A board game cafe in Portland showed me a new way to find players

I visited Mox Boarding House in Portland last weekend and saw they had a simple system for finding groups. They had a small board with colored magnets for different games, from light fillers to heavy euros. You put your magnet under the game you wanted to play and waited for others to join. In about 20 minutes, we had a full table for a game of Viticulture with total strangers. It felt way less awkward than trying to ask around a busy shop. Has any other place you've been to set up something like this to help people connect?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_alice18d ago

Actually, Mox is in Seattle (I wish we had one in Portland). That magnet system is brilliant though.

karenh5618d ago

The Mox in Portland is a whole new place to me. I've only ever been to the one in Seattle and the one over in Bellevue. Did they open a third location and just not tell anyone? I need to know if I missed some big news, because that would be a pretty major thing to just casually drop into a post about magnets.

evakelly18d ago

Ugh, that magnet system sounds like a total nightmare to me. It puts all the pressure on you to pick a game and then just sit there hoping, which feels way more awkward than talking to people. I'd rather just walk up to a table and ask if they need a player, because at least then you get a real answer right away. Doesn't that forced waiting just make the whole thing feel more like a weird dating app for board games?