September 6, 2024 • 38 mins
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.
If you would like to contact The Fremont Podcast, please text us here.
Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor of The Fremont Podcast from the beginning. If you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Fremont.
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Before this, my wife and I had trouble actually
meeting people to even hang outwith, but we found board games
to be a really good way tosocialize because we could talk
to other people about theirlives and learn about them while
we do something communal.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Coming to you straight from Fremont,
california.
This is the Fremont Podcast,dedicated to telling the stories
of the past and present of thepeople and places of the city of
Fremont, one conversation at atime.
Now, here's your host, ricky B.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
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 gamingworld is probably starts at uno
would you even consider thatmonopoly?
Maybe, yeah, um I, I, I gotinto.
(00:59):
I had a phase of settlers ofkatan for a while.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
There you go.
That's still a popular game.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
So I had friends that I met with regularly.
We played Catan.
Matter of fact, I had thisdream.
I always got frustrated withthe cards shifting and people
put stuff down and it messesthings up, and so I had this
idea of building a game boardthat had spaces for everything.
So it sat down inside thereLike a really nice People, 3d
(01:25):
print those now.
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, no way Like the tiles on or whatever the cards,
so they don't shift.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
That's cool, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah, so I got into Catan for a while.
Tickets to Ride, I think it wasanother one that I enjoyed,
which I think had similarfeatures.
Um, but other than that, like Iliterally I've been into game
shops before and I'm just likewhat in the world there is?
So there are so many games outthere.
So let's, get started Um,what's uh so your name again?
(01:55):
My name is Steven, Steven andyours, jonathan, jonathan.
Okay, steven and Jonathan.
Uh so, steven, you are themanager of a game, a store
that's in Fremont.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
That's a game shop right, our store's name is Games
of Fremont.
Okay, games of Fremont, yes,okay.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
And we just found out that that's actually a chain, a
local chain, right.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Yes, we have six stores total in the Bay Area.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Okay, okay.
And then where are the otherones?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
So we have one in Concord, we have one in
Livermore, one in Brentwood, onein Martinez and one in
Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Okay, well, that's pretty cool.
How long has this company beenaround that has this chain of
stores?
Speaker 5 (02:35):
So we've had other stores, like we've had one in
Antioch that had to close in2021 due to, and uh, stuff that
was going on in the area.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I see.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
And we ended up, uh, moving that one into where our
Brentwood store is now and kindof splitting the merchandise
between Brentwood and theMartinez store.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Okay, I just think it's cool that there's a
community in the Bay Area Iguess I say Bay Area, but even
in Fremont that supports a, a, a.
The Bay Area I guess I say BayArea, but even in Fremont that
supports kind of a, I guess Iwould say a traditional game
store, not video gaming, notvirtual.
I mean, I guess some of it'sprobably virtual too, right?
Or is it primarily just gameslike board games?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
There's some games that involve apps.
There's some games that you canplay online.
There's Board Game Arena, areyou can play online, like
there's board game arena, whereyou 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 thenboard games.
(03:40):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Jonathan, what is your?
What do you do?
What?
What brings you to theconversation?
Uh, about games.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So I co-run an informal group called Fremont
board gamers.
Okay, the group was actuallystarted last year by someone
else.
His name is Claude, but helives in London now.
So I run co-run it with JohnnyChin and we're active on meetup,
uh, discord and Facebook, wow,okay.
So that's how people find us,okay.
(04:07):
And then our meetup group hasalmost 600 people right now and
it's constantly growing.
And then we have events everyweek, uh, with pretty good
attendance, so, wow.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
So you had a.
So your meetup group that juststarted last year has 600,
people connected to it.
Yeah, wow and it keeps growingso, and and we, we I already
asked you this previously, butthey're not all in fremont.
How many of you, how many ofthem would you say are, are from
fremont?
You think?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
it's hard to tell exactly, because there's I mean
there's different gaming groupsthroughout the Bay Area, of
course.
Sure, yeah, and so I'm like apart of Oakland Board Gamers as
well.
Okay, okay, there's a groupthat meets in Palo Alto, there's
groups in San Jose, so they'reall over the place.
So exactly in Fremont, it'shard to tell.
(04:59):
I would just estimate 25%.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Okay, okay, that's cool.
That's, that's really cool.
Um, so give me a little glimpseinto what is the life of this
meetup group.
Like, what, like, what does itlook like?
What are you guys doing on aregular basis?
How often do you guys meet up?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So we are pretty welcoming.
We welcome people of allexperience levels, um, and all
ages.
We meet every friday at uh,another game store, so it starts
at six o'clock and then we havea like sign up sheet for so
people have an idea what gamethey're playing beforehand.
It's not completely necessary,but some people just show up and
(05:40):
, you know, just find a groupand start playing, okay, um so
there's multiple tables playingthe same game, basically, or
different games, different games.
Okay, just whatever people bringwhatever they're interested in.
Yeah, and we have.
So, like I told you that theage range is quite large.
There's actually, um, oneyounger girl I don't know
(06:01):
exactly how old she is, I thinkshe's like eight years old,
eight to ten, but she's therealmost every friday and she's
actually pretty good.
Like she picks up games quickerthan I would expect.
Wow, okay, um.
And then on the other end ofthe spectrum, we have these
older people who have verylittle experience with board
(06:22):
games, and so they, some of themjust show up and they're like I
don't have a social group, Ijust want to meet people, and so
they just come and then learnto play games, and now they're
here every Friday.
That's cool, yeah, and they, Ithink they're more interested in
the social aspect, but theyenjoy playing the games, of
course.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Let's talk.
Did you have a yeah aspect?
But they enjoy playing thegames, of course.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Let's talk, did you ever?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
yeah, I was gonna say about the social aspect of
things.
Um so, a lot of the like gamesyou can play online, like
there's pokemon online, magiconline, it's just with when you
play online, there's just thatdisconnect of uh, the other
group there which kind of makesgames more fun when you get to
play with them, rather in personor if you're playing, if you
(07:08):
are playing online, being in acall with the other people.
So you know, you get more of aof a reaction when things happen
rather than oh, that cool thinghappened.
I have no clue how the otherperson responded, so I that's.
That's another reason why weare we like.
I like running a store, becauseyou get to see the reaction
when people do things.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, and it is that's exactly what I was going
to ask.
I wanted to go that route andtalk a little bit about the
social element of this.
So I mean, I know, um, I knowpeople who are really into video
games and they have that, likeyou know, whether it's a avatar
or like a profile or like acharacter or whatever that's
created to play these games, andyou may never even meet these
(07:52):
people, uh, in person, ever, butyou play with them.
Um, then there's just peoplelike I mean, I'm, I'm not, I I
feel like I'm ignorant, both onthe 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 peoplethat you just drop into a
(08:14):
particular, like my son.
I told him that one of myfavorite games growing up was
Tetris.
And I felt like Tetris was oneof those things that really
helped my mind to keep it sharpand like working out problem
solving and stuff like that.
So he hopped on and startedplaying Tetris and all of a
sudden there's a bunch of otherpeople.
He's competing against them andI'm like how does that?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
even work.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
That's not the way it worked when I was a kid.
To your point and what you guysbrought up the social element
of doing tabletop games inperson.
