History A Brief History of NYCLAN So, here’s the deal. There used to be these things called arcades, they were EVERYWHERE and they rocked. Gamers of all types were drawn into the same room to play co-op or compete and just hang out. A $5 bill later your hands started to hurt, you had made a few new friends, and you resolved to hit up the new issue of EGM to get tips on how not to suck. Nowadays, even here in NYC, a city that’s supposed to have EVERYTHING, a great gaming place is nearly impossible to find. While you can still spot some crazy dude on the corner yelling at his shoe, or a store where you can buy every type of fruit known to man…as fridge magnets no less, what you can’t find is a quality gaming destination. Trust us, we’ve looked. As for the arcades, what few remain have become über-competitive and/or super-shady, leaving few options to gamers in search of a comfortable place with good games and good people. So we decided to create one. At first we rented places for a night and just played one game…‘til 6 [bleepin] AM! But so many people showed up that we started having problems accommodating our gamers with only one event a week. We realized we were definitely onto something when people started lining up two to three hours ahead of time just to make sure they had a spot. As it turned out, really great video game events were in higher demand than we could have possibly imagined. Our second revelation was that they were wicked time consuming! Not having a fixed venue meant tons of confused gamers about when and where the next event would be. And delicate electronic equipment stuffed into undersized suitcases was just icing on the cake. We decided in all of our impulsive wisdom to quit our jobs and build a single, fixed location that everyone could come to. It’s not an arcade of yonder eras. It’s a multiplayer gaming center dedicated to consoles, allowing all the great multiplayer games to make an appearance, while most importantly, allowing us to offer something for everyone from casual to competitive. The singular goal of NYCLAN is to unify the fractured local gaming culture and create a home for anyone that remembers, or maybe never got to experience the best parts of social gaming, whether in arcades or simply at home with consoles. Bring a friend, or two or three or sixty, and come join the family. Hope to see you soon! ~ B&K