Why did you initially start your GSP?

[adamnp]

Was talking with a few of the regulars here the other day and thought this might be a decent thread to start, its sometimes odd to see how large some operations become overtime and what their initial goals and ambitions where! So just curious how this industry and how your company initially came about!

 

I primariliy started my company GaloreGameServers basically to eat up some boredom, after working all day I would come home and play some games have a few beers and relax....That soon turned into managing the servers I played on, growing the servers, and helping out a constant flow of demanding users....I said to myself, we have the knowledge, we have the capabilities, we have the financing, we have the manpower and the drive to get it done! So we started out on our mission!

 

Work wasn't challanging for me at the time, things were simple and I felt like my brain was being depleated of cells on daily basis....It was odd and frustrating to some degree, I initially came up with a list of goals to reach and problems/projects to challange myself with. We are now in it 9 months later with positive revenues, continually expanding userbase, continually learning, and continuing to meet a whole slew of new awesome people! I've been taking on the fun task of learning how SEO works, how TCA Works, and how the industry as a whole works!

 

Don't forget the more you use your brain, the more useful it becomes :]

 

This is why we started up a GSP, not a normal reason I'm sure....Anyone get hit on the head with a rock and then just decide to start one?

 

Were you just trying to "Get rich Quick?"

 

Hehe, share your story

 

Adam:cool

[Todd Holley]

Like you I mostly started from boredom. I played cod for about a year or so then started hosting my own server form home. I liked it so I bought my first dedicated from soft layer about 9 months ago. I can say that I don't have negative cash flow, but it isn't exactly making tons of money. I am also doing this as I plan to go to college for computer engineer / something along those lines and I figured this would be a very good learning experience.

 

It has been fun, and I plan to be in this for a while longer.

[jbiloh]

Four and a half years ago I wanted to earn some money to buy an exotic car. That was my motivation.

 

I played games at the time too, and couldn't stand the lag spikes the server experienced every night. Got a dedicated box, rented a few to friends, and it went from there.

 

Exponential expansion.

 

Nearly five years later, with four service brands, in two seperate markets, and two software releases pending we're moving forward with speed.

[Kuwl]

A few years ago I got tired of renting bad servers from bad companies. If you wanted an amazing server, you had to pay an amazing price. I bought a server and colocated it just for my clan and a few friends to use.... now I've decided to take the "for the pleasure of it" for myself and friends and turn it into a business (well hopefully). We're still in the building stages of getting everything up and running the way I want it, so you can say I'm fairly new to the market, but I know a thing or 2 about hosting (2 years is a long time :-P).

 

But anyways, yeah, I started hosting because of lag + prices + bad support (it seems higher prices != better support or lower lag.... at least the hosts i've been with).

 

666spitfire, I am going to school for computer engineering + computer science minor (I am a senior this year). If you have any questions feel free to ask :-)

[Defcon|Rich]

Four and a half years ago I wanted to earn some money to buy an exotic car. That was my motivation.

 

I played games at the time too, and couldn't stand the lag spikes the server experienced every night. Got a dedicated box, rented a few to friends, and it went from there.

 

Exponential expansion.

 

Nearly five years later, with four service brands, in two seperate markets, and two software releases pending we're moving forward with speed.

 

 

You start velocity under a different name Jon? Just curious cause I know you haven't been around as long as we have.

[jbiloh]

4VelocityServers.com (old, and first domain) and before that we were website less for 7-8 months.

[Defcon|Rich]

That's right. I thought you had a different name before.

 

Bet you don't remember the name we started under..

[Defcon|Rich]

I suppose I'll give the why we started post too..

 

 

The long version of the story is after getting burned out running my restaurant for many years I started looking for other things to do that were a bit more mentally challenging. I always enjoyed computers and spent a good deal of time playing games online so it was a natural fit.

 

At the time there were only a handful of providers who rented game servers, Most of them did it purely as a hobby so our thought was to enter this fairly new market starting from a totally different aspect. The plan was to create a full scale business model selling game servers with full around the clock support and as it turned out this was exactly what gamers were looking for. By the end of the 3rd month in business we had 25 machines full of customers and a staff of 6 working full time around the clock which at the time was unheard of.. Back then it was typical to have support responses in 24-36 hours, We cut that down to 1 hour or less which made us very popular with the gamers

 

I think the biggest thing we did that set us apart from some of the others was the variety of games we offered. Unlike most that just did CS we hosted all the popular games and new releases. We complimented the games with the first "real" game server control panel (Iguana) which at the time was state of the art considering everyone else used programs like server doc or firedaemon we killed em with our custom panel which oddly enough we still have sitting on one of our servers and is fully functional . It's not as refined as tcadmin but it's pretty cool.

 

We also started offering dedicated servers and of course voice servers. Gamers came to us and still do because we can offer them everything they need under one roof. Before we came along GSP's offered game servers and nothing else. We understood the positive results of ordering all your applications from one company and if you look around today that idea is pretty standard so I suppose at least a few of the ideas weren't all bad

 

It's almost surreal looking around today at how far this industry has come. Back when we started there was nowhere to turn for support or help with hosting, If you wanted the luxury of a control panel you either coded it yourself or paid someone, Things like dedicated server files didn't exist, You had to take your game cd and strip out everything that wasn't needed then figure out how to get it to run.. Fortunately most games ran off either the UT engine or HL engine so commandlines and such worked across the board most times but it was still alot of work either way.

