The Fremont Podcast
The only podcast dedicated to telling the stories of the people and places of Fremont, CA. The diversity and integration of people and cultures of Fremont truly makes it a special place. This podcast explores these stories.
The Fremont Podcast
Episode 125: Socializing with the Tabletop Games community.
The communities that form around tabletop games are some of the most welcoming and supportive communities you can find. These groups are a catch-up mechanism for social anxiety and loneliness.
Board games, card games: Those game shops with tables in the center and shelves full of "intimidating" thick boxes, none of which you remember from your childhood... the people who play those games; they are some of the best people.
And they actually want you to play with them.
We explore the thriving tabletop game scene in Fremont.
Our two guests: Stephen from Games Of Fremont (located in The Hub) and Johnathan from Fremont Board Gamers a local meetup.com group.
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Haller's Pharmacy is here to help. They have been in our community for decades.
Founder: Ricky B.
Intro and outro voice-overs made by Gary Williams.
Editor: Andrew Cavette.
Scheduling and pre-interviews by the amazing virtual assistant that you ought to hire, seriously, she's great: your.virtual.ace
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Before this, my wife and I had trouble actually meeting people to even hang out with, but we found board games to be a really good way to socialize because we could talk to other people about their lives and learn about them while we do something communal.
Speaker 3:Coming to you straight from Fremont, california. This is the Fremont Podcast, dedicated to telling the stories of the past and present of the people and places of the city of Fremont, one conversation at a time. Now, here's your host, ricky B.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I don't know this world. Yeah, I don't know this world. Yeah, I don't know this world. I think um I I have um. My experience with the gaming world is probably starts at uno would you even consider that monopoly? Maybe, yeah, um I, I, I got into. I had a phase of settlers of katan for a while.
Speaker 5:There you go. That's still a popular game.
Speaker 4:So I had friends that I met with regularly. We played Catan. Matter of fact, I had this dream. I always got frustrated with the cards shifting and people put stuff down and it messes things up, and so I had this idea of building a game board that had spaces for everything. So it sat down inside there Like a really nice People, 3d print those now. Are you serious?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no way Like the tiles on or whatever the cards, so they don't shift.
Speaker 1:That's cool, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I got into Catan for a while. Tickets to Ride, I think it was another one that I enjoyed, which I think had similar features. Um, but other than that, like I literally I've been into game shops before and I'm just like what in the world there is? So there are so many games out there. So let's, get started Um, what's uh so your name again? My name is Steven, Steven and yours, jonathan, jonathan. Okay, steven and Jonathan. Uh so, steven, you are the manager of a game, a store that's in Fremont.
Speaker 5:That's a game shop right, our store's name is Games of Fremont. Okay, games of Fremont, yes, okay.
Speaker 4:And we just found out that that's actually a chain, a local chain, right.
Speaker 5:Yes, we have six stores total in the Bay Area.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay. And then where are the other ones?
Speaker 5:So we have one in Concord, we have one in Livermore, one in Brentwood, one in Martinez and one in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, that's pretty cool. How long has this company been around that has this chain of stores?
Speaker 5:So we've had other stores, like we've had one in Antioch that had to close in 2021 due to, and uh, stuff that was going on in the area.
Speaker 4:I see.
Speaker 5:And we ended up, uh, moving that one into where our Brentwood store is now and kind of splitting the merchandise between Brentwood and the Martinez store.
Speaker 4:Okay, I just think it's cool that there's a community in the Bay Area I guess I say Bay Area, but even in Fremont that supports a, a, a. The Bay Area I guess I say Bay Area, but even in Fremont that supports kind of a, I guess I would say a traditional game store, not video gaming, not virtual. I mean, I guess some of it's probably virtual too, right? Or is it primarily just games like board games?
Speaker 1:There's some games that involve apps. There's some games that you can play online. There's Board Game Arena, are you can play online, like there's board game arena, where you can actually play board games on their website, okay, but in general, I guess we're talking about tabletop gaming. Yeah, yeah, so it includes, yeah, rpgs, miniature games, uh, card games like magic, and then board games. Okay.
Speaker 4:Jonathan, what is your? What do you do? What? What brings you to the conversation? Uh, about games.
