Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Universalis]

I'm very happy to see this dicussion taking place because of a major announcement I have to make.

My girlfriend (Korean) and I (American) are proud to announce the upcoming opening of Korea's first (to the best of our knowledge) internationally owned and operated board game cafe, located in the Hongdae district.

If you're not familiar with board game cafes, you can sit down, have a coke or coffee, and play board games with your friends, all for a small fee (probably W1,700 in our case, that seems to be the standard).

As a huge fan of games in all their forms, I was very happy to discover the existance of board game cafes about a year ago, a place where I could play some of my favorite game with my friends. The problem for me was that the cafes weren't exactly foreigner-friendly... and that's when I thought running my own place might be a winning idea.

I want our cafe to be a popular hangout for foreigners in Korea. I'll be there most of the time, and I'll make it a point to hire staff who speak English well. Our gamble is that the foreigner demographic can give us an added edge when it comes to fighting with the competition (of which there is a lot now).

With that out of the way... I want to invite *everyone* here to our opening night festivities (should be sometime in mid-December).
We have more games than most (close to 70), and better games. Just off the top of my head, we offer:

Axis and Allies
Risk
Diplomacy
Settlers of Catan
Acquire
Fortress America (a hard-to-find-game even in the states)
Yahtzee
Chess
Roborally
Illuminati
Sorry
Apples to Apples

We hope to get a card game night going also... with games like Euchre, Hearts, and Sheepshead. And I want to run some role-playing games as well (we have Exalted, Mutants and Masterminds, and others)...

We also have some special event nights planned:

Charity Night: 10% of all earnings go to a charity
Ladies Night: Chicks get a drink for free!
ESL night: Teachers can come in with their students and practice English while playing games, all at some sort of discount (I got this idea here)

My girlfriend and I are both very excited about getting our cafe up and running, and I hope everyone who reads this can come in help us make it a success.


If you have any questions, leave a note. I'm also happy to listen to any game requests...

You can check my blog (http://cathartidae.blog-city.com/) for more updates... plus I'll try to post here as well.

Thanks!

[Universalis]

Another blog entry (http://cathartidae.blog-city.com/read/361263.htm), responding to some comments made here:

If anyone knows the secret to getting Dave of Dave's ESL Cafe to clear your registration with his site, please let me know. I've tried registering twice now for his bulletin boards and he never accepts me. Frustrating as all hell...

Anyway... as I mentioned earlier, this is a thread over there about board game cafes that I would like to get into, but I can't. So instead, I'll reply to a few comments made over there right here at my blog, in hopes that they continue to read my site.

Ilsanman writes:

The one in Hongdae called COSFE, is very foreigner friendly. One time I was there, there were other foreigners in there. At least 1 staff member speaks engish very well, and he will help you if he can, possibly even join you for a game if you ask.

COSFE blows. The game selection sucks and the interior is crummy. Plus, that one staff member who speaks English well will be receiving a visit from my girlfriend next week who will be offering the guy a job with us. If he makes the standard game cafe wage he'll be getting a nice raise, so I expect him to jump ship.

Tiger Beer writes:

I just read the blog but I'm clueless where to find it. All of these cafes sound great.. but what are they called. I've never seen them before.. but definetely interested.

Well, we're not open yet... it's gonna take a few more weeks to get the interior done. We're located near the park right in front of HongIk U. I'll have a map up next week, I hope.

The board game cafe industry developed pretty much just as I expected it to. You have a couple of good chains run by knowledgable people... and then you have the usual trend followers who jump in by buying a lame selection of board games. The problem with Cosfe, and most other game cafes, is that they just aren't discerning enough when it comes to the games they buy. Plus, they take their description a bit too literally and fail to offer many of the great card games that are available.

We're gonna have about 70 games on opening day. And believe me... for each one of those games, I did a lot of research to determine its quality. Sure, I'm biased, but I honestly believe that we'll have the best game menu in Seoul. I have the usual board games (Clue, Settlers), some great (and simple) card games (Coloretto, Gold Digger, Loco), some of the hardcore games for foreign gamer geeks (Diplomacy, Axis and Allies), and a few hard to categorize games that I doubt most people have ever seen (The Incredible Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which looks like an absolute gem).

Bottom line, no matter how many are in your group... no matter what style of game you like... we'll have something for you (well, except for trivia games, which we'll pick up as soon as we make an order).

And if you're a role-player, come on down... I have Mutants and Masterminds, Exalted, Feng Shui, All Flesh must be eaten, and Puppetland... and I'm perfectly willing to run all those games if we get enough players.

Drop by, at least once... you won't be disappointed.

[Canucksaram]

I suspect that many experienced foreign gamers will not be repeat customers, Universalis.

Board game cafes work well in Korea because many young Koreans still live at home and can't invite their friends over to play. So, they have to pay to play at an outside location.

Most foreigners, though, have their own living space, and can readily invite friends over for a game.

