

The start-up cost is way too high (you'd need to buy the current cutting-edge to be still able to offer gaming in a year or two's time, plus Dublin premises rental is more expensive), the punters are too fickle (the minute another cafe gets an upgrade, the gamers disappear)

thats def true i remember "webworkhouse" was the first half decent size one in cork and its where everyone went for some ut/qauke3/cs then some other ones wit better computer "wired to the world" and b4 u no it there is no one in the webworkhouse expect a few ppl just checking emails etc. now the same has happened to wired as area51 (and funny enough its almost right next to it ) wired tried to upgrade their computers but every game just crashes guess they losing out...

the_syco

Check opposite the Ambassador Cinema, at the top of O'Connell Street. Its called "Spidr", or something. Its next to another net cafe. I think Spider is up a stairs.

mar|<

i dont think broadband will really affect lan gaming, and if someone managed to raise enough money to start up a top end gaming cafe with high spec pcs, i dont think it would have a problem finding gamers, and with the lack of competition, its a safe bet it would keep them. what are the rents like on baggot street? would be a nice place and its not exactly high profile. ill have a look at spider, thanks

Zerolord

the one parnell square east just across from the ambassador theater, Dont know how good it is but it said it does CSS and Battlefield so it might be of with 17inch TFT's.

Its seams to be older computers tho, ones from the internet cafe so its not the best, if only the one near st stephans green never got the lease cut on them.

BLITZ_Molloy

Just popped into the Spider cafe this morning. They've got 20 new Dell XPS systems. Clean place with nice comfy seats. Definately comes recommended.

mar|<

wasnt very hopeful by the sounds of it nut now uv cheered me up, wher exactly is it, very visible from ambassador? and how much? whats kind of graphics memory is there in an xps? games list if u(anyone) can?

BLITZ_Molloy

If you stand at the door of the Ambassador it's on the right across the road.

I didn't check the specs tbh. They have Battlefield 2 (which I hadn't played yet and is fan-bloody-tastic if i may say so myself), HL2DM/CS:S, Painkiller, whatever the current MoH game is called, and a couple of strategy games. Think they were Empire Earth 2 and CnC Generals or something. I'm not very up on current PC games.

And just €2 an hour. Can't argue with that.

mar|<

well that sounds nice! il check it out tomorw, thanks alot
could you tell me if there is an all nighter deal and what the connection is like?

johnx

Ri_Nollaig wrote:

thats def true i remember "webworkhouse" was the first half decent size one in cork and its where everyone went for some ut/qauke3/cs then some other ones wit better computer "wired to the world" and b4 u no it there is no one in the webworkhouse expect a few ppl just checking emails etc. now the same has happened to wired as area51 (and funny enough its almost right next to it ) wired tried to upgrade their computers but every game just crashes guess they losing out...

Cool i was speakin to guy in weird to to world that they openin a new place up in mcurtain street. its suposed to have 50 pcs with two 7800GTX sli graphics and loads gamin kit. i been playin WoW and HL2 in ther new washington place all day no prob with ther new pcs. oh and HL2 sounds much better on the suround sound kits there too I likes area51 too when they opent but its gone crap since all the young kids started school and comin in. the guy in wird to the world says they wont be allowin hyped **** kids so cool. all they need to do new is stay open all 24hr and :cool:

Ri_Nollaig

johnx wrote:

Cool i was speakin to guy in weird to to world that they openin a new place up in mcurtain street. its suposed to have 50 pcs with two 7800GTX sli graphics and loads gamin kit. i been playin WoW and HL2 in ther new washington place all day no prob with ther new pcs. oh and HL2 sounds much better on the suround sound kits there too I likes area51 too when they opent but its gone crap since all the young kids started school and comin in. the guy in wird to the world says they wont be allowin hyped **** kids so cool. all they need to do new is stay open all 24hr and :cool:

yeah i have a friend working in wired so i normaly go there (for free ) but im afraid ill believe 50 7800gtx * 2 when i c it... their current set up's are more then enough for all the current games, but i havnt gone there since college ended (startin up soon ) and didnt go during summer but i def think it was just problems they had at the start due to the new hardware id say its all working now and they r in direct competition to area51

WKD-elf

Thanks for the tips guys. me and some m8s tried out wired to the world over on washington. was brill spent 10 hours there levelin on WoW, when we went to pay I thought itd cost like e50 but was only 13 quid AND they said we could stay till closin time without payin a penny more. freakin cool or what. thats brill cuz im startin college in cork soon so be broke most of time. At least I can spend a whole day there for nothin. only thing though they got no good food there some sweets and drinks thats it. But 4star and dominoes pizzas is only 2 doors up and a spar or centra cross road. saw them ads for their new place somewhere in cork soon suposed to be biggest in Ireland

nevisgod

WKD-elf wrote:

