Hot take: I think the board game cafe scene in Portland got worse after 2020

Before the pandemic, my local spot, Mox Boarding House, was packed with people playing heavy euros and teaching new games. Now when I go, it's mostly casual groups playing party games or just drinking, and the staff doesn't seem to know the rules for anything more complex than Codenames. It feels like the focus shifted from being a hub for geeks to just being another bar. Has anyone else seen their local game spots change like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_mary9d ago

Mox used to have a binder of staff picks with full rule explanations for games like Brass Birmingham. That binder is just gone now, and the new hires can't even tell me where it went. What happened to the place that actually cared about games?

leelewis9d ago

Yeah, that binder was a lifesaver... saved me from looking like a total fool trying to teach my friends Brass. Now I'd probably just wing it and cause a table flip. It really did feel like the heart of the place, @the_mary. Losing stuff like that makes a spot feel generic, like any other store. The new folks might care, but they don't have the same tools to show it. Kinda feels like the soul of the place walked out with that old binder.

the_cora9d ago

Honestly, it's just a binder. Places change, people move on. Maybe it got lost in a remodel or someone took it home by mistake. It's a bummer, but it doesn't mean the whole store stopped caring.