![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Since multiple people had suggested it in the last couple of weeks, I checked out the new End Game this evening.
It's a game store located in Downtown Oakland, just two blocks from the 12th Street BART Station. It's in the part of Downtown Oakland that's been successfully "rejuvenated" in recent years. The Oakland Convention Center is right there and it's surrounded by a number of posh restaurants and bars---apparently what's called Oakland's gourmet ghetto. Nonetheless, the sliver of high-end Oakland around the Convention Center seems razor thin, with rundown buildings often being just across the street from hotels and other convention center areas (as opposed to, say, Indianapolis, where you have to walk three or four blocks to see what the city really looks like).
End Game is a nice little store that I can't possibly see making money (but they must, since they just moved to the new locale). Its largest stock seems to be European board games, which surprised me a fair amount. Rio Grande, Days of Wonder and other American publishers and importers seemed to be much of the stock. I was sad that they didn't have any genuine imports, as that would have made them top notch in my book. They had a little roleplaying alcove on one side and a puzzle alcove on the other, and that was it. The store was quite small and I suspect Games of Berkeley's inventory is better even for the board games that End Game is specializing in. However, the most important difference was that End Game had quiet, yet friendly staff who were aware of their customers and who actually stuck around the register.
End Game has a mezanine level that fills maybe 60% of the second floor and that area is filled with tables. That's where their gaming goes on, and tonight it was board gaming. Apparently you can bring your own games, and the staff don't make you jump through hoops checking them in or anything. Very nice.
I was just going low key tonight, and so I jumped into the first game that I saw getting together, which was a 5-player game of Alhambra. Not my favorite game in the world, especially at a chaotic 5-player level, but OK. I managed to finish second.
Overall, there were 25 or 30 people by the time my first game finished up, with games of Alhambra, St. Petersburg (x2), Tonga Bonga, and Ra all going on--possibly one or two more I couldn't see too. I was very sad that I was busy when the Ra game started up, as that's a game I've been wanting to try out for a while.
Unfortunately, Kimberly called me up about two-thirds of the way through my game and let me know that she'd locked herself out of the house. I stuck out the game, so that I wouldn't let everyone else down, but was anxious about it, and took off as fast as I could afterward. I could have stayed till 10pm, about two hours more, and gotten a game or two more in otherwise. Ah well.
As punishment I made Kimberly play Babel with me. It's a two-player game that I got 6 or 10 months ago that I hadn't tried to introduce to her because it was complex and conflictive. It went much better than I expected, and she actually won. She said it's not entirely her type of game, but she'd be willing to play it again. I found it a very interesting tactical game and look forward to trying it again.
Getting back to End Game: I like their store which is clean, quiet, and friendly. I also liked the people who came to play, who were generally adult and mature, not a bunch of kids. I also find the idea of trying out games I don't actually own and getting to play games I want to without having to worry about other folks or doing reviews all exciting, so I expect I'll return. It doesn't have to be something I do every week, but there's no reason not to head down there if I have free time and energy (and the required $2.50 for BART) on a Wednesday evening.
It's a game store located in Downtown Oakland, just two blocks from the 12th Street BART Station. It's in the part of Downtown Oakland that's been successfully "rejuvenated" in recent years. The Oakland Convention Center is right there and it's surrounded by a number of posh restaurants and bars---apparently what's called Oakland's gourmet ghetto. Nonetheless, the sliver of high-end Oakland around the Convention Center seems razor thin, with rundown buildings often being just across the street from hotels and other convention center areas (as opposed to, say, Indianapolis, where you have to walk three or four blocks to see what the city really looks like).
End Game is a nice little store that I can't possibly see making money (but they must, since they just moved to the new locale). Its largest stock seems to be European board games, which surprised me a fair amount. Rio Grande, Days of Wonder and other American publishers and importers seemed to be much of the stock. I was sad that they didn't have any genuine imports, as that would have made them top notch in my book. They had a little roleplaying alcove on one side and a puzzle alcove on the other, and that was it. The store was quite small and I suspect Games of Berkeley's inventory is better even for the board games that End Game is specializing in. However, the most important difference was that End Game had quiet, yet friendly staff who were aware of their customers and who actually stuck around the register.
End Game has a mezanine level that fills maybe 60% of the second floor and that area is filled with tables. That's where their gaming goes on, and tonight it was board gaming. Apparently you can bring your own games, and the staff don't make you jump through hoops checking them in or anything. Very nice.
I was just going low key tonight, and so I jumped into the first game that I saw getting together, which was a 5-player game of Alhambra. Not my favorite game in the world, especially at a chaotic 5-player level, but OK. I managed to finish second.
Overall, there were 25 or 30 people by the time my first game finished up, with games of Alhambra, St. Petersburg (x2), Tonga Bonga, and Ra all going on--possibly one or two more I couldn't see too. I was very sad that I was busy when the Ra game started up, as that's a game I've been wanting to try out for a while.
Unfortunately, Kimberly called me up about two-thirds of the way through my game and let me know that she'd locked herself out of the house. I stuck out the game, so that I wouldn't let everyone else down, but was anxious about it, and took off as fast as I could afterward. I could have stayed till 10pm, about two hours more, and gotten a game or two more in otherwise. Ah well.
As punishment I made Kimberly play Babel with me. It's a two-player game that I got 6 or 10 months ago that I hadn't tried to introduce to her because it was complex and conflictive. It went much better than I expected, and she actually won. She said it's not entirely her type of game, but she'd be willing to play it again. I found it a very interesting tactical game and look forward to trying it again.
Getting back to End Game: I like their store which is clean, quiet, and friendly. I also liked the people who came to play, who were generally adult and mature, not a bunch of kids. I also find the idea of trying out games I don't actually own and getting to play games I want to without having to worry about other folks or doing reviews all exciting, so I expect I'll return. It doesn't have to be something I do every week, but there's no reason not to head down there if I have free time and energy (and the required $2.50 for BART) on a Wednesday evening.
