Tobey's Cafe at Mariveles Street in Mandaluyong is one of the favorite secret hangouts for dedicated tabletop gamers looking for a great place to game.
If you happen to dine at any of the current Board Game Cafes spread around the metro like LUDO and UNO at the Morato restaurant strip in Q.C., The Burger Company Philippines in Mother Ignacia, or Tobey's Cafe in a hideaway area right in Mandaluyong, you might experience a rather strange phenomenon...if you aren't a gamer yourself: finding plenty of people flocked during evenings and especially during weekends, all regulars opting to spend the late hours of the afternoon and evening indoors playing board games or collectible card games, while noshing on their favorite chips and burgers and milkshakes.
Tobey's Cafe looks like most Board Game cafes you will see in the metro, having shelf stacks of modern board games all available for in-store gaming.
Instead of a typical group of kids devouring burgers and pizza, and overpriced chilled coffee while huddled over their tablets and smartphones SMSing each other: you will see families, and friendly playgroups of kids and twenty-somethings, all talking animatedly with each other while playing the latest boardgame. AND enjoying the house specialties after each gaming session.
Most board game cafes have from 30 to 300 games in stock at hand, most of these also for sale or rent...discounts for game cafe members!
In the past few years, board-game cafés have become one of the best places to hang out across the globe, in places as varied and far-flung as Calgary and South Korea. The resurgence in the popularity of the modern board game, has even goaded many game designers and hobbyists to seek funding on Kickstarter, for not only gaming cafes dedicated to board gaming and dining out, but also for board games themselves, hoping to make an easy first million...but making and designing games is another story.
The variety of games available are a mind-boggler but most of them are fairly easy to play and can finish in half an hour or up to two hours of solid fun...then you'll want to try another game!
As with Starcraft and First-Person-Shooter games going bonkers in internet cafes a decade or so ago, kids of all ages today have fueled the revival of hobbyist cardboard gaming playgroups without letting up on their enthusiasm for as rabid a gaming experience as they had with digital gaming.
Playgroups meet up as a specific group of play-tester friends and enjoy long afternoons or early morning marathon gaming. with their card game or board game of choice. Board Game Culture is a serious and enduring part of the local Filipino friends-night-out experience today and for however forever will be.
The restaurant-shop, board game cafes themselves have modular shelves filled with 50 to 300 board games for the most hardcore of tabletop gaming enthusiasts. Dedicated board game cafe visitors can even order their game of choice and have it arrive, a month after: through the local cafe's game ordering and selection service. Most of the time, all games on display ARE for sale, or available for order if it is in heavy rotation among the local regulars of the game board cafe.
The resurgence of 'German-style' board games fueled the local gamers' addiction for strategy style board gaming, and some are designed as interactive or team-play games rather than competing against each other.
The amazing number of dedicated board game cafes sprouting across Metro Manila in the last 4 years bodes well for local gamers who may want to catch their favorite playgroup anywhere in the Metro, shuffling cards, rolling dice and moving tokens over cardboard maps while cajoling each other over the best snacks in town. Some board game cafes even cater to that adult gaming market and offer membership dues plus cocktails and brewski (alcohol) for their regulars during gaming sessions. Some gaming sessions among the tribe sometimes last from early afternoon till midnight...or longer even.
A Different Kind of Board Game...and Card Game
The cult favorite strategy board game named Settlers of Catan started what was already a snowballing comeback of cardboard tabletop games. Often described as a a “gateway drug” for people who want to get into serious board gaming, what else can one try out but a seriously fun board game: as a pioneer in some island putting up your fiefdom as an interlocking series of hexagons for the board. Strategy board games or so called 'German-style' board games, because of their popularity in that nation have become the new soul driving the popularity of board games during the last 4 years or so.
One online demo of the cult favorite Settlers of Catan by fan favorite board game reviewer Mark Barros. How you play a strategy board game. You Tube video is all rights reserved: Mark Barros
A look at a typical tabletop board state for Settlers of Catan which fueled a resurgence in strategy games or German-style board games worldwide.
You would never expect that in the Gundam Century, with kids weaned on HD quality video games: on both dedicated gaming console and desktop computer games, people would STILL go out of their way to gather at some place and huddle over a tabletop cardboard game, and play with dice and premium tokens and cards, spending long hours of serious play. Just the same as kids who prefer hardcore digital gaming.
It is now easier to find the latest, and even the most obscure board game, or storytelling game (like Atlas Games' Once Upon a Time), or the collectible card game you like anywhere.
A look at the Once Upon a Time card game, a storytelling type of game that provides the players with playing card cues to create a story with a 'happily ever after' win condition also based off a card in the set.
