18 ms·

I don't understand why this type of place is not popular outside of Russia. People go there to play board games or video games together. Another popular type of

I don't understand why this type of place is not popular outside of Russia. People go there to play board games or video games together. Another popular type of location for such activities is a hookah lounge. Do young people in big European cities have no problems with finding a place to meet friends?

Bayart 5y ago
From a French perspective, I don't really see what it brings besides novelty. Sitting all day long at a café is hardly problematic. Plus at noon you can just switch from coffee to beer or wine and order proper food without moving places ;) Though these half café, half co-working places might be more comfortable if they cater specifically to the laptop crowd.
- elondaits 5y ago
  There are many popular Anti-Cafés in Paris. I used them for working many times. Here in Buenos Aires I normally go to Starbucks, where you can stay for hours and hours without a problem… but cafes in Paris are small and crowded (and waiters might not appreciate you staying a couple of hours), and most Starbucks and similar chains are absolutely packed with students (of course with minor exceptions in some areas). Anticafes are a more comfortable option, and a safer one if you want to go to the bathroom or fetch something to eat without having to pick all your things from the table. I’m not the only one that has this opinion because the number of Anticafes in Paris was very quickly growing and they were normally full at peak times.
Zababa 5y ago
We have a few in France, but I don't thing they are that popular. > Do young people in big European cities have no problems with finding a place to meet friends? It's a mystery to me too how people do this. From what I understand it's mostly through studies and/or work.
- jeltz 5y ago
  I would say it is the same in Sweden we have a few of these places here too but most people make friends through studies or work.
  - qwerty456127 5y ago
    To me work seems a very wrong place for this. Mixing personal and work worlds sounds like a terrible idea. And I hate when people I meet ask me anything about my job (although the job is nothing special). As for the university though - quite the opposite, I actually consider the friends you make there the number-one value to attend it for, all the actual education can be gotten from free (incl. some pirate like LibGen and SciHub) sources on the Internet, often more efficiently.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - Zababa 5y ago
      Interesting, I don't think about it this way. I don't mind friends at work, though those are usually less close to me than friends I made in school/university/on the internet. For university, yes you can get the actual education for free, but a diploma is a very good safety net, at least in France, and usually a requirement for people to consider your application. I also liked the freedom it gave me, I had a few years to "breathe" between high-school and working. University is also very cheap in France, I paid less than 1000€ for a master's degree in computer science/software engineering.
      - qwerty456127 5y ago
        > I don't mind friends at work, though those are usually less close Neither do I, but exactly the second part. Those are people you would probably feel sympathetic to, care about and enjoy a drink with occasionally but not have sex with (this can ruin everything), invite to your wedding or actually want to visit your home any often. But an Anti-Café is a totally different story: you meet relaxed, intentionally open complete strangers there, having no interest in you other than your actual person and having good time with you, and the magic happens. There I had some happiest moments in my life (without alcohol - almost unimaginable when colleagues meet outside the office