Rescheduled : August 3rd - 5th 2007

[PseudoPhreak]

Currently we have 17 payments, this is us barely covering costs but WE ARE A GO!
There might not be a raffle this time around because of the low payments. If more people pay nearer the time we may be able to sort something out, but im sure not many of you will be too worried about the lack of raffle though.

 

[Bloodnok]

If there was 1, I would of declaired myself


BANNED


from it and all of u should know why.....

 

[itsmyyard]

Theres a chance I actually may not be able to make it. Theres a clash with another LAN event down in england which i maybe apart of, but i prob wont find out til end of the week if this is a go or not.

 

[TekkenIronfist]

I wont know for sure if i can go until a few days before the LAN itself, but im fairly sure nothing will get in the way.. just cant pay till im 100% sure.

 

[PseudoPhreak]

itsmyyard: Which LAN might you be going to?

TekkenIronfist: Thats no problem, now we have confirmed we can take a few late payments

 

[itsmyyard]

Theres a console LAN down in Birmingham called Matchbox XL, in which I was going to help out xleague.tv, but because they wont pay for some of the expenses, im not sure ill be going to it, though I may still be helping them out from here using my PC. Is the internet available this time?

 

[MadmaN]

it could be if somone brings a decent wireless antenna and a wifi card that can crack wireless encryption

 

[PseudoPhreak]

very slim, and as for madmans suggestion, it might work, but no one has that sort of antennae handy, dont need a wifi card that can crack encryption, software on the computer does the cracking

 

[MadmaN]

ive looked into this alot , and not any wireless device can crack encryption . it's got to have the right chipset for it to be done, you can make home made antennas but ive not properly looked into this right. you need the right cable and if its a pcmcia card its needs a wifi antenna connections for it.

my netgear 54g card dont have one but ive seen guides on cracking it open to find the connection lol.

 

[itsmyyard]

Ok I cant make it now cause of other commitments so is there anyway to just keep my ticket and save it for the next lan?

 

[Sakey]

Ok I cant make it now cause of other commitments so is there anyway to just keep my ticket and save it for the next lan?

Being very honest, not really. What you have to understand is that we were running this event on the wire. Literally we have NO spare cash and thats from us making a profit at the last event (Which was ment to be used to replace cables and get raffel prizes). 17 people was the minimum we could REALLY afford to run it with. Also since this another person has pulled out leaving us with 15 people. Now thats ?50 from the funds gone.

What, of course, you don't realise is that at the last LAN, ALL the prices (Hall and tables) went up. And for this LAN we have had to switch to a new table provider who is even dearer. We did discuss putting the price up to flat rate ?30 but decided against it and gave people that paid up quick the chance to get in for ?25. Hoping that we would get enough people to cover the costs (i.e. 25 people at a lower rate insted of 20 people at a higher one). That would have covered any prizes, the raffle and any other costs we may have had.

Insted we have been left with 17 peoples fees + what we had spare. That is enough to cover the event. -?50 is a different matter.

Also there are no other events of this type that would provide a refund/roll over this close to an event. Multiplay for example say that if you cancle within 30 days you only get a refund if the event sells out. I would rather look at it for us as you can get a refund/money carried over if we have made enough to cover the event costs. We are not out to make a profit. Just enough to cover our costs and replace any faulty kit should we get any.

So I am posting here just now and on the main site later our OFFICIAL stance on refunds.

If you cancle over 30 days before the event we will give you a full refund/carry your ticket on to the next event (Your discression).

If you cancle within 30 days, you will only get a refund/carry over if we have met our minimum occupancy (Which is pretty much 25 people).

I am sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, but the staff don't get paid for doing this and really have spent enough of their own money on kit and other bits for the LAN. We can't afford to cover shortfalls in hire costs as well.

 

[itsmyyard]

Its fully understandable, and the only reason I did buy the ticket was because of the early bird special as it were, otherwise i wouldve left it much later, but even then the early bird thing, basically that wouldve left me with what a 2 day gap to cancel it, which is hardly alot to tell the truth. And if i paid afterwards i wouldve forked out ?5 more and had no chance of cancelling it even if it was the same day going by the dates it seems.