Doing tabletop games in person,like I feel like that.
That has to be a big factor asto why this idea of tabletop
games and the gaming communityactually works right.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
That's definitely the best part of it.
With every game there's awinner and a loser with almost
every game, right.
You know there's a winner and aloser with almost every game,
right.
But it's not about, you know,winning.
If someone's just solelyfocused on winning, then they're
kind of missing the moreimportant parts, because it's
not fun to play with someone ifall they do is want to win and
(09:20):
don't care about anything else.
Um, there's a lot of games thatare kind of cutthroat, where you
can only win if you beat otherpeople or take advantage of them
or something, and that's, Imean, that's part of the game,
right.
So it's okay to interact thatway.
But if every game you're justbeing cutthroat and just
betraying people, like that'snot.
(09:43):
Or if you're just so good thatno one else can even compete,
that's not necessarily fun.
So just interacting with people.
I've met a lot of people throughthe group, made a lot of
friends that I wouldn'totherwise normally have.
Um, that's part of the reasonwhy I was so interested in
helping to run this group isbecause before this, my wife and
(10:06):
I had trouble actually meetingpeople to even hang out with.
But we found board games to bea really good way to socialize,
because we could talk to otherpeople about their lives and
learn about them while we dosomething communal, instead of
just sitting around and hopingthat we have something in common
to talk about.
(10:26):
That's great, so it'sdefinitely the best part of it.
So, while I do sometimes playgames online, it's not, it's
never the same, you know, Iwould always prefer to play it
in person rather than online.
That's great, and so, um, we dohave events at the Fremont
Library every other Sunday andthey like working with us
(10:49):
because we make use of theirspace, and so they have regular
events where 20 to 30 peopleshow up, which is great for them
because it brings people to thelibrary, that's right.
And then it attracts new peopleto come.
Some people just kind of wanderin and like, oh, what's this?
And then they get absorbed intothe games and meet people who
(11:10):
they like, and then now theystart coming regularly.
So there's that event.
There's the millpitas libraryevent, which is generally every
first saturday of the month okayand it's like, uh, it's.
Even if it's only one or twotimes a month, it still becomes
like something that people lookforward to, you know, because
(11:31):
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 gameyeah yeah, so using your brain,
and then there's a lot ofproblem solving involved.
That's cool.
So it hits a lot of thedifferent aspects of what people
are looking for, yeah, once amonth is almost like it's.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
It's close enough together where you're like
looking forward to it and it'scoming, 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 youwant to you don't feel like it's
overwhelming to like put it onthe calendar, yeah.
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Speaker 4 (12:24):
Stephen, did you have , like what's your origin with
gaming?
Like what does that look likefor you?
I mean, were you playing Uno?
Look like for you, I mean, didyou, were you playing uno as a
kid or what?
Where?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
did you start with?
Uh, so when I was younger, uh,there's one game particular I
remember playing a lot with mybrothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
It was called mousetrap it uh, I, I can't
remember how to play it to savemy life.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
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 unoyeah like most people probably,
I don't think we ever finishedan actual game of Monopoly
without it getting knocked over.
But Operations, another onethat we had tons of fun with
(13:17):
growing up.
So I always played games whenwe were younger.
I say my journey into this, Iguess, would be middle school.
I played Yu-Gi-Oh a lot with alot of friends.
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
(13:42):
anime.
They call it dual monsters, butit's like they.
Uh, you have the monsters fight, you have life points and you
try to take down your opponentokay um, I played that for six
years, uh, and then went fromplaying card games to uh another
very popular online game calledworld of warcraft okay and uh
(14:03):
met communities on there and metpeople that I will probably
never meet right I would talk tothem for hours daily wow that's
amazing, would never actuallymeet them in person because,
they would.
They a lot of them lived in NewYork.
I knew some people who lived inColorado, some people who lived
in Texas and we had one personwho lived in Australia.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
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 whogot me into magic okay and uh,
that's where I I put poured allmy focus into we.
I made decks, I played gameswith him and then, once some
(14:47):
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.
From there I was, I would talkto people.
I knew the people who workedthere and then when they were
opening and uh, acquiring a newstore, they were looking for a
(15:08):
manager and my previous job wasa area manager for, like, it was
a for picnics.
So like a coordinator for likeevents and stuff like that so I
already had all the managementskills and they're like oh,
we'll train you on ordering andall that, because that's the
easy part it's the managing partthat's always hard to train
(15:29):
into people.
So I did that for six months.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
So they didn't lure you in by saying that this job
is all fun and games.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I was told on day one .
It's like it may.
You may see it look like whereit's all fun and games, but
there is a whole thing behind itthat you don't get, you don't
see.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, there's a lot of games, but not always fun.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Yes, exactly, it's always games.
But not always fun.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yes, yes, exactly, it's always games not always fun
, yeah we uh, so that that's myorigins from it.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
I came in as a manager and got moved up to this
higher position, and now I'm inuh charge of three out of our
six stores in the chain.
That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
So I'm curious.
I know that sometimes when youget into something that seems to
be it is a love that you have,Sometimes you kind of start
losing the sparkle of that, ofyour love of games.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, is that.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
I mean, are you kind of in?
that place yet I've so we have athing that we have to open
cards for the new sets that comeout to sell for singles,
because sometimes people don'twant to just buy a pack and hope
they get the card.
They'll just pay the money tobuy out the card straight out.
So we try to have that kind ofthing so opening.
Uh, for the most recent thingwe opened about, each store
(16:45):
opened 12 boxes and each box has36 packs.
Okay, so doing that for threestores after the fifth box I'm
like all right, okay, I've seenthe art, they look cool, let's
just get through it.
Um, but yeah, I I just have, Ilike, I, I like getting up and
going to my stores in themorning it's it.
(17:06):
I still have the sparkle for it.
Um, and I I think, because it'ssomething I am passionate about
.
Yeah, I think I will alwayshave that sparkle because I
don't really see it as too muchof work.
Good, only the only aspect ofit I see as work is okay.
I have to re-inventoryeverything and count all my
product sure yeah, that's that'sthe only aspect of work as it
is, but when I get to order newgames and have to look up stuff
(17:29):
for anything new, like expansionfor board board games or new
cards that are coming out, I getto see all these things and go.
It's like that looks cool, Iwant to buy that.
It does hurt my walletsometimes because I'm like I
want to buy that from me and Iget first look at it and it's
just like well, there goes mypaycheck.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
That's right, I got a question for you.
So even after opening fiveboxes, do you still get a
dopamine hit when you open apack and find something rare?
Oh yeah, so when there'ssomething really pricey or
really cool.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
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 (18:13):
I'm like whoa.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Having there be so many different card games.
You get that from a wide aspectof people.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Like there's Disney fans.
They have their own card gamescalled Larkana and there are
things in that called Enchanted.
Okay, so they are differentlooking cards, they're more
shiny and a lot of them areworth more money than you would
think From the first set.
(18:43):
There is an Elsa card that'sworth $1,300 right now.
Wow.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
It's the collecting aspect.
That's insane, that'sincredible.
Wow, jonathan, you mentionedthat you and your wife found it
helpful to be able to makefriends.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So my wife's friend is was into board games and
role-playing and she kind ofreintroduced us or introduced us
to modern board games.
