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AceBounce, SPiN, Flight Club, Level 257 — when you look at those names, what comes to mind?
I don’t know about you, but if I weren’t a person living in Chicago and I was staring at that list of names I would think that I was looking at some awful nightclubs in The Loop. The kind of nightclub where scantily clad women and creepy guys with fauxhawks mingle with one another and spend hundreds of dollars on watered down vodka-cranberries. But that would be a false assumption.
AceBounce, SPiN, Flight Club, and Level 257 are all game bars here in the Windy City. You can’t walk a quarter mile downtown without seeing advertisements for a new ping pong bar under construction and you’d be hard-pressed to walk into an office full of millennials without hearing one of them discuss their experience last weekend at The Escape Room. Now I left Escape Room out of the list above because that’s actually not a bad name for a game bar.
And allow me, if you will, to go off on a small tangent about this Escape Room nonsense. I will fully admit that there was a time not so long ago that I was intrigued by The Escape Room.
In theory, it sounds like a fantastic time – brainstorming with a group to get yourself out of a sticky situation centered around international espionage or something of that ilk – it almost sounds like the plot to the fantastic Michael Douglas film The Game.
But then when I think about how it’s more than likely going to be a work event akin to forced family fun I shiver and recoil into knowing how awful it would be. I don’t want to problem solve with coworkers or good friends unless I absolutely have to. I want to kick back and relax with my friends if I’m going to go out on the town with them, and the same goes for the coworkers that I can find tolerable. Ten to twelve people screaming over each other to try and break out of a fake prison cell? I’m all set, thanks. I’d rather sew my head to the carpet (special thanks to Christmas Vacation for the topical movie reference).
The problem with these game-themed bars is that they are getting built because owners and contractors believe that this is what millennials want. Expensive games (SPiN and AceBounce offer a full hour of ping pong table time for 39 dollars during peak hours) and moderately priced drinks are supposed to lure us into these admittedly very nice venues. I just bought a ping pong table on Amazon a few months ago for a hundred and fifty bucks. That thing paid for itself in the course of four of five days between me and my three roommates.
I don’t want to go to a bar and throw darts, play ping pong, or play Pacman. Pacman is boring as fuck, and yet Level 257 is a Pacman themed bar and grill. Who is that appealing to? Most people that are just now of legal drinking age have never heard of Pacman, and if they have they probably look at it in disgust. Terrible graphics compared to the virtual reality that they live in nowadays. The novelty of the game bar wears off about fifteen minutes after arrival, and then what? Well, then you keep spending money because you’re already there and you might as well.
What happened to playing “Drink The Beer”? “Drink The Beer” is a simple enough game. You and your friends go to a bar or sit down in someone’s living room and drink beers. That’s it. And naming your bar SPiN? AceBounce? You have got to be fist fucking me with those names. It’s like the owners of those places went on a name aggregation website and typed in the keywords “douchebag, nightclub, party, games.” Just laughably bad names for bars where ping pong is being played.
If you wanted me to show up to your ping pong bar 1. Don’t charge me an arm and a leg for a half hour of table time and 2. Don’t stick your bar in a spot jam-packed with awful tourists and trust fund babies. I don’t know who is giving the green light to all of these fancy new game bars but can we make it stop? I’m running out of creative ways to tell my friends who invite me to The Escape Room or SPiN that I don’t want to go..
Image via Unsplash
Respond
jduda@grandex.co
Duda, is there anything that you like to do for fun besides bitch about life and bail on your friends after being offended by random teenagers?
Idolize 80’s fashion trends.
shop at Costco with his momma
Clearly someone has never had the rotisserie chicken.
No kidding.
I love people that complain about people complaining too much. It gives me so much life.
How does one love and not care at the same time…?
It’s part of the doublethink mentality of #woke people in 2018.
You’re constant complaining and shit takes, all in the name of trying to seem like a “cool guy”, is making me sick
Also, I didn’t even read the post, I just know it’s a shit take because who doesn’t want to get drunk and play arcade games
Apparently the only acceptable way to drink is to sit in a corner booth and sullenly face a brick wall like a fucking coal miner after a 12 hour shift
Nah I’m with him on this. They’re trash because people flock to them but end up standing around the machines drinking. Do you Duda.
“Hey, are you playing? No? Okay can I squeeze through and get on? Thanks man. Have a good night”
-your people in the way problem is solved
It’s never that easy .. you and I both know that.
Facts. First off this article is for Chicago ppl, and if your from the city he is on point. I completely agree with every point. So everyone that’s bitching can go back to the cube farm and do your work.
I live in your brain rent free. Guaranteed comment from you on every blog I post. Love it
Are you thevaginator?
Mr. Hole doesn’t seem to understand the ole Ad Revenue game.
luke warm take = luke warm page interaction = mediocre engagement numbers to pitch to advertisers
@ 19th hole: Duda is the house “take” guy
Or maybe he does know and chooses to support the PGP community by bashing on Duda. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
Thanks, Bill, that’s exactly what I am doing. PGP gets their website hits while I also join the community in our mutual hate while also sticking it to Duda by never actually reading his “blogs”
Anyone else hate this guy? I give him the pageview in order to read the comments, but it also keeps him employed. Such a tough balance.
Read the title, saw who wrote it, came straight to the comments to see how many “garbage takes” are being handed out.
Guys, every time someone clicks on a Duda article and then clicks “Nice Work” on my comments, a portion of the ad revenue gets invested into a vanishing millennial retirement fund! (This comment is brought to you by Headspace Meditation) lol
We’ve a pickle ball bar in KC, I hadn’t played that game since high school; that place is awesome.
That sounds sweet!
You hate fun now? You, sir, are a turd in the fucking punch bowl.
Duda should move to Amish country where there are no trends, just open pasture where the grass is always greener.
And no buttons. He seems like the kind of guy who would prefer a clothe pins.
I’m not sure any of the places you mentioned were trying to be bars, they sound more like arcades with a bar attached.
There is a really cool bar in my friends neighborhood where they let you rent out board games for free while you drink, they have a huge collection too. I would definitely be okay with more of these types of places.
Is there anything easier than looking at an article title and knowing immediately that Duda wrote it?
Bars that have shuffle board, bocce ball or ping pong are usually strong establishments.
Duda-you need to find a new bit brother.
What do I win?
Another Beer!
I have a feeling this kids going to publish some garbage about how he hates golf because his buddies went once and didn’t invite him.