{"id":489553241,"date":"2018-07-30T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2018\/07\/30\/a-muse-n-games-has-become-a-community-hub"},"modified":"2018-07-30T16:12:17","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T21:12:17","slug":"a-muse-n-games-has-become-a-community-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2018\/07\/30\/a-muse-n-games-has-become-a-community-hub","title":{"rendered":"Game on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walk into A Muse N Games on Portage Avenue and <\/div>\n
you’ll be greeted by a flood of natural light, shelves stacked with colourful boxes and a friendly face <\/div>\n
behind the counter. <\/div>\n
“Gaming tends to often have a stigma of teenage guys in a basement…we really want to bring gaming out into the light,” said Scotia Buchan, who co-owns the board game store with her partner Brian Mitchell. <\/div>\n
Buchan and Mitchell opened A Muse N Games in St. James in 2014 and moved to their current location at 1783 Portage Ave. in November 2016. In four short years, the business has become a hub for board game enthusiasts across the city.<\/div>\n
“The local community here in St. James embraced us, but the city as a whole embraced us,” Mitchell said. “We have customers who drive from Transcona a couple of times a week just to be part of the community.”<\/div>\n
One reason for the business’ success thus far is the combined expertise of its owners — Buchan has a background in retail and Mitchell has been involved in the game industry for years. Games have also been a fixture in their personal life.<\/div>\n
“We actually met over board games,” Buchan said.<\/div>\n
“I saw her picture on a dating site and I happened to notice a Settlers of Catan board game in the background,” Mitchell explained.<\/div>\n
When an unplanned career change and a lease opportunity collided, the pair decided it was the right time to bring their passion for board games to the public. The goal was to create a combination retail and gaming space that was accessible and inclusive. <\/div>\n
“We were realizing that there are a lot of people who want to play board games, but they don’t necessarily know how,” Mitchell said. <\/div>\n
In addition to selling games, art supplies and locally made geek crafts, A Muse N Games has a large demo library where shoppers are encouraged to try games before they buy. <\/div>\n
The store also hosts game events seven days a week. Creating a safe space at these in-person meetups was a priority for the owners.<\/div>\n
“We don’t tolerate prejudice at our store,” Buchan said. “We have had a number of our players transition since we’ve been open and they’ve said that this is one of the first public places that they’ve felt comfortable.”<\/div>\n
Cyarra Pelda is one such customer. She has been going to A Muse N Games since 2014 and attends board game events several times a week.<\/div>\n
“I’m trans and I’ve never had an issue there…it’s a very open, accepting space,” Pelda said. “I’ve met new friends there…games have an amazing power to bring people together.”<\/div>\n
On August 4, the store is releasing new games and unveiling new demos during an event called Gen Can’t from 12 to 6 pm. <\/div>\n
Visit amusengames.ca or find A Muse N Games on Facebook for more information on the store’s weekly activities.<\/div>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":274649551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,12],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-489553241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-metro"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"A Muse N Games has become a community hub","story_tag":"","byline":"Eva Wasney","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2018\/07\/30\/a-muse-n-games-has-become-a-community-hub","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Game on","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2018\/07\/30\/a-muse-n-games-has-become-a-community-hub","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/metro\/2018\/07\/30\/a-muse-n-games-has-become-a-community-hub"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/ew-game-business-Aug1-2.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/ew-game-business-Aug1-2.jpg"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2018-07-30T21:07:00Z","datePublished":"2018-07-30T21:07:00Z","dateModified":"2018-07-30T21:12:17Z"},"rendered":"