Speaker 1:So I co-run an informal group called Fremont board gamers. Okay, the group was actually started last year by someone else. His name is Claude, but he lives in London now. So I run co-run it with Johnny Chin and we're active on meetup, uh, discord and Facebook, wow, okay. So that's how people find us, okay. And then our meetup group has almost 600 people right now and it's constantly growing. And then we have events every week, uh, with pretty good attendance, so, wow.
Speaker 4:So you had a. So your meetup group that just started last year has 600, people connected to it. Yeah, wow and it keeps growing so, and and we, we I already asked you this previously, but they're not all in fremont. How many of you, how many of them would you say are, are from fremont? You think?
Speaker 1:it's hard to tell exactly, because there's I mean there's different gaming groups throughout the Bay Area, of course. Sure, yeah, and so I'm like a part of Oakland Board Gamers as well. Okay, okay, there's a group that meets in Palo Alto, there's groups in San Jose, so they're all over the place. So exactly in Fremont, it's hard to tell. I would just estimate 25%.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay, that's cool. That's, that's really cool. Um, so give me a little glimpse into what is the life of this meetup group. Like, what, like, what does it look like? What are you guys doing on a regular basis? How often do you guys meet up?
Speaker 1:So we are pretty welcoming. We welcome people of all experience levels, um, and all ages. We meet every friday at uh, another game store, so it starts at six o'clock and then we have a like sign up sheet for so people have an idea what game they're playing beforehand. It's not completely necessary, but some people just show up and, you know, just find a group and start playing, okay, um so there's multiple tables playing the same game, basically, or different games, different games.
Speaker 1:Okay, just whatever people bring whatever they're interested in. Yeah, and we have. So, like I told you that the age range is quite large. There's actually, um, one younger girl I don't know exactly how old she is, I think she's like eight years old, eight to ten, but she's there almost every friday and she's actually pretty good. Like she picks up games quicker than I would expect. Wow, okay, um. And then on the other end of the spectrum, we have these older people who have very little experience with board games, and so they, some of them just show up and they're like I don't have a social group, I just want to meet people, and so they just come and then learn to play games, and now they're here every Friday. That's cool, yeah, and they, I think they're more interested in the social aspect, but they enjoy playing the games, of course.
Speaker 5:Let's talk. Did you have a yeah aspect? But they enjoy playing the games, of course.
Speaker 4:Let's talk, did you ever?
Speaker 5:yeah, I was gonna say about the social aspect of things. Um so, a lot of the like games you can play online, like there's pokemon online, magic online, it's just with when you play online, there's just that disconnect of uh, the other group there which kind of makes games more fun when you get to play with them, rather in person or if you're playing, if you are playing online, being in a call with the other people. So you know, you get more of a of a reaction when things happen rather than oh, that cool thing happened.
Speaker 5:I have no clue how the other person responded, so I that's. That's another reason why we are we like. I like running a store, because you get to see the reaction when people do things.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it is that's exactly what I was going to ask. I wanted to go that route and talk a little bit about the social element of this. So I mean, I know, um, I know people who are really into video games and they have that, like you know, whether it's a avatar or like a profile or like a character or whatever that's created to play these games, and you may never even meet these people, uh, in person, ever, but you play with them.
Speaker 4:Um, then there's just people like I mean, I'm, I'm not, I I feel like I'm ignorant, both on the video game level and on the real game level. So I'm kind of I love games, but I don't play video games much at all. But I feel like there's people that you just drop into a particular, like my son. I told him that one of my favorite games growing up was Tetris.
Speaker 4:And I felt like Tetris was one of those things that really helped my mind to keep it sharp and like working out problem solving and stuff like that. So he hopped on and started playing Tetris and all of a sudden there's a bunch of other people. He's competing against them and I'm like how does that?
Speaker 3:even work.
Speaker 4:That's not the way it worked when I was a kid. To your point and what you guys brought up the social element of doing tabletop games in person. Doing tabletop games in person, like I feel like that. That has to be a big factor as to why this idea of tabletop games and the gaming community actually works right.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's definitely the best part of it. With every game there's a winner and a loser with almost every game, right. You know there's a winner and a loser with almost every game, right. But it's not about, you know, winning. If someone's just solely focused on winning, then they're kind of missing the more important parts, because it's not fun to play with someone if all they do is want to win and don't care about anything else.
