Moving to SF/Bay Area -- What's the Gaming Scene Like?
- Thread starter Chaldfont
- Start date
Haffrung Helleyes
First Post
the gaming scene's pretty good here, as one would expect in the Valley of Geeks.
Where you want to live depends largely on how much money you want to spend on rent, and what your lifestyle is like. Single people tend to like San Francisco, while couples with kids like Menlo Park. But both of those places are more expensive than say, Mountain View or Redwood City.
Cafe Baronne is a good place to hang out in Menlo Park. It's on El Camino near Ravenswood near a really good bookstore called Kepler's Books.
Ken McKinney
Where you want to live depends largely on how much money you want to spend on rent, and what your lifestyle is like. Single people tend to like San Francisco, while couples with kids like Menlo Park. But both of those places are more expensive than say, Mountain View or Redwood City.
Cafe Baronne is a good place to hang out in Menlo Park. It's on El Camino near Ravenswood near a really good bookstore called Kepler's Books.
Ken McKinney
Elder-Basilisk
First Post
There's a thriving RPGA community (particularly Living Greyhawk).
If you haven't done so already, I'd suggest you check out the Bay Area Role Playing Society. Their website www.bayrps.com is an excellent place to find games and gamers.
If you haven't done so already, I'd suggest you check out the Bay Area Role Playing Society. Their website www.bayrps.com is an excellent place to find games and gamers.
Swack-Iron
First Post
Chaldfont said:
Palo Alto has a pretty good gaming shop: Gamescape. Gamescape has a board you can post on if you're looking for local games. Palo Alto is also where you find Standford University (universities are always bastions of gaming) and is an important part of Silicon Valley, a huge area with a higher-than-average quotient of geeks. Finding a game shouldn't be a problem for you.
Living in Palo Alto... be prepared for sticker shock. The northern end of Silcon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton) is one of the most expensive places to live in the world. Where you live in the Bay Area is going to be dependent on how much money you have; the less money, the further from Palo Alto. For example, we live in one of the nicer apartments in Mountain View (one city south of Palo Alto) and we pay $1700US for a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment. And what with the economic crash, prices have actually come *down* to this level.
As for hanging out, locally Palo Alto has it's downtown area (centered around University Avenue), Menlo Park's downtown (around Santa Cruz avenue, and near to Kepler's Books, an awesome bookstore), and Mountain View's downtown (around Castro Street). Palo Alto and Mountain View are especially known for the excellent quality of ethnic food. All the downtowns are home to many excellent coffee shops and bookstores.
For cool things for the newbie in town, you can obviously spend days and days in San Francisco. And when you get tired of SF, you can move on to Berkeley and San Jose. The entire bay is ringed with lovely hills. The ocean and redwood forests are within easy driving distance of Silicon Valley. And the Sierra Nevada mountains can be reached in 4 hours for summer camping or winter skiing.
Anyone hiring Perl programmers
Getting programming jobs in Silicon Valley right now is a lot tougher than it was a couple of years ago. In fact, getting *any* kind of job is tougher.
Good luck, and enjoy the Bay Area!
When you're doing the tourist thing, don't miss John Muir woods in Marin.
My favorite place to hang out is Berkley. Telegraph avenue, Shattuck Avenue...
Also not to be missed is Parkway Theater in Oakland. The local Pub/Theater.
If you're new to the area pay attention to the sticker shock warnings. Home prices are truly insane.
River
My favorite place to hang out is Berkley. Telegraph avenue, Shattuck Avenue...
Also not to be missed is Parkway Theater in Oakland. The local Pub/Theater.
If you're new to the area pay attention to the sticker shock warnings. Home prices are truly insane.
River
I agree with what everyone has said about the housing market in the bay area, be prepared for a shock if you are from anywhere other than NYC. The trendier the place you live the higher the rent.
The gaming scene is pretty good, I moved here about 3 years ago and found a group quickly just by posting at a local Gamescape. There are also 2 yearly conventions in the Bay area that are fairly good. You should be able to find a group easily.
The Bay area is great there is something for everyone here. Go hiking one week and to an ethnic dance show the next. Fun times.
The gaming scene is pretty good, I moved here about 3 years ago and found a group quickly just by posting at a local Gamescape. There are also 2 yearly conventions in the Bay area that are fairly good. You should be able to find a group easily.
The Bay area is great there is something for everyone here. Go hiking one week and to an ethnic dance show the next. Fun times.
fuindordm
Adventurer
Keep in mind that all the cities are very close together, too. I live in San Carlos, which is only about 1/2 hr. commute from Stanford and I can visit Gamescape pretty easily. Palo Alto is a nice place to live, but Menlo Park, the next city north of it, is just as nice and much cheaper.
If you go north to min-peninsula rather than south towards San Jose, there are Lee's Comics and Gator Games in San Mateo. Personally I think Gator Games is a much better store than Gamescape in Palo Alto; their selection of d20 supplements is unparalleled and they often have sales, promotions, and discounts on slightly damaged (e.g. crimped edge on a hardcover) books. Redwood City is not too expensive (although it's large, and the neighborhood can make a big difference), and San Carlos/Belmont are small, cute, and cheap.
Feel free to fire off an e-mail if you're looking for games.
--Ben
If you go north to min-peninsula rather than south towards San Jose, there are Lee's Comics and Gator Games in San Mateo. Personally I think Gator Games is a much better store than Gamescape in Palo Alto; their selection of d20 supplements is unparalleled and they often have sales, promotions, and discounts on slightly damaged (e.g. crimped edge on a hardcover) books. Redwood City is not too expensive (although it's large, and the neighborhood can make a big difference), and San Carlos/Belmont are small, cute, and cheap.
Feel free to fire off an e-mail if you're looking for games.
--Ben
Shard O'Glase
First Post
oh and if you like base ball, don't miss DOLLAR wednessdays at the A's stadium.
