Hello!
How would you tag a “gaming lounge”?
This business has pool tables, board games, and darts that customers can use for a fee. Very family friendly and you can hold parties there. It hosts karaoke and trivia events. I was thinking leisure=amusement_arcade but it doesn’t really have the traditional arcade machines.
I also can’t find a documented tag for this. You may need to use an undocumented one, or make up your own…
How about recreation_centre or recreation_center?
Does “recreation centre” cover businesses and/or non-sport-related activities? Where I live, a “rec centre” is normally City-run and sports-focussed.
There are also “Toy” (seldom called this by adults) & “Game” shops which sell (sometimes) video games, complex / fantasy board games (like Dungeons & Dragons) and actively host other activities (similar to Trivia Night) that include active playing of such games and are oriented towards a particular crowd (often 20- and 30-somethings of a loosely “geeky / nerdy” style…I do NOT mean that disparagingly!). The word “lounge” is apt for these sorts of places.
These really are quite different from “recreation center” kinds of places, which are often city-run or perhaps sponsored by a school district or “Boys & Girls Club” sort of place.
So, becuase there really are a whole bunch of different sorts of these, let’s be quite expansive when we invent tags (in a Proposal?…though “any tag you like” could be a ‘first dart on the dartboard’). I’ve said it before: let the syntax (tag) be especially descriptive of the semantics (what the tag really means). Though, this can be taken to ridiculous lengths, like “city-sponsored after-school recreation center for girls (only) interested in gymnastics and cheerleading skills improvement.”
We can do this.
Edit: As I think about it, leisure=gaming_lounge seems like a pretty good first-draft tag.
This will be confused with video games, both online and LAN. There were questions about such businesses and clubs before. Only =internet_cafe has been doubling for them, which is yet unclear for whether there are non-gaming functions. E-sports hasn’t been discussed much either.
In East Asia, they have been called “party room” directly. However, there would need to be some distinguishing from =event_venue for larger more “eventful” parties. Further caveat on the 2 amenity=party_room | Tags | OpenStreetMap Taginfo seemingly for ball rooms at hotels (as seen from 1 building=party_room | Tags | OpenStreetMap Taginfo and community_centre=party_room | Tags | OpenStreetMap Taginfo ), and unknown purposes. Maybe =events_rooms (plural to avoid use on individual rooms, and ball rooms) , or eg =amusement_venue for the above thinking.
around here there are some distinct types of places that somehow overlap with what you describe:
a) places aiming at (small, <10) children, they pay for admission (parents are free), a kind of indoor playground with or without small attractions like train rides, arcade machines for children, bouncy castles etc., which offer to rent (part of) the space for birthday parties and the like.
b) shops selling games (and maybe books like manga), with a cafe room to play games (roleplay, boardgames), sometimes also offering food. Sometimes without the shop selling games. This one is aiming more at adults (e.g. selling tap beer) but are open also to bigger children/teens. Might open only at „after work hours“.
These could be mapped as shop, cafe or pub with games available, but it’s a bit misleading because you would only go there if you wanted to play.
I agree, leisure=gaming_lounge is pretty descriptive. What would this cover? Could we then use gaming_lounge=video_games, gaming_lounge=board_games, etc? Or would something in the form of gaming_lounge:video_games=only, or gaming_lounge:board_games=yes be better, with the option to add specific board games or video games that are played there?
I’m fairly new to OpenStreetMap so I’m not very familiar with all of the use cases and such.
Edit: There is most likely a lot of overlap with e-sports, maybe those places could use the same tag as the business that I found (whatever we decide on)?
Yes like what you said, what I’m describing is normally something that operates in addition to a main business. I’m finding some places opening recently that describe themselves as “lounges” of some sort (like an art lounge just down the street from this place) that are meant for socializing and are less focussed on food or selling games/supplies.
@dieterdreist offers yet another (Italian, pan-European?) perspective on these sorts of places. And yes, we (in USA) also have the “kids pizza place with animatronic dancing giant animals for birthday parties” (and video games, and vomit on the floor from the terrible pizza — sorry, that really does happen) called “Chuck E. Cheese” (with a giant mouse as their mascot; some jokingly call this “Chuck-up Cheese” as “up-chuck” is slang in American English for vomiting).
AND, the whole e-sports is an entirely new dimension to this, and maybe where a very dynamic aspect of this sort of activity “is going” (in the future…e-sports has evolved / does evolve quickly).
This topic feels like we are only scratching the surface of this. It is a good discussion, but it may be that more development (here, as a wiki, as a Proposal with real, actual syntax / tagging proposed…) is necessary. We’ve got a good start here.
@AC977, you’ve really pushed a snowball downhill, and it is rolling and getting bigger! Again, and it is my opinion only, leisure=gaming_lounge is “not terrible” as a first-draft tag, and as a beginning mapper you might use it and I certainly commend you for posting here and asking. Consider fleshing out a wiki, continuing this dialog, gathering more community input and making a (formal) Proposal.
I know places like this as “board game cafés”. I’d expect an extensive library of board games (more than in the typical family-friendly pub or cafe). They might also sell some, or not. Taginfo says cafe=board_game has 181 uses.
It probably doesn’t work for @AC977’s case though, unless board games are the main thing people go there for, and it has “cafe vibes”, and the pool tables and darts and karaoke parties are only a side business.
@dieterdreist offers yet another (Italian, pan-European?) perspective on these sorts of places. And yes, we (in USA) also have the “kids pizza place with animatronic dancing giant animals for birthday parties” (and video games, and vomit on the floor from the terrible pizza — sorry, that really does happen) called “Chuck E. Cheese” (with a giant mouse as their mascot; some jokingly call this “Chuck-up Cheese” as “up-chuck” is slang in American English for vomiting).
the kid’s places around here usually do not offer food (unless the parents choose McDonald’s for the birthday party, what also happens), the parents are bringing it, to give some examples:
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https://www.bibobaboparcogiochi.it/
recent discussion suggested we could use leisure=indoor_play for these (at least for the indoor ones)
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Leisure indoor_play vs playground + indoor=yes |
Examples for the other kind of place
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La Civetta Sul Comò – Pub Ludoteca e Ludopub, vendita di giochi da tavolo e giochi di ruolo |
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(opening at 18.30h)
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I have no further explanation for the world we live in.
I keep my notebook open and my pencil at the ready, as an observer. I do tag my best.
Another variation on this theme is Roxy Ball Room - a chain of bars specialising in indoor games (mostly ball games) in Northern England. Most mappers have gone with bar, but there is at least one mapped as bowling_alley (not technically incorrect).. If the games here are sports, maybe a sport tag on the feauture would help?
It’s not really a stretch to saycafe=board_game. It doesn’t entirely fit the idea of a typical board game cafe but I feel like that might be the best descriptor.
I’ll use cafe=board_game for now and then wait and see. The place is still quite new and I’m thinking that it might change a bit (and go in more of a restaurant, arcade, or even “party room” direction).
Following, there are two new drop-in e-gaming lounges that I would like to properly map in my area.
@Codesurfer How do you feel about leisure=gaming_lounge and seperating it into gaming_lounge=video_games and gaming_lounge=board_games (and any other versions)? If there are multiple cases of this perhaps we could create a proposal?
@AC977 I like the idea let me research some more in my area. There is a board game store that has a gaming lounge board games inside of it. Give me a few weeks to survey the stores. Will get back to you on this being an any tag you like or a new proposal. Thanks
