“You know something, Marge? It's not that tough being a film cricket.” - Homer J. Simpson
Years ago, when Bree and I were first married, I began to tinker with website construction by creating a website called, Let’s All Go to the Lobby. There, I wrote movie reviews. I cannot recall for exactly how long I maintained or wrote for this site. I do remember that it evolved from a simple collection of pages on a free website host to an expansive collection of reviews and articles on my own domain, filmlobby .com. While the journey to reach The Film Lobby was a winding and ever changing path, my love for film was still deeply rooted in that old clip I used to see at the Starlite Drive-In intermission back in Kankakee.
Twenty years later, it is safe to say that the entire Rogganbuck clan loves going to the movies. Over the years, we have formed some deep connections with some of these films. In fact, many films were the inspiration for potential activities we wanted to have at GriffoNest Games. While the ideas were a bit hit and miss, I wanted to share them with you.
Star Wars
Fantasy Flight Games makes a ton of board games related to a film franchise that began affecting my life at the tender age of six. To this day, it brings me such great pleasure to know that I get to end this journey with my own daughters. One such game is a trading card game / dice game called Star Wars: Destiny. I hope to bring organized play for this game into our store. In addition to this, I hope to bring games such as Outer Rim to the table during Game Night or Learn to Play nights.
Fight Club
What a crazy movie! In David Fincher’s cult classic, dudes secretly get together and beat one another senseless. While having an underground fighting circle was enticing, considering that the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club, we felt this one would be really hard to market. Sadly, Fight Club was out.
Bloodsport
In high school and college, I loved me some Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. Needless to say, when State Farm got wind of our ideas based on this movie, they strongly encouraged us not to pursue them unless we wanted our premiums to soar. We did not.
Horror Movies
Each October, Bree and I watch about 20-25 horror movies/shows. If it works out, I hope to occasionally have a horror themed night in which we bring to the table games like Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Shadows of Brimstone, Eldritch Horror, and many more excellent horror-themed games.
8 Mile
Ah, the riveting story of a young Eminem erupting onto the scene as a rap battle master. What game store doesn’t need more rap battles? Alas, we decided against in-store rap battles because we did not want to deter customers from returning to our store because they felt dissed.
Breakin’
Turbo, Ozone, and Kelly really had the moves. So many dance battles packed in one film! While cardboard could easily be placed for breakdancing battles, this idea suffered much the same way our rap battle idea. Nobody likes to get served.
Dungeons & Dragons
Almost everything about this film was awful. Throughout it, Jeremy Irons - the villain - spits out each line with wedgie-induced anger. The score was not bad, though. Even so, we hope to host Adventure League on a weekly basis.
This week, my family and I will venture to the land of Indianapolis where we will attend Gen Con and eat from delicious food trucks. As we approach the start of the school year and opening of our store, this is a welcome reprieve from the hectic schedule that awaits us when we return. If you have ideas for something you would like to see in our store, please let us know. We cannot wait to fill our store with gamers!
*Disclaimer: Many parts of this article are fabricated for entertainment purposes. At no time did we ever consider competitions in which physical violence would be perpetrated. The only fighting to go down in our store will be with dice and imagination.
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