Even locally, there are several board game specialist shops (The Gaming Library, Tobey's Cafe, LUDO and Great Toys Online) that accept orders every month for imported board games: each costing from P500 up to P3000 and up for a mint copy. You might think that that's a lot of quid. But if you factor in the time people spend playing them, tabletop board games are actually cheaper over the lifetime over which they are played compared to video games or digital online games, which require special equipment AND an online connection or online subscription to play them often.
Most players prefer the easier games which take from 30 minutes to an hour to wrap up, but there are dedicated playgroups who like serious stuff like the Lovecraft-inspired horror board game, Arkham Horror a runaway hit from Fantasy Flight games and extremely popular among local horror fans too.
Fantasy Flight Games: Arkham Horror Board Game Image all rights reserved Fantasy Flight Games
The Arkham Horror tabletop board game laid out. Up to 6 to 8 players can be accomodated by this instant cult favorite among horror gaming fans.
Not all games are easy to learn, that is why having a local gaming community get the new players into the groove of every new game they play gets more people hooked onto board games and then into collecting them as a hobby as well. The increasing number of board game cafes and the resurgence in the popularity of board games as a serious hobby isn't going on only in our country. China and Japan have their own themed board game cafes, Canada is slowly experiencing a surge of board game cafes even with shops offering nothing but Snakes and Ladders, Chess and Backgammon, themed Monopoly and the old classic, Clue.
More amazing family-oriented board games at Tobey's Cafe!
Board game sales are also on the rise with one hobbyist sometimes owning anywhere from 5 to 20 board games, worldwide sales of boardgames have jumped to 20 per cent over the previous year.
You'll see some enthusiasts trading year-old board games or looking for the latest sets to buy on Facebook in tabletop gaming forums. It seems that adults and kids the world over have all decided that timeout after work and long weekends are best spent with their 'playgroup besties.' Trying out a new cardboard adventure game, or getting their fix of the local card game weekender tournaments called Friday Night Magic, a dedicated tournament for letting players sink into the latest card rotation formats of the Magic the Gathering collectible card game are just some of the kicks one can enjoy at the local board game cafe.
Many of the board game cafes have at least one dedicated staff member to help customers choose from a massive wall of games and run them through a playtest of their game of choice.
In a world where most people sit across a table and stay engrossed checking their mobile device like it were de rigeur protocol, kids and people who value barkada time better are rediscovering the kick of spending an afternoon trash talking good naturedly or cajoling each other like loons over a collectible card game or a fantasy board game. It's a shared experience better than warring over the LAN in some Multi-Player Online game. Part of the joy of gaming on tabletop is politicking each other and helping each other out while facing off against fellow friends in a game.
The more popular modern board game of choice are so-called European-style games that can be played quickly and involve strategy and cooperative teamplay. Popular cooperative gaming themes include having players work together to stop the spread of epidemics; defend a castle or space station against an invading monster horde or alien invaders, or competitive farming (Agricola), building railroads to connect cities (Ticket to Ride). Modern board games have fewer restrictive or confusing rules and thrive on organic and variable play strategy...almost like an unfolding story adventure.
As opposed to a single linear winning strategy, many modern board games and collectible card have
a variety of win conditions and successful strategies that evolve depending on how the game board comes together, or how players interact with each other if playing multiplayer using collectible card games. No single game has the same look and feel and each board state is different in each game.
The games themselves are very well made: from the cardboard map printout, to the game tokens being made of good material and not just cheap plastic, to the beautiful artwork on gaming cards too, sometimes made by commissions from popular fantasy artists.
Player interaction isn't that much cutthroat, but rather getting everyone working as a team and helping each other win too. Winning as a unit feels better for your playgroup, but in a slightly silly way, like playing a cardboard version of the ubquitous 'Tower Defense' themed game...you guys all know you're toast but what the heck, lets take down as many zombies before we go out. For many, this is preferable to having your friends doing 'rage-quits' or goading some poor sport into upending a table in frustration after being owned in some competitive game...(for some Pinoy besties who know their friends well enough, sometimes the goal of the evening is to make Tom or Jan 'rage quit' as the highlight of the evening before consoling him/her and cajoling them to get back into the game and letting them win).
Like being at a children's library, a Board Game Cafe offers a treasure trove of cardboard based gaming sets that you can play while you are at the shop AND have the best house specials you like for a truly amazing and crazy playgroup bonding playtesting session.
All of the shops are good-sized homey spaces that offer a refuge for kids to hang out and enjoy good food and company while tabletop gaming. Better than schmoozing at some premium coffee shop, playgroup friends are very big on spending time together at a place where they can game and have good grub and board game cafes fit that precious market niche very nicely. Soon it will become more common for local coffee and fast food shops to provide tabletop games for patrons to play over their super-sized house special or bottomless iced coffee.
