Medicine Hat Media

Thursday Night Gaming

A small portion of Tyle'rs amazing collection

A small portion of Tyler's amazing collection

How many times have you been sitting around a board game alone, just wishing you had some friends who were into that kind of thing to come over and play? O.K., this has probably never happened to any of you, but this exact thing used to happen to Medicine Hat resident Tyler McLaughlin about twice a week, until he got fed up and started a club. That was six years ago…

Tyler’s club has 20+ members and a catalog of around 1000 different games. They meet every Thursday night at 6:30 pm until they are done (around midnight) at the Volunteer Center, 211 – 4th St SE. There is a one dollar nightly fee, with a tournament held with prizes about every three months or so.

“As well as being really fun, board gaming can impart regular players with new skills or help to improve old ones all while you get to make new friends and be out of the house. We tend to focus on games which can improve processing speed, spatial reasoning, leadership and coaching abilities, cognitive abilities, communication skills and a stronger sense of self confidence. We also tend to talk about probability and other math now and again, as that’s all part of being good at the games.” says Tyler.

All ages are encouraged to come, but parents need to be present for children 14 and under. I also attend occasionally and have found it to be an incredibly positive environment. It is a safe place, keeps kids out of trouble, and I also made some great friends. Tyler is very proud of the group he has put together. Everyone is very friendly, approachable and they genuinely enjoy teaching the games to the newest members. “One of the things that makes me smile is when one of our newer members teaches a game to some real ‘newbs’.

Some of the games are about farming, some about running a railroad, managing a factory or power plant, fighting in WW2 or racing snails. Maybe you have some weird old game you’ve always wanted to play but never had the opportunity, bring it on down and give it a try. Tyler tells me that if you play one of his games, he’ll try anything you bring down at least once.

User Comments

8 Responses to “Thursday Night Gaming”

  1. July 13th, 2009 at 8:49 PM


    Kilovolt says:

    What about games like Scrabble and Monopoly? Are these games played?

  2. July 13th, 2009 at 10:32 PM


    Dusty says:

    They play many games – not just the most popular. In line with “try anything once”, they really like to try new/different games so you might be out of luck with monolopy.

  3. July 14th, 2009 at 6:57 AM


    Joel says:

    There’s one regular who loves Scrabble, but it doesn’t see a lot of table time. Ask for Todd.

    As for Monopoly? If you like Monopoly there are a lot of other money games we play that are way better, usually with less randomness and some mechanism that acts as a time limit.

  4. July 14th, 2009 at 8:34 AM


    Tyler McLaughlin says:

    2 Player Scrabble is actually a very good game. Any more players than that and it breaks down into random Chaos. As for Monopoly, we tend to steer clear of games everyone knows/plays already.

    More importantly, Monopoly isn’t really much of a game. Beyond that, most people don’t play by the proper rules anyway. On your turn you roll, move and are then forced to auction a property. We prefer games with choices and multiple different paths to victory. Games where your decisions actually have a bearing on whether or not you will win or lose.

  5. July 19th, 2009 at 9:20 PM


    Chris Kohlman says:

    Most of the games played are typically referred to as “Eurogames”, which are from Europe in origin. They are much deeper and more interesting than the typical popular games, like Life and Monopoly. Those games you just roll a dice, count the spaces and have whatever happens to you on the space happen. Eurogames have a theme, make you use your head and really challenge you to make wise decisions. There are many games out there and even a non gamer will find one they would enjoy playing.

  6. July 20th, 2009 at 4:40 PM


    Connor says:

    I’ve been down to this game club. Even though I’m not a ‘regular’, I highly recommend the experience. Most of the games played do not have elaborate rules and are completely enjoyable after even a 5 or 10min explanation. Few have a time commitment of over 2hrs – perfect for a night you don’t want to spend crammed in your hot living room watching summer re-runs. $1! Who can beat that for an evening out?

    For those who don’t recognize the address it’s the old Earl Kitchener School on 4th street (roughly between downtown Dairy Queen and Swirls).

  7. March 2nd, 2013 at 8:16 PM


    slasher says:

    just a side note aobut tis *club* per say. kicking someone out without cause and saying *youll be happier somewhere else* without explanation is not a valad reason when i ask why. so im gonna have to asume ive brokin some rule. but let me point out i wasent handed a rulebook when i signed up. so i belive i have thus been wrongly treated. if the runner of the club isnt man enough to tell me the reason then he needs to grow a pair and man up. he may have been tryign to protect those that have complained aobut me, but i have a right to know. still not angry at the club, i had many a fun night here. but the way i was moved past was uncool

  8. December 2nd, 2014 at 3:52 PM


    slasher says:

    id actually like to start comeing back if tyler is over his little fit about kickign me out a long time ago. the hwole reaosn i didnt stick aorund with dave to play a game with him on his first night is me and dave have like nothing in common in board games, two coplete opasites. hes more aobut the risk style board games and stratgey and i hate those. ill play em, but i dont like em. and your whole beef with me was the fact a joinned a gaem while he ate so cause i was boerd. silly. the hwole reasond ave stopped comeign was cause you kicked me. so you lost two people because your judgement was bad. dont try to force two people to play togther who are just gonna butt heads. like i said though im putitng it behind me and id like to come back but i cant find tylers number or e-mail to adress this anywhere so i guess this will have to do.

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