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  1. #1

    Wanting to start a game server business

    Hey all, I'm looking into starting a VPS service primarily focussed on gaming VPS because I have a big interest in computers and cause school doesn't start until Sept so I can focus my attentions on it and make enough money to hire support by the time school is back. I am knowledgeable on adminning cause my friends let me do admin things on their minecraft servers so I know how to do admin stuff... but i want know how to admin the servers software for hosting and stuff (like how to get the server to show webpages and flash animations). I was looking at some dedicated server deals and wanted to know, How many apache VPS can run on a 4core atom server? Can I just buy 1 server and install counterstrike or minecraft or whatever 6 times on it so I can sell 6 servers? I would also use it to host websites to stream gameplay videos like you see on twitch.tv and sell adspace on the vids to pay for the server in the longrun. My budget is now $350USD, so I can buy a domain, some servers and software, I did some research and found out that there are more IPv6s than regular IPs, so can I buy those instead? How do I use IPv6 in games?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    9,072
    How ever much money you think you're going to make, divide that by 10 and then divide that in half. That will be more accurate to what you will likely earn, making it difficult to hire staff come September.

    Why do you want to run a hosting / game server business anyway? It's awful. Enjoy your youth, go outside and have some fun with your home boys! Smoke a little... drink a little... make the best of it before you are forced to get a job and become an adult.
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  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick View Post
    How ever much money you think you're going to make, divide that by 10 and then divide that in half. That will be more accurate to what you will likely earn, making it difficult to hire staff come September.

    Why do you want to run a hosting / game server business anyway? It's awful. Enjoy your youth, go outside and have some fun with your home boys! Smoke a little... drink a little... make the best of it before you are forced to get a job and become an adult.
    Because it's either be an entrepreneur and run a game server business remotely from home or work in the coal mines or walmart in this small redneck town I live in... I can't go out and have fun. I'm poor. I'm not lucky enough to be a middle class american where ur kids can go out and enjoy the summer and have all their bills paid for by mom and dad. And the kids in my town, their idea of fun is getting drunk at the football field and harming small animals.... I may come from a poor blue-collar family, but I don't want to stay that way. I don't qualify for any scholarships or grants and there's no way I can move away and goto college for IT stuff... So asking experienced people like urself for technical help and starting my own business from the ground up is my only way out.... I realize I may not have used the right hosting terms in my questions, but my local bookstore only carries sports magazines and farming guides, so I AM going to ask stupid or wrong questions... I don't care if I seem foolish or stupid to you because of it. I do love computers and want to be adminning them but there are no opportunities to learn here, I think only the coal mine and walmart are the only businesses that have a website here... everyone else still advertises in the local newspaper... And if you are suggesting that I go and spend the $350 on McDonald's, cheap toys from Walmart, booze, cigarettes and girls... again, must be nice to have been born with a goldspoon in your mouth. I earned that $350 from what little my parents could give me on my birthday, doing computer hardware help for some neighbours, and saving what I could from working odd jobs... most of my pay went to help my family... not the other way around. I know $350 isn't much to start a business with, and I'm not expecting to turn any profit at all for some years.. I just need to make enough to pay a part time guy to do support when I go back to school so my business can continue and I can have something to help me make something of myself so I can make it big enough to leave this town and take my family with me.

    So why are you trying to crush my dream?

  4. #4
    Bro have some goals

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Canada
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    Quote Originally Posted by gameserverking View Post
    So why are you trying to crush my dream?
    When I was 16, you know what my dream was? Getting laid. Sure as hell not running a hosting business.
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    California USA
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    13,681
    How many apache VPS can run on a 4core atom server?
    No. Just no.
    Steven Ciaburri | Industry's Best Server Management - Rack911.com
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Las Vegas
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    417
    Wow, nice comments, what they are trying to tell you is, webhosting is a great responsibility. Game servers are fun, but even more responsibility. Most kids like to ddos, and I have seen many companies go down fast, without proper protections, research etc.

    Having a dream is great, goal setting, and getting out of what you may perceive as hell. With more money, comes more responsibility, none the less chase your dream, and if it's a true passion it will be "fun" all the time.