She introduced us to Splendor,which is a great gateway game.
Betrayal House on the Hill, agreat gateway game.
(19:23):
Um.
Betrayal house on the hill.
Lords of water deep and tyrants.
Land of dark, which are dungeonsand dragons themed board games,
okay, uh, which have been outfor a while but are classics,
and so that kind of sparked myinterest again and then so after
that, I was always kind oflooking for people to play with,
because I like playing with mywife, but she is not in too much
into playing competitively.
(19:43):
Okay, especially if it's justone-on-one.
It's a little too intense.
So I was looking for morepeople to play games and it was
just hard to find people.
We moved to Fremont in 2018,okay, and so whenever we found
people like in our apartmentcomplex, wherever who had those
interests, we would try to meetup with them, but for whatever
(20:04):
reason, it just didn't work out.
So it was only really with thisgroup that I found and started
co-running.
Um, they really got delved deepinto board games, cause now I
have lots of different people toplay with, lots of different
groups, uh, groups who are likeon the lighter side of games
(20:25):
okay and then groups who areinto, like, really heavy games
that take four to eight hours toplay.
So, yeah, yeah, now it's justlike now.
I'm pretty much playing gamesevery day and just obsessing
about them and spending a lot ofmoney on board games.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
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 goingdeeper.
What does that look like?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So the ones you mentioned Ticket to Ride and
Settlers of Catan, those arestill classics.
The ones you mentioned Ticketto Ride and Settlers of Catan,
those are still classics.
Settlers of Catan is a littledated but there's still.
I mean there's groups that wesee playing them like every week
, playing it still.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Yeah, there's still bestsellers on those ones.
Seven Wonders is another onethat's part of the bestsellers
list.
There's Flux is really popularbecause 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 ondifferent things, like that
disney version, um, they have aversion out there for you.
(21:36):
Um, and there's a.
There's a lot of games that dothat, 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 pointwhere they have city versions,
because I've seen there's aFremont Monopoly.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Yeah, I've seen the.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Fremont one.
I've seen the.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
San Jose one, and I've seen the Livermore one and
it just has the big streets onit as properties and stuff,
which is, I think, is cool,because monopoly is one of those
games that is will most likelybe eternal because, that's just
how um well made it is.
There are.
There are some things thatpeople change the rules a little
bit house rules and stuff likethat.
(22:17):
Yeah, um, you got things likeuh, yahtzee is another big one.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I played yahtzee all the time growing up, yeah um.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
There's certain ones that are still around that um
more people know those.
Younger people know them, justas digital games like um connect
four okay um and uh, guess who?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
that's a digital game .
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Those are digital games people play them on, uh on
on their phones now.
Wow, that's um same thing withthey they have like, because you
can play it with anyone, sure,um?
And then it just goes back andforth.
Huh, um, there's.
I'm trying to think what themore popular ones are out now.
Villainous is another big onethat's constantly coming out
(23:02):
with new versions, and that'sanother Disney game.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
I'm going to come over to your house and you're
going to introduce me to a gamethat I'm going to get excited
about.
What's it going to be, jonathan?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So I try to cater to the person.
Like I said, I have a lot ofdifferent groups so I always
have to think about rulesoverhead, um, and then like what
themes they like.
So I guess I I'd have to askyou like what, what kind of
theme would you be interested infor a board game?
Because they have a theme foreverything.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Honestly, yeah so by theme are you thinking, are you
communicating something likeit's um?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
outdoors or pirates or vikings or animals, yeah, so
that's interesting to me.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
So you, you feel like , uh, the theme of a game
actually, um, actually matterswhen it comes to board games.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It makes a huge difference I've learned because
I enjoy learning new games.
So I spend a lot of timereading rule books, learning
games, some games I'll you knowI have a huge game collection.
I'll play a game once, be likeit was decent, but nothing I'd
play again.
Then I'll sell it.
So, just after I've beenplaying so many games, I think
(24:20):
about the mechanics, right,because most games you're
playing cards or you're movingthings on the board to do
different actions, right, andyou're trying to do that to
accumulate points, which isthrough different mechanisms or
systems or whatever, and that'sall what it comes down to.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
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 (24:49):
so first either has to be.
Well, there's a lot of that's aloaded question.
There's a lot of that's aloaded question, but there's a
lot of things to think about.
But it's mainly about makingsure people can understand it so
that's why rule books are soimportant.
Yeah, because either the gamehas to be really simple, so it's
(25:12):
super easy to grasp, or youneed a good rule book, because I
read a lot of rule books andthey're not very good.
Yeah, it's like if people don'tunderstand how to play your
game, they're not going to enjoyit yeah because they're going
to play it wrong, which is aproblem, or it just takes
forever to parse the rule bookit's just frustrating.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
My son wanted this lord of the rings board game for
christmas and was it war of thering?
I don't know, I don't yeah, Idon't know, but he wanted this
board game for Christmas.
He was really excited about it.
We bought it for him I can'tremember how much we spent on it
and I opened it up and I feellike I can read rule books,
understand things pretty welland get to grasp it Like.
(25:51):
I feel like I can.
I read this thing.
I was like I have no idea whatit's talking about Anyway.
So, yeah, I think having a good, uh good, I totally empathize
with the fact that it eitherneeds to be simple or it needs
to be something that's wellexplained, well explained for
the reader.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, yeah, other than that, I mean player
interaction is important.
And then people are big onshorter games.
You know, games that don't taketoo long or say they're welcome
.
Yeah, just making sure the gamedoesn't take forever, yeah.
And I think a big thing is justa game being balanced.
Like if a game doesn't feelbalanced where a certain card is
(26:31):
overpowered or, um, you just doa certain action over and over,
like, oh, there's the great,one of the great gateway games
is wingspan okay, you've heardof it, but it's a bird theme
game, okay, and it's it's reallypopular.
It's sold millions of copies,wow.
But the thing that hurts it, inmy opinion, is that there's one
(26:55):
action you can do, which is layeggs, 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'slike that's literally all I'm
doing and I usually come in likefirst or second.
So they've done things to likemitigate that, okay, but it's,
(27:16):
it's really is one, you know,the most powerful action in that
game.
Going back to theme, so thereason why I harp on theme a lot
is because it really is whatmakes your game unique.
I played a game recently calledthe Bloody Inn, okay, where
every player's running adifferent inn in this town and
(27:40):
it's a pretty dark theme, whichmakes it unique okay, you
actually have the.
You have the chance to kill thepeople who stay at your hotel,
okay, and then you have to burytheir body, and once you do, you
take their money and so yeahit's super dark because you're
just killing people.
And then you have to make surethere aren't police staying in
(28:01):
your hotel in the morning whenyou have the bodies unburied,
Otherwise you're going to get introuble and you have to pay
them to bribe them, wow.
So yeah, it's not a theme thatcomes up a lot right.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, killing people.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Innocent people.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
I was going to say that sounds like a descend of
edgar allen.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Poe decided he became a gamer, but the thing is like
the gameplay itself, like whenyou kill someone, all you're
doing is flipping the card overum for their traveler, the
traveler card to indicate thatthey're dead, and now their body
, and a lot of games.
It's like you have cardsrepresenting different people
and you might use them.