Realistically, why would gamers go to a board game cafe to play their favourite board games or rpg's? Just buy your own copy of a game you like or know, and then happily game away.

A board game cafe might be fun to go to in order to try out a new game, but after that, *bam* back home for regular play.

Why pay 1,700 won per person, per hour, to play an rpg or tabletop game when playing at a friend's home is free?

This is not meant as a personal attack or as a dig; just one gamer's view. I wish you luck in setting up a great board game cafe. I'll drop by to try out games I've never tried before, and if I like them, I'll pick up my own copy.

For any role-playing gamers out there who might be interested in gaming again, I've got copies of Aberrant, Adventure!, CORPS, and FUDGE with me, and plenty of time to play in or run a game. Send mail to [email protected].

Also, gamers: check out this site: you can pick up your own games and rpg books here in Korea: www.bookndice.co.kr

Cheers!

--Canuck

[Tiger Beer]

[justagirl]

We really like going to the board-game room. It's fun and we get to try new games without paying $40 plus shipping. Besides, it's entertainment--we can play games for 9 hours for the cost of 1 movie. Sometimes it's nice to leave home. This is a great idea--one of our favorite things we've found in Korea.

By the way, there's a board-game room in Cheonan, too. Great selection of games, from Axis and Allies to Risk all the way to Jenga and Uno.

1,500 an hour and a bonus card for free hours if you rack up enough time playing games.

justagirl

[Ilsanman]

Hahahah. Ok you want to gain the trust of foreigners so they will be your customers, right?

First of all, if you got to know the worker at COSFE, maybe you'd know some really important details about him, and why he would never jump ship.

I like it. If I am in Hongdae, it's my 1st pick of Board Cafes to go to.

You can't get ahead by trashing others. I don't know you and I already don't trust you. I'll stick to COSFE. Good luck to ya.

[endofthewor1d]

does anyone know of one of these places that you can drink in? i don't know if i really want to spend six or seven hours playing axis and allies sober.

[Universalis]

Ilsanman,

I'm not out to trash others. If this guy at Cosfe has such a special attachment to his place that he would turn down a raise to work elsewhere... well, that's great for him. My impression is that Korean cafe workers don't make enough to engender such loyalty... but I could be wrong. And if he turns us down... so be it. I have some other English-speaking cafe workers in mind who might be more willing.

Canucksaram,

If, when you move to Korea, you have the room in your suitcase to bring Diplomacy or Axis and Allies with you. And, upon arrival, you can find the 4-6 other people needed to play such games, then go right ahead... stay at home and play. I was never that lucky... and I doubt most people are.

Foreigners will be part of our customer base... but not all of it. We're just hoping that we'll get enough foreign customers to get a leg up on the competition.

I'm worried now that I might have come off a bit strong in my introduction; I didn't come here to scare away potential customers... I came here to do the exact opposite.

I think we have a good thing going here, and that we have a lot to offer that you can't find anywhere else. But hey, ultimately, that's your decision, no ours. All I'm asking is that you give us a shot just once... if you still prefer Cosfe or wherever... that's fine. I'm very much a believer in healthy competition.

Brian

[weatherman]

Universalis,

Has your placed opened up?

[Universalis]

Not yet. It's taking abit longer to get the interior startedthanI had thought. I hope to finalize the plans tomorrow morning andget things started on Thursday.

At thispoint,we're hoping to open before Christmas.

Brian

[posco's trumpet]

[Universalis]

I was thinking of keeping a bottle of Kahlua behind the bar for special customers (friends and such).

We have a nice deck outside... so during the summer I was thinking about setting up a small bar out there. I've heard it's a bit of a pain to set up a liquor license so I'm really not sure if that will happen.

If you really want to play games while pleasently intoxicated, I would suggest visiting my friend's bar (he's American), which is conveniently located right around the corner from our place. It's called Hubble Bubble, and it's located near the park in front of Hong Ik Uni. I'd like to arrange some sort of package deal with him. Eat and drink there... then come to our place.

Brian

[seoulmon]

Board game cafes are super cool, and one more reason that Korea is such a better place to be than China (nobody has the time or the money to just hang out) and Japan (where everything is too expensive).

The only problem is that, well, Koreans seem to have a hard time with board games. I went with Koreans several times, and they just can't wrap their head around the game CLUE. I guess they've never heard of someone being murdered with a lead pipe in a ball room.

So CLUE is hard....I can't imagine playing Axis and Allies, Diplomacy or Illuminati! Good gawd, that was games us D&D freaks played.

[mack the knife]

From what I understand, you can't serve alcohol at a game room. Just like you can't serve alcohol at a noraebang or video bang (legally). But...like everywhere I'm sure there's a BYOB loophole (hint hint).

[Universalis]

Hey guys,

We should be done with the interior this coming weekend... sso we should be having a qquiet opening early next week. We will be having a big party on the 26th to celebrate our opening, where we hope to have some cake and other goodies for the customers.

I'll post a more formal invitation later.

Brian