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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Sycamore Elementary School student John Wilson plays a game of “Magic: The Gathering” with his friend Devin Brusseau at Gameology in Claremont. Game enthusiast can rent games from the store to play in-store or at home. |
GAMING ALIVE AND THRIVING IN CLAREMONT
What do sea turtles and games have in common? The creature and the creativity share Claremont resident David Holt. Mr. Holt, local liaison to a Costa Rican turtle research station and co-owner of the environmental preservation company Ecodestination, set up shop in Claremont earlier this year, bringing not turtles but games, games, games via his small-but-lively store, Gameology.
And move over, Monopoly. Pack it up, Parcheesi. Though Mr. Holt carries the occasional traditional game, he doesn’t carry “too many Scrabbles and Boggles and Taboos,” he said. Instead, the game-guru stocks his shelves with games relatively unique in the mainstream world, though many are gaining popularity through efforts and beliefs similar to his own—that games, whether for the serious gamer or the casual enthusiast, can provide stimulation, excitement, challenge, education and pure fun for anyone at any age that is willing to learn.
Believing that most Americans fall victim to 3 pitfalls of investigating the thrill and benefit of new games—the box as a poor indicator of the actual game, the cumbersome effort of learning a new game and the dearth of “guts” to face the opinions of friends and family if they don’t enjoy the new game—Mr. Holt trumps the problem by doing what he thinks no other game store does. He rents out his games.
“I decided that if I were a customer who didn’t know a game, and the average price point is around $40, well, what if you don’t like the game? That’s a lot of money to invest,” Mr. Holt explained. “But what if there was a way to test them beforehand, to take them home? That way you can really decide.”
Describing Gameology as a “demo-heavy store,” Mr. Holt does his best to teach customers the rules and intricacies of a new game before they leave, game in hand, whether purchasing or renting. Rentals cost $10 for 3 nights, and if the game is a hit and ownership is desired, the rental cost is applied to the purchase.
“This really cuts the risk way down,” he said.
And customers may be confident that their game ignorance will transform into game skills after Mr. Holt shares his knowledge, for he is privy to the rules and strategies and subtleties of hundreds of games. While a tremendous number for the lay-gamer, he regards this as merely the “tip of the iceberg.”
“No doubt this is a lot, but consider that one of the catalogues I have has 10,000 [games] to choose from,” he said.
Of the hundreds of titles Mr. Holt carries, the most popular games fall into 5 categories: board games, card games, miniature games, role-playing games, coffee table games and non-jigsaw-style puzzles. It is worthwhile to note that videogames are distinctly absent from this list.
Frequently, customers assuming Gameology carries videogames exit not with disappointment, but with something they weren’t expecting to find.
“Every time we can convert a video gamer to board games, we feel like we score a point for the good guys,” Mr. Holt confessed.
But the complete lack of video games can create a barrier to success for contemporary game stores. In the LA basin over the last two years, Mr. Holt explained, at least 4 or 5 game stores closed.
“People are not banging down doors and lining up like they would for video games. So it was somewhat interesting to think ‘how are you going to make this work?’ I decided that rather than fill up the store with products, I would attempt to have just one section for products and the rest to play games,” Mr. Holt commented. “There’s lots of space to come play and not so much for retail.”
True to his novel idea, after passing through a rather small room stocked with game after game after game, customers—more specifically, players—enter a more spacious area of Gameology, one with chairs and tables and barstools ready for the adventurous of mind. And who dares test their skills and strategies in the gaming rooms? Just about everyone. While the board game crowd tends to be adult, and the general gaming population is “99 percent male,” Mr. Holt said, couples, families and youth all populate Gameology’s game events, of which there are plenty. He further explained that most enthusiasts for the detail-oriented strategy games “tend to be 40-year-old men, with the occasional girlfriend or female thrown in.”
Though Mr. Holt selected Claremont for its abundant population of his target audience—adults and college students—hordes of young people are taking advantage of Gameology’s unique opportunities for socializing, competing, learning and laughing.
“Ultimately, we set this up because we wanted a safe place for kids to go, and so far, we’ve managed to do that,” said Mr. Holt, a former junior high science teacher. “Parents check out the store and meet us, and they’ve gotten to the point where they’re just dropping off their kids, letting them play and picking them up later. They like the store, it’s a safe clean environment, and I feel like that’s a success. There aren’t too many places where you can feel comfortable doing that. Somehow I feel like that’s a review that’s been positive.”
Gameology is also becoming a hub of education and socialization for home school students, who visit the store in groups of approximately 15 every other Tuesday for a few hours of gaming.
“Home-schoolers come in and get a little social interaction. They learn a few games, work on their strategy skills and have fun,” Mr. Holt commented. “This element has grown and grown and grown. We’re quite the home school destination.”
Gameology offers a variety of both pick-up games and organized gaming events, such as Magic tournaments on Friday nights, all-day board game play on select Saturdays and Star Wars pick-up games on Thursdays. And, in the spirit of providing a level of competition that pushes gamers beyond their current skill set, Gameology offers tournaments.
“If it’s too casual, people will tire of it. Tournament play is at a much higher level and it’s exciting. People show up on a Friday night with no expectation of winning but of having fun and getting better,” remarked Mr. Holt, adding that an average of 25 players regularly show up for Friday night Magic.
Children—and adults, too, if they fancy—may also reserve the shop for birthday parties, during which Gameology staff teach and run games in the back area while parents relax on the outdoor porch: birthday cakes welcome.
Whatever form one’s gaming takes—the occasional game-player, the avid competitor, the family-oriented fun seeker and so forth—Mr. Holt noted the sociality of each and every non-video game, which defies the common stereotype of the recluse gamer.
“If you play this sort of game, which is the non-video game, the one thing that defines the game is that it’s social. You can’t sit in front of the TV or computer alone, in the basement, battling alien hordes and still be social. The more frightening stereotype is the electronic gamer who has no social skills and just wants to kill, kill, kill.
“[Gaming],” Mr. Holt continued, “is a hobby that encompasses a lot more than people realize.”
For Mr. Holt, gaming has run the gamut, a lifelong hobby that always was and forevermore shall be. And if you visit Gameology, you may find Mr. Holt and a gaggle of competitors, sitting around a table, entrenched in a world known only to the players.
“If no one needs my attention, then I’ll get a customer to play something for longer,” he said. “I’ll play until I can’t play anymore.”
Let the gaming begin.
Gameology is located at 994 Foothill Blvd., Claremont. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.; closed Monday. Information: 626-6926.
—Brenda Bolinger