(28:44):
You know, use their action, ormaybe they're baker and you use
their card and you get bread,and then you discard the card.
But in this one, all you'redoing, instead of using them,
you're killing them and you flipthe card over and it's like,
all of a sudden it's a superdark theme, because now you have
to bury the body and so it'sjust like such a little
(29:05):
difference but, thematically, itmakes the game stand out
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Yeah, wow, steven.
What are you going to do?
How are you going to analyzethe situation and point somebody
in the right direction?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
A lot of times what people come in.
They ask me if they're alreadyavid players of board games.
They go what games do you like?
And they just want to get afeel 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 itto six players.
Uh, to kaido is another one.
(29:40):
Uh, that I enjoyed.
Concept is another good game,um, but usually I get people
that come in they go um, I havea big group of friends.
We want to do something.
What kind of games yourecommend?
It's like, as soon as theymention big groups, like, oh, oh
, I'm looking for a party game,um, something that a lot of
people can play at once.
Code names code names Um yeahthere's um uh cards against
(30:05):
humanity.
There's, there's um it's almostlike um cards against humanity,
and it has, from side nine,happiness um and you.
You have a scene and you eachperson will pick what happens in
the next scene and the judgegets to judge it.
So it's the same ad same concept, but instead of words it's
pictures okay, so it's, uh, it'sand it's funny on how like the
(30:30):
story adds up, because you'll gowhatever that one is, and then
you'll do another round and thenyou add another scene to it and
you'll have a full comic strip.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
That's cool.
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
So that's another one .
That's a popular party game.
There's Exploding Kittens.
Apparently, that one just got aNetflix show too, not too long
ago.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Well, we'll need to wrap it up here in a minute, but
real quick, stephen, when itcomes to what you do your role
in the gaming community.
Manager of Games of Fremont.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Give us a little.
Someone's listening here andthey're like I didn't know this
existed, I didn't know thatthere was a gaming community or
a place to buy games.
There was a gaming community ora place to buy games.
Give us the quick pitch onwhere 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
(31:28):
games but weren't connected withyour store already.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
So we are located in downtown Fremont, in the Fremont
Hub.
We are closer to the side whereTarget and Staples is at.
Our address is 200 Fremont HubBoulevard.
We do a Magic the Gathering.
We have board games open playtables so that we don't charge
(31:51):
for anyone to come in and play.
If you want to bring your owngame in, feel free, you use our
tables.
We are open from noon tousually about nine o'clock
during the week.
Uh, saturday, friday andsaturday we're open to 11.
Okay, so we have those extendedhours.
Nice, uh, we sell anything frompokemon, magic, uh, different
(32:11):
board games.
We have tons of sleeves.
We have, uh, warhammer.
Uh, we have bolt actiondifferent, all these different
war style games um, availablefor purchase.
We have a facebook page whichis just games of fremont on
facebookcom.
Uh, we also have a our owncommunity on discord that you
(32:33):
could join.
Our link is in store and on ourFacebook page.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Okay, Well, we can get all those links from you,
put them in the show notes whenwe put this out and that'd be
great yeah.
Jonathan, how do I get to be apart of the gaming meetup
community that you have going on?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
So the easiest way to find us is go to meetupcom and
search for Fremont Board Gamersand then from there you can get
our links to uh, our discord andFacebook group as well, and
then we have events, so everyFriday evening and then also
every other Sunday at theFremont library and every first
(33:10):
Saturday Saturday generally atthe Milpitas library.
And that's of course all on themeetup site and the events are
all free.
You don't have to bringanything or buy anything.
All experience levels arewelcome.
I actually had last year at theFremont Library event.
There was this old Asian ladywho showed up and she was the
(33:34):
mother of some other guy thatwas there and she kept
apologizing.
She was like oh, my son doesn'twant me here Cause he's
embarrassed, and I was like no,you should play with us.
She joined us for a game and shekept apologizing because she
had no experience with boardgames.
But I walked her through it andshe had fun and I felt bad
(33:59):
cause her son didn't want herthere.
But she was like the sweetestlady and I was really glad that
she came in and played Um, andthen she left after that, but it
was yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
So yeah, Open for open for anybody.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
And we'll, we'll, uh, capture those links as well,
put them on the, on the, on theshow notes.
Yeah, anything else that youguys feel or like, would I want
to make sure that theconversation does justice for
what you guys enjoy.
So is there anything else thatyou would want to share with the
listeners?
About gaming, about what you do, about something that you've
discovered for yourselvesthrough this?
(34:32):
Anything, anything at all.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
I would say that gaming, in my aspect of doing
like going to these stores andlearning to play games, has
really changed my life for thepositive.
I used to be very much ashut-in and would only stay at
home and not only talk to peopleonline.
But learning these differentboard games and card games and
stuff, you get to interact withpeople.
(34:56):
I have someone at one of myother stores who suffers from
very bad social anxiety andcoming to the store and hanging
out and having a common interestwith other people has really
helped him open up and feelbetter about himself and feel
better being around other people.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
That's great.
What about you, Jonathan?
Anything else?
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I'd emphasize that as well.
Um, like I've been trying to say, we're you know, we invite
everyone to come join us even ifyou've never played a board
game before or are very have alot of, uh, social anxiety.
You know, we're very welcoming,we've.
We have other people in thegroup who have social anxiety
(35:37):
and so we understand how it is.
Um, there's, honestly, there'sa board game for everyone,
because they have all differentcomplexity levels, all different
themes, and I've been goingpretty heavy into board games
for a year now and I still feellike I will never get tired of
board games because there'sconstantly the market keeps
(35:59):
growing and there's more andmore board games and there's
just more and more ideas whichjust stimulate my brain every
day.
That's great, so that's a reallygreat hobby.
There's a lot of people in theBay area and I'm sure there's a
lot more who you know just boardgame at home.
Yeah, I know, during thepandemic a lot of people were
(36:20):
board gaming cause they werestuck at home, Right.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
And then now, after the pandemic, more and more
people are coming out andenjoying the social aspect of
board games.
So yeah, we're just trying topromote that and help everyone
have a good time and make newfriends.
That's great.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
I think it speaks strongly to what we need as a
community, what we need asindividuals, and even, like you
said, one of the things that gotyou and your wife into it was
just needing to connect and Ithink that that's what we need,
is we need to be promoting theseplaces that are connecting
people together.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Yeah, face-to-face human interaction.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
That's right.
That's right, that's great.
Guys, thank you so much forjoining me on the podcast, thank
you for taking the time out tobe here, and I appreciate the
work that you're doing in thecommunity to make it a better
place.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thanks for having us,yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Thank you to our two guests, the owner of Games of
Fremont and the operator of theFremont Board Gamers Group on
Meetup, and likewise a shout outto all the other game stores in
Fremont who couldn't be with usfor the interview Game Castle
on Washington Boulevard, Bigger,Better Games on Peralta
(37:34):
Boulevard and any place elsethat I'm forgetting, including
the one shelf at your localcomic book shop.
Thank you to all of them forproviding a space and an excuse
to bring people together.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
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-interviewsby Sarah S.
Be sure to subscribe whereverit 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 atthefremontpodcastcom.
(38:11):
Join us next week on theFremont Podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
This is a Muggins.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Media Podcast.
