New to Bellevue/Seattle, Stuff to do?

Philodox

Hey all,

I just moved to the Seattle area from Toronto, ON and I'm looking advice on events in the area to get me out and about. I'm a huge gamer, but ideas don't have to be gaming specific.

Cheers.

naporeon

What sort of a gamer are you? Also, how old? More info, please.

I like your handle, btw. My title here was "obstreperous philodox" for quite a while.

Preacher

Well when you say Seattle do you mean the city proper or do you live in bellevue, kirkland etc?

Philodox

Oh... heh yeah I guess that would be useful I'm 24 and living in Bellevue. I've got a car so driving somewhere really isn't an issue.

As far as gaming goes I play just about everything, but I'm more of a console person.

Xenocide Geek

You could always hit up Gameworks in downtown Seattle. Becomes pretty expensive fast, tho.

edit: We use to have a decent arcade in Bellevue, but it's been gone for about... mmm, must be 4+ years now.

Preacher

There are some fun places to go in the area, Pioneer Square in downtown is a great place full of music clubs that range from hip hop to rock to electronica. My favorite club down there is the Fenix, its a tri level club with a stage for live bands, and a lower basement area for techno and dancing, there are like 6 bars through out so if you like to drink and dance it's pretty nice.

bigpanda

Gaming/gamer can be a pretty broad term to those in the lifestyle. Video games, role playing, card games (i.e. Magic), miniatures, etc. What's yer poison?

Just moved here recently from Michigan so I'm still getting used to things. Unfortunately I tend to work long hours so I'll probably be less help than others as I don't get out much. Doc and some of the others have been here a while and can probably give you a better list of stuff to do than i could.

Philodox

heh, most of the above.

I'm not an avid table top RPG player but I used to play 7th Sea quite a bit. I've got all the last gen consoles and I'm currently biding my time on picking up the current lot. I've just started getting back into WH40K with a Chaos Slaanesh army.

As far as video games? RPGs, FPS, RTS. I like to think of myself as well rounded :P

bigpanda

K, now we're making some progress on your geek gamer side. If you're doing the GW WH40K stuff, you'll want to check out Gizmo's and Gadgets over in Redmond from what I hear (going to try to make it out there this weekend as I haven't seen it myself). There's also Fire and Sword over in Northgate (North Seattle area) that has some place to play and paint and some other non-GW games. Owl 'N Thistle is a pub over by Pioneer Square that has a small group that plays 40K on Monday nights. I stopped in and met the guys but my armies are all back in Michigan (most half completed or still on the sprue). Nice thing about Owl N Thistle is that you can eat, drink and game.

You'd think there would be more game stores in the area but from what I understand alot went out of business over the last 5 years. Best explanation I got was video games killed them.

Oh, there's also the GW Battle Bunker near you Bellevue/Factoria (in the same strip mall as the Applebee's).

Preacher

The alderwood Mall in lynnwood used to have a warhammer 40k miniature shop. There is also the comic stop in the same area (not in the mall but in a strip to the northwest of it) they have a back room for people to play in.

Philodox

Unfortunately my army is too small to do anything with at the moment, I'm working on it though. I've checked out the local GW, it's pretty good from what I can tell..

Doc

What sort of music do you like? There are constantly concerts going on.

Everything that came to mind right away was touristy stuff, and since you are living in the area it seems like that wouldn't apply very well. Join a gym or something and make friends.

Outdoorsy type stuff is popular around here, as you can drive for less than an hour from the city and be out in the wilderness.

Preacher

Just don't go with Doc... He'll act all nice and then when you are in the wilderness he gets even more freakishly tall and then you know true horror!

If you like to fish there are a ton of local lakes near by.

Philodox

Heh, I'll keep that in mind

Music: I'm into rock type stuff. I was semi-following the Toronto indie music scene before I left.

Xenocide Geek

If you're into doing anything physical, there's a pretty cool park called Marymoor. Has a velodrome, a nice ass outdoor climbing area, and a lot of other miscellaneous stuff. I highly recommend the climbing walls, if you're into that kind of thing.

