# data[].attributes.headline
Uppdateringar till reviderat designkoncept 3.0

# data[].attributes.subject
Uppdateringar till reviderat designkoncept 3.0

# data[].attributes.body
Att logga in / skapa ett konto ska aldrig vara påtvingat, med pop-ups eller andra irriterande funktioner. Den enda gången en användare ska bli frågad att logga in eller skapa ett konto, är när denne vill ge betyg eller lägga en kommentar vid något företag. Detta är för att minska sannolikheten för spam och onödiga kommentarer. För enkelhetens skull kommer man kunna logga in med sitt Facebook konto, eller Gmail konto.

Filtreringsfunktionen kommer att fokusera på 3 huvudpunkter som gör det lättare för användaren att hitta rätt. Punkterna kommer att vara ”internet access”, ”games” och ”computers for hire”. De täcker den största och viktigaste delen av internetcaféer, och vad folk vill få ut av dom. Det som kan förvirra är att bocka ur ”internet access”, vilket då kommer ge 0 svar. Det sorteringsalternativet finns helt enkelt för att kunna vara kvar ensam eller med 1 eller 2 andra alternativ. Söker man endast på ”internet access” själv kommer bara de enklaste internetcaféerna visas, där du helt enkelt kan få tillgång till internet, men måste ta med din egen utrustning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
perception study of cyber café users.pdf

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
It is not merely about life on the screen.pdf

# data[].attributes.body
Nerdy, Trendy or Healthy? Configuring the Internet Café.

# data[].attributes.headline
Vad jag tar med mig från SWOT - Analysen

# data[].attributes.subject
Vad jag tar med mig från SWOT - Analysen

# data[].attributes.body
Jag vill hålla mig till en enkel design, eller som jag vill kalla det: ”logisk” design. Detta kommer locka fler användare och inte lämna ute dom som inte har grym kunskap inom digital teknik. Jag litar på att ju fler användare applikationen får, desto mer kommer appen spridas genom kontakter, vänner mm. En idé är också att tala med stora företag inom internetcaféer, där de kan sprida reklam om mig, medans jag lovar större trafik till deras företag.

# data[].attributes.body
Att ge ut information om företag kan vara en viss etisk fråga. Vad deras address är, telefonnummer och öppettider lär dock vara helt öppet att använda, på grund av att företagen är offentliga. Eftersom kommentarer och betygssättning kommer finnas genom applikationen tänker jag ha en öppen ”disclaimer” på appen, där företag enkelt kan komma i kontakt med mig, och även att jag bara använder offentlig information.

# data[].attributes.body
Strengths – Ger mer uppmärksamhet till internetcaféer. Karta / sökfunktion likt google maps, därför enkelt att förstå. Inga onödiga och svåra designval / funktioner.

Weaknesses – Måste hålla en uppdaterad databas av internetcaféer jorden runt.

Opportunities – Internetcaféer kommer växa, och användarna kommer hjälpa varandra desto fler det blir som använder appen, genom betygsättning och kommentarer på internetcaféer genom appen.

Threats – Med färre användare, kommer färre kommentarer och betygsättningar, och genom fler användare jorden över, kräver det att databasen är så uppdaterad det går.

# data[].attributes.body
För att utföra en sondstudie hittade jag 3 olika intressenter med olika grad av intresse för ämnet. Här ville jag hitta en så inbiten människa som möjligt inom internet caféer, tillsammans med en som knappt har någon erfarenhet alls, och sedan någon som passar in i mitten.

När jag hittade folk som liknade det jag behövde för min sondstudie, gav jag dom min prototyp och lät de testa den, för att sedan skriva ner vad de tyckte om den.

Jag ställde inga specifika frågor, utan lät intressenterna fritt yttra sig om huruvida de skulle använda appen, vad de kräver / vill ha för funktioner och vad det finns för fördelar / nackdelar med denna.

Syftet är här att få en inblick av olika mycket inbitna intressenter inom området.

# data[].attributes.body
Anteckningar från användare

Positiva
Bra att man kan backa till förra sliden, och gå tillbaks till förstasidan när man vill

Snygg och välgjord, känns som jag faktiskt använder en applikation på mobilen, och ingen enkel "skiss"

Verkar som en intressant idé

Negativa / Kritik
Svårt att förstå vart man ska klicka när man kommer in i appen, men när jag väl förstod vart så var det inga problem

Kort, visa fler funktioner?

Jobbigt att det ska vara två olika prototyper i en.

