the new old town

Jeff, who has been hosting open gaming sessions at Old Town Kopitiam, Cheras, (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) has been doing so since 2007. Old Town is just a regular food and beverage franchise, where some customers sit down with their laptops for hours over coffee while enjoying high-speed WiFi anyway, and they don't mind boardgamers playing games there. 2007 was the same year that I started blogging about boardgames. I read about Jeff's open gaming sessions on the net, but since I more or less regularly played at home, I didn't join them, although I live quite near Old Town. I still remember the first time I met Jeff in person was when I happened to be at Old Town on a Friday night with some (non boardgaming) friends, and the Old Town gamers were playing Le Havre. So that's probably early or mid 2009. Only in Sep 2009 I joined them for the first time, because I wanted to meet Afif, and also to play a 5-player game of Automobile (I had played the game before, but not with five). Since then, I visited them now and then. Not really regularly, since I still mostly played at home (or at Allen's home, which is nearby), but I kept in touch.

On this year's Malaysia Day (16 Sep 2011), Jeff launched his new location. Technically, I should say his own new location. It's called OTK Cheras, which is probably going to be confusing. We should now refer to the old place as Old Town, and the new place as OTK. OTK is very near Old Town. I couldn't attend their first open gaming session, but managed to make it to the second one. There were many more gamers than usual, maybe because of the 20% off first-visit discount, heh heh. There were five tables with games going. The new place can accommodate 9 tables comfortably. There are two shelves for Jeff's game collection, and one shelf for the games he sells. My www.boardgamegeek.com username is on one of the walls, woohoo!

If you live in Kuala Lumpur or visit Kuala Lumpur, pay them a visit. Details here. The Friday open gaming sessions are free. No food or drinks served though (at least for now).

23 Sep 2011. OTK Cheras. Photo taken from the back corner. Two regular tables in the foreground, two low tables right behind them, and one big table in the background. That shelf in the background is one of two shelves for Jeff's game collection.

Another photo taken from the other back corner. There is still some unutilised space in the foreground. Those guys standing in the background were playing Railroad Tycoon / Railways of the World, which has a huge gameboard. That's why they needed to stand up. Right at the centre you can see two display shelves. Through the display shelf on the left, you can see a game shelf far in the background. That's the other shelf containing Jeff's collection. Through the display shelf on the right, you can see the glass door of the entrance. On the right is the shelf for games for sale.

This is the shelf for the games for sale. It reminds me of National Geographic.

One section of the wall at the inner corner. These are some of the activities that Jeff and team are involved in.

Photo taken from one of the front corners. The low table on the right is normally used for children activities. This evening we had four veteran gamers playing an 18XX game. Definitely not for children. Before you read too much into this, 18XX games are complex games about railways in the 19th century. Just in case you didn't know.

This is the front section of OTK. On the right is the big table. On the left, one of the shelves holding Jeff's collection. At the risk of inciting burglary, I'm going to point out that he has a still-in-shrink-wrap copy of Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition, right at the top right corner.