At Oakland's Endgame, players build connections in person

Chris Mortensen (left), David Ripperda and William Holcomb play BattleTech at the Endgame store in Oakland, which hosts themed game nights until 10 most of the week. Chris Mortensen (left), David Ripperda and William Holcomb play BattleTech at the Endgame store in Oakland, which hosts themed game nights until 10 most of the week. Photo: Andre Zandona, The Chronicle Photo: Andre Zandona, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close At Oakland's Endgame, players build connections in person 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

For all its advancements, there's something cold and distant about today's gaming world. People bury their heads in their computers, cell phones, tablets and TV screens, sometimes connected to hundreds of thousands of other anonymous gamers, sometimes in a solitary quest.

Endgame, an Oakland gaming store and gathering spot, offers the exact opposite of that experience: It brings people together to play games - in person. What a concept.

On Saturday, several friends from around the Bay Area hovered around game tables in the cavernous 4,250-square-foot space at the corner of 10th and Washington streets for a session of Dropzone Commander - a fantasy war game. The store hosts themed game nights until 10 p.m. most days of the week.

The games are part skill, part hobby building and like many board-based games, based on the roll of the dice.

Chris Loomis, a bearded 28-year-old Oakland resident, keeps his dice in a plastic bag so he can avoid bad "juju," he said. He took on Ian Chadwick of Emeryville.

"Hobbyists and gamers develop a personal connection with each other, as opposed to a 6-year-old shouting obscenities at you online," Loomis told me.

At another table, Seth Oakley of Pacifica and Stephen Bajza of San Francisco talk each other through a battle. A tape measure determines the distance a specific troop can travel, and most rolls of the dice require a quick check with a 200-page game guide.

"After a month of playing a video game, where do you go from there?" said Bajza, who builds and paints his own game pieces and creates his own game scenarios.

The gaming store has weathered some tough times over the last nine years in downtown Oakland, including the Great Recession and a monthlong Occupy protest in 2011 that co-owner Chris Hanrahan said forced some neighboring restaurants to close shop.

But it survived, and in 2013 posted its best year since moving into the old Swan's Market Building right across the street from the Oakland Marriott City Center. Store owners plan to expand and put in a cafe, and are looking for a site to open a second store, Hanrahan said.

The first floor is the retail shop, which offers games and supplies for hobbyists who want to assemble and paint their own figurines in preparation for the battlefield, which is right upstairs.

The store's mezzanine level is a 2,200-square-foot playpen equipped with a half dozen custom-made gaming tables that draws gamers from all over the Bay Area.

The place offers an impressive range of games and puzzles for people of all ages. Among hundreds of selections, there are sci-fi games, and games of chance and strategy. There are role-playing games for kids as young as 8, which are designed to introduce new players to the genre.

The idea behind the store was not just to sell games and hobby supplies but also to provide a space to create a network of gamers who used the store as a gathering spot.

"The idea was to build a community, not just sell stuff," Hanrahan said.

It's a gaming strategy that has worked beyond expectations.

Endgame has benefited from a revival in the popularity of board games. In 2009, retailers reported a rise in the sale of traditional board games as families searched for cheap entertainment during the recession.

In the big picture, Endgame is another piece of the puzzle in the slow but steady return of downtown Oakland as a viable, fun place to troll around.