Video game center opens

Looking at the $20 billion video game industry, creating a center where people can play some of the most popular games seemed like a pretty good idea to video game center founder Zack Johnson.\n“I remember thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could put all these systems in one building and people could come and everything would already be hooked up and ready to play?” said Johnson, a 1998 graduate of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.\nSoon after, Ebash Video Game Center was born. Johnson started the first Ebash in an old warehouse in Terre Haute in 2004. The newest Ebash center, located in Bloomington, opened Feb. 9. Its grand opening was a huge success, almost matching the revenue of the Terre Haute store on the same night, Johnson said.\nCommonly mistaken for a store that simply sells video games, Ebash instead allows people to pay a fee to play their favorite games on a variety of popular systems.\nJohnson, manager of Ebash in Terre Haute, hopes his center can help video games be portrayed in a more positive light.\n“It’s a social environment for gamers,” he said. “It gets them out of their rooms and into a public place where they can share their love for video games with each other.”\nThe Bloomington center, located at 3478 W. Third St. next to Subway, contains 45 Xbox 360s, 20 gaming computers and a handful of Wii and Playstation 3 consoles, in addition to high-definition televisions and state-of-the-art sound systems.\nDanny Taladay, the Bloomington store manager, said that, unlike the personal computers most students own, Ebash builds its own computers to ensure the highest quality gaming experience available.\n“People get to actually see games like ‘World of Warcraft’ at its highest potential with no lagging. You can play your favorite games, like ‘Guitar Hero III,’ on a 52-inch high-definition television,” Taladay said.\nEbash gives customers multiple options for their gaming experience. The cost is $4 for one hour of playing time, $10 for three hours and $15 for five hours. Night passes (7 to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m on Fridays and Saturdays) are also available for $8. Day passes cost $15 except on Fridays when they are $20. Each Monday is “college day,” when IU students can play all day for only $5.\nJeff Knudson, a sophomore at Edgewood High School, said Ebash is a cool place to work, too.\n“It’s great. I love it. And plus, for every hour I work, I get an hour of free play,” Knudson said.\nAshley Reed, an IU senior and assistant manager at Ebash, said word-of-mouth has undoubtedly played a key role in the solid business the store has experienced so far.\n“We have about 10 to 15 regulars who come in every day, and business has definitely picked up,” she said.\nJohnson said the center gives gamers an opportunity to have fun with people they normally wouldn’t meet.\n“About two years ago, we had an Indiana State University lineman come in and sit down next to a small, quiet 15-year-old kid who played in the band at a local high school,” he said. “They were so unlike each other, but they teamed up and had fun going against people across the Internet. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.”