Went to a board game cafe in Austin and saw way too many people staring at their phones

I hit up this place called Vigilante on South Lamar last Saturday night. Figured it would be all about tabletop energy and dice rolling, but nah. Half the tables had people just scrolling Instagram between turns. One guy was clearly playing some mobile RPG while his group waited for him to place a worker. Like you came all the way here to pay $5 cover and then ignore the game on the table? The staff even had a sign saying no phone use during play, but nobody cared. I get checking a rule clarification or whatever, but I watched a couple spend 20 minutes on their phones during a game of Azul. Has anyone else seen this at their local spots or am I just getting old and grumpy about it?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantschmidt1mo ago

Honestly, I'm probably the last person who should be judging because I once spaced out during a game of Codenames and accidentally started planning my whole grocery list in my head. Like, I get zoning out but at least pretend you're still in the room, you know? Tbh if I ever catch myself scrolling IG during Wingspan I'm gonna have to ban myself from board game cafes for life.

oliviat171mo ago

Dude yes, I was at that same place last month and a group next to me played two full rounds of Catan while one guy watched TikTok with earbuds in. Its like why even bother leaving the house at that point.

lucaslee1mo agoMost Upvoted

Whoa wait, @oliviat17, TWO full rounds of Catan? That's like what, a couple hours at least? I'm sitting here trying to picture the scene, and the mental image of that one guy just doom-scrolling through TikTok while the others are rolling dice and trading sheep just makes me laugh. I mean, at least pretend you're kinda sorta involved, you know? That's got to be some next-level social awkwardness where nobody even said anything to him about it.