Overview
After Melbourne's Mana Bar (the world's first ever video game cocktail bar) folded in August last year, it seemed the market for geek bars — not Timezones with bars attached, real D&D-encouraging nerd hubs — just wasn't there. Unlike successful models in Japan and the US, even the Aussie gaming community wasn't biting. But according to Gizmodo, Australian nerds are crying out for a space — and are about to get three new video game bars.
"Lets face it... Most bars suck for people like us," says Melbourne's Power Up geek bar developer Edmund Mundlay. "We sit there with loud obnoxious music blaring in our ears while keeping a watchful eye on the bogans at the next table just hoping they don't start a fight. We want a bar for us. We want to build the hub of Melbourne's geek community."
A motley crew of former Hobart EB employees and Melbourne hospitality workers have launched a Pozible campaign to raise $10,000 toward their dream bar, Power Up, “an open-source bar for geeks”. The group saw the closure of Melbourne's Mana Bar (and the alternate success of the Brisbane branch) as having more impact than people originally thought, seeing a hole in the market left by the venue's departure.
Making a furious push to providing a safe, fun hub for geeks to socialise, the Power Up team realised gamers just wanted the main thing they're often accused of rejecting: a social life.
"So many people would come and just hang out with us at EB, they just wanted to talk to like minded people," says Mundlay. "I wanted to build that home, a place where geeks and nerds citywide could just come and hangout, talk about games or anime, sci-fi or technology... With such a huge community of geeks, nerds, gamers and pop-culture fanatics doesn't it just make sense that there should be a centre for this community?"
Punters will be encouraged to bring their weekly D&D meetings to the bar, participate in cosplay competitions and e-sports tournaments and make a whole bunch of buddies over beers and movie screenings.
So what of the Mana Bar crew? The Melbourne alumni are currently working on a CBD geek bar to called BetaBar. This new space will hope to function as Melbourne's top spot for the indie game developer community to test out their newest adventures on the target market.
Sydney geeks aren't left out either, Spawn Point Small Bar is currently getting ready to open on Clarence Street in the CBD. Choosing to set their sights a little wider than the hardcore gaming community, Spawn Point are hooking up retro consoles for Sydney nostalgics — we're talking NES, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, MegaDrive and MasterSystem consoles. Furious Mario Kart and GoldenEye tournaments will inevitably ensue.
The three bars will (hopefully) all open within the coming months, with one proviso to rule them all:
No jocks, douchebags or teasing jerks. There's enough to deal with in Skyrim without dragons constantly roasting your backside.
Via Gizmodo. Top image by Ben Andrews.