At first look, a board game cafe might raise your suspicions and seem like just another chintzy Sunday hangout with flavor-of-the-moment, trendy cuisine or haute comfort food. Places to hang out to look cool they are not....instead these places are where you let your hair down and get dirty with your gaming skills.
Seriously, those playgroups of four to five people huddled around the bar tables don't care how they look like playing some silly tabletop game: laid out like boardroom general's map and them playing like bromancers at some friend's home or garage...but better... a posh place with the best gaming tables plus booze and platters of cheese-slathered nachos at hand, or bottomless iced tea. They're there to play and snack in between games. The board game cafe owners themselves are serious gaming hobbyists, and they know that if they keep their place a great hangout for gaming and grub, they keep these playgroup regulars as friends and clients forever--the best business sense for any food service establishment.
Still more board games, at Tobey's they have up to 300 of the latest and most popular modern board games you can buy and playtest.
Like some dedicated and collectible hobbies like Magic the Gathering, tabletop board game players travel as far away as Bulacan to Manila and brave the traffic and rain to play at a board game cafe for all night gaming. Typically, 30 to 60 people come out to play every weekend and a third of these are hard core regulars who visit the place twice or thrice a week, even every other day.
Tobey's Cafe is one of the few shops that offer Magic the Gathering tourneys side by side with tabletop board gaming. They have regular Friday Night Magic tournaments as well as Commander format duels every weekend.
For the most hardcore of tabletop gaming hobbyists, there is even a place in Makati called Makati B&B (standing for Beer and Board Games), a loft serving craft beer, and offering membership for their club as a hangout for gamers in Makati. The place is run by The Gaming Library as one of its main outlets and it has its own lockers reserved for 'club members' only: who are all dedicated, lifelong tabletop gaming hobbyists and enthusiasts, spending at least 2 or 3 times a week at the Makati B&B office to hang out and just P-L-A-Y.
Board games do not compete nor do they undermine the immense popularity of video and computer games among local gamers. They might even own a gaming console or two or a tricked out gaming PC as part of their gaming gear. Settlers of Catan, which transforms players into pioneers establishing colonies on the unihabited island of Catan, was the first German-style board game to receive mass popularity outside of Europe. First published in 1995, it paved the way for similar styles of games to enter the North American market. Locally, most board game hobbyists are intelligent, middle-class, employed individuals or students, and they have ready access to over 3,000 board and card games that can be played in any board game cafe or Gaming Shop hangout all over the metro.
Some of the better shops like Tobey's Cafe in Mandaluyong have their staff ready to spend time and help the gamer run through a playtest of any particular board game they like. Tobey's as a restaurant cafe also has a complete menu of great gaming grub: from complete Pinoy 'Silog meals (fried rice, sunny side egg and a meat dish of your choice), to delicious healthy salads, to waffles and sandwich snacks, and even fancy ice cream treats...all worth the time you spend gaming at the shop.
Make your First Million Designing a Board Game!
Like game programmers lusting to make the next 'Minecraft' game...board game designers are all gunning to make the next Settlers of Catan. But the bar for what makes a hit game is very high and even the most astute game designers do find that their first prototype often falls short of what they set out to make. Kickstarter is often the place to get people--a LOT of Gamers--interested in your idea, and committing to your blueprint and show-designs. Crowdfunding isn't a hit and miss thing for board game kickstarters because the figures for recent successes show a very promising outcome for the better gaming designers:
In 2012, more than $319 million was pledged to campaigns
by more than 2.2 million people. That’s more than $600 a minute. In all,
18,109 projects, from board games to books to movies, hit their target. There are projects that fall short of expectations, or go way above the heads of the project designers that even with funding targets reached, they often cannot deliver the promised game. But when crowdfunding works, it is the best injection of funding a game designer can have: Bones was a project by Reaper Miniatures of Denton, Texas, offering miniature figures, plastic or pewter tokens for various role-playing games. It had an original projected target of $30,000 but closed in August 2012 after raising $3,429,235 from more than 17,000 people.
A look at the latest custom gaming dice from Artisan Dice--whiskey stone, machine crafted and number-lasered, game dice, you can actually use these rocks in your whiskey too.
Image is all rights reserved Artisan Dice.com
Artisan Dice too is one gaming company that started by offering custom D20 dice made from rare woods, offering various sets for premiums, eventually including rare metal dice sets and even stone dice sets as the company got ALL of their lasering and lathe equipment OFF Kickstarter.
If you do plunge into your precious idea. Make your game count. People are always looking for a great game or really precious gaming gear.
