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Posts Tagged ‘Empire Gaming’

Downtown Medicine Hat is a drag. Shops open and close regularly, driving around to find a parking spot is most often a nightmare and the only way to go between North and South Railway Street on foot is through a dilapidated underground walkway. Currently there are a number of plans in the works to revitalize downtown. One plan of which includes removing planters, at the cost of a huge sum of money, to make a few more parking spaces which probably will not return on the investment of spending so much for so little. Other plans fizzle out or are rejected by vote.

In reading Ticked and Tickled on the Medicine Hat News, one resident complained about how the Railroad is still in town. This gave me an idea: As the railroad is supposed to be moving its operation to the town of Dunmore, why not rip up the tracks and make a mall? A mall would help downtown immensely. It would help relieve the congestion of traffic headed towards Walmart on a daily basis, create many jobs, create an area for people to park in, and most importantly, unify the North and South Railway Streets. The railroad station could also be turned into a dozen cool shops.

The immediate problem I can foresee is that malls usually start off with a few chain stores, such as a Walmart, Zellers, The Bay, Safeway, and so forth. There may not be enough room for a typical square style mall, so an elongated one would be the best choice. Perhaps two chain stores on either side with strip malls and a big parking lot in between. Another possible idea could be a two story mall that could accommodate many more stores with a big underground parking lot, though, Medicine Hat may not be big enough for another large scale mall.

Another issue is that Medicine Hat is not considered big enough for some stores, but as the town just keeps getting bigger, a new mall may encourage new business. Some businesses would, of course, do better in a mall setting, such as Empire Gaming, which tanked due to poor location. It may have greatly thrived in the setting of a mall or in the heart of downtown.

Thoughts?


Empire Gaming has been open for about a week now. We’ve checked it out and it’s a pretty nice set up. Each XBOX360 comes with its own television. It didn’t take long for us to notice that you probably won’t be playing beside the friends you came with, unless you’re on a team with them, or don’t care that they are cheating by looking at where you are. Anyway, here’s a listing of tournaments scheduled for September 12th, 2009:

Rock Band 2

9:00am – 12:00pm

Gears of War 2

12:00pm – 5:00pm

Halo 3
12:00pm – 5:00pm
Halo Wars Limited Edition XBOX game up for grabs and bragging rights. No fees to enter, only regular hourly rates apply.

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


Empire Gaming LogoPreviously posted about, Empire Gaming, is now officially open. It will be open all day and until around 9PM tonight (or later). I won’t re-iterate what was said in the previous post, but for those of you that don’t know, or forgot (it was quite awhile ago), Empire Gaming is a new business in Medicine Hat dedicated to video gaming. There’s a ton of high-end PCs, lots of Xbox360’s, and a Wii on projection all for you and your friends enjoyment. Dusty and I went there today and played some Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox360 and joined in with some others who were playing.

More information will come over time about tournaments, events, and other special things going on. Today, ROCK 105.3 is on location there and they are serving BBQ hamburgers outside sponsored by Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Medicine Hat. If you go in and play for an hour you also get a chance to enter a contest for a free mini-laptop or a Playstation 3. Go down there and check it out!

Empire Gaming is located at 104-7 Strachan Bay SE (across the street from the Walmart, kinda).

Gamers of Medicine Hat Facebook Group


Richard Rose seen here with fiancé Shirma Dewis and daughter Mikyla - Photography by Ian Sorensen, Medicine Hat News

Richard Rose with fiancé Shirma Dewis and daughter Mikyla - Photography by Ian Sorensen, Medicine Hat News

Richard Rose is taking the steps that too many people thought would be a good idea but never dared to tread. He has big plans to open up a video gaming center in our own Medicine Hat, up till now there has been no such thing combining all the latest consoles and PC gaming, and even in bigger city centers like Calgary or Toronto, places that do both console and PC gaming are rare.

The name of this establishment will be Empire Gaming and its location will reside at 104-7 Strachan Bay SE, with an anticipated opening date of mid-August. There is currently a Facebook group, “Gamers of Medicine Hat”, which will have updates on progress and upcoming events. The fee is expected to be around $5 an hour, and a yearly membership can be purchased anywhere from $50-$70 which will give special offers and discounts – it does not offer free play. The hours of operation will be 9:00AM – 9:00PM every day of week for the first couple weeks, after such time, changes will occur. There will also be all night events and tournaments scheduled later on.

Carrying all top of the line consoles, there will be 2 Wiis, 2 PS3s, 13 Xbox 360s and 20 PCs. The reason for these ratios is due to the amount of games per console dedicated to multi-player gaming. It is definitely an all-out experience, the Wii’s will have 92″ projector screens with surround sound and sub woofers.

So far all the feedback has been positive and encouraging except for one remark to the effect of “Why pay for something you can do at home for free?”. Well, I’m certainly not rich enough to afford all the consoles or even the high-end gaming computers they have, but it isn’t even so much about that. I’m certain with the opening we will see that gamers really are social people and just haven’t been given the proper opportunities. As a gamer myself, I think it’s very difficult to find friends with similar interests simply because – all those people are in their basements gaming themselves to play on a common stereotype.

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


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