Elm City Games | Arts & Culture | Youth Arts Journalism Initiative | COVID-19
| Matt Fantastic and Trish Loter last year, when Elm City Games moved into its Orange Street storefront. Lucy Gellman File Photo. |
James Monty-Carbonari flipped to the final page of the small booklet, with a smile on his face. As he read it, smiles grew on everyone else's faces too: the group of role players had completed their final objective. They’d escaped detention and delivered their homework to their teacher, guaranteeing a victory.
That moment unfolded not at a table but on Zoom, where Elm City Games has moved all of its game nights due the COVID-19 pandemic. For the local tabletop gaming store, it has been a way to gather safely as public health experts suggest that congregating inside remains unsafe.
The choice comes as Gov. Ned Lamont keeps Connecticut in the second phase of reopening its economy, and as cases creep up in New Haven for the first time in weeks.
Across the country, tens of thousands of businesses have had to adapt their live events into a digital space. The game night is hosted on Tuesday and Sunday evenings by Matt Fantastic and Trish Loter, who run Elm City Games out of an Orange Street storefront in the Ninth Square. On a recent Sunday, gamer Greg Matta was running the show.
“These tools have existed for a long time, for this, so a lot of it is just trying to pivot what we’re doing so that we’re still getting as much as possible in terms of the community and social aspects along with this remote experience of play,” Fantastic said in a recent interview.
| A figure at Elm City Games in February 2018, when the business was still in the Grove. Stephen Urchick File Photo. |
Prior to COVID-19, business at Elm City Games was growing, with new monthly members and weekly board game nights (the space's store is still open, with the option of curbside pickup). The two moved into the Orange Street location, which they share with Baobab Tree Studios, in June of last year. Then in March, the pandemic shuttered businesses overnight.
“It was heartbreaking and terrifying,” Fantastic said.
“But for us it is more heartbreaking and terrifying that people are dying all over and that we have this pandemic,” he added. “We are aggressively not business first so it has been really tough having Elm City Games close. Especially on a personal level, as we miss everyone.”
The group chose Zoom for its user-friendly interface and different viewing options. Zoom has become one of the most popular video calling apps in pandemic-era America. To sign up for game night, gamers have to send an email to Elm City Games and ask to be sent the email code the night of the game.
After signing up for the email list, the link to the game night is sent out; as gamers enter they’re greeted by their fellow participants. The game is broadcast through the host’s screen.
On a recent Sunday, the night felt like an actual game store. As people logged on, a few attendees talked about comic books. As more people joined, Matta introduced the gamers to Parsley, a roleplaying game, and Quiplash!, the comedy fill in the blank party game.
In one game of Parsley, a group role played a student trying to get to class with his homework, avoiding the perils of the dreaded detention in the library. The raucous laughter of the group filled the call as members continuously got sent to detention by the teacher.
New Havener Meghan Tuttle, who was a regular at the shop before COVID-19, said she comes to the online game nights because she is a fan of the shop.
“I just thought it was really welcoming, and Greg is really good at welcoming everybody and explaining the directions,” she said. “I thought it was cool because unlike other online platforms you get to see everyone elses’ faces, and you get to know people. And it’s weird because it feels like I’m friends with people I don’t even know in real life!”
Elm City Game night is every Tuesday and Sunday at 8 p.m.; interested participants can email hello@elmcitygames.com. This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the third annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. This year, YAJI has gone virtual. Read more about the program here or by checking out the"YAJI" tag.