Speaker 1:Um, there's a lot of games that are kind of cutthroat, where you can only win if you beat other people or take advantage of them or something, and that's, I mean, that's part of the game, right. So it's okay to interact that way. But if every game you're just being cutthroat and just betraying people, like that's not. Or if you're just so good that no one else can even compete, that's not necessarily fun. So just interacting with people.
Speaker 1:I've met a lot of people through the group, made a lot of friends that I wouldn't otherwise normally have. Um, that's part of the reason why I was so interested in helping to run this group is because before this, my wife and I had trouble actually meeting people to even hang out with. But we found board games to be a really good way to socialize, because we could talk to other people about their lives and learn about them while we do something communal, instead of just sitting around and hoping that we have something in common to talk about. That's great, so it's definitely the best part of it. So, while I do sometimes play games online, it's not, it's never the same, you know, I would always prefer to play it in person rather than online.
Speaker 1:That's great, and so, um, we do have events at the Fremont Library every other Sunday and they like working with us because we make use of their space, and so they have regular events where 20 to 30 people show up, which is great for them because it brings people to the library, that's right. And then it attracts new people to come. Some people just kind of wander in and like, oh, what's this? And then they get absorbed into the games and meet people who they like, and then now they start coming regularly. So there's that event. There's the millpitas library event, which is generally every first saturday of the month okay and it's like, uh, it's.
Speaker 1:Even if it's only one or two times a month, it still becomes like something that people look forward to, you know, because it's a social event where you go, you see your friends, you play games, you have fun, you, you, you're always learning something new, even if it's just a game yeah yeah, so using your brain, and then there's a lot of problem solving involved. That's cool. So it hits a lot of the different aspects of what people are looking for, yeah, once a month is almost like it's.
Speaker 4:It's close enough together where you're like looking forward to it and it's coming, but then it's far enough along, it's far enough apart, where it's like, man, I miss, I miss that and yeah exactly you want to you don't feel like it's overwhelming to like put it on the calendar, yeah.
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Speaker 4:Stephen, did you have, like what's your origin with gaming? Like what does that look like for you? I mean, were you playing Uno? Look like for you, I mean, did you, were you playing uno as a kid or what? Where?
Speaker 5:did you start with? Uh, so when I was younger, uh, there's one game particular I remember playing a lot with my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3:It was called mousetrap it uh, I, I can't remember how to play it to save my life.
Speaker 5:That's right but we played it to the point that um the little cage stopped working. So we we had that. We had um card games like uno yeah like most people probably, I don't think we ever finished an actual game of Monopoly without it getting knocked over. But Operations, another one that we had tons of fun with growing up. So I always played games when we were younger. I say my journey into this, I guess, would be middle school. I played Yu-Gi-Oh a lot with a lot of friends.
Speaker 5:I'm not familiar with that um, it's a trading card game that's based off of an anime okay um, and it's just like it's in the anime. They call it dual monsters, but it's like they. Uh, you have the monsters fight, you have life points and you try to take down your opponent okay um, I played that for six years, uh, and then went from playing card games to uh another very popular online game called world of warcraft okay and uh met communities on there and met people that I will probably never meet right I would talk to them for hours daily wow that's amazing, would never actually meet them in person because, they would.
Speaker 5:They a lot of them lived in New York. I knew some people who lived in Colorado, some people who lived in Texas and we had one person who lived in Australia.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 5:But, and that was just our guild, that's cool, we would hang out and do things, did that up until 2020. And then I had a roommate who got me into magic okay and uh, that's where I I put poured all my focus into we. I made decks, I played games with him and then, once some things started opening back up, we started going to the stores. Um, and then, um, I started, uh, where I started going to one specific store okay uh and um.
Speaker 5:From there I was, I would talk to people. I knew the people who worked there and then when they were opening and uh, acquiring a new store, they were looking for a manager and my previous job was a area manager for, like, it was a for picnics. So like a coordinator for like events and stuff like that so I already had all the management skills and they're like oh, we'll train you on ordering and all that, because that's the easy part it's the managing part that's always hard to train into people.
Speaker 5:So I did that for six months.
Speaker 4:So they didn't lure you in by saying that this job is all fun and games.
