Winner: Good Game
I’ve been seeing a lot of party games at gatherings in recent years. There was Monopoly Deal for a while and then the more entertaining Kuwaiti knockoff. I’m sure a lot of you have heard of Cards Against Humanity, the fart joke of the party game market. Garbage. I seriously can’t stand that game. It’s like watching a compilation of “thats what she said” jokes.
So what better opportunity to tell you about Good Game, a shop in Sanabil Tower specialising in all types of tabletop games. If it has dice, a board, cards, figures or any combination of them, chances are they sell it there. They have an absurd collection of games fillings their walls with varying degrees of difficulty and complexity, they have something for everyone, nerd or non-nerd alike.
The place is great. Everyone who works in the shop has played nearly if not every game and are able to answer questions or recommend a game based what you tell them you like. I love that it became the light to which all nerds in kuwait fluttered. The place is more than a shop, it’s become something more than that. It’s become a community.
Runner up: Orchidaceae
On Mr. Mark’s recommendation, I went to Orchidaceae a few months ago to get flowers for my wife (for my cat to nibble to pieces). It is hidden away in the reinhabited industrial MadMax wasteland that is Shuwaikh. Great design, the staff know their business and they aren’t quick to recommend things they know are impractical. Surprisingly affordable insta-class.
Winner: Good Game
First full disclosure, the owner of Good Game is a really good friend of mine as well as Nima. Actually, the first time I met the owner is when Nima invited me over to play the Game of Thrones board game with him and a couple of other people around two years back (what a complicated board game that was, I still don’t understand it). The owner loves board games, like REALLY loves them which is why he opened up Good Game in the first place. What I love about the shop and the reason I chose it as a winner is the fact that it has become more than just a place where you go and buy stuff. Anyone with money can open a store but what Good Game has done is create a wonderful community. Pass by anytime during the evening and you’ll find a group of guys sitting in the store playing board games, if you pass by on weekends it’s even more packed. The shop has created a space where people into board games can go socialize and pass time. In a place like Kuwait where we’re always looking for something to do, Good Game is a treasure.
Runner up: Pet Zone
If it wasn’t for the community aspect of Good Game I personally would have chosen Pet Zone as the winner. We really are lucky to have a pet shop this huge here in Kuwait especially considering dogs aren’t really loved over here. If you have a pet and you’ve never been to Pet Zone in Shuwaikh then please make sure you do.
Location: Good Game is located in Al-Sanabil Tower in Sharq, on Mezzanine 2. Here is the location on [Google Maps]
19 replies on “Best Local Store 2015”
dogs aren’t really loved over here? there are PLENTY of Kuwaitis with pet dogs. more so than the locals in other gulf countries.
Have you ever owned a dog? I’m guessing no. Dogs aren’t even allowed inside parks here, people are afraid of them when you walk them, you can’t take them everywhere and at one point stray dogs were even being poisoned by the government. That’s not a place that loves dogs and it doesn’t mater if you compare kuwait to Saudi. Compare it to other countries that do love dogs like Germany or France or the US for example. Over there you could take dogs anywhere, they even have dog parks and people aren’t afraid of them. Also note I didn’t say just Kuwaitis don’t like dogs, it’s an Arab thing mostly I think it has to do with religion.
Organized religion strikes again! Sad, but true. Dogs aren’t the only thing the Arab world (not all of course) still hold archaic, close-minded views about.
I love that Pet Zone made your list. Bravo!
Not only can we take our dogs almost anywhere in the US, but a number of tech companies offer ‘bring your dog to work with you’ as a perk in the benefits package.
It would be nice to know about the other nominees that appear in the survey, perhaps just a small description or link.
You can always use google if you’re curious, Google the name with the word kuwait and you’ll find what you’re looking for
On a completely unrelated note, hey Mark, do you know of any place airing the McGregor fight live?
Nope, I’m going to be watching it live at MGM
Lucky!
Who is Nima?
Ya you’re right. Nima should make a post about himself for us to get to know him better.
He’s not try to get you into bed
You never know…
Even though I’m probably never going to visit any of these places, I think it’s great to atleast know about them.
I thought Good game was awesome and would have loved to be part of that community! but then they invited me for a game which was brilliant and never gave me a callback to continue. I realised that they had carried on without me … I’m not Kuwaiti so i figured … standard – so what else is new?!
Hi Trentythree. I am Zaid Al-Khaled and I work at Good Game. The people who come to good game are from all over the world. Our tables are always for free and never for rent, I am very pleased that you enjoyed good game when you came in but I am very sorry you didn’t feel welcome to return! We do not actually call people to continue. We have regular daily events. Wednesday night is Dedicated to Dungeons and Dragons and other roleplaying games. Friday is dedicated to Magic the Gathering and Saturdays are tournament days. Every other day is usually set up for various board games and such. We have a mailing list for all of games so that you can get a broadcast email of what is going on in the game that interests you that week if anything is going on. I am truly sorry if you ever felt uninvited or unwanted but I stress that we have an open door policy and our tables are ALWAYS free and open for everyone and ALL of our games have open copies to try. Many people come in and use our space on a daily basis. We are only closed on Sunuday (unless it is a holiday) and my coworkers and I are personally there all the time without fail. We do not discriminate by age, gender or background of any kind. If you ever have the time pass by on a Wednesday during our Roleplaying nights or Friday during Magic and you will see the diverse, awesome and welcoming people first hand, all eager to include you in their games.
strange then that all the other players got invited for the same game when I enquired!
Other players got personally called and invited to a game that you were excluded from? Did someone working in the shop tell you that you were not welcome to play? I am concerned because we do not call people to join a game. We have emailing lists that we use to broadcast emails. It’s possible we didn’t add you to an emailing list you wanted to be on. The only games that continue after one session are role playing games which is what I assume you might have been playing. In that case we run open campaigns every single Wednesday. For those we do not call people individually. We send emails with which dungeon masters will be present and continuing their story lines so their players can decide to come or not. If other players told you that we continued some game purposefully excluding you because you were not Kuwaiti I would be deeply shocked.
not gonna lie, i really enjoy cards against humanity lmfao.
on another note, good game looks so awesome! i had no idea this place existed, i’m really stoked to visit.