THROWBACK GAMING

A half hour has passed since the established meeting time and there are still players waltzing in with controllers draped over their necks.

Two very loud and very eccentric players walked through the doors of the House of Heroes. One tall, one short. The tall guy wore some sort of oddly knitted hat, and he would always smile and laugh while friendly taunting nearby players. The short guy had braces was extremely confident in his abilities as a player. He hadn’t even plugged in his controller and he was already spouting off about how was “the best player in the room.” They were good sports.

Players would wedge in and out of chairs, switching spots constantly. If you sat in the same chair, you were either really, really good or really, really lazy. A guy walked in and seemed noticeably shyer than the rest of the players (more so than the boisterous, frat boy-like Smash 4 players), hardly ever saying a word until someone mentioned something about the game. Then he wouldn’t stop. People of all ages and backgrounds were playing side-by-side, paying the entry fee and competing.