I know its been getting low numbers and the minimum of 25 has just barely been reached a couple of times, and I think the only way of increasing the interest is to not only try and reduce the price, which may entise more people to come, but offer other services as well like transporting PCs etc, because right now its only the hardcore type of people that have been to LANs in the past, or do alot of gaming, because ?25-30 is alot in some peoples eyes for a weekend of gaming if theyve never been to one before. I think publicising more on special offers like buy 2 get 3rd half price etc, may encourage more and what not. Advertising certainly is the key right now imo, as I think most people only knew about it through word of mouth and not advertising etc. post it on gaming websites, city websites etc, to promote more interest. Unlike the i series though which has sold out, this hasnt really came close yet has it and while you definitely need to at least try and gain a little surplus, if you could get some sponsors, even local to help out then the high price could be lowered a tad, and sometimes to generate more interest you may have to go at a loss for the first couple of goes just to see if it works out.

Of course by having that repaid clause as well, youre making people have a reason to pay at the last minute and not early, which could make people forget in due course, and for the sake of just ?5 its not going to stop many people from paying at the last minute if its only 1/6 of the cost. These are just suggestions and some criticisms but I do want to see this succeed, but sometimes some risk is needed.

 

[Sakey]

You have some good points but to counter.

?25 makes us one of the cheapest LANs in the UK. We are the same price as Gumpcom (Who btw, I know have less overheads than us as Matt ran some scotLANs there and told the the price difference) and cheaper than any of the well known LAN parties in England. We offer the early payment special as basically we want people to pay up as soon as possible. If they do we can confirm that the LAN is def going ahead sooner. Sooner the LAN is confirmed, more people usually sign up.

I would love to offer introductory offers but, as you said, we don't sell out. As I said in my last post, we need 25 people to break even. so if we have 25 people and I have offered 5 or 10 of them intro offers of say ?15 thats ?50-?100 that I have to pay out of my own pocket and I can't afford to do that. Oh and for the record, this will be the first LAN with less than 20 people, which before the price rises was the cutoff. Last LAN was 30 + people which is comming close to the cap of 40.

As for PC Transport, no LAN offers this. Plus if we WERE to offer this it would be a premium. Lets see, hire a van (I am not running the mileage up in my car any more than nessicary) fuel. If only one person wants the service, what pays for the rest?

As for sponsors, we have had sponsors at each previous event. Crucial, Steelpad, Kustom PCs. They donate the stuff we have as prizes. Where you think the sticks of RAM we give away come from.

Advertising is something we are working on. We have had members of staff who were ment to deal with it and have done nothing. We are now making a concious effort to advertise more and bring in fresh blood.

You have to understand I am not setting these prices because I want to. Hell if I could do it I would hapily host a LAN for ?5 per person if it would cover costs. I can't though and we can't afford to subsidise the cost of the hall/tables out of our own pockets.

Not one member of staff has ever made money from the LAN. This is basically a non profit setup. Any spare money we do make is put straight back into the LAN.

I know what you are saying and if I could do it, I would. However the overheads just prevent us.

 

[PseudoPhreak]

As for PC Transport, no LAN offers this. Plus if we WERE to offer this it would be a premium. Lets see, hire a van (I am not running the mileage up in my car any more than nessicary) fuel. If only one person wants the service, what pays for the rest?

Maybe we could suggest sharing a car with someone on the way to help with this?
We could maybe arrange PC hire but this would cost the person even more and they would still have to provide their own software.

As for sponsors, we have had sponsors at each previous event. Crucial, Steelpad, Kustom PCs. They donate the stuff we have as prizes. Where you think the sticks of RAM we give away come from.

Sponsors arent very keen to sponsor when we have low numbers, which was why we havent got anything this time. the more people we can have attend, the more sponsorship we can get. nobody want to sponsor if they wont get anything in return.

Advertising is something we are working on. We have had members of staff who were ment to deal with it and have done nothing. We are now making a concious effort to advertise more and bring in fresh blood.

I remember talking about advertising, but it seemed to just stop and noone ever spoke of it again, partially due to the fact we had no money to invest in proper advertising. I didnt realise anyone was delegated the task of advertising.

I dont think lower prices would make much of a difference, if someone wants to attend a lan, they will pay anything reasonable (?20-30) but noone likes paying more money for something they have been paying less for before.