# data[].attributes.body
Här har jag gjort två prototyper i en, eftersom Fluid UIs gratisversion inte tillåter fler än 1 projekt. Jag var även uppe i maxantalet för slides, vilket också är störande.

Den första är gjord med ett diskret filterläge i fokus, där jag har bortsett från den vanliga sökfunktionen som majoriteten redan förstår sig på, för att istället framföra en filterfunktion som ska göra det lättare för användarna att hitta det dom är ute efter. Som jag har förklarat i designkonceptet kan användaren söka på städer, caféer eller vad som helst för att komma till sin destination. Den här prototypen är gjord för att visa ett enklare sätt att få fram resultatet, beroende på vad användaren letar efter.

Den andra börjar med en vänlig hemskärm, för att sedan antingen gå in i "sökläget" eller "filterläget" direkt från start. Sökläget är här gjort för att söka på städer, där Göteborg visas som test. Här visas då alla olika internetcaféer i Göteborg, istället för bara en typ av dom, t.ex. de som har fokus på "gaming".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Test this interactive prototype on FluidUI.com now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chat, comment and provide feedback on this live prototype. Click call to start a video call.

# data[].attributes.body
Designbrief

Syfte

Att resande individer enkelt ska kunna hitta internetcaféer genom en smart designad mobilapplikation.

Mål

Att ge individer en modern och uppdaterad mobilapplikation för att lokalisera internetcaféer över hela världen. För att bredda målgruppen kommer applikationens databas inehålla alla olika inriktningar ett internetcafé kan fokusera på, om det så är gaming, gratis wi-fi eller att bara låna en dator för en avgift. Applikationen kommer att arbeta tillsammans med mobilens inbyggda GPS-system för att hitta i området individen befinner sig i, för att sedan ge alla möjliga förslag på internetcaféer runt om. Manuell kalibrering kommer även finnas, vilket ger möjligheten att kunna kolla ett område innan individen har besökt det. Andra funktioner som ett betygsättningssystem kommer även finnas, där individer kan se vad andra har skrivit om olika ställen.

# data[].attributes.body
En mer välgjord skiss för att illustrera hur appen kan se ut. Här sig vi att användaren har sökt på Göteborg för att få upp resultat, som sedan visas längst ner. Användaren kan då scrolla i resultaten där nere, och ser namn, betyg, hur många som betygsatt, och adress. Användaren kan sedan klicka in på t.ex. "House of Gamers" för att få mer information, och vägbeskrivning dit.

# data[].attributes.body
Mitt designkoncept grundar sig i främst två saker, att folk behöver internet när de är ute och reser, till sina laptops, plattor eller liknande, och att folk som är på resande fot vill ha någonstans att koppla av genom gaming. Den första målgruppen fokuserar mycket på människor som reser, och kanske har med sig t.ex laptops, kameror och annan utrustning. De kanske dokumenterar sina resor, antingen till en publik på Youtube eller för mer personligt syfte. De kan därför behöva en plats där de kan redigera sina klipp, ladda upp dom och även ta kontakt med familj och vänner. Därför behöver de då ett ställe som erbjuder internet, antingen gratis eller mot en viss summa. De platser som ofta erbjuder detta är de vanligaste caféerna, där du måste ha egen utrustning med dig, men kan få internetåtkomst mot en summa, eller genom att beställa något. Det finns även snäppet värre, där du kan låna datorer och få åtkomst till internet, skrivare m.m.

Den andra målgruppen fokuserar främst på gamers, folk som har det som hobby eller yrke. Internetcaféer med fokus på gaming kallas ofta “gaming centers”, och erbjuder de senaste spelen på kraftfulla datorer. Det finns ofta tillgång till snacks, dricka och mat, och därav namnet internet”café”. Många gaming centers är även influerade av E-sport, och visar ofta turneringar på storbildsskärmar, och vissa har även bootcamp för professionella lag inom E-sport (Inferno Online, Stockholm).

Eftersom den första målgruppen kan generaliseras som allting som internetcaféer har att erbjuda, förutom just gaming, väljer jag att dela in mitt designkoncept i dessa två grupper. Det blir kallat internet och gaming, vilket blir fokuset för mitt koncept.

Viktiga funktioner

Konto och inloggning – Att kunna favorisera caféer, och även ge feedback & betygsätta dessa. Kan bara göras som inloggad för att förhindra oseriösa svar och spam.

GPS funktion – För att enkelt kunna hitta caféer i ditt närliggande område, och även kunna se en rutt till caféet du vill till.

