For many years, games have started to creep into the nightlife industry all around the Bay Area and form a whole subsect of adult entertainment options. “Barcades,” a hybrid of a bar and an arcade, like Market Street’s The Detour or Emporium Arcade Bar on Divisadero, intertwine San Francisco’s love for beer and nostalgia with pinball machines and retro arcade setups filling the space.
It is starting to be more common now to see bars utilize one of their dozen TVs to connect a Nintendo Switch for some casual “Mario Kart 8” or “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” while you’re out for a drink. However, these opportunities tend to be at locations that primarily serve alcohol, meaning anyone under the age of 21 is turned away and left to play at home.
That is where San Francisco Recreation and Parks is trying to fill in. Dubbed “Rec and Tech” on its flyers, one of the goals is to establish an all ages casual and competitive gaming space for individuals to play games and meet face to face rather than over the internet.
Recreation and Parks has taken many opportunities to reach the public and build communities through free events held across the city. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, “Rec and Tech” took a step forward in connecting with the city’s growing gaming community.
Game stations were set up along the walls of the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts ballroom, which has hosted Rec and Tech for its first two meetings so far. The location was chosen for its convenience, being along the Muni N-Judah train line and having a large event space on the top floor.
On one end of the room, tables with monitors, four Nintendo Switches and two PlayStation 4s lined the wall while attendees paired up to play “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” which was one of the organized tournaments being featured.
Along the opposite wall was the most popular game, “Super Smash Bros. Melee,” which required old CRT televisions to be dug out of storage and plugged into Nintendo Wiis to play the game which celebrated its 23rd birthday that week.
Chris Palitz, a part-time Recreation and Parks employee, is the person behind this emerging program under the city-wide department.
“We want to have a safe environment that’s on the up-and-up,” said Palitz, who has a background in animation for film and video games.
Palitz grew up in the ’80s, and arcades from that era inspired the ambiance inside the ballroom, where November’s event was held. Lights were dimmed, and multicolored lamps sat next to each game station while a DJ played electronic music, giving the room a nightclub-like feel.
“It’d be cool to have places that are non-alcoholic,” said Palitz. “I think that’s what I’m trying to do with Rec and Parks.”
With local tournaments for popular games like Super Smash Bros. primarily held in bars, a sober space to play could draw in many families and young adults. Although the latest version of Nintendo’s brawler is several years old, it remains popular, especially among players who played it as their introduction to the series.
Chris Dean, the tournament organizer for the “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” bracket and frequent competitor, mentioned that occasionally high school students will join tournaments in the city.
“There was a kid who was like seven,” Dean said about the prior event. “He’s fun and I think he’ll probably show up at some point.”
Although the space is open to all ages, the free space has been a successful place for everyone to meet people in the city with similar tastes. For those who are in the average range at these events so far, mid-20s, meeting friendly strangers in person who have played the same games for years has been the main draw.
“The first time I came here, which was two months ago, I met two people who were just visiting,” said Arka Rao, who is a biotech professional in South San Francisco.
Rao came to the event that night alone but again with the intent to meet other players who were interested in the same activities as him.
“One was from Calgary in Canada, and then another person from Nuremberg in Germany,” said Rao.
According to Rao, they quickly became friends and he still stays in touch with the people he met.
Along with connecting people to play games, Rec and Tech have brought college students from around the city together to be a part of the community. University of San Francisco student volunteers greeted people at the sign-in desk, and a San Francisco State University music major was hired to DJ at the venue.
“A clubmate at a school club that I’m in connected me with Chris [Palitz],” said SFSU student Noah Shin.
After Palitz shared his idea of Rec and Tech with Shin, Shin took the opportunity to get more experience with playing his music live.
“I was like yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun,” said Shin. “I can provide live music if that will fit the events.”
As the program continues, a community is beginning to build through Rec and Tech’s reach to youth and young adults who want more free spaces in the city to get to know each other and share their passions.