Thanks for the tips guys. me and some m8s tried out wired to the world over on washington. was brill spent 10 hours there levelin on WoW, when we went to pay I thought itd cost like e50 but was only 13 quid AND they said we could stay till closin time without payin a penny more. freakin cool or what. thats brill cuz im startin college in cork soon so be broke most of time. At least I can spend a whole day there for nothin. only thing though they got no good food there some sweets and drinks thats it. But 4star and dominoes pizzas is only 2 doors up and a spar or centra cross road. saw them ads for their new place somewhere in cork soon suposed to be biggest in Ireland

Yup it should be good. Try www.wiredtotheworld.ie for info . bin workin here for about a year now.

johnx

nevisgod wrote:

Yup it should be good. Try www.wiredtotheworld.ie for info . bin workin here for about a year now.

Cool so whats the official specs there then? any new games? are there really gonna be two 7800GTX sli graphics cards?

WKD-elf

OMG I heard some of the spec for that wired to world place on mcurtan street. they do have the 7800gtx and and 2gig of ram and i think they have Fear too
my ass is so there . i think theyre openin nex week or something

Prior Of Taize

mar|< wrote:

area 51[/URL] it has 24 alienware area51 pcs

Area 51 on north main street has two alienware pc's. the rest are just the cases with dell parts inside. i know this because the owner told me. they have a 2mb 12:1 contention line between 24 dedicated games pc's and 7 or 8 other pc's for checking your email or whatever. i often got a ping of 10000ms playing WoW or BF2 in there.

I hink the facilities are great. except for the f*cking horrific connection and a place which seems to attract only the most annoying teenage cs playing shouting f*cking tards.

+++++++++++++++++++++

back on topic who cares about dublin...its an open sewer.

Ri_Nollaig

you know i get the feeling that WKD-elf could somehow have some connection to wired to the world...:rolleyes:
as for ping in area51 never had a problem but been a while since i played there however wired to the world had impress specs in some other computers (for a year ago anyway) but a rubbish system that a four year old must have come up with? as in u need to ask for the disc to play the games! serial keys invalid games not installed properly? lol well done spend a forture getting the least hardware and just slap those games

a51-Kiwi

Prior Of Taize wrote:

Area 51 on north main street has two alienware pc's. the rest are just the cases with dell parts inside. i know this because the owner told me. they have a 2mb 12:1 contention line between 24 dedicated games pc's and 7 or 8 other pc's for checking your email or whatever. i often got a ping of 10000ms playing WoW or BF2 in there.

I hink the facilities are great.

+++++++++++++++++++++


back on topic who cares about dublin...its an open sewer.

Interesting.....As an owner of AREA51 I was not aware of the Alienware problem. That is of them being filled with Dell parts. It's a bit of a shock to me as we paid for 27 ALIENWARE machines from Alienware themselves. I would love to speak to this 'other' owner who told you this!!
Also we have a 4MB line inside not 2MB and we seem to have no problem in getting pings of 78 on BF2 and the world of warcraft guys seem happy. Not being a WOW player myself I could not tell you the pings we get in that but as of yet we get no complaints.
If your ever in and having trouble with the games or connection let us know and we can see if there is anything that can be done.

Tazzle

Connection can be a bit dodgey in fairness, but the pcs seem fine. I think the amount of people going to cafes to play online fps has seriously declined with easy access home broadband anyway, only go to Area51 myself to play some generals with a few mates on LAN. Seems like a nice place.

Cake Fiend

a51-Kiwi wrote:

Also we have a 4MB line inside not 2MB and we seem to have no problem in getting pings of 78 on BF2 and the world of warcraft guys seem happy.

This isn't particularly valid if it's a shared line, and especially if it's (presumably) asymmetric. Unless you have a QoS system carefully set up, one single person uploading email attachments or downloading a linux distro is going to nail the connection for everyone. To be able to guarantee a solid connection for gamers, you'll have to set up either QoS on your existing line, or get a second line for gaming and set up selective routing (not sure what the technical term for this is) so that all traffic other than gaming-related uses its own dedicated line.

Prior Of Taize

a51-Kiwi wrote:

Interesting.....As an owner of AREA51 I was not aware of the Alienware problem. That is of them being filled with Dell parts. It's a bit of a shock to me as we paid for 27 ALIENWARE machines from Alienware themselves. I would love to speak to this 'other' owner who told you this!!
Also we have a 4MB line inside not 2MB and we seem to have no problem in getting pings of 78 on BF2 and the world of warcraft guys seem happy. Not being a WOW player myself I could not tell you the pings we get in that but as of yet we get no complaints.
If your ever in and having trouble with the games or connection let us know and we can see if there is anything that can be done.

I stand happily corrected