Sökfunktion – Med likheter från google maps, med istället när du söker på, t.ex., en stad, kommer hela staden visas med indikationer där varje internetcafé är lokaliserat.

Filter – För att kunna filtrera just sökfunktionen, så man kan söka på olika sorters caféer mm.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
eSports Center | Gaming Center | LAN Software | Smartlaunch.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What Players Look for in a LAN Gaming Center

Posted on: Apr 04, 2017 By Edwin in Tips,

As a LAN gaming center customer myself, whenever I enter any gaming center, I would always look forward to two things: the ambiance and customer service.

Ambiance is all about the vibes - that overwhelming feeling of being instantly transported to an entirely different world as soon as I step inside a building. Next would be the courtesy of the person manning the front desk. That huge friendly smile plastered on the person's face followed by a question "how may I help you today?" gives me a good head start of my whole experience inside that place - or otherwise.

For a LAN Gaming center business however, ambiance and customer service are just a couple of things which contribute to making you stay on top of your industry. These might sound simple but it will bring business through your front door. Given the current gaming facilities and technologies which are evolving faster than humans and allowing gamers to play at the comforts of their own home, it has become quite a challenge to keep this kind of business afloat. This is why business owners need to keep up with the changing times.

So what do gaming enthusiasts really look for in a LAN gaming center?

What makes gamers leave their couch, ditch gaming at home and choose to be in a gaming center instead?

Crowd - Drawing a good crowd is all about knowing your target market. It will help you determine exactly what your products or services will be, and what kind of customer service tactics will work best. Once you have identified your market, then its all easy to pull up a crowd. However, It is essential also to let your customers know that you understand their needs and lifestyle. If you don't speak to their lifestyle, a customer will tune you out. Remember that the crowd who comes to your place attracts more crowd, and more crowd means more customers which also means higher revenue!

People / Café Employees - Hiring the right people who will man and contribute to the success of your business is very crucial because they are the ones who will have direct contact with your customers.

It is your responsibility to train them in providing good customer service and equip them with knowledge and skills from repairing a broken headset to anger management, lol. A game center managed by someone with an awesome personality hyping up the customers and making your business a cool place to play means a full packed game center!

Variety - Customers like choice but not too much. Variety is always good as each and everyone have different taste. What you and I think is cool won't be to someone else. Offering a good variety of products and services to game enthusiasts will surely make them come back to you - pool tables, LAN party room, arcade and a mini restaurant are a few! Make something available for them that they do not have at home. Gamers may have their own computers, HD TVs and Xbox, but not everyone can have all the latest games and the little gadgets and gizmos and that is coming out of the market!

Technology - Newer, better, and faster are all part of your customer's vocabulary. Customers get turned off when they find out there was a newer version of something and you don't have it! Changing your equipments, upgrading your applications, evolving with technology and offering the latest and up to date products and services are what makes these game freaks and geeks draw to your door!

Tournaments and events- A LAN gaming center is not just a place where gamers pay to play and eat. It is also a place where friends gather to play and bash each other virtually. Hosting game tournaments is a fun way of getting friends together or it can be used as a fund raiser for a cause or enterprise. To hype up your center, organizing an event is pretty awesome too! Have a huge projector screen where customers can watch a live conference or some battle, organize a Wii party, etc. Make it a place where customers don't go just to play, make it the place to hangout. The place where customers want to go to a few nights a week to see what's going on. This can yield a good fanbase and word-of-mouth promotion for you place.

Themed facilities - The theme of your café speaks not only about the character of your business, but it also reaches out to your target market. That hilarious moment of seeing your customer drop his jaw as soon as he enters your café and takes a good minute to look around and appreciate the place looking like he has totally forgotten where he is is priceless! A kick-ass theme for your café helps create an environment where gaming can be extremely fun and gamers are enthusiastic to play! It is a powerful branding method that is attractive to game enthusiasts making them forget about their own home game and keeps your business interesting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Players Look for in a LAN Gaming Center | eSports Center | Gaming Center | LAN Software | Smartlaunch.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Posted on: Apr 04, 2017 By Edwin in Tips, As a LAN gaming center customer myself, whenever I enter any gaming center, I would always look forward to two things: the ambiance and customer service. Ambiance is all about the vibes - that overwhelming feeling of being instantly transported to an entirely different world as soon as I step inside a building.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LEVEL: Bringing internet cafes to underserved communities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Alexa and Mghnon Martin is raising funds for LEVEL: Bringing internet cafes to underserved communities on Kickstarter! $10,000 will help us purchase the latest computers and equipment for our new internet cafe in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore Karolina Skalska's board "ui | tracking order" on Pinterest. | See more ideas about Ui inspiration, App ui and App design.

