Bakersfield College students Ian Ranney and Micheal Kinney opened up a gaming lounge called Leeters in the East Hills mall.
It is intended to be a gaming store in all aspects, providing computer games, board games and playing cards among many other gaming themed activities.
Kinney, who has a degree in web design and is majoring in computer science, said the idea came about while he and Ranney were roommates and were simply talking about business projects. Ranney had always wanted to open up his own arcade and did a lot of research behind the idea.
After the two talked about it, they decided to put funds together to make it happen. About a month ago is when it all actually started coming together. The search for a location was a big factor in creating Leeters.
According to Kinney, him and Ranney knew they wanted to open the place in a mall. When they were looking for locations they checked the Marketplace, which only had one location available and was too big. They also checked the Valley Plaza, but it had no openings and there was another spot that was too small.
They finally settled with a location in the East Hills mall, Kinney explained. “Because of the market and the mall, it was a good choice because it’s not that expensive.” He explained that it was also good because it is close to BC.
There are four main employees at Leeters, the two owners being Kinney and Ranney, the other two being Tyler McGinty and Ben Reyes. At least one of them is present in the store during business hours.
McGinty, also a student at BC who is double majoring in philosophy and political science, also plans to get an associate degree in journalism. McGinty is a friend of the two owners and has much involvement in the store.
He is a manager and is responsible for making comic orders and deals with all the comic book related customers. When the idea to create the store was shared with McGinty, he was very excited because selling comics is always something he wanted to do. He told Ranney, “I can sell comics. I got this down.”
Leeters has all types of gaming experiences, including Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, Unreal Tournament, and StarCraft, among many others. Five computers are set up for online gaming, called a Local Area Network arcade or LAN arcade. They also have two 32-inch flat screens, used for gaming as well as two projectors, two pool tables, one air hockey and many unique board games. They also provide free Wi-Fi.
The name Leeters was chosen because of a deviation of the word “elite,” for elite gamers. It developed into its own gamer community language called leetspeak, which involves using numbers to spell words, with the slang “leet” being spelled “1337.”
Ranney said, “We used the term to appeal to the more elite gamers, and because we want everything we do to be the best, the most leet.”
The store’s grand opening was held on Nov. 29 at 10 a.m. This date was chosen because it is Cyber Monday and according to Ranney, is a day online stores do good sales.
“It fits our theme for both being online and having our LAN arcade with Internet access, and for the Cyber theme,” he said.
In five years, Ramney said, “I see the store being franchised out, and very popular across the country. ?How many we have by then I am not sure of, though.”