Speaker 5:I was told on day one. It's like it may. You may see it look like where it's all fun and games, but there is a whole thing behind it that you don't get, you don't see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of games, but not always fun.
Speaker 5:Yes, exactly, it's always games. But not always fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, exactly, it's always games not always fun, yeah we uh, so that that's my origins from it.
Speaker 5:I came in as a manager and got moved up to this higher position, and now I'm in uh charge of three out of our six stores in the chain. That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4:So I'm curious. I know that sometimes when you get into something that seems to be it is a love that you have, Sometimes you kind of start losing the sparkle of that, of your love of games.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is that.
Speaker 5:I mean, are you kind of in?
Speaker 5:that place yet I've so we have a thing that we have to open cards for the new sets that come out to sell for singles, because sometimes people don't want to just buy a pack and hope they get the card. They'll just pay the money to buy out the card straight out. So we try to have that kind of thing so opening. Uh, for the most recent thing we opened about, each store opened 12 boxes and each box has 36 packs. Okay, so doing that for three stores after the fifth box I'm like all right, okay, I've seen the art, they look cool, let's just get through it.
Speaker 5:Um, but yeah, I I just have, I like, I, I like getting up and going to my stores in the morning it's it. I still have the sparkle for it. Um, and I I think, because it's something I am passionate about. Yeah, I think I will always have that sparkle because I don't really see it as too much of work. Good, only the only aspect of it I see as work is okay.
Speaker 5:I have to re-inventory everything and count all my product sure yeah, that's that's the only aspect of work as it is, but when I get to order new games and have to look up stuff for anything new, like expansion for board board games or new cards that are coming out, I get to see all these things and go. It's like that looks cool, I want to buy that. It does hurt my wallet sometimes because I'm like I want to buy that from me and I get first look at it and it's just like well, there goes my paycheck.
Speaker 1:That's right, I got a question for you. So even after opening five boxes, do you still get a dopamine hit when you open a pack and find something rare? Oh yeah, so when there's something really pricey or really cool.
Speaker 5:Looking, I go, oh, that's sick and I have to. I sleeve it immediately. I'm like okay, next pack. It's like it's just a second.
Speaker 1:I'm like whoa.
Speaker 5:Having there be so many different card games. You get that from a wide aspect of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Like there's Disney fans. They have their own card games called Larkana and there are things in that called Enchanted. Okay, so they are different looking cards, they're more shiny and a lot of them are worth more money than you would think From the first set. There is an Elsa card that's worth $1,300 right now. Wow.
Speaker 4:It's the collecting aspect. That's insane, that's incredible. Wow, jonathan, you mentioned that you and your wife found it helpful to be able to make friends.
Speaker 1:So my wife's friend is was into board games and role-playing and she kind of reintroduced us or introduced us to modern board games. She introduced us to Splendor, which is a great gateway game. Betrayal House on the Hill, a great gateway game. Um. Betrayal house on the hill. Lords of water deep and tyrants.
Speaker 1:Land of dark, which are dungeons and dragons themed board games, okay, uh, which have been out for a while but are classics, and so that kind of sparked my interest again and then so after that, I was always kind of looking for people to play with, because I like playing with my wife, but she is not in too much into playing competitively. Okay, especially if it's just one-on-one. It's a little too intense. So I was looking for more people to play games and it was just hard to find people.
Speaker 1:We moved to Fremont in 2018, okay, and so whenever we found people like in our apartment complex, wherever who had those interests, we would try to meet up with them, but for whatever reason, it just didn't work out. So it was only really with this group that I found and started co-running. Um, they really got delved deep into board games, cause now I have lots of different people to play with, lots of different groups, uh, groups who are like on the lighter side of games okay and then groups who are into, like, really heavy games that take four to eight hours to play.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, now it's just like now. I'm pretty much playing games every day and just obsessing about them and spending a lot of money on board games.
Speaker 4:If someone's like me, who's like I played games growing up. I found joy in it. It was a good time with family. Maybe I'm interested in going deeper. What does that look like?
Speaker 1:So the ones you mentioned Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, those are still classics. The ones you mentioned Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, those are still classics. Settlers of Catan is a little dated but there's still. I mean there's groups that we see playing them like every week, playing it still.