# data[].attributes.body
Ett sökverktyg som visar internet caféer per stad, med kontaktinformation.

# data[].attributes.body
Ett snabbt och enkelt sätt att hitta bland tusentals caféer runt om i världen. Har en väldigt retro look och skulle behöva fler caféer i sin databas.

# data[].attributes.body
Gävles största internetcafé med ca. 50 datorplatser och alla det senaste spelen installerade. Olika turneringar hålls ofta och fina priser genom sponsorer delas ut.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
EscapeGaming - Gävles bästa internet-café

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
På ESC (Escapegaming) har vi nolltolerans mot droger och alkohol. Om personalen i kassan som tar emot kunder känner lukt av alkohol eller misstänker droganvändning kan personalen vägra tjänst samt be dig lämna lokalen. Escapegaming erhåller även rätten att porta personen vid misstanke ifrån lokalen. Vid misstanke av droganvändning/påverkning av droger kommer polisen kontaktas.

# data[].attributes.body
Sveriges största internetcafé, eller "online gaming center" som det ibland kallas. Finns i Stockholm och  har idag runt 520 datorer med det senaste spelen installerade. Håller egna turneringar samt erbjuder en professionell bootcampcentral för alla världens topplag inom E-sport.

# data[].attributes.body
Mineski är ett cybercafeföretag som öppnade sitt första café 2008 i Filippinerna, och har sedan dess ökat till den största gaming café communityn i sin region. De håller till i Malaysia, Thailand, Filippinerna och Indonesien och siktar på att hjälpa sydöstasiens gamingcommunity framåt.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Video games have remained popular over the past few decades of its existence, being one of the most used forms of media in the world thanks to the expanding online gaming community. The arrival of the internet helped expand gaming further, allowing online games to become popular all over the world. Going online helped these games reach a bigger audience and make video games become competitive.

It is important to note that online gaming is not just about the playing experience, but it is also about being able to interact with gamers across the world. This helped establish a solid online gaming community that consists of thousands to millions of gamers depending on the game and the system they're playing. These communities not only interact with each other, but they also support the games that they play wholeheartedly, ensuring that the gaming experience continues to improve each update.

This massive following is also the reason why the video game industry is one of the most profitable industries in the world, earning millions of dollars every year in revenue. This profit helps these games expand further, along with creating new games in which communities can be established on. From massively multiplayer online role-playing games, first-person shooters, to multiplayer online battle arenas, here are some of the largest online gaming communities in the world:

League of Legends

League of Legends is one of the largest online gaming communities in the world right now; it is still quite surprising that this game was only released 4 years ago.

It is a multiplayer online battle arena, wherein players become a part of two teams (maximum of 5 each), select a character of their choice, and beat the opposing team by attacking their base that is located on the opposite side of the map.

While the goal of the game may sound pretty straightforward, accomplishing the task is an entirely different story. The learning curve is steep, with so many characters and play styles to choose from, as well as the different teamwork strategies that can be done. The total amount of ways that you can win one round of this game is countless. This makes the game highly playable and very competitive. The game has also become one of the most popular esports games in the world, with some of the best players across the world competing against each other for massive cash prizes.

You can count that League of Legends is one of the most played games in the world, with around 100 million players participating each month alone; its total play time is over 1 billion hours. These numbers alone show how massive the LoL community is. With new heroes, items, and updates that the game receives over time, expect the community to remain strong and competitive as ever.

DOTA 2

Another wildly popular MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game, DOTA 2 is the successor of the original DOTA, which was a Warcraft 3 mod that became the originator of the MOBA game genre. It was one of the most popular types of video games in the world. DOTA 2's gameplay is the classic MOBA set-up, with two teams (1 to 5 players each team), selecting from a diverse selection of characters with specific skills. Their main goal is to defeat the opposing team by attacking their base.

If the first DOTA game introduced the world to the MOBA genre, DOTA 2 refined the formula even more. There are new heroes to use and items to choose from; this helps players explore and discover new ways to succeed in the game. Like other MOBA games, DOTA 2 has grown into a wide competitive scene, where some of the best esports teams across the world compete for massive cash prizes.