 

Well, That's my long winded story of how everything started. Hope you enjoyed it and possibly learned something along the way

[jbiloh]

Rich:

 

Industry has changed eh? More than I can imagine. Ahhh it's been a ride.

 

So here was our very first site:

 

http://velocity-servers.net/past/old.jpg

 

and the new:

 

http://www.syckmedia.com/vsa/vsamped.jpg

 

Changed much?

[jbiloh]

One thing I wanted to point out in the old site:

 

"Billing Questions, Concerns and contract on late fees."

 

Yes, back then you could charge late fees....

[adamnp]

Rich, I believe your name you started with was, X-TremeGaming?

 

I've been around longer than you might remember :] haha

 

Am I right here? I'm 90% positive I am...

 

...I'm going to edit this, and refine a bit more,

 

I think you actuall even started the business I'm going to say the end of 2001, I remember it was shortly after, as I was working @ mohegan sun at the time, and I remember when grey wolf baught that mill in willi and sold a shitload of bw to snet...

 

If my memory serves me right :]

[NRTServers]

Finally...some time to sit back...read my favorite forum.and have a Smirnoff Ice.does it get any better?

 

Why did I become a GSP...? Hmmm.oh ya...was it for wealth and prosperity? Lol.NO

Because I had so much extra time and cash...ya...that was it...NOT

 

I got involved with a bunch of friends...that wanted to improve an outdated race simulation game...and over a few beers one night on Teamspeak...it was suggested..."hey...we should host and re-sell this stuff ourselves when it is re-leased” and here I am to-day. After starting out leasing a server from Rich.I was hooked...and we have not looked back since...only thing I have to say is...this is one kookie business.but all is good.

I know there is no way that we will every get to be as big as some of the folks here...and by no means that is our not goal. We look to be specialized in one gaming venue...Online Simulation Racing. And.if the odd first person shooter comes along...thats fine also...but they are to resource intense for our liking. Racing is what we do... WE have had 2 fantastic 24 hour races with 100 cars and 300 drivers shairing 8 hour shifts in a 24 hours of le-mans series...connections from Budapest, Japan, Australia and south america both times the servers have rocked...no lag...no spikes NO complaints...now if that isn't asking your servers to preform...I don't know what is...and I attribute alot of that to the gang here on the forums and the support from TCAdmin!! I spend week-ends at the Tracks...last week-end was Pocono, and a good week-end it was...we had a few teams over to the split level we rented for a barbecue, got our Logo's on a car for the race. TV Time (speed Channel) and sold some simulators that I now have the Canadian distribution rights to manufacture and re-sell... We are in talks with the Victory Junction gang to do some online racing for the kids and more so...you can see GSP has led me to other avenues.... So...in a nut shell...now you all know.why I like being a GSP.

 

Cheers for now.

 

Dave

[adamnp]

Rich, I believe your name you started with was, X-TremeGaming?

 

I've been around longer than you might remember :] haha

 

Am I right here? I'm 90% positive I am...

 

...I'm going to edit this, and refine a bit more,

 

I think you actuall even started the business I'm going to say the end of 2001, I remember it was shortly after, as I was working @ mohegan sun at the time, and I remember when grey wolf baught that mill in willi and sold a shitload of bw to snet...

 

If my memory serves me right :]

 

Hey Rich, you never answered...Did I win the cookie?

[Defcon|Rich]

Yeah, You got it although I lived in California at that time and just moved back to the east coast about 2 years ago.

[TyphoonServers]

Interesting thread

 

If you don't mind my adding my two cents.

 

We at Typhoon Servers have been around a lot longer than people realize. Todd Pitts started it in 1999 with Web hosting an expanded to game servers in 2001. It's all been word-of-mouth. But our customers love us, especially the level of support they get from us. Which is what we believe is unmatched in the industry. We specialize in the Call of Duty series but host many other games. Most of the big mod writers got their start with us as we were their original sponsors including AWE, Merciless, and Sixth Column some of these guys have gone on to careers in game and software developement and we are proud that we were able to make our modest contributions to help these people along. We also helped beta-test and rewrite many other mods and customizations for the new crop of modders and mappers up and coming.

 

From day one we treated our company as a corporation and our business approach reflects that. I'm not knocking anybody, but I feel that so many little guys running GSP's out of their bedrooms hurts the industry overall because many of them would fold up in less than six months, and leave their customers in a lurch which quite frankly gives the rest of us a bad name.

 

In 2006 I bought the company. So that kind of makes me like the guy in the razor blade commercials , but I bring 30+ years of professional IT and business experience working with Fortune 500 companies to this company. As you can see. I am the type of person who doesn't mince words when it comes to speaking my mind. Becuase we are in this for the long haul and our track record reflects that.

 

Well I'll step fom the soapbox now

[adamnp]

Thats awesome to hear you say you've made well based on COD...Game is pretty demanding compared to some of the others, thumbs up!