5-minute read
Tabletop gaming is growing. There are eight shops dedicated to or with robust selections of tabletop games in Lakeland. A growing number of game nights are being hosted across town in churches, community centers, libraries, bars, and private living rooms.
“Gaming is definitely in the middle of another renaissance,” said Billy Flake director of sales and purchasing at Coliseum of Comics. “As people look for ways to disconnect from the constant barrage of blue light, many are rediscovering the value of third spaces and in-person communities.”
Brock Hughes opened HP Guild Games in 2022 after a severe bout of Covid caused the former attorney and teacher to prioritize an idea he had considered a retirement plan.
“I thought about the joy I get from tabletop gaming. Thought about how much it’s helped me with stress, learning new things about all sorts of cultures, deeper strategic thinking as an attorney and in life, and all the great people I’ve met within the hobby,” said Hughes. “I realized there was a hole in the market and demand to fill in Lakeland.”
The new face of gaming
“If you look at the data of the past 15 to 20 years, you can see that in the early 2000s, it skewed very heavily towards young adult and teenage white males. That is not true anymore,” Hughes said. “That data is changing. We are starting to see a wider variety of different ethnicities and also both male and female players … and it’s a wide range of ages.”
Jason Frier plays at several locations, including HP Guild Games on Thursday and every other Sunday at the Chop Shop in downtown Lakeland. “So, my wife is not that much of a board gamer but I’ve gotten her into a card game, and our main friend group now, with all of us together, has been built out of the board gaming community,” Frier said.
Kim Lovejoy, Frier’s wife, works from home. “If I didn’t have this community, I really feel like I wouldn’t have a social life, and having that social life really has helped my mental health,” she said.
Lovejoy takes a half day off of work to go to Disney for a monthly girl’s day with some of her Lorcana (a Disney-theme collectible deck-building game) friends.
“Going out and meeting people, going out of the house, that was not something I really learned as a child. So, it was a big deal for me to go,” she said. “I’m so happy that I did because I’ve met a lot of really great people.”
Genuine sense of community
Frier, a self-described gamer since he got his first Atari as a kid, also attends the Day of Games hosted by the Lakeland Game Club every six months.
Tom Young founded the club to provide a place where people can talk about games, ask about game rules, plan meetups, and promote local events. The club’s facebook group has just over 1,000 members.
“There’s something about being able to share a moment with somebody, with another person or with another group, and to hear their laughter and have that authentic experience that can’t be created digitally, and also it’s a great way to build your social skills,” said Young.
The club hosts a Day of Games Event in March and November. At the last event, about 120 people participated, and the club gave away 104 board games.
“I do think people are seeking out these in-person experiences more and more. They provide a genuine sense of community, especially for the many new transplants who have moved to Lakeland in recent years,” said Flake. “We really saw that growth begin shortly after the pandemic lockdowns ended, when people were, for lack of a better phrase, deprived of other people. They were looking for ways to connect, socialize, and remember how to have fun again.”
Research indicates that tabletop gaming shows promise in helping to reduce social isolation and alleviate mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and ADHD for people of all ages.
How to start and where to play
Flake and Hughes both say staff have a wealth of knowledge to share. “We can connect you to games you may have not have heard before that the algorithm wouldn’t put out,” Hughes said.
“We host several game nights each week, covering a variety of tabletop experiences,” Flake said.
Tabletop events around Polk County
Coliseum of Comics maintains an active events calendar that can be filtered by event type and store location, “making it easy to find the right game, group, and time to jump in,” Flake said.
Here are some gaming events that we found around the city. If you know of more, drop info in the comments. Happy gaming!
Weekly
- Wabash Community Center — first and third Tuesdays, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., sponsored by Polk County Parks & Rec. June 23 is designated for teens. July starts first and third Tuesdays.
- Intergalactic Plastic — Tuesday and Thursdays, 6 to 9 p.m. (competing for space with Pokemon and D&D)
- HP Guild Games — Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m.
- Friday, Church for the One — 6 to 9 p.m.-ish
- Chop Shop — every other Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.-ish
Monthly
- HP Guild Games — second Thursday, Blood on the Clocktower games
- Winter Haven Library — fourth Saturday of the month, 2:30 to 5 p.m.
- Cypress Creek Clubhouse in Lake Alfred — fourth Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (schedule posted every three months). Next meeting is July 25.
- Bartow library — second and fourth Tuesdays, 4:30 to 7 p.m.
latest news
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
