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Notes -
I've been to both dice dojo and had been hanging around with some of the bonus rounds people when they were just a board game meetup and didn't buy the place yet. Went to the place too for a few months but I kind of got the impression they didn't like me/my group very much and they are indeed very woke. As far as I can tell most board game enthusiasts simply do private gatherings, which is the direction I went as soon as I had gathered a stable group.
I actually disagree with the whole private gathering exclusivity idea. my experience is that most people meet through meetups or they bring their existing friends. I know a couple groups in Chicago, that do the exclusively euro-style, long, strategy games in a rotating manner, and they use meetup to find new games/and or people and occasionally get together privately for a very specific game. Since moving away from Chicago a couple months ago, I'd say my new city has 11 board game bars in the area and I play at many of them through both meetups and private gatherings with people I met from those meetups.
I'm very much not against meetups in general, I got to know the person who ultimately set me up with my fiance through a board game meetup so I have a kind of fondness for them as an idea. I'm just describing my experience with the Chicago boardgame scene and why it may different from other towns.
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