The Story of Gamer Zone

Ages ago, a LAN Gaming center was opened at Harry & Broadway in Wichita, Kansas. For two years Gamer Zone was a gamer gathering point.

This is the story of Gamer Zone’s rise and eventual fall. It’s told from my perspective -the guy who took the most hours behind the counter, the guy who took responsability, and eventually the guy who took the fall.

To quote AC/DC, “The following is a true story, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.” I’ve changed all the names and gamer names of people involve. Some “customers” portrayed here are an amalgum of traits of other customers. Some stories are fictionalized intentionally (but retain a grain of truth and likelyhood to have occurred at Gamer Zone.)

The reason is to prevent from directly making fun of people. No one wants to be the butt of a joke (but everyone wants to laugh at a joke.) Some characters in here will be identifyable - it just can’t be completely avoided. But I do the best I can.

The story could be viewed as a cautionary tale. Before the story is over, you’ll see me loose everything - my car is repossesed, my house is foreclosed upon, I get divorced, loose the business, and end up around $80,000 or so in debt.  If you’re considering opening a LAN center, consider this required reading, both for the information you’ll get out of what it’s going to take to get it rolling, and the risks.  If you’re a geek thinking of starting your own business, consider it required reading too - it also covers some quirks of dealing with other geeks

On the other hand, it’s fun, funny, and for a while we did get close to making it work. It was a hell of a ride before it was all over with.  I mean, for a while, we did the impossible - we even managed to pull off 12 episodes of a TV show produced right there at Gamer Zone!  For some people it will be a great read. But do keep in mind, it’s told from my point of view - some people will have different opinions of what happened, but I’m telling the story so it’s my opinion that matters

I’ll be posting a new section once a week until it’s done (on Monday mornings, unless there’s a schedule conflict, then I’ll post it Sunday night.  I also write ahead of time so if things get busy I’ve got a month’s worth of posts already written). I’ve got no idea how long the story is, or how long it will take to tell it. It could be years telling - I have no clue.  Somehow I doubt it’s going to take that long though.

After two years of operation, thousands of hours of gaming, and countless customers, this should be considered the final piece of entertainment from Gamer Zone: The Story Of Gamer Zone.

– Midnight Ryder

Quick Update:  I’ll now be posting two updates a week.  One on Mondays and one on Thursday.   I managed to get quite a ways ahead on writing, and a couple of people were hoping to see more installments per week