Finding the Experts of Gaming Culture
Gaming culture differs from country to country, state to state, and city to city. In fact, game shops within the same city can cater to different demographics making the environment in one shop vastly different to the environment in a shop less than 20 miles away. St. Augustine, for example, has 3 game shops, but due to differences in location and clientele, these shops offer different services to patrons.
According to D20 Gamespot owner, Luis Casado, the trading card game Magic: The Gathering is more popular with his patrons than the Yugioh card game. Urban Anthropology, another St. Augustine game shop, caters more towards Yugioh fans. These shops are hardly 3 miles away from each other, yet they draw completely different crowds. Why?
Luis Casado playing a card against a Magic: The Gathering opponent at D20 Gamespot in St. Augustine. Apr. 2017. (Photo: Mal Carney)
To fully understand gaming culture and the impact it has both globally and locally, one must know who the experts in the field are. Gaming culture within card shops can encompass trading card games, video games, tabletop games, roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and even LARPing. Because of this diversity in interests, there are many different types of experts in the field of gaming.
Luis Casado is the owner of D20 Gamespot. This shop has been open for since May of 2015 and through those two years of experience, Casado has become a professional expert on aspects of gaming in St. Augustine FL. In April of 2016, Casado Tweeted about the upcoming Dark Souls board game, informing his followers about a new development in the gaming world.
Aside from store owners, there are content creators who also have knowledge regarding the gaming industry. Emi G. Palisoc and John S. Jacobs are the co-founders and owners of Attack Dice, LLC. Their company creates tabletop dice games. These business owners are locals to the St. Augustine/Jacksonville area too. They opened a gaming store in Jacksonville called Sanctuary Games and Books. This store was open for 11 years, giving the duo over a decade of experience in marketing and selling to the local gaming community.
Attack Dice attends local conventions to promote their games and to teach attendees how to play. In 2016 they attended CollectiveCon in Jacksonville and Megacon in Orlando.
Big Daddy Games is another game store in St. Augustine. This store is located in the World Golf Village and this difference in location to the other two St. Augustine stores gives Big Daddy Games a completely different feel. Big Daddy Games was opened by Matthew Steinhour and David Raderstorf in December of 2015. This store is able to host outdoor events such as Foam Weapon Warfare due to its location in the mostly empty Town Center West shopping plaza.
A screenshot of the Information for the Foam Weapon Warfare event via Big Daddy Games' Facebook page.
Steinhour and Raderstorf are two more local gaming professionals who understands the St. Augustine gaming community. Their shop has been open for nearly 2 years and has had consistent reoccurring events, such as Tabletop Tuesday and Pokémon Club, that show that they know what their clientele are interested in.
Not all gaming experts are local though. To get a full grasp on the big news in gaming it’s important to follow the big names. Elaine Chase is the Vice President, Global Brand Strategy & Marketing at Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro. According to Chase’s LinkedIn profile, she has been with Wizards of the Coast since 1999. Before she started working at Wizards of the Coast she was a tournament organizer and head judge at Gray Matter Conventions. Chase knows gaming and her Twitter is one to follow for news and information on Wizards of the Coast products.
A screenshot of a Tweet by Elaine Chase in which she gives details on Magic: The Gathering Online.
Nathan Stewart is one of Elaine Chase’s LinkedIn connections. Stewart’s official title is Dungeons & Dragons Senior Director: Global Brand Strategy & Marketing. He has worked at Wizards of the Coast since 2012 and before that, he was the Director of Brand Marketing at Namco Bandai Games America. Stewart is another expert in the field of gaming. Gaming fans should follow Stewart on social media for up to date information from a gaming professional.
A screenshot of a Tweet by Nathan Stewart. The Tweet has a photo from the set of CelebriD&D that shows Matthew Mercer, Joe Manganiello, and Utkarsh Ambudkar.
Gaming bloggers and vloggers are also useful sources for gaming news. The Mana Source is a popular Magic: The Gathering YouTuber. The Mana source has over 157 thousand subscribers on YouTube and over 18 thousand followers on Twitter. He's even been retweeted by Wizards of the Coast employee, Elaine Chase.
A screenshot of a tweet Elaine Chase shared from The Mana Source. The tweet has a still from from HBO's series Silicon Valley. That still features actor Martin Starr in his role as Gilfoyle.
The Mana Source’s Twitter bio describes their channel has “home of the latest and most reliable #MTG news and info you’ll ever need!”
The Mana Source’s followers seem to agree with that assertion.
@Azazeal90 on Twitter thanked The Mana Source for a guide to prereleases that helped him win “two packs at least.”
Marc “that Greek guy” Talleos runs a page on Google+ called “Mtg Cards, Deck Techs, Combos, and Spoilers” which provides information such as top-rated deck lists. This page has over 2000 posts and is active as of May 2017.
Tony Reyes runs a Google+ page called “Table Top Games” which as the title suggests provides information on multiple tabletop games. This page only has 14 posts, but its follower count is above 1600. The page’s last post was in December of 2016 however.
There are many types of experts in the world of gaming. From store owners to content creators to fans who blog about their interests there are many sources for gaming information.
Follow the #StAugGaming hashtag on Twitter and Facebook for details on the St. Augustine gaming scene and updates on an upcoming piece by Malscontent on the gaming culture of St. Augustine.
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