I still haven't been to a nice restaurant since the last time I updated the blog. Of course, there's only one person I wanna go to a nice place with, but that one person has been fairly busy at work recently. And by 'fairly', I mean 'very', and by 'recently', I mean for the past few months.
So what is a guy to do? I guess I can just talk about my forte: Games.
I recently went to KL for a weekend with a couple of buddies. We took a bus both ways there, and spent our nights at a reasonably priced and decent hotel. All other waking hours were spent walking around, having a coffee, chatting or any combination of the 3.
I did manage to meet some local gamers and played a few games on Saturday night. It was an enjoyable experience because the gamers there were friendly and gracious. The venue itself left a little to be desired.
The venue was within a shophouse block located on the outskirts of the city. It's fairly difficult to get there, and if it wasn't for the good graces of a fellow gamer, I would have never been able to make it. The layout of the shop was mildly chaotic, as it essentially is an empty room with tables and chairs. In terms of retail space, there was no recognizable organisation of products. There were shelves lined with Warhammer products, and boardgames placed on top in a random order. Tables were occupied with people painting and playing games. In terms of geekery, it ranks pretty high. Which it totally fine with me, I enjoy such an environment. I like hanging out with geeks for most part.
What struck me as odd was the pricing structure for people to enjoy the premises. There's a yearly membership charge for each person, paid in full and up front. If a person desires to use the venue on an ad-hoc basis, it's about RM$10 per hour per person. Now that's a little crazy. While I guess it makes sense to the proprietor to secure finances, this seems to discourage people who may only be mildly interested in games, and not ready to jump into the deep end yet. The way I see it, this model draws a clear line between gamers and non-gamers. And that distinction is RM$120 out of the pocket.
My feel for that situation is that it's hard to build a gaming community if entry into the hobby is a little restrictive. The cost is prohibitive, and the venue is fairly inaccessible. Added on top are the irregular operating hours, and lack of retail product.
I guess a proprietor has to cater to his crowd, and if he has an interested customer base, then that's fine. I guess that for myself, I find the store policies a little restrictive and I'd probably do things a little different.
On a related note, I'm real glad that I met Jeff, Kestor, Nick, Sook Juan (*spelling?), Ainor (*spelling again?) and Alan. I had a real good time hanging out with you guys, and I hope to game with you all soon again.
So what is a guy to do? I guess I can just talk about my forte: Games.
I recently went to KL for a weekend with a couple of buddies. We took a bus both ways there, and spent our nights at a reasonably priced and decent hotel. All other waking hours were spent walking around, having a coffee, chatting or any combination of the 3.
I did manage to meet some local gamers and played a few games on Saturday night. It was an enjoyable experience because the gamers there were friendly and gracious. The venue itself left a little to be desired.
The venue was within a shophouse block located on the outskirts of the city. It's fairly difficult to get there, and if it wasn't for the good graces of a fellow gamer, I would have never been able to make it. The layout of the shop was mildly chaotic, as it essentially is an empty room with tables and chairs. In terms of retail space, there was no recognizable organisation of products. There were shelves lined with Warhammer products, and boardgames placed on top in a random order. Tables were occupied with people painting and playing games. In terms of geekery, it ranks pretty high. Which it totally fine with me, I enjoy such an environment. I like hanging out with geeks for most part.
What struck me as odd was the pricing structure for people to enjoy the premises. There's a yearly membership charge for each person, paid in full and up front. If a person desires to use the venue on an ad-hoc basis, it's about RM$10 per hour per person. Now that's a little crazy. While I guess it makes sense to the proprietor to secure finances, this seems to discourage people who may only be mildly interested in games, and not ready to jump into the deep end yet. The way I see it, this model draws a clear line between gamers and non-gamers. And that distinction is RM$120 out of the pocket.
My feel for that situation is that it's hard to build a gaming community if entry into the hobby is a little restrictive. The cost is prohibitive, and the venue is fairly inaccessible. Added on top are the irregular operating hours, and lack of retail product.
I guess a proprietor has to cater to his crowd, and if he has an interested customer base, then that's fine. I guess that for myself, I find the store policies a little restrictive and I'd probably do things a little different.
On a related note, I'm real glad that I met Jeff, Kestor, Nick, Sook Juan (*spelling?), Ainor (*spelling again?) and Alan. I had a real good time hanging out with you guys, and I hope to game with you all soon again.
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