    I would recommend getting an old machine, install every software you can get a hold of and learn, such as hardware, software, billing, management, damage control, switches, networking, firewalls, ip routing, Proxmox, Virtualizor, solusvm, centOS, Debian, Ubuntu, blesta, whmcs, reseller accounts, vps, bandwidth pricing, contracts, collocation, cpanel, zpanel, ispconfig, reputable companies, various solutions.

    Just firing up a minecraft server, teamspeak servers, are fine. There is a lot to learn, and it takes a lot of time.

    Follow your dream, and never let anyone steal that from you.

    Just plan, failure to plan is planning to fail.

    Good luck, and stay motivated, but be smart about it.

    Good luck!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    30
    If you are going to be getting into game servers, as you may already know, the clients can be rather picky about latency and reliability. A good friend of mine hosted servers for a large Clan. Only one day of packet-loss and dropped connections tarnished the reputation enough to cause half of the regular players to move on, the clan closed up shop, and that was the end of it. Only took one day. Minecraft, in my experience, uses a whole lot more RAM than you think. There are 8GB and 16GB MC servers being hosted that are having issues due to their size.

    You are using your brain to think outside of the box, and for that, I give you kudos. If I was where you were at your age, I'd have someone else posting this for me right now.

    Please, for the continuity of your business, plan on what you will be doing from Sept-May. There are very few that can manage a hosting company and school simultaneously.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    4,533
    Quote Originally Posted by gameserverking View Post
    Hey all, I'm looking into starting a VPS service primarily focussed on gaming VPS because I have a big interest in computers and cause school doesn't start until Sept so I can focus my attentions on it and make enough money to hire support by the time school is back.
    Probably not going to happen that quickly. It's a pretty low profit highly competitive field and most won't see a return in their first year.

    Quote Originally Posted by gameserverking View Post
    I was looking at some dedicated server deals and wanted to know, How many apache VPS can run on a 4core atom server? Can I just buy 1 server and install counterstrike or minecraft or whatever 6 times on it so I can sell 6 servers? I would also use it to host websites to stream gameplay videos like you see on twitch.tv and sell adspace on the vids to pay for the server in the longrun.
    Probably 1-2 vps at most and 1-2 game servers. People underestimate atoms these days but the things you are trying to do is a bit much. Mine craft is extremely resource heavy and cpu/io dependent too.

    Quote Originally Posted by gameserverking View Post
    so I can buy a domain, some servers and software, I did some research and found out that there are more IPv6s than regular IPs, so can I buy those instead? How do I use IPv6 in games?
    You can't really use IPv6 for games. Only around 2% of the internet actually support it. So only 2% of gamers for a game could even see the server assuming that the game even supports IPv6. It's also a bit harder now to break into the gameserver market since quite a few games now require a lot to become a ranked server that people actually want to pay for.

    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick View Post
    When I was 16, you know what my dream was? Getting laid. Sure as hell not running a hosting business.
    Could always add it as a billing method


    --------------------------

    I don't wish to discourage you if you do firmly believe this is what you want to do but I would like to list the downfalls and also one possible solution to help you out.

    Gaming clients want the best network for the lowest price and a quality network can get expensive. Only making a few cents per game server slot.

    Being 16 you can't really legally enter a contract unless your parents handle everything for you. Getting setup with payment gateways and such will be harder.

    You are going to need to learn how to secure servers, do raid rebuilds, have constant monitoring and the ability to fix something if needed at any time. Clients aren't going to wait hours to get their sites or games back online.

    What I can suggest for you if you can deal with what is listed above is going through a reseller. There is the drawback of not being in complete control so your reputation will really rely on that company. But essentially your costs would be 0 until someone makes an order and then you place that gameserver order through a reseller. They will help you out with support and in some cases handle the support for you. This would help alleviate needing a staff member when school starts for the most part and you can learn more with a company holding your hand along the way. With a $350 budget start small. Don't worry about growing into a large profitable company just worry about simply growing more each year and eventually you may have a successful business. It may get discouraging and stressful at times but when you get past that, it really is a rewarding business that at the same time (In the case of shared hosting not really game servers) is a little more recession proof due to the lower general costs then other hobbies that people partake in.

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