Before this, my wife and I had trouble actually
meeting people to even hang outwith, but we found board games
to be a really good way tosocialize because we could talk
to other people about theirlives and learn about them while
we do something communal.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Coming to you straight from Fremont,
california.
This is the Fremont Podcast,dedicated to telling the stories
of the past and present of thepeople and places of the city of
Fremont, one conversation at atime.
Now, here's your host, ricky B.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
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 gamingworld is probably starts at uno
would you even consider thatmonopoly?
Maybe, yeah, um I, I, I gotinto.
(00:59):
I had a phase of settlers ofkatan for a while.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
There you go.
That's still a popular game.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
So I had friends that I met with regularly.
We played Catan.
Matter of fact, I had thisdream.
I always got frustrated withthe cards shifting and people
put stuff down and it messesthings up, and so I had this
idea of building a game boardthat had spaces for everything.
So it sat down inside thereLike a really nice People, 3d
(01:25):
print those now.
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, no way Like the tiles on or whatever the cards,
so they don't shift.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
That's cool, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah, so I got into Catan for a while.
Tickets to Ride, I think it wasanother one that I enjoyed,
which I think had similarfeatures.
Um, but other than that, like Iliterally I've been into game
shops before and I'm just likewhat in the world there is?
So there are so many games outthere.
So let's, get started Um,what's uh so your name again?
(01:55):
My name is Steven, Steven andyours, jonathan, jonathan.
Okay, steven and Jonathan.
Uh so, steven, you are themanager of a game, a store
that's in Fremont.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
That's a game shop right, our store's name is Games
of Fremont.
Okay, games of Fremont, yes,okay.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
And we just found out that that's actually a chain, a
local chain, right.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Yes, we have six stores total in the Bay Area.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Okay, okay.
And then where are the otherones?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
So we have one in Concord, we have one in
Livermore, one in Brentwood, onein Martinez and one in
Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Okay, well, that's pretty cool.
How long has this company beenaround that has this chain of
stores?
Speaker 5 (02:35):
So we've had other stores, like we've had one in
Antioch that had to close in2021 due to, and uh, stuff that
was going on in the area.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I see.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
And we ended up, uh, moving that one into where our
Brentwood store is now and kindof splitting the merchandise
between Brentwood and theMartinez store.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Okay, I just think it's cool that there's a
community in the Bay Area Iguess I say Bay Area, but even
in Fremont that supports a, a, a.
The Bay Area I guess I say BayArea, but even in Fremont that
supports kind of a, I guess Iwould say a traditional game
store, not video gaming, notvirtual.
I mean, I guess some of it'sprobably virtual too, right?
Or is it primarily just gameslike board games?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
There's some games that involve apps.
There's some games that you canplay online.
There's Board Game Arena, areyou can play online, like
there's board game arena, whereyou 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 thenboard games.
(03:40):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Jonathan, what is your?
What do you do?
What?
What brings you to theconversation?
Uh, about games.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So I co-run an informal group called Fremont
board gamers.
Okay, the group was actuallystarted last year by someone
else.
His name is Claude, but helives in London now.
So I run co-run it with JohnnyChin and we're active on meetup,
uh, discord and Facebook, wow,okay.
So that's how people find us,okay.
(04:07):
And then our meetup group hasalmost 600 people right now and
it's constantly growing.
And then we have events everyweek, uh, with pretty good
attendance, so, wow.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
So you had a.
So your meetup group that juststarted last year has 600,
people connected to it.
Yeah, wow and it keeps growingso, and and we, we I already
asked you this previously, butthey're not all in fremont.
How many of you, how many ofthem would you say are, are from
fremont?
You think?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
it's hard to tell exactly, because there's I mean
there's different gaming groupsthroughout the Bay Area, of
course.
Sure, yeah, and so I'm like apart of Oakland Board Gamers as
well.
Okay, okay, there's a groupthat meets in Palo Alto, there's
groups in San Jose, so they'reall over the place.
So exactly in Fremont, it'shard to tell.
(04:59):
I would just estimate 25%.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Okay, okay, that's cool.
That's, that's really cool.
Um, so give me a little glimpseinto what is the life of this
meetup group.
Like, what, like, what does itlook like?
What are you guys doing on aregular basis?
How often do you guys meet up?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So we are pretty welcoming.
We welcome people of allexperience levels, um, and all
ages.
We meet every friday at uh,another game store, so it starts
at six o'clock and then we havea like sign up sheet for so
people have an idea what gamethey're playing beforehand.
It's not completely necessary,but some people just show up and
(05:40):
, you know, just find a groupand start playing, okay, um so
there's multiple tables playingthe same game, basically, or
different games, different games.
Okay, just whatever people bringwhatever they're interested in.
Yeah, and we have.
So, like I told you that theage range is quite large.
There's actually, um, oneyounger girl I don't know
(06:01):
exactly how old she is, I thinkshe's like eight years old,
eight to ten, but she's therealmost every friday and she's
actually pretty good.
Like she picks up games quickerthan I would expect.
Wow, okay, um.
And then on the other end ofthe spectrum, we have these
older people who have verylittle experience with board
(06:22):
games, and so they, some of themjust show up and they're like I
don't have a social group, Ijust want to meet people, and so
they just come and then learnto play games, and now they're
here every Friday.
That's cool, yeah, and they, Ithink they're more interested in
the social aspect, but theyenjoy playing the games, of
course.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Let's talk.
Did you have a yeah aspect?
But they enjoy playing thegames, of course.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Let's talk, did you ever?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
yeah, I was gonna say about the social aspect of
things.
Um so, a lot of the like gamesyou can play online, like
there's pokemon online, magiconline, it's just with when you
play online, there's just thatdisconnect of uh, the other
group there which kind of makesgames more fun when you get to
play with them, rather in personor if you're playing, if you
(07:08):
are playing online, being in acall with the other people.
So you know, you get more of aof a reaction when things happen
rather than oh, that cool thinghappened.
I have no clue how the otherperson responded, so I that's.
That's another reason why weare we like.
I like running a store, becauseyou get to see the reaction
when people do things.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, and it is that's exactly what I was going
to ask.
I wanted to go that route andtalk a little bit about the
social element of this.
So I mean, I know, um, I knowpeople who are really into video
games and they have that, likeyou know, whether it's a avatar
or like a profile or like acharacter or whatever that's
created to play these games, andyou may never even meet these
(07:52):
people, uh, in person, ever, butyou play with them.
Um, then there's just peoplelike I mean, I'm, I'm not, I I
feel like I'm ignorant, both onthe 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 peoplethat you just drop into a
(08:14):
particular, like my son.
I told him that one of myfavorite games growing up was
Tetris.
And I felt like Tetris was oneof those things that really
helped my mind to keep it sharpand like working out problem
solving and stuff like that.
So he hopped on and startedplaying Tetris and all of a
sudden there's a bunch of otherpeople.
He's competing against them andI'm like how does that?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
even work.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
That's not the way it worked when I was a kid.
To your point and what you guysbrought up the social element
of doing tabletop games inperson.
Doing tabletop games in person,like I feel like that.
That has to be a big factor asto why this idea of tabletop
games and the gaming communityactually works right.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
That's definitely the best part of it.
