By Allan Maruer
CARY, NC – Most local area network (LAN) Centers for gamers are spartan, offering folding tables and chairs with nonexistent decor. “They’re mancaves, really,” says Jeff Torello, CEO and founder of Cary-based RUAGAMER, who wants to increase their appeal to a wider audience, including women. That led him to open what is the largest LAN Center on the East Coast.
A LAN Center provides gamers access to consoles, games, and the Internet, team play and social interaction. “This concept exists in a lot of places,” says Torello. “The concept has been around ten years or so.”
LAN Centers started with college students, usually men, bringing games to an empty corner of a school cafeteria or other space, then moved to small strip mall centers with gamers still bringing their own games.
RUAGAMER opened in May and Torello says, “I think the LAN Center can appeal to a wider audience.” He quotes studies that say 40 percent of women are interested in games, for instance.
Most other LAN centers simply are not the types of places women will be spending money in, he says.
His large space, 5,600 square feet, includes room to expand if business warrants and the economy’s effect on lease prices helped Torello decide to open this year. “In the last year space has been available and lease prices have been good from a tenant point of view,” he says.
So, he set out to create a center amenable to hard core gamers that also appeals to a more general audience. While it has the variety of equipment and games for popular systems suchh as xBox, it also sports good lighting and a lot of space with 55 stations and decent decor.
While not currently looking for investors or planning to franchise, Torello says he does have a plan to open more LAN Centers on the same model.
The whole idea is to make it a space where people like playing together. While game play will be faster than on home networks, it will likely feature the same games that can be played in a living room. “The key is that here you can play with people next to you and interact with your friends.”
He says he likes to compare it to people who have a pool table in their basement. “That never stops them from going to a pool hall with buddies,” he notes. “You do that for the social environment.”
Things are going well. “We’ve been open three weeks and already have about 200 accounts open. Grand opening day drew 300 people and contests are pulling in teams to compete for prizes.
There is one drawback to running RUAGAMER. He likes to play himself and cites Diablo as a favorite game. “But I don’t have much time to play anymore,” he says.
Online: www.ruagamer.net
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