If you're still waiting for a chance to grab one of the best graphics cards to enjoy ray tracing-capable gaming at the fastest possible frames per second, a vacation in Guangzhou, China might be just what the doctor ordered. Numerous gaming hotels have been popping throughout China, with a call to fame mostly based on a gaming-capable vacation powered by the latest NVIDIA RTX 30-series graphics cards.
These gaming-infused vacations might only bring you closer to virtual nature and landmarks as opposed to their real counterparts, but the mere fact that they exist means that there definitely is a market for this type of accommodation. Whether created as a way to cater to the ever growing -- and already immense -- gaming market in mainland China, or as a way to distribute gaming time on otherwise prohibitively marked-up current-generation graphics card pricing, these types of hotels vary from their non-tech counterparts by offering rooms that include access to top tier gaming systems.
Pricing varies not only according to the room's qualities, as any other mainstream hotel offering, but also by the hardware that's made available for vacationers. There are different system configurations available; pricing examples available range from $80 for a two-person bedroom with RTX 3070 and Intel Core i7-10700-powered systems (with 165 Hz monitors, gaming chairs and gaming-oriented peripherals as well, of course) to s six-person, $150 per-person bunk bed rooms packing RTX 3080 systems. Some of the available bedroom showcase photos even reveal shelves packed full of snacks. Ramen noodles and chips apparently make up most of a serious gamers' diet.
Perhaps we're looking at both the future of gaming and of vacation philosophy in a world where the current chip shortages continue on indefinitely. In a world that's built upon a concept of scarcity, and where it's clear that there is no semiconductor manufacturing capability that's enough to sate the market's demand for gaming systems or high-performance graphics cards, hotels such as these could become the only option for people unwilling to part with large lump sums of hard-earned money for severely marked-up gaming hardware. Sadly, there's no breakfast included, but as Kurt Vonnegut would (probably not) remind us, the true breakfast of champions is had when one beats their enemies in virtual arenas.
These gaming-oriented hotels seem to be appearing mostly throughout China's Tier 1 through Tier 3 cities -- Guangzhou is a Tier 1. China's tiering system classifies its cities according to several factors, including differences in consumer behavior, purchase patterns, and perceived "sophistication", as well as income level, population size, available infrastructure, talent pool, and business opportunity.
It seems that the more 'sophisticated' the consumer, the more powerful hardware and more Ramen noodles are at one's disposal. That doesn't seem so far from the truth.