Due to the established community from the first DOTA game, the DOTA 2 community has a solid following of over millions of players across the world playing the game every month. This community has helped the game improve, and has helped connect gamers across the world. With Blizzard - the game's developer - looking to keep adding more updates in the upcoming years, expect the online gaming community of DOTA to remain solid.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Another popular online game that started out as a mod, the original Counter Strike is a version of the popular Half-Life game, which is considered as one of the best first-person shooters of all time. While the original Half-Life was known for its immersive gameplay and intriguing story, Counter Strike was known for its fast-paced and strategic gameplay.

Counter Strike is played by two teams, who have to pick between two factions: terrorist and counter terrorist. The goal of the terrorists is to be able to plant a bomb in one of the two locations in the game map, while it is the job of the counter terrorists to prevent them from doing so. Players have a wide range of weapons to choose from, along with accessories like body armors, shields, and grenades.

Like other online games, Counter Strike requires a good amount of skill and precision to win, as one round can end within a span of 3-5 minutes if your team is not careful enough. Counter Strike as a whole has been supported by its fans since the very first version, which has been released almost 20 years ago. With a strong fan base, Counter Strike Global offensive was one of the most played games in the past few years.

World of Warcraft

Perhaps the most successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game of all time, World of Warcraft has continuously expanded through the years since its release in 2004. The game has had six released expansion packs so far, with the 7 th one coming this 2017. Despite the years that have passed, the game is still able to attract new and old fans alike.

The World of Warcraft is set after the events of Warcraft III, and is set in the world of Azeroth. The player can choose what their character looks like, their gender, race, specialty, and skills. The player can choose their own quests and adventures, which would help their character become stronger as well as find some weapons, armor, items, and even gold. Like most MOBAs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), the World of Warcraft rewards players, who love to explore around the game world. During these adventures, players will get to interact with their fellow gamers and assist them in their journey.

The World of Warcraft has one of the most expansive and immersive game worlds, with so many sights to see and characters to meet. During these adventures, you would not feel lost, as the large community of players would be able to guide you during most of them.

When it comes to the online gaming community, the World of Warcraft's boasts having one of the most loyal fan bases in gaming. In fact, there are so many players dedicated to the game that it has become a part of their lifestyle. With millions of gamers logging in every month, World of Warcraft is an MOBA game that was able to gain a loyal following thanks to its impressive quality and ever-expanding world.

Minecraft

One of the best-selling games in the past few years, Minecraft is a sandbox game that allows you to create your own world. The player starts off with some tools and elements that allow them to create (or break) various structures and surfaces. These creations can be as simple as making a house, or as complicated as making a working device within the game itself.

Minecraft allows gamers to explore many different possibilities, and let their imagination go wild. One of the best features of Minecraft is that players would be able to share their creations with other players, which helps form a strong online game community. The game is simple and very accessible as well, with both young and old enjoying the game in their own way.

The online gaming community of Minecraft is massive, with millions of players creating and sharing their maps on a regular basis. The community consists of players of varied age groups, which helps when it comes to connecting and interacting with other players. Overall, Minecraft is a game that rewards creativity and has a strong following of young players that aim to explore every facet of the game world.

Runescape

Named the longest running MOBA series by the Guinness Book of Records, Runescape has been running since its release in the year 2001. It has seen numerous expansions and updates, and has over 200 million registered players, making it the largest free MOBA to date. While it may not be the most sophisticated and advanced MOBA, it is certainly one of the most engaging.

Its game world has a medieval setting, with monarchs, knights, orcs, and dragons roaming around. Your character gets to do a wide range of main quests and side quests that reward you with weapons and items that make your character stronger.

With the aforementioned 200 million registered players, Runescape has a massive online gaming community that is still thriving over the many years it has been active. This means that the veterans of the community can help guide the newer players in various parts of the game, while also giving out essential tips and guides in different areas of the game world. With a community this massive, you'll definitely feel like you're part of a world that is different from your own.

Overwatch

One of the newer games on this list, Overwatch has been able to quickly gain a massive following of millions of players. It has also become one of the most popular esports games, with countries like South Korea being a huge part of the scene. Despite being new, it has shown that it is able to stick with the more established games.

The gameplay of Overwatch is somewhat a hybrid between an FPS and a MOBA game, with players choosing a wide cast of characters that have different skill sets. The games are fast-paced and exciting, and like a MOBA game, has a steep learning curve that encourages adding variety to your play style.

Overwatch currently has a massive online gaming community, which consists of players of all ages, along with people who have prior experience in FPS games. Overwatch is currently a year old and has introduced updates like new characters and improved playing experience. Expect their community to keep growing in the next year.

