It sucks to be a gamer in Australia. Game bannings, watered down games, high prices and overzelous politicians pretty much make gaming in the land down under difficult. However, there is a kind of light for all you Australian gamers as Brisbane will play host to Mana Bar, "the first licensed venue that will allow people to enjoy a drink while playing the latest videogame consoles."
It's a bar where you play videogames and drink and one of its founders is Yahtzee, which sounds pretty cool on the whole, I suppose. They will be holding events and trivia and the like and the press release says that both the casual and hardcore crowds can enjoy themselves within the walls of the bar. The bar also has a maximum capacity of 50, which should keep crowds small enough to actually be able to enjoy playing a game. Plus, there is no cover charge, so if you're going to go out and drink then this sounds like a good place to do it.
Usually when I drink and play games I like to spend as little money as possible and just hang out with a few friends, neither of which is easily done at a crowded bar. However, the founders are all very into games so let's hope it turns out for the best.
Aussie Dtoiders, I expect a full review and information on what that blue drink is once the bar opens in February.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
Likes
Games! Movies! Hats!
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
61 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
11:00 PM on 01.10.2010
| 
im moving 100% serious
But I don't drink.
So.
Well.
Hm.
I wanna go! But I live in America, poop.
Its great to see Destructoid completely ignoring the three other men who are putting all their effort into this in favour of namechecking the famous guy. Really, great to see. You could have at least named Yug, Pras and Shay instead of just saying "some other guys"
Agreed, I'm not a HUGE fan of Yahtzee but I do like him enough to listen to his Aussie Gamer podcasts and I knew about this plan and who "the other guys" were back in mid-2009 before they'd actually put a payment on a place.
Paying a premium to drink and play xbox because the guy running the joint reviews games? Not as cool.
The entire point of the place is to be able to hang out and not go bankrupt playing and drinking (As one of the 4 guys said in that podcast way back when.)
Or maybe he's just doing it for the laughs?
maybe that's yahtzee's plan? all an elaborate scheme to pick up while gaining gamer-cred?
I imagine this place will be popular though, where else are ppl going to go? cyber lounge? replay? neither of those places serve alcahol, which means that mana bar will definately be a good way to avoid the sweaty teenage nerds that make those places oh so much less fun. Should smell less too... I say win.
But I live in Melbourne. LAME.
If drinks aren't pricey as fuck due to that stupid Alco-Pop tax, then maybe they can have a good ammount of girls there at some point even though the max capacity is a mere 50. But yes. $1000 worth of impressions from me once this place opens.
And I am disappointed they don't have a dance floor/stage. RB/GH/DJH parties with massive cheering/dancing crowds would have been ace.
@nebones: fucking sucks.
Liz is up in Brissy now, so I'm sure she can head along to that.
Wish I rolled with that idea :P
Yahtzee is meh. He had his comedy before now it seems dead bar a couple in the recent months. Stuff like his Demon's Souls review, completely shocking. And his complete lack of NSMB review. Instead he chooses to slam his own personal opinion without any justification, not only on NSMB (in one of his articles) but also anyone who disagrees with his personal beliefs from being religious to having a different political stand-point.
I could stand his personal jabs at those who have differing views (both in games and in other areas that have NOTHING to do with games) WHEN and IF he is funny. But beyond that, when he tries to be funny at the expanse of those with a differing point of view (TBH, a better point of view, since having a differing point of view from him includes not slamming others for their own views... since even if you agree with him, you may not agree with him being nasty). Of course he doesn't give any justification for his own opinions, he just likes to troll without any debate.
Anyway, enough about my rant. I see Yahtzee falling of the radar rapidly quite soon, since he just isn't funny anymore. It was good while it lasted. He is just isolating and limiting his audience to those of his own belief system (I dunno, he trying to be funny?) while at the same time killing his own quality.
Problem is last time i went in one had a guy with a fight stick on his own playing street fighter 4, the other two were full of girls, just sitting there, not using the ps3, just wasting the booth as somewhere to sit and chat!
I was furious as i fucking hate going to bars and being able to do a bit of gaming would have saved me from sitting around being bored, paying through the nose for watered down beer.
There were plenty of places to sit, but those stupid bints were hogging the ps3 booths to sit and fucking gossip.
I would have seen if the sf4 guy wanted a fight, but i suck bigtime at fighting games.
Unless there's a cover charge I don't see how they plan on making this a profitable venture.
Keep an eye out for a post from DtoidAustralia over the next few weeks or join our google group
http://groups.google.com/group/dtoid-australia
Damn, whith what did i have so much fun last satuarday then...?
Geez Sexy just ask the bitches to move.
Enjoy your bar and don't let this die.
Here's hoping for the best!