With every game there's awinner and a loser with almost
every game, right.
You know there's a winner and aloser with almost every game,
right.
But it's not about, you know,winning.
If someone's just solelyfocused on winning, then they're
kind of missing the moreimportant parts, because it's
not fun to play with someone ifall they do is want to win and
(09:20):
don't care about anything else.
Um, there's a lot of games thatare kind of cutthroat, where you
can only win if you beat otherpeople or take advantage of them
or something, and that's, Imean, that's part of the game,
right.
So it's okay to interact thatway.
But if every game you're justbeing cutthroat and just
betraying people, like that'snot.
(09:43):
Or if you're just so good thatno one else can even compete,
that's not necessarily fun.
So just interacting with people.
I've met a lot of people throughthe group, made a lot of
friends that I wouldn'totherwise normally have.
Um, that's part of the reasonwhy I was so interested in
helping to run this group isbecause before this, my wife and
(10:06):
I had trouble actually meetingpeople to even hang out with.
But we found board games to bea really good way to socialize,
because we could talk to otherpeople about their lives and
learn about them while we dosomething communal, instead of
just sitting around and hopingthat we have something in common
to talk about.
(10:26):
That's great, so it'sdefinitely the best part of it.
So, while I do sometimes playgames online, it's not, it's
never the same, you know, Iwould always prefer to play it
in person rather than online.
That's great, and so, um, we dohave events at the Fremont
Library every other Sunday andthey like working with us
(10:49):
because we make use of theirspace, and so they have regular
events where 20 to 30 peopleshow up, which is great for them
because it brings people to thelibrary, that's right.
And then it attracts new peopleto come.
Some people just kind of wanderin and like, oh, what's this?
And then they get absorbed intothe games and meet people who
(11:10):
they like, and then now theystart coming regularly.
So there's that event.
There's the millpitas libraryevent, which is generally every
first saturday of the month okayand it's like, uh, it's.
Even if it's only one or twotimes a month, it still becomes
like something that people lookforward to, you know, because
(11:31):
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 gameyeah yeah, so using your brain,
and then there's a lot ofproblem solving involved.
That's cool.
So it hits a lot of thedifferent aspects of what people
are looking for, yeah, once amonth is almost like it's.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
It's close enough together where you're like
looking forward to it and it'scoming, 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 youwant to you don't feel like it's
overwhelming to like put it onthe calendar, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Please consider donating $1 a month on a
reoccurring basis to help thispodcast that you enjoy.
Buymeacoffeecom.
Slash TheFremontPodcast slashmembership.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Stephen, did you have , like what's your origin with
gaming?
Like what does that look likefor you?
I mean, were you playing Uno?
Look like for you, I mean, didyou, were you playing uno as a
kid or what?
Where?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
did you start with?
Uh, so when I was younger, uh,there's one game particular I
remember playing a lot with mybrothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
It was called mousetrap it uh, I, I can't
remember how to play it to savemy life.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
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 unoyeah like most people probably,
I don't think we ever finishedan actual game of Monopoly
without it getting knocked over.
But Operations, another onethat we had tons of fun with
(13:17):
growing up.
So I always played games whenwe were younger.
I say my journey into this, Iguess, would be middle school.
I played Yu-Gi-Oh a lot with alot of friends.
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
(13:42):
anime.
They call it dual monsters, butit's like they.
Uh, you have the monsters fight, you have life points and you
try to take down your opponentokay um, I played that for six
years, uh, and then went fromplaying card games to uh another
very popular online game calledworld of warcraft okay and uh
(14:03):
met communities on there and metpeople that I will probably
never meet right I would talk tothem for hours daily wow that's
amazing, would never actuallymeet them in person because,
they would.
They a lot of them lived in NewYork.
I knew some people who lived inColorado, some people who lived
in Texas and we had one personwho lived in Australia.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
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 whogot me into magic okay and uh,
that's where I I put poured allmy focus into we.
I made decks, I played gameswith him and then, once some
(14:47):
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.
From there I was, I would talkto people.
I knew the people who workedthere and then when they were
opening and uh, acquiring a newstore, they were looking for a
(15:08):
manager and my previous job wasa area manager for, like, it was
a for picnics.
So like a coordinator for likeevents and stuff like that so I
already had all the managementskills and they're like oh,
we'll train you on ordering andall that, because that's the
easy part it's the managing partthat's always hard to train
(15:29):
into people.
So I did that for six months.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
So they didn't lure you in by saying that this job
is all fun and games.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I was told on day one .
It's like it may.
You may see it look like whereit's all fun and games, but
there is a whole thing behind itthat you don't get, you don't
see.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, there's a lot of games, but not always fun.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Yes, exactly, it's always games.
But not always fun.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yes, yes, exactly, it's always games not always fun
, yeah we uh, so that that's myorigins from it.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
I came in as a manager and got moved up to this
higher position, and now I'm inuh charge of three out of our
six stores in the chain.
That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
So I'm curious.
I know that sometimes when youget into something that seems to
be it is a love that you have,Sometimes you kind of start
losing the sparkle of that, ofyour love of games.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, is that.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
I mean, are you kind of in?
that place yet I've so we have athing that we have to open
cards for the new sets that comeout to sell for singles,
because sometimes people don'twant to just buy a pack and hope
they get the card.
They'll just pay the money tobuy out the card straight out.
So we try to have that kind ofthing so opening.
Uh, for the most recent thingwe opened about, each store
(16:45):
opened 12 boxes and each box has36 packs.
Okay, so doing that for threestores after the fifth box I'm
like all right, okay, I've seenthe art, they look cool, let's
just get through it.
Um, but yeah, I I just have, Ilike, I, I like getting up and
going to my stores in themorning it's it.
(17:06):
I still have the sparkle for it.
Um, and I I think, because it'ssomething I am passionate about
.
Yeah, I think I will alwayshave that sparkle because I
don't really see it as too muchof work.
Good, only the only aspect ofit I see as work is okay.
I have to re-inventoryeverything and count all my
product sure yeah, that's that'sthe only aspect of work as it
is, but when I get to order newgames and have to look up stuff
(17:29):
for anything new, like expansionfor board board games or new
cards that are coming out, I getto see all these things and go.
It's like that looks cool, Iwant to buy that.
It does hurt my walletsometimes because I'm like I
want to buy that from me and Iget first look at it and it's
just like well, there goes mypaycheck.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
That's right, I got a question for you.
So even after opening fiveboxes, do you still get a
dopamine hit when you open apack and find something rare?
Oh yeah, so when there'ssomething really pricey or
really cool.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
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 (18:13):
I'm like whoa.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Having there be so many different card games.
You get that from a wide aspectof people.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Like there's Disney fans.
They have their own card gamescalled Larkana and there are
things in that called Enchanted.
Okay, so they are differentlooking cards, they're more
shiny and a lot of them areworth more money than you would
think From the first set.
(18:43):
There is an Elsa card that'sworth $1,300 right now.
Wow.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
It's the collecting aspect.
That's insane, that'sincredible.
Wow, jonathan, you mentionedthat you and your wife found it
helpful to be able to makefriends.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So my wife's friend is was into board games and
role-playing and she kind ofreintroduced us or introduced us
to modern board games.