Speaker 5:Yeah, there's still bestsellers on those ones. Seven Wonders is another one that's part of the bestsellers list. There's Flux is really popular because they have so many different versions of it. Um, if you have a show you like, like a game of thrones, or I know they have a regular show on different things, like that disney version, um, they have a version out there for you. Um, and there's a. There's a lot of games that do that, especially like more of the classics, like Monopoly has. They have a D&D version. They have a Simpsons version. Monopoly is down to the point where they have city versions, because I've seen there's a Fremont Monopoly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've seen the.
Speaker 3:Fremont one. I've seen the.
Speaker 5:San Jose one, and I've seen the Livermore one and it just has the big streets on it as properties and stuff, which is, I think, is cool, because monopoly is one of those games that is will most likely be eternal because, that's just how um well made it is. There are. There are some things that people change the rules a little bit house rules and stuff like that. Yeah, um, you got things like uh, yahtzee is another big one.
Speaker 4:I played yahtzee all the time growing up, yeah um.
Speaker 5:There's certain ones that are still around that um more people know those. Younger people know them, just as digital games like um connect four okay um and uh, guess who?
Speaker 4:that's a digital game.
Speaker 5:Those are digital games people play them on, uh on on their phones now. Wow, that's um same thing with they they have like, because you can play it with anyone, sure, um? And then it just goes back and forth. Huh, um, there's. I'm trying to think what the more popular ones are out now. Villainous is another big one that's constantly coming out with new versions, and that's another Disney game.
Speaker 4:I'm going to come over to your house and you're going to introduce me to a game that I'm going to get excited about. What's it going to be, jonathan?
Speaker 1:So I try to cater to the person. Like I said, I have a lot of different groups so I always have to think about rules overhead, um, and then like what themes they like. So I guess I I'd have to ask you like what, what kind of theme would you be interested in for a board game? Because they have a theme for everything.
Speaker 4:Honestly, yeah so by theme are you thinking, are you communicating something like it's um?
Speaker 1:outdoors or pirates or vikings or animals, yeah, so that's interesting to me.
Speaker 4:So you, you feel like, uh, the theme of a game actually, um, actually matters when it comes to board games.
Speaker 1:It makes a huge difference I've learned because I enjoy learning new games. So I spend a lot of time reading rule books, learning games, some games I'll you know I have a huge game collection. I'll play a game once, be like it was decent, but nothing I'd play again. Then I'll sell it. So, just after I've been playing so many games, I think about the mechanics, right, because most games you're playing cards or you're moving things on the board to do different actions, right, and you're trying to do that to accumulate points, which is through different mechanisms or systems or whatever, and that's all what it comes down to.
Speaker 4:The thing that differentiates it is theme. I was gonna ask you this what, what in your mind or your opinion makes a good board game?
Speaker 1:so first either has to be. Well, there's a lot of that's a loaded question. There's a lot of that's a loaded question, but there's a lot of things to think about. But it's mainly about making sure people can understand it so that's why rule books are so important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because either the game has to be really simple, so it's super easy to grasp, or you need a good rule book, because I read a lot of rule books and they're not very good. Yeah, it's like if people don't understand how to play your game, they're not going to enjoy it yeah because they're going to play it wrong, which is a problem, or it just takes forever to parse the rule book it's just frustrating.
Speaker 4:My son wanted this lord of the rings board game for christmas and was it war of the ring?
Speaker 4:I don't know, I don't yeah, I don't know, but he wanted this board game for Christmas. He was really excited about it. We bought it for him I can't remember how much we spent on it and I opened it up and I feel like I can read rule books, understand things pretty well and get to grasp it Like. I feel like I can. I read this thing. I was like I have no idea what it's talking about Anyway. So, yeah, I think having a good, uh good, I totally empathize with the fact that it either needs to be simple or it needs to be something that's well explained, well explained for the reader.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, other than that, I mean player interaction is important. And then people are big on shorter games. You know, games that don't take too long or say they're welcome. Yeah, just making sure the game doesn't take forever, yeah. And I think a big thing is just a game being balanced. Like if a game doesn't feel balanced where a certain card is overpowered or, um, you just do a certain action over and over, like, oh, there's the great, one of the great gateway games is wingspan okay, you've heard of it, but it's a bird theme game, okay, and it's it's really popular.
