Economics in Gaming

It used to be so simple. One would buy a number of inexpensive computers with specifications just about good enough to play last generation's games, rent a space to put the computers in, then sit back and watch the profits roll in. The undeniable appeal of these online time waters would almost always guarantee people playing for hours on end in one's shop while continuously immersing themselves in their games with each passing day.

Then something happened. Some time in the past few years, the whole climate of local online play changed dramatically. Maybe it was market saturation, maybe people just got tired of the whole thing, but the result was the same - players just stopped playing. Or to be more precise, stopped investing as much of their time ans money as they used to. This resulted in a number if big changes. First, online game providers started losing money. players stopped utilizing the play-to-play model (paying a monthly fee for game access) and instead started playing more casual games that didn't require as much time commitment, or moved to consoles, which themselves are having a renaissance of excellent games. Second, internet cafes who relied on players investing heaps of their time playing online from their shops started losing customers, whom instead are opting for LAN gaming, something not all cafes were prepared for due to the lack of system requirements to lay more modern games. Anew model was born from the period of change, something industry journalists call "microtransactions." The old model of asking players to pay money to play their games morphed into the offering of game access for free, with players instead paying for in-game benefits like better character customization or improved equipment and items. This model that started with only few providers rapidly spread to the rest, and as of today very few games, both local and international, can still survive on the old one. The ramifications for the cafe industry were also significant, with shops closing left and right, unable to cope with this change and unable to adapt the old mindset to reacquire their customers.

So what's a poor internet cafe operator to do? I say get to know your customers, and see what they're interested in. One can't just assume that people will play what you offer anymore. Understand the new model, and see how you can change your business to take advantage of it. And, finally, learn to adapt, for if anything, gamers are a fickle bunch, and things just aren't that simple anymore.