After a few months in operation, I firmly believe Glitch Victoria is a lounge with rack and stack games for those wanting to flex their alpha status to friends. That’s fine if you’re after a night out in Victoria, but as for connecting with the gaming community, they need a proper outreach person. That’s because the attempts I’ve seen have mostly come from the community itself. There was a group asking if they could host a night of fighting games for those who registered, and now there’s a relax and hang out thing with Coastal Collector’s Market, which is a swap meet for trading card games.
With only two true cabinet games at the time of writing and me hearing that they do not want to step on Quasar Arcade‘s toes, they’re taking the smart position. When Jurassic Park Arcade is the only game worth playing, dropping two tokens ($2) per go hurts. Even during the arcade boom, those cost a buck. Everything else is carnival fare.
That could mean trouble attracting regulars. When there’s nothing unique pulling people in, not everyone’s going to bother showing up. At the time of writing, I do not see this place as built for hardcore gamers. Also, I don’t see a problem with working with other operations so that they can pull out those cabinet games from out of storage and let other stores turn them on. Cherry Bomb Toys and Quasars did that, and I was there to play Atari’s Tempest as often as I can! I don’t see why Glitch is being shy with that idea.
At present, when store fronts are afraid of working together, I figure this is a place for people living downtown wanting somewhere to hang out. If one place is closed, the other can fill a niche.
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