Speaker 1:It's sold millions of copies, wow. But the thing that hurts it, in my opinion, is that there's one action you can do, which is lay eggs, and at the end of the game each egg is worth a point. So at the end, the last round, I'm just doing that action over and over to lay eggs and it's like that's literally all I'm doing and I usually come in like first or second. So they've done things to like mitigate that, okay, but it's, it's really is one, you know, the most powerful action in that game. Going back to theme, so the reason why I harp on theme a lot is because it really is what makes your game unique. I played a game recently called the Bloody Inn, okay, where every player's running a different inn in this town and it's a pretty dark theme, which makes it unique okay, you actually have the.
Speaker 1:You have the chance to kill the people who stay at your hotel, okay, and then you have to bury their body, and once you do, you take their money and so yeah it's super dark because you're just killing people. And then you have to make sure there aren't police staying in your hotel in the morning when you have the bodies unburied, Otherwise you're going to get in trouble and you have to pay them to bribe them, wow. So yeah, it's not a theme that comes up a lot right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, killing people.
Speaker 1:Innocent people.
Speaker 4:I was going to say that sounds like a descend of edgar allen.
Speaker 1:Poe decided he became a gamer, but the thing is like the gameplay itself, like when you kill someone, all you're doing is flipping the card over um for their traveler, the traveler card to indicate that they're dead, and now their body, and a lot of games. It's like you have cards representing different people and you might use them. You know, use their action, or maybe they're baker and you use their card and you get bread, and then you discard the card. But in this one, all you're doing, instead of using them, you're killing them and you flip the card over and it's like, all of a sudden it's a super dark theme, because now you have to bury the body and so it's just like such a little difference but, thematically, it makes the game stand out Interesting.
Speaker 4:Yeah, wow, steven. What are you going to do? How are you going to analyze the situation and point somebody in the right direction?
Speaker 5:A lot of times what people come in. They ask me if they're already avid players of board games. They go what games do you like? And they just want to get a feel of the game styles. I like Certain games. I would recommend them towards. King of Tokyo. It's a good four-player game. They have expansions to make it to six players. Uh, to kaido is another one. Uh, that I enjoyed. Concept is another good game, um, but usually I get people that come in they go um, I have a big group of friends. We want to do something. What kind of games you recommend? It's like, as soon as they mention big groups, like, oh, oh, I'm looking for a party game, um, something that a lot of people can play at once.
Speaker 5:Code names code names Um yeah there's um uh cards against humanity. There's, there's um it's almost like um cards against humanity, and it has, from side nine, happiness um and you. You have a scene and you each person will pick what happens in the next scene and the judge gets to judge it.
Speaker 5:So it's the same ad same concept, but instead of words it's pictures okay, so it's, uh, it's and it's funny on how like the story adds up, because you'll go whatever that one is, and then you'll do another round and then you add another scene to it and you'll have a full comic strip.
Speaker 4:That's cool. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 5:So that's another one. That's a popular party game. There's Exploding Kittens. Apparently, that one just got a Netflix show too, not too long ago.
Speaker 4:Well, we'll need to wrap it up here in a minute, but real quick, stephen, when it comes to what you do your role in the gaming community. Manager of Games of Fremont.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 4:Give us a little. Someone's listening here and they're like I didn't know this existed, I didn't know that there was a gaming community or a place to buy games. There was a gaming community or a place to buy games. Give us the quick pitch on where to find you what there is to know that people can Anywhere, from people who are new to games and interested, curious, to people who are involved in games but weren't connected with your store already.
Speaker 5:So we are located in downtown Fremont, in the Fremont Hub. We are closer to the side where Target and Staples is at. Our address is 200 Fremont Hub Boulevard. We do a Magic the Gathering. We have board games open play tables so that we don't charge for anyone to come in and play. If you want to bring your own game in, feel free, you use our tables. We are open from noon to usually about nine o'clock during the week. Uh, saturday, friday and saturday we're open to 11. Okay, so we have those extended hours. Nice, uh, we sell anything from pokemon, magic, uh, different board games. We have tons of sleeves. We have, uh, warhammer. Uh, we have bolt action different, all these different war style games um, available for purchase. We have a facebook page which is just games of fremont on facebookcom. Uh, we also have a our own community on discord that you could join. Our link is in store and on our Facebook page.