Philodox

I've never been wall climbing before, but it's not something I'm opposed to doing.

Weaver

Preacher wrote: »

The alderwood Mall in lynnwood used to have a warhammer 40k miniature shop. There is also the comic stop in the same area (not in the mall but in a strip to the northwest of it) they have a back room for people to play in.

The Gameworks is still there. I walked by it the other day and they had a tourney going.

TychoCelchuuu

There's some sort of anime shop in Bellevue if you're in to that sort of stuff. It's downtown right across from What the Pho, on the second story of a 2 story building with Topolino's Pizza.

Preacher

Yeah I thought it was still there, good to know weaver. I figured since it had survived as long as it has it'll still be a haven for the greasy.

RiemannLives

Last I was living there there was 3 good game stores in Redmond. Genesis Games & Gizmos (formerly the Wizkids Store), Oroboros Games (formerly Coyote Games) and that one in Redmond Town Center down by the Pretzel store.

Genesis had the most game tables / space while Coyote generally had a better community and events.

naporeon

I play in a couple RPG nights at Genesis. It's a neat place.

Seattle Thread

You can come to El Corazon on the 13th, I'll be playing a show there.[/whoring]

I've got no advice on the eastside, or on gaming hobbies aside from where to find EB, but I know where all the good bars are at. If you're over on this side of the lake and lost, just ask.

Philodox

It's very important that I find some good pubs.

Doc

Philodox wrote: »

It's very important that I find some good pubs.

It's going to be tough to find really good ones in Bellevue.

I like King's Hardware in Ballard. Five Points is also good, and it's closer to downtown.

If you want to go to Capitol Hill, try Linda's (owner is the same as King's) or the Cha Cha Lounge. Cha Cha is usually pretty crowded with hipsters on the weekends, though. Also, the Elysian. They are a brewery/restaurant/bar. It's pretty nice if you have a group of friends who wants to just hang out for a while.

Seattle Thread

Second Linda's, though it's always packed on the weekends. In the more northeastern area of Capitol Hill here's a place call the Canterbury, which is half pool-tables-and-benches style, and half old-oaken-brittish-castle style. I recommend the latter.

Downtown is a wash. There's Von's, and as Wednesday's comic attests, Von's sucks. Fado is not bad for an Irish pub, but the Owl and Thistle around the corner is more unique--but don't dare buy a drink, as they're possibly the weakest in town. Stick with beer. And there's always the Nitelite, which has an old dive-bar feel with old dive-bar people.

Belltown has a lot more selection than downtown. Shorty's and Cyclops are my favourites, for their awesome hot dogs and bartenders with great taste in music, respectively. Again with the weekends, things can get packed, but if you're not liking one place you can always hop next door.

There's also this great little bar at the bottom of Queen Anne that's really got the neighborhood pub atmosphere down pat. It's never overly crowded, the regulars are good people, and the beer is good and well-priced.

The College Inn up in the U-District is the best place to drink up there. It's really cool down in the basement, and three taps rotate weekly with all kinds of unique brews.

Avoid:

Peso's. What a fucking meat market. Decent drinks, but it's far too crowded and noisy to carry on a conversation.

Dante's. Who cares if it's been around for forty years, it's still a dank pit. The regulars are sketchy and even though there hasn't been smoking allowed indoors for over a year now it still reeks of smoke.

Chapel. Oh god, it's about the trendiest place in town, and it suuuuuuuuucks. No one there is remotely interesting, nor are they interested in you, unless you happen to be wearing clothing worth several hundreds of dollars or are partied with X local celeb.

Also, these are all based on my own choice of pub--the type where you split a pitcher or two with the locals and shoot some pool, play whatever good music the jukebox has, and just generally hand out. If you're into the club scene, or the punk scene, or the goth scene, or the drag-queens-and-80's-music scene, then there's places for ya, I just couldn't recommend any.