I may be able to get some answers for you tomorrow, as I need to go to sleep. I know someone that runs a local fighting game tournament around here so I may be able to get some advice from them for you.

A good promotional idea for it could be a "high score" running tournament. People who come in the store can get a play at Tetris or something that doesn't take too long with every purchase. High score gets a gift certificate for either an amount or a % off. Winners could be announced at the weekly tournament.

Ghostninja: Thanks so much for the offer and if you get some info I would certainly love to hear anything you have to say.

JKeefe56: I had someone else say something similar to what you said and I think it's a great idea that I didn't think of till I asked around. You however brought a new idea to it though by announcing at a weekly tournament, but it would have to be a regular that wins and not a random walk in customer for that to work. I could use it as a way to get more people to come though so you never know. "We'll be announcing the winners at the tournament so come on by and see if you won and maybe play in 1 or 2 of them." Have to work on that pitch, haha! It could work though. Thanks for the idea.

What are you thinking about doing for the prizes? After all, *that* is what draws a crowd... and if it's cash, or even store credit, you wanna make sure you get ahold of a tax attorney and see what sort of forms need to be filed for all of it. I've never done videogame tourneys, but I ran/judged Magic: The Gathering tournaments for years.

thegnome: My prizes would vary by the tournament or week. I have lots of interesting swag that I can put up for prizes. I might do a large big ticket prize once in a while if I want to run an "epic" tourny. Most of the time though it would be for cash or store credit. I'm thinking initially giving 50%-70% of the entry cost back to the top 2 or 3 winners of a tourny depending on how many show up with store credit mixed in at times. I still have to flesh this part out. From what I know though i'm not running a raffle and skill based events are not subject to the no purchase necessary or other gambling laws because it's not up to the gods if you win or not (although some gamers may disagree, heh) and it's within your own power.

Basically I have to see how much an average tourny will draw first by doing normal prizes then from there adjust accordingly. If you have any suggestions though i'm obviously all ears because nothing is written in stone for me which is why i'm here asking for advice from other retro people like yourself. Thanks for responding.

make sure you mix up the gameplay. constantly doing fighting tournys over and over becomes stagnant. have platformers, racing etc. And even then you could mix it up too. such as a platformer, you could do time attacks or even highscore. this would test different skills. some people are good at going fast through a level but not so good at getting points (such as coins or rings) and would force people to play differently. you could even set it up to a time limit on getting points such as how many points you could get in 5 or 10 min. or even how far you could get. constantly changing your games will also attract different kinds of gamers. some only play fighting, others do FPS, or sports, etc. so having as many choices as possible over a period of time will bring new customers together. Also I would do a simple entry fee ($5 is more than enough) and winner takes so much of the pot, second gets so much and 3rd gets a little) and the rest can go to the store. ex: 1st place takes 50%, second gets 25%, and 3rd gets 15%, this leaves 15% for you to use to improve your store.

jc-dragon: Thanks a ton for those helpful tips. I had pretty much the same idea, but just hearing(reading) someone else saying that is very nice. I didn't think about varying the types of play in the same genre. It just never occurred to me that fighting games for instance could be played with score in mind instead of a gladiator fight. I never look at scores in those games. I do agree with switching things up a lot. That's also for my benefit because I get bored seeing the same thing over and over again. I never played competitively as a kid, mainly just rpgs, but I loved watching my friends play in tournaments and just with each other. I guess that's why opening up a store this way fits so well with me.

Also your breakdown of prize dispersion is probably more realistic. Luckily the tournaments aren't the main source of revenue so I should treat it as such and use it mainly to get people in the store and get my name out to people who want to buy from the store since that is where the real money is for me. I was initially thinking $10, but $5 certainly is more palatable however I could do $10 if I included some drinks and other things, but might be better to keep that separate.

You have given me a lot to think about and that's why I came here. Thanks again.

you'd be surprised at how differently games could be managed in a tourny. Most competitive gamers play to beat a level but many have a hard time with a change up and makes it easier for a casual gamer to compete.

And yes I would keep drinks and snacks separate charges. But if you do sell them you'll have to check local health food laws. They have regulations on if they are shelf stable how they are to be stored, etc. and also if tax is applicable. Here in NV the tax law states that food is not to be taxed unless it is meant for immediate consumption. this gets skewed. such as a bottle of water at the store is tax free but the same bottle of water from McDonald's is taxable. it's weird. And if you have a vending machine you may need to health department out once a year to make sure that the food is being kept at an appropriate temp, and is clean, etc.

jc-dragon - good point on being careful with that stuff. I would only be offering water and soft drinks from a beverage fridge that my wife got me for my 30th birthday. It's really nice, but fits more in a store than my man cave because of it's size. Food snacks would be limited to chips and other things that don't need preparation. Thankfully for tax liability I live in oregon where we don't have sales tax so I don't have to keep track of that with snack and drink sales. I should make double sure on everything though and I appreciate that you brought that up. I would hate to get in trouble because of some stupid little thing that causes me thousands in penalties.

yeah, I work in a kitchen and even things like a vending machine can cause the health inspector to flip out. but usually shelf stable things aren't a big deal, they just come and look to make sure it's working right and is clean and leave. no real inspection needs to happen. But still check on it.