She introduced us to Splendor,which is a great gateway game.
Betrayal House on the Hill, agreat gateway game.
(19:23):
Um.
Betrayal house on the hill.
Lords of water deep and tyrants.
Land of dark, which are dungeonsand dragons themed board games,
okay, uh, which have been outfor a while but are classics,
and so that kind of sparked myinterest again and then so after
that, I was always kind oflooking for people to play with,
because I like playing with mywife, but she is not in too much
into playing competitively.
(19:43):
Okay, especially if it's justone-on-one.
It's a little too intense.
So I was looking for morepeople to play games and it was
just hard to find people.
We moved to Fremont in 2018,okay, and so whenever we found
people like in our apartmentcomplex, wherever who had those
interests, we would try to meetup with them, but for whatever
(20:04):
reason, it just didn't work out.
So it was only really with thisgroup that I found and started
co-running.
Um, they really got delved deepinto board games, cause now I
have lots of different people toplay with, lots of different
groups, uh, groups who are likeon the lighter side of games
(20:25):
okay and then groups who areinto, like, really heavy games
that take four to eight hours toplay.
So, yeah, yeah, now it's justlike now.
I'm pretty much playing gamesevery day and just obsessing
about them and spending a lot ofmoney on board games.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
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 goingdeeper.
What does that look like?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So the ones you mentioned Ticket to Ride and
Settlers of Catan, those arestill classics.
The ones you mentioned Ticketto Ride and Settlers of Catan,
those are still classics.
Settlers of Catan is a littledated but there's still.
I mean there's groups that wesee playing them like every week
, playing it still.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Yeah, there's still bestsellers on those ones.
Seven Wonders is another onethat's part of the bestsellers
list.
There's Flux is really popularbecause 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 ondifferent things, like that
disney version, um, they have aversion out there for you.
(21:36):
Um, and there's a.
There's a lot of games that dothat, 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 pointwhere they have city versions,
because I've seen there's aFremont Monopoly.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Yeah, I've seen the.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Fremont one.
I've seen the.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
San Jose one, and I've seen the Livermore one and
it just has the big streets onit as properties and stuff,
which is, I think, is cool,because monopoly is one of those
games that is will most likelybe eternal because, that's just
how um well made it is.
There are.
There are some things thatpeople change the rules a little
bit house rules and stuff likethat.
(22:17):
Yeah, um, you got things likeuh, yahtzee is another big one.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I played yahtzee all the time growing up, yeah um.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
There's certain ones that are still around that um
more people know those.
Younger people know them, justas digital games like um connect
four okay um and uh, guess who?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
that's a digital game .
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Those are digital games people play them on, uh on
on their phones now.
Wow, that's um same thing withthey they have like, because you
can play it with anyone, sure,um?
And then it just goes back andforth.
Huh, um, there's.
I'm trying to think what themore popular ones are out now.
Villainous is another big onethat's constantly coming out
(23:02):
with new versions, and that'sanother Disney game.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
I'm going to come over to your house and you're
going to introduce me to a gamethat I'm going to get excited
about.
What's it going to be, jonathan?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So I try to cater to the person.
Like I said, I have a lot ofdifferent groups so I always
have to think about rulesoverhead, um, and then like what
themes they like.
So I guess I I'd have to askyou like what, what kind of
theme would you be interested infor a board game?
Because they have a theme foreverything.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Honestly, yeah so by theme are you thinking, are you
communicating something likeit's um?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
outdoors or pirates or vikings or animals, yeah, so
that's interesting to me.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
So you, you feel like , uh, the theme of a game
actually, um, actually matterswhen it comes to board games.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It makes a huge difference I've learned because
I enjoy learning new games.
So I spend a lot of timereading rule books, learning
games, some games I'll you knowI have a huge game collection.
I'll play a game once, be likeit was decent, but nothing I'd
play again.
Then I'll sell it.
So, just after I've beenplaying so many games, I think
(24:20):
about the mechanics, right,because most games you're
playing cards or you're movingthings on the board to do
different actions, right, andyou're trying to do that to
accumulate points, which isthrough different mechanisms or
systems or whatever, and that'sall what it comes down to.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
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 (24:49):
so first either has to be.
Well, there's a lot of that's aloaded question.
There's a lot of that's aloaded question, but there's a
lot of things to think about.
But it's mainly about makingsure people can understand it so
that's why rule books are soimportant.
Yeah, because either the gamehas to be really simple, so it's
(25:12):
super easy to grasp, or youneed a good rule book, because I
read a lot of rule books andthey're not very good.
Yeah, it's like if people don'tunderstand how to play your
game, they're not going to enjoyit yeah because they're going
to play it wrong, which is aproblem, or it just takes
forever to parse the rule bookit's just frustrating.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
My son wanted this lord of the rings board game for
christmas and was it war of thering?
I don't know, I don't yeah, Idon't know, but he wanted this
board game for Christmas.
He was really excited about it.
We bought it for him I can'tremember how much we spent on it
and I opened it up and I feellike I can read rule books,
understand things pretty welland get to grasp it Like.
(25:51):
I feel like I can.
I read this thing.
I was like I have no idea whatit's talking about Anyway.
So, yeah, I think having a good, uh good, I totally empathize
with the fact that it eitherneeds to be simple or it needs
to be something that's wellexplained, well explained for
the reader.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, yeah, other than that, I mean player
interaction is important.
And then people are big onshorter games.
You know, games that don't taketoo long or say they're welcome
.
Yeah, just making sure the gamedoesn't take forever, yeah.
And I think a big thing is justa game being balanced.
Like if a game doesn't feelbalanced where a certain card is
(26:31):
overpowered or, um, you just doa certain action over and over,
like, oh, there's the great,one of the great gateway games
is wingspan okay, you've heardof it, but it's a bird theme
game, okay, and it's it's reallypopular.
It's sold millions of copies,wow.
But the thing that hurts it, inmy opinion, is that there's one
(26:55):
action you can do, which is layeggs, 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'slike that's literally all I'm
doing and I usually come in likefirst or second.
So they've done things to likemitigate that, okay, but it's,
(27:16):
it's really is one, you know,the most powerful action in that
game.
Going back to theme, so thereason why I harp on theme a lot
is because it really is whatmakes your game unique.
I played a game recently calledthe Bloody Inn, okay, where
every player's running adifferent inn in this town and
(27:40):
it's a pretty dark theme, whichmakes it unique okay, you
actually have the.
You have the chance to kill thepeople who stay at your hotel,
okay, and then you have to burytheir body, and once you do, you
take their money and so yeahit's super dark because you're
just killing people.
And then you have to make surethere aren't police staying in
(28:01):
your hotel in the morning whenyou have the bodies unburied,
Otherwise you're going to get introuble and you have to pay
them to bribe them, wow.
So yeah, it's not a theme thatcomes up a lot right.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, killing people.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Innocent people.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
I was going to say that sounds like a descend of
edgar allen.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Poe decided he became a gamer, but the thing is like
the gameplay itself, like whenyou kill someone, all you're
doing is flipping the card overum for their traveler, the
traveler card to indicate thatthey're dead, and now their body
, and a lot of games.
It's like you have cardsrepresenting different people
and you might use them.
