Game server hosting help

[the 6th jackson]

I have recently decided to start up a small "business" where I want to sell game servers to people looking for such things. I believe I have the basic dynamics of how this would work down but would like clarification in a couple areas. I assume I would be buying "server" space from a certain company, and then seperating my "server" space and "reselling" it to people who want to host a dedicated server. (if this is not correct please feel free to say so). My questions include,

Many different server selling websites have different specs such as the size, GHZ, and so on of the server. What would be a good amount of processing power and size if I wanted to beable to sell around 5 gameing servers.

Also, In order to set these people up for certain games is it necessasary to buy differnt "types" of servers for different games. (not sure If i'm saying that correct). For ex. the server files used to run a certain game are not included with the server I buy, where can I get these files to make it easiest on my customer.

I realize I would have to set up a website but am confused on how the costumer would pay me. I'm not sure if there is a way to set up a "paypal" page which is included in the website or something of that nature?

That is all I can think of now but I know I will have many more questions soon but in the mean time thanks for all the help,

Chase B.

P.S. I'm not trying to get rich off this, Just some extra pocket change and gain some more knowledge of the workings of this type of business.

[pam123]

I don't know what games you have in mind but you may need a lawyer.
An awful lot of companies go after anyone who host a game server that runs their games..
Do a google and find out what happened to the guys who were hosting servers that competed with battlenet (they lost in court).

[the 6th jackson]

I'm considering games such as Battlefield 2, Counter strike Source, and DoD source, the more popular ones. I dont think i should have problems with the law in these cases lol.

Thx,
Chase B.

[WolfPac_Ite]

Right, only if you do illegal stuff with their games that they do not allow. Battle.Net was a different case, in which they were using a network other then Battle.Net to play games, and that allowed people to play pirated software.


I'm not sure what how much power you would need, since it varies greatly depending on what games you are running. For instance, Half-Life 1/2 take a lot more CPU power then equivalent games. So the best way to find out is too ask around for each individual game, and on a side note, you don't need much power in general. Second, you can rent servers(either dedicated(recommended) or shared) and then re-sell(rent) them to customers, or you can buy/build some servers, get some internet pipe/s(you'll need a T1 for about roughly 32 players, and they are expensive) and run them at your house, you might even be able to find a data center around you that would allow you to rent some space and internet pipes from them. The best and probably profitable way would be the former option, because the servers are cheap, but the pipes are wallet killers, and unless you have fiber connections in your area for cheap, then it's not worth it.


If you rent a server, you can use that servers software to load up anything you want on it, so you can switch out game hosting/anti-cheat software, user control panel software(that part is for the customer). Also you can get control panel software that allows for the renter to change what software is on there, such as mods(Changing from the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike to the other HL mod, Hostile Intent, etc.) or even hosting software(changing from Half-Life hosting software to Call Of Duty, etc.)


The customer can pay you through multiple means, either via your own secure payment form for credit cards that is built into your web site, accepting checks or even money orders, or using PayPal(Which is very easy to integrate into a web site, and the transaction is through them, so that part of the security is their job, not yours.). PayPal does require the user to sign up for a free account. And in order to receive(sending is free, or at least up to a certain limit, not sure.) money, they charge you a percentage off of the payment amount.

I know that is a lot to read, but I was trying to be thorough, if you have any more questions, I would be glad to help, since I was researching similar information for running my own personal server. And if you want to you can IM me with questions(Click on my name to get to my profile, which contains my IM names), which I will try to answer.

Good luck.

[wolfie]

what type of connection are you going to use?

[the 6th jackson]

Thanks for all the great info it really helped. I will definately be going the "resellar route" or in other words not setting up my own T1 connection. To sell a dedicated game server, just one, such as day of defeat or counter strike source, how much "server power" would i need from whoever I am buying the server from. I would just like a general amount so if i want to say sell five servers i willl know how much space to rent.

Thanks,
Chase B.

[WolfPac_Ite]

I'm not sure what how much power you would need, since it varies greatly depending on what games you are running. For instance, Half-Life 1/2 take a lot more CPU power then equivalent games. So the best way to find out is too ask around for each individual game, and on a side note, you don't need much power in general.


Do you mean buying a dedicated server, and then splitting it up into a few different virtual servers? That means each person you sell to will be able to interact with the server as if it was dedicated.

For the power thing, it depends on the game, best way is to just ask some people who run that particular game on their server, such as HardOCP, individuals, etc. Because like I said before, some games take a lot more/less power then others in the same generation, which in your case, would be the FPS generation.