By Fatima Ortega Guevara
Everyone who comes here knows that it’s more than meets the eye.
East End Gaming in Oakdale is a vibrant community hub where friendships are made through a shared love of games and trading cards. Music fills the store as customers shop around, while others sit at the tables with their friends playing numerous rounds of trading card games, laughing with each other, and enjoying a peaceful evening.
What started off as a hobby of collecting video games turned into something bigger–a welcoming place where all who share a love of video games and trading cards can come together, East End Gaming has just the right atmosphere for building new friendships.
Originally opened in Eastport in 2017, Rob Fogarty, the owner of East End Gaming wanted a space where he can collect video games. He ran the store with his wife and two kids, with the intention of keeping it a local shop. In 2018, East End Gaming moved to Oakdale. With the expanded space, General Manager Jacob Connelly suggested to Fogarty they set up a trading card counter for Pokémon cards. Liking this idea, a new opportunity began for this store.
“You come to work wanting to make the store better rather than just going in as a job,” said Connelly.
He spends a lot of his time helping customers, organizing the store, and making the games look almost brand new. East End Gaming has become a community favorite.
Photo: Jacob Connelly, the general manager of East End Gaming in the store.
“I’d say like 95% of people who come in here are super chill,” says Connelly. “Everyone’s here to hang out and have fun.”
East End Gaming collects all sorts of games, everything from retro to the newest releases. They have almost every console you can think of: Nintendo 64, GameCube, PlayStation, and Xbox. Popular game titles like Resident Evil, Pokémon, Halo, and many more can be found here. If you’re looking for a rare game that you haven’t seen in years, try searching their “Rare Games” shelf.
Although the main catch of East End is all the games, there are many more things you can find here. Trading cards are a big staple of what draws customers in. You can choose between Pokémon, Magic, and One-Piece cards. They also have a great selection of figures on display and for purchase. Some popular ones include anime series like Dragon Ball, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen.
“They carry almost everything you need,” said James Wells, a regular at East End. Wells found East End after a bad experience at another game store.
After searching up gaming stores in the area, he decided to give East End Gaming a try.
“The people were instantly kind,” he said. “They’re incredibly welcoming.”
He came in looking for a hobby but what he found was much greater. Wells recalls walking into the store and asking if anyone wanted to play Magic. He found a few other customers who were more than happy to include him.
“I’ve made dozens of friends now,” he said.
Photo: A wall of Funkos.
The store hosts Pokemon Trading Card Games (TCG) every Saturday at 2pm. They also host Magic TCG on Friday nights. It’s a free event for all who want to participate. These events have become a great opportunity for customers to socialize and meet new people with the same interest.
To compete with larger retailers, Connelly said customer service is very important. It’s what can make or break the store’s reputation.
“You go into Target, you’re not usually becoming best friends with the Target guy, right? We know a lot of the people that come in and just hang out,” said Connelly.
Building these relationships with every customer is what separates them from larger retailers, he said.
Timothy Scalia, a full-time employee at East End Gaming, once started out as a customer. He’d stop in a few times a week to also play Magic, but one day, Scalia was in the search for a new job. Having already become good friends with Connelly, he was given the opportunity to work at this store.
“It’s a place where you can be sober and also expand your family,” he said.
The opportunities brought by East End Gaming have created strong bonds amongst people who were once complete strangers. All sharing a love for either card or video games, the community formed here is very inclusive.
“I think we all kind of get along in our own right,” said Scalia.
Fatima Ortega Guevara is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.
Cover Photo: James Wells, Steve Mikolich, and Timothy Scalia. They all share the love of playing Magic, and have become great friends because of East End Gaming. All photos by Fatima Ortega Guevara.
