Arena 51 in Henrietta fills a niche for big events
Marketta Gregory
Staff writer
(August 23, 2005) — Talk about applied lessons. Two Rochester Institute of Technology graduates have turned a college project into a growing gaming business called Arena 51 Inc. "This beats any job," said Robert Kim as he stood surrounded by 40 state-of-the-art computers, an 18-foot screen for playing Xbox and a library of video games. At its most basic, the idea is that people come in and pay an hourly fee to play video games. However, Arena 51, at 376 Jefferson Road, also offers birthday parties, all-night parties, tournaments and even adult education classes in 3-D animation and game production.
In the nine months it has been open, the customer base has grown large enough that it is stretching the four staff members. Arena 51's president, Doron Israel, is even talking about franchises.
"It feels like we bought brand new shoes only to outgrow them," Israel said, adding that similar businesses are extremely popular in California.
The gaming centers have a longer shelf life than Internet cafes, which suffered because many homes have Internet access, he said. But not many homes have room for 40 friends to play Final Fantasy XI. It's the social aspect that Arena 51's partners are banking on for continued growth. "Gamers are inherently social," said Kim, vice president of the company. "This is a place that they can come with their friends. ... Even people who come in by themselves are looking for more people." That's true for Tom Zogas, a 14-year-old from Pittsford who has been coming to Arena 51 for about three months to play Counter-Strike. "If I'm going to play, I play here," he said. "You don't have to be good at it, and you don't even have to play video games at all." Tom and others have become like little brothers to those on staff, Israel said, adding that the business tries to create a family-friendly setting.
Sure, there are violent games, but they try to monitor the games and do not buy those with too much violence and gore. "No one wants to play a game and toss their cookies," Israel said.
Doors open at noon every day and close around 11 p.m. through the week and at roughly 1 a.m. on the weekends — whenever the last customer leaves. "I can't remember the last time we closed on time," said Kim, who woke up at the business on Tuesday morning. But it's all fine with Israel. "This is my life. My customers are my friends, and I'm definitely looking at keeping the customer for the long haul."
Arena 51 frequently runs specials, which are advertised at its Web site, www.arena51.com. Otherwise, it costs $4.90, plus tax, for an hour of computer time. To use the 18-foot screen, expect to pay $8 an hour for use of all four controllers.
Arena 51 was selected in August of 2005 to be the East coast's tour stop for the 2005 Final Fantasy iGames.org Tour! Arena 51 was selected over many other LAN Centers on the East coast to be the tour stop. The tour started in Hawaii, next it went to California, and for the East coast it stopped in Rochester, NY. This event not only drew Final Fantasy XI fans from the surround area, but it also drew people as far away from Quebec, Texas, and Florida.
The event lasted for one day and consisted of Player vs. Player action, a Tarru Tarru marathon, a discussion with some staff of FFXI, and a costume contest. The Square-Enix staff that attended the event came from Tokyo, Japan and L.A., California. They brought with them $30,000.00 in prizes that were sponsored by various companies such as Intel, NVIDIA, and Logitech. The Final Fantasy event ended with a bunch of smiling faces from the Final Fantasy XI fans.
