I’m staring down the new releases wall at Video Library for the second night in a row, once again silently cursing the person who took the last copy of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Video Library is never a great place to find yourself at 10 p.m. on a Saturday. I’m an intermittent visitor to the run-down anti-Blockbuster on the 4000 block of Locust, and today I notice that the shelves have been rearranged to make way for new walls. The comics ‘n’ movies emporium has undergone another phase of mitosis, resulting in a gamers’ den that now sits improbably at the front of the store.
There’s nary a Wii nor a Playstation in this shabby hideaway. Instead, there are folding tables and chairs, posters advertising a Pokemon league, binders full of fantasy trading cards and an elaborate board game setup, presumably meant for playing that gold standard of geek diversions, Dungeons & Dragons. It was already hard to imagine enough steady demand for The Big Lebowski to keep this place in business, but do they really think West Philly is an untapped market for vintage role-playing games?
And yet: I poke my head in, and sure enough, there are half a dozen people assembled around one of the tables, looking like they’re having a pretty good time. I may not comprehend the whole goblins, dwarves or Magic: The Gathering phenomenon, but I do know that these people have something to do and somewhere to be on Saturday night, whereas all I have are some leftover Cupmakes waiting in my fridge. I make a vow to myself: If my next Saturday evening is this boring, I’m putting on a cape and joining them. Unless there’s an available copy of Nick and Norah, in which case I redact the previous statement.