(28:44):
You know, use their action, ormaybe they're baker and you use
their card and you get bread,and then you discard the card.
But in this one, all you'redoing, instead of using them,
you're killing them and you flipthe card over and it's like,
all of a sudden it's a superdark theme, because now you have
to bury the body and so it'sjust like such a little
(29:05):
difference but, thematically, itmakes the game stand out
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Yeah, wow, steven.
What are you going to do?
How are you going to analyzethe situation and point somebody
in the right direction?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
A lot of times what people come in.
They ask me if they're alreadyavid players of board games.
They go what games do you like?
And they just want to get afeel 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 itto six players.
Uh, to kaido is another one.
(29:40):
Uh, that I enjoyed.
Concept is another good game,um, but usually I get people
that come in they go um, I havea big group of friends.
We want to do something.
What kind of games yourecommend?
It's like, as soon as theymention big groups, like, oh, oh
, I'm looking for a party game,um, something that a lot of
people can play at once.
Code names code names Um yeahthere's um uh cards against
(30:05):
humanity.
There's, there's um it's almostlike um cards against humanity,
and it has, from side nine,happiness um and you.
You have a scene and you eachperson will pick what happens in
the next scene and the judgegets to judge it.
So it's the same ad same concept, but instead of words it's
pictures okay, so it's, uh, it'sand it's funny on how like the
(30:30):
story adds up, because you'll gowhatever that one is, and then
you'll do another round and thenyou add another scene to it and
you'll have a full comic strip.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
That's cool.
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
So that's another one .
That's a popular party game.
There's Exploding Kittens.
Apparently, that one just got aNetflix show too, not too long
ago.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Well, we'll need to wrap it up here in a minute, but
real quick, stephen, when itcomes to what you do your role
in the gaming community.
Manager of Games of Fremont.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Give us a little.
Someone's listening here andthey're like I didn't know this
existed, I didn't know thatthere was a gaming community or
a place to buy games.
There was a gaming community ora place to buy games.
Give us the quick pitch onwhere 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
(31:28):
games but weren't connected withyour store already.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
So we are located in downtown Fremont, in the Fremont
Hub.
We are closer to the side whereTarget and Staples is at.
Our address is 200 Fremont HubBoulevard.
We do a Magic the Gathering.
We have board games open playtables so that we don't charge
(31:51):
for anyone to come in and play.
If you want to bring your owngame in, feel free, you use our
tables.
We are open from noon tousually about nine o'clock
during the week.
Uh, saturday, friday andsaturday we're open to 11.
Okay, so we have those extendedhours.
Nice, uh, we sell anything frompokemon, magic, uh, different
(32:11):
board games.
We have tons of sleeves.
We have, uh, warhammer.
Uh, we have bolt actiondifferent, all these different
war style games um, availablefor purchase.
We have a facebook page whichis just games of fremont on
facebookcom.
Uh, we also have a our owncommunity on discord that you
(32:33):
could join.
Our link is in store and on ourFacebook page.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Okay, Well, we can get all those links from you,
put them in the show notes whenwe put this out and that'd be
great yeah.
Jonathan, how do I get to be apart of the gaming meetup
community that you have going on?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
So the easiest way to find us is go to meetupcom and
search for Fremont Board Gamersand then from there you can get
our links to uh, our discord andFacebook group as well, and
then we have events, so everyFriday evening and then also
every other Sunday at theFremont library and every first
(33:10):
Saturday Saturday generally atthe Milpitas library.
And that's of course all on themeetup site and the events are
all free.
You don't have to bringanything or buy anything.
All experience levels arewelcome.
I actually had last year at theFremont Library event.
There was this old Asian ladywho showed up and she was the
(33:34):
mother of some other guy thatwas there and she kept
apologizing.
She was like oh, my son doesn'twant me here Cause he's
embarrassed, and I was like no,you should play with us.
She joined us for a game and shekept apologizing because she
had no experience with boardgames.
But I walked her through it andshe had fun and I felt bad
(33:59):
cause her son didn't want herthere.
But she was like the sweetestlady and I was really glad that
she came in and played Um, andthen she left after that, but it
was yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
So yeah, Open for open for anybody.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
And we'll, we'll, uh, capture those links as well,
put them on the, on the, on theshow notes.
Yeah, anything else that youguys feel or like, would I want
to make sure that theconversation does justice for
what you guys enjoy.
So is there anything else thatyou would want to share with the
listeners?
About gaming, about what you do, about something that you've
discovered for yourselvesthrough this?
(34:32):
Anything, anything at all.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
I would say that gaming, in my aspect of doing
like going to these stores andlearning to play games, has
really changed my life for thepositive.
I used to be very much ashut-in and would only stay at
home and not only talk to peopleonline.
But learning these differentboard games and card games and
stuff, you get to interact withpeople.
(34:56):
I have someone at one of myother stores who suffers from
very bad social anxiety andcoming to the store and hanging
out and having a common interestwith other people has really
helped him open up and feelbetter about himself and feel
better being around other people.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
That's great.
What about you, Jonathan?
Anything else?
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I'd emphasize that as well.
Um, like I've been trying to say, we're you know, we invite
everyone to come join us even ifyou've never played a board
game before or are very have alot of, uh, social anxiety.
You know, we're very welcoming,we've.
We have other people in thegroup who have social anxiety
(35:37):
and so we understand how it is.
Um, there's, honestly, there'sa board game for everyone,
because they have all differentcomplexity levels, all different
themes, and I've been goingpretty heavy into board games
for a year now and I still feellike I will never get tired of
board games because there'sconstantly the market keeps
(35:59):
growing and there's more andmore board games and there's
just more and more ideas whichjust stimulate my brain every
day.
That's great, so that's a reallygreat hobby.
There's a lot of people in theBay area and I'm sure there's a
lot more who you know just boardgame at home.
Yeah, I know, during thepandemic a lot of people were
(36:20):
board gaming cause they werestuck at home, Right.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
And then now, after the pandemic, more and more
people are coming out andenjoying the social aspect of
board games.
So yeah, we're just trying topromote that and help everyone
have a good time and make newfriends.
That's great.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
I think it speaks strongly to what we need as a
community, what we need asindividuals, and even, like you
said, one of the things that gotyou and your wife into it was
just needing to connect and Ithink that that's what we need,
is we need to be promoting theseplaces that are connecting
people together.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Yeah, face-to-face human interaction.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
That's right.
That's right, that's great.
Guys, thank you so much forjoining me on the podcast, thank
you for taking the time out tobe here, and I appreciate the
work that you're doing in thecommunity to make it a better
place.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thanks for having us,yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Thank you to our two guests, the owner of Games of
Fremont and the operator of theFremont Board Gamers Group on
Meetup, and likewise a shout outto all the other game stores in
Fremont who couldn't be with usfor the interview Game Castle
on Washington Boulevard, Bigger,Better Games on Peralta
(37:34):
Boulevard and any place elsethat I'm forgetting, including
the one shelf at your localcomic book shop.
Thank you to all of them forproviding a space and an excuse
to bring people together.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
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-interviewsby Sarah S.
Be sure to subscribe whereverit 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 atthefremontpodcastcom.
(38:11):
Join us next week on theFremont Podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
This is a Muggins.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Media Podcast.
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