Building games and friendships

AT 10.45am last Saturday, Dalton Copeland walked through the doors of Guf Bendigo to build the palm-sized, intricate models from his new Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Dominion box set.

He wouldn’t leave until the shop closed at 9pm.

Mr Copeland was one of about 30 people who visited the shop that day, and he was eager to get his hands on the newly released tabletop wargame product.

The 10 hours Mr Copeland spent building and battling with the miniature figurines isn’t an indication of a lack of knowledge however, it’s rather a reflection of the skill, patience and dedication a growing number of people have for gaming.

“You sink a lot of time and a lot of effort into this hobby,” he said. “That’s like with most hobbies. If you’re not either doing your hobby, you’re doing something adjacent or preparing for your hobby.”

Mr Copeland, who used to work at a nearby kebab shop, started visiting Guf Bendigo as a social outlet after finishing his shifts.

“After a shift I didn’t immediately want to go home so I used to come in here and have a chat with the boys,” he said.

“One of the guys working at that time was a friend of mine from years and years ago and he wasn’t in every night, so I met Ian and met Ben and just kept coming in, playing board games after work and went from there.”

Shop manager Ian Pearce and owner Ben McKay pride themselves on fostering a gaming environment where like-minded strangers can form bonds over day-long gaming marathons since Guf Bendigo’s opening in 2015.

“This is a hangout place first and foremost,” Mr Pearce said. “I want people to come to Guf, be comfortable, do gaming and hobby, maybe meet new people, see us as the hobby place instead of online retailers who can do them a better deal.

“Building communities is what we do,” he said. “We know the names of every single person who walks through the door.

“Once we have nurtured a community to the point where people want to hang out with each other instead of with me then that’s our end goal.”

For Mr Copeland, the friendships made at Guf Bendigo extend beyond shop walls.

“The people I was playing board games with, I’d never met them before. We made friends, they’re good friends of mine now,” he said.

“You go to parties, you go to their house and that was all just from here.

“I didn’t know them from a bar of soap until I got beaten up in board games by them one too many times.”

These communities fill the shop’s two levels daily. Before COVID-19 restrictions were enforced, PC gamers could be found getting comfortable at a gaming station downstairs.

Above them, trading card game players spread out on tables for popular games like Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon, with tournaments for a variety of games held at the shop from Wednesday to Sunday.

“There was one special event Pokémon tournament where we had 80 people who travelled from South Australia and New South Wales just for our little tournament,” Mr Pearce said.

He said a game “becomes a person’s whole identity”, and the male-dominated community is seeing increasing participation from equally passionate women gamers.

“We are seeing more and more women lately as it becomes more accepted in the eyes of the generic populous.”

Mr Pearce considered making Guf Bendigo a welcoming space for all gamers part of his role as manager.

“It is one of the more important aspects of a community leader to stay on top of that,” he said.

Between the shop’s small team of three staff members, Mr Pearce also said, “We know everything there is to know about the products we’ve got on the shelves to intimate detail such that when people want to come in and chat or get advice, we can do that as well.”