Speaker 4:Okay, Well, we can get all those links from you, put them in the show notes when we put this out and that'd be great yeah. Jonathan, how do I get to be a part of the gaming meetup community that you have going on?
Speaker 1:So the easiest way to find us is go to meetupcom and search for Fremont Board Gamers and then from there you can get our links to uh, our discord and Facebook group as well, and then we have events, so every Friday evening and then also every other Sunday at the Fremont library and every first Saturday Saturday generally at the Milpitas library. And that's of course all on the meetup site and the events are all free. You don't have to bring anything or buy anything. All experience levels are welcome. I actually had last year at the Fremont Library event. There was this old Asian lady who showed up and she was the mother of some other guy that was there and she kept apologizing. She was like oh, my son doesn't want me here Cause he's embarrassed, and I was like no, you should play with us.
Speaker 1:She joined us for a game and she kept apologizing because she had no experience with board games. But I walked her through it and she had fun and I felt bad cause her son didn't want her there. But she was like the sweetest lady and I was really glad that she came in and played Um, and then she left after that, but it was yeah.
Speaker 4:So yeah, Open for open for anybody.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 4:And we'll, we'll, uh, capture those links as well, put them on the, on the, on the show notes. Yeah, anything else that you guys feel or like, would I want to make sure that the conversation does justice for what you guys enjoy. So is there anything else that you would want to share with the listeners? About gaming, about what you do, about something that you've discovered for yourselves through this? Anything, anything at all.
Speaker 5:I would say that gaming, in my aspect of doing like going to these stores and learning to play games, has really changed my life for the positive. I used to be very much a shut-in and would only stay at home and not only talk to people online. But learning these different board games and card games and stuff, you get to interact with people. I have someone at one of my other stores who suffers from very bad social anxiety and coming to the store and hanging out and having a common interest with other people has really helped him open up and feel better about himself and feel better being around other people.
Speaker 4:That's great. What about you, Jonathan? Anything else?
Speaker 1:I'd emphasize that as well.
Speaker 1:Um, like I've been trying to say, we're you know, we invite everyone to come join us even if you've never played a board game before or are very have a lot of, uh, social anxiety. You know, we're very welcoming, we've. We have other people in the group who have social anxiety and so we understand how it is. Um, there's, honestly, there's a board game for everyone, because they have all different complexity levels, all different themes, and I've been going pretty heavy into board games for a year now and I still feel like I will never get tired of board games because there's constantly the market keeps growing and there's more and more board games and there's just more and more ideas which just stimulate my brain every day.
Speaker 1:That's great, so that's a really great hobby. There's a lot of people in the Bay area and I'm sure there's a lot more who you know just board game at home. Yeah, I know, during the pandemic a lot of people were board gaming cause they were stuck at home, Right.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then now, after the pandemic, more and more people are coming out and enjoying the social aspect of board games. So yeah, we're just trying to promote that and help everyone have a good time and make new friends. That's great.
Speaker 4:I think it speaks strongly to what we need as a community, what we need as individuals, and even, like you said, one of the things that got you and your wife into it was just needing to connect and I think that that's what we need, is we need to be promoting these places that are connecting people together.
Speaker 5:Yeah, face-to-face human interaction.
Speaker 4:That's right. That's right, that's great. Guys, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast, thank you for taking the time out to be here, and I appreciate the work that you're doing in the community to make it a better place.
Speaker 5:Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you to our two guests, the owner of Games of Fremont and the operator of the Fremont Board Gamers Group on Meetup, and likewise a shout out to all the other game stores in Fremont who couldn't be with us for the interview Game Castle on Washington Boulevard, Bigger, Better Games on Peralta Boulevard and any place else that I'm forgetting, including the one shelf at your local comic book shop. Thank you to all of them for providing a space and an excuse to bring people together.
Speaker 3:This episode was hosted and produced by Ricky B. I'm Gary Williams. Andrew Kvet is the editor. Produced by Ricky B. I'm Gary Williams. Andrew Kvet is the editor. Scheduling and pre-interviews by Sarah S. Be sure to subscribe wherever it is that you listen so you don't miss an episode. You can find everything we make, the podcast and all of our social media links at thefremontpodcastcom. Join us next week on the Fremont Podcast.
Speaker 2:This is a Muggins.
Speaker 1:Media Podcast.