Starcraft and Starcraft 2

One of the most popular real-time strategy games of all time, Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are some of the most played videogames of all time, especially in the Southeast Asia esports community. The Starcraft series has become a constant fixture in the esports scene over the past few years and has spawned numerous competitive gaming icons.

The gameplay of Starcraft starts out with players constructing basic facilities that allow them to create more structures and new units, which would help them attack their opponent, who is doing the same thing. The game requires a great amount of planning and micro-management to be successful. The learning curve is steep and requires repeated playthroughs.

With the original Starcraft being 20 years old, there has been a massive and faithful following, especially with the arrival of Starcraft 2, which has been met with rave reviews. Its online gaming community remains strong, with millions of players enjoying the game regularly.

Call Of Duty

Lastly, we have the massively popular Call of Duty series. The Call of Duty series has been around since 2003, with the latest game being released this 2017. It has become one of the most competitive online shooters today, with a lot of skilled gamers playing on a regular basis.

The Call of Duty series has been set in numerous time periods (World War II, the Cold War, and the modern period). Despite the changes in the setting, the gameplay remains the same, with fast-paced action being at the center of it all. While there is a campaign mode, the multiplayer gameplay is where it is all at. Gamers are able to compete in various game modes and have access to the best weapons and equipment.

Being one of the most popular video game series of all time, its online gaming community is large, with numerous players around the world playing the game on a daily basis.

The online gaming community remains strong all throughout, with numerous games having solid fan bases. As new games come out each year, there is bound to be at least one that would be able to gain a massive following wherein gamers would be able to interact and communicate with one another. If you want to become a part of these online games communities , you can choose to experience quality gaming from Mineski Infinity.

What is Mineski Infinity?

Mineski Infinity is a gaming hub intended to bring fellow gamers together. With over 70 branches in the Philippines and Malaysia combined, Mineski provides the best for gamers; they are sure to feel truly at home.

What are our Services?

Other than providing top-notch gaming services, Mineski Infinity also provides services like marketing, communication, and franchising. When it comes to franchising, Mineski Infinity helps their clients by building up from the start, assisting throughout the development cycle. To learn more about this, contact us !

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Online Gaming Community | Mineski Infinity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Video games have remained popular over the past few decades of its existence, being one of the most used forms of media in the world thanks to the expanding online gaming community. The arrival of the internet helped expand gaming further, allowing online games to become popular all over the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Internet cafes started as coffee shops where you could check email. But over the years, people turned them into dens for sharing pirated music, hotspots for video game addiction, and even temporary housing.

How Internet Cafes Were Born

In the February 17, 1993 edition of the Washington Post, writer John Boudreau filed a story from San Francisco headlined "A Cuppa and a Computer: Coffeehouse Cyberpunks Seek Love and the Meaning of Life."

Boudreau described how the bohemian cafes that birthed SF's Beatnik scene had morphed into 20 nondescript coffee houses full of low tables with inlaid keyboards, where computers connected visitors to other coffee houses scattered in San Francisco and Berkeley. These places were part of a new communications network called SF Net, which provided an online (and real life) forum that connected everyone from "twenty-something slackers" to "physicists," who rocked screen names like Warlock Scar and Ultra Crab. It was an era when the internet was still being described as an "electronic bulletin board."

What did people do on SF Net? They flirted, they waxed existential, posted short stories, and role-played fake personas (the Post story mentions one regular who appeared as a 14th-century Pope).

SF Net was founded a year-and-a-half earlier, in 1991, by a 35-year-old San Franciscan named Wayne Gregori. At that time, the network serviced 900 regulars in the Bay Area-half of which were home subscribers, and half logged on at coffee houses, which charged fifty cents for eight minutes of computer use. They also provided plastic keyboard covers to shield keys from spilled cups of Joe.

"This is the best example of cyberspace," Gregori told the Post. "There's something so spiritual about getting to know someone only through words. It's like a living novel, a drama that plays itself out 24 hours a day. You can really get lost in this thing."

Three years later, in 1994, a designer named Ivan Pope over in the UK refined the internet cafe concept. He proposed a cafe that centered on internet access (that allowed people to browse art), as opposed to regular coffee shops that offered it as just an extra amenity. It was part of a commission for an art event called "Towards the Aesthetics of the Future" at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London.

Soon after-in the same era as dial-up connections and flying toaster screensavers-the world's first internet cafe opened in the British capital. Called Cyberia, its goal was to give everyday folks access to a desktop computer and the World Wide Web for a small hourly fee. Business boomed, and the model attracted the attention of rich CEOs.

Five years later, in 1999, then-CEO of European budget airline easyJet launched the first chain of internet cafes in the UK, and the world. It was called easyEverything: The Internet Shop. The flagship store across from Victoria Station in central London was 10,000 square feet and packed in 400 screens for $1.60 an hour internet access.

The idea was eventually exported to New York's Times Square in 2000, but by then, the idea of going someplace to simply get online was already getting outdated and quaint. The internet was something you could access from home; it was evolving. And internet cafes got a whole lot weirder.
The easyEverything internet cafe in Times Square was the Guinness-certified world's largest, with 800 PC terminals. It's seen here on November 28, 2000. Photo by Chris Hondros/Newsmakers via Getty
A Place for Pirates

Flannel-wearing 90s hipsters got Internet cafes off the ground, but internet pirates jonesing for free movies and music took the establishment to a whole new level. At the turn of the millennium-around the same time Napster became popular-sharing music online did, too. And people in pursuit of illicit MP3s started filling internet cafes again.

In the early 2000s, easyJet's internet cafe chain held a promotion that allowed customers to copy a CD's worth of music from the internet for a measly £5. Surprise, surprise, record labels were none to pleased: Sony Music, Universal Music, and EMI launched an 18-month legal battle, and emerged victorious. In January 2003, easyJet was found guilty of copyright infringement.

Mexico also saw a spate of piracy in its internet cafes. As far back as 2000, CDs of pirated software were sold on the streets ("Everybody comes here," one vendor told Wired. "We get little kids buying Dragonball and old ladies buying Encarta 2000.") This led to cops raiding internet cafes, burning CDs, and checking software on all computers and demanding to see original receipts of any Microsoft programs on the machines.

Pirating was harder to track a decade or more ago, especially at internet cafes in developing nations: In 2006, a third of Mexicans used internet cafes to get on the internet, and with several people using the same computer every day, being able to bust the actual pirate was not easy.

But things were different in Australia. In 2008, a massive raid of a Sydney internet cafe by the Australian Federal Police left the establishment with an $82,000 fine, 40 charges of copyright infringement, court costs, and forfeit of 60 computer terminals and three servers. Those 60 terminals had contained a staggering 8 terabytes of stolen music, movies, and TV. (For some context, the Hubble Space Telescope collect 45 terabytes of galactic photos in 20 years.) The company pleaded guilty to all charges.

Nowadays, pirating penalties are much stiffer. In Australia, there's a set of laws in place that warn internet cafes that individuals caught pirating over the establishment's network can face fines of over $60,000.

You may think that piracy scandals would've been the nail of the internet cafe coffin. Far from it, actually. Because gradually, the purpose of internet cafes evolved from simply checking email or hopping online. Today internet cafes have evolved again, becoming cultural institutions in several countries.

The Rise of the Game Den

Demand for internet connectivity began to rise globally, but most people didn't have internet access at home. This began driving the demand for internet cafes from West to East. In 2011, there were over 350,000 internet cafes across Asia. In countries like China and South Korea, a specific, new clientele took internet cafe revenue to those astronomical heights: gamers.

In 2011, gaming in Asian internet cafes generated $19 billion in revenue, according to a study from marketing firm Pearl Research that looked at five East and South Asian countries. It's the same study that found that customers in Korea headed to internet cafes exclusively to play massively multiplayer online games, despite the fact that 82 percent of Korean households in 2011 owned a PC.

How'd the craze kick off? Nearly two decades ago, Blizzard Entertainment released StarCraft, a military scifi strategy game, and it took Korea by storm. Suddenly, thousands of people wanted access to PCs optimized for playing games. The market answered with internet cafes built for just for gaming-or "PC bangs," as they're known in Korea. Even if patrons owned computers at home, the ones at PC bangs are more souped-up and better equipped for online gaming.

PC bangs are still in full force today, with over 22,000 reported in 2007. Patrons spend a buck an hour for the all-you-can-play, high-speed bandwidth, powerful hardware, and snacks for purchase. Gaming addiction is also a problem, with work and school falling by the wayside as gamers spend all their time and money at PC bangs. In 2011, Korea implemented a controversial curfew that mandated customers under 16 were not allowed in internet cafes from midnight to 6 a.m.

Internet cafes took off elsewhere in East Asia, too. In China, they saw explosive growth in popularity in the '90s and early 2000s for the same reason they did in Korea: Young men flocked to play online games. Then, in 2002, a group of teen boys burned down an internet cafe in Beijing and tragically killed 24. Since that time, the government began regulating these establishments heavily.

Young Chinese zone out in front of video games on June 11, 2005 in Wuhan, China. At that time, there were 2,000 internet cafes in Wuhan alone, and cost seven cents to play overnight. Credit: Cancan Chu/Getty Images

Meanwhile, across the pond in Japan, internet cafes are a much more private experience. You can rent out a private cubicle-booth with your own computer, comfy chair, and have access to all-you-can-drink sodas, snacks, a vast manga library, and tons of other amenities. Unfortunately, they're so comfortable and convenient, that over the last decade, some customers have settled in-and don't want to leave.

Bloomberg reported that in 2007, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that 60,900 people spent a night in an internet cafe, and that 5,400 were living in them full time. To be clear, staying overnight in a Japanese internet cafe is actually something you can do-many cafes offer a quiet sleeping area, and some include small beds inside the booth with your computer. But these aren't overnight guests; they're part of a relatively new group called "net cafe refugees."

These so-called " refugees " can spend around $15 a night for a place to sleep that's cheaper than a hotel or monthly rent for an apartment. Net cafes have turned into temporary housing for cash-strapped singles (or for couples, who can rent a two-person booth).

Internet cafes seem to be spots for all sorts of bizarre news: Earlier this year, one man died in a Taiwanese internet cafe after gaming for three days straight. Also this year, a 26-year-old woman in China gave birth while in an internet cafe toilet cubicle.

And yet, despite the piles of gaming revenue and the cheap housing, internet cafes are on the decline in Asia. Over the last six years, increased government regulation in China, at least, has seen a whopping 130,000 internet cafes shut down. The reason? Officials claim that these places are corrupting users 18 and under.

Still, there's another reason internet cafes are shuttering: Mobile phones.

But They're Not Dead Yet

Silicon Valley companies like Microsoft and Google and Apple are clamoring to get "the next billion" online. By that, they mean the billions of humans who live in developing nations where internet access is spotty at best. Previously, internet cafes were the solution. But now, that's changing.

In Nigeria, for example, the number of active mobile web subscriptions tripled from around 30 million in March 2013 to 90 million in February 2015. With all those people accessing the internet on web-connected phones, the need for internet cafes in emerging markets started to dwindle.

As a result, internet cafes are shuttering across the world. Quartz reports that the number of internet cafes has dropped in Thailand, India, Rwanda, and even in wealthier countries like China and Korea.

But considering internet cafes' complicated past, it makes sense that their future could be complicated too.
Despite more people owning web-connected mobile phones globally, internet cafes still get developing nations online-like this one in Jakarta, seen here in 2015. Credit: AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana
Earlier this year, police reported that in Colorado, a new wave of internet cafes started popping up in order to skirt local gambling laws. Five have been shut down since April, but two have since reopened. Some of them have unmarked store fronts, or advertise "certified skill games." Colorado law prohibits slot machines and other forms of gambling that aren't "games of skill" like poker.

This new wave of internet cafes have a tawdry reputation that might be the only way future internet users will know them. Today's online gambling rooms are far cry from the Bay Area cappuccino spots filled with Nirvana-era cyberpunks posting to electronic bulletin boards, musing about infinity.

That said, internet cafes are also being used for less depressing purposes. Last month, NPR reported on a Pakistani lawyer whose side enterprise is opening pop-up internet cafes for Middle Eastern refugees all over Europe. Along borders and high-traffic routes throughout Europe, he's set up basic cafes where people can practice English, order hot meals, buy phone cards or communicate with loved ones on Skype.

As the internet changes, so does the way we use it. Internet cafes may never completely die. Even in the face of cheap mobile phones and free wifi at Starbucks, people could still use buildings dedicated for internet use for a variety of purposes, from sketchy and shady, to something that is actually humanitarian.

Contact the author at bryan@gizmodo.com, or follow him on Twitter.

Top image: Cancan Chu/Getty Images

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Weird, Sketchy History of Internet Cafes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Internet cafes started as coffee shops where you could check email. But over the years, people turned them into dens for sharing pirated music, hotspots for video game addiction, and even temporary housing. In the February 17, 1993 edition of the Washington Post, writer John Boudreau filed a story from San Francisco headlined "A Cuppa and a Computer: Coffeehouse Cyberpunks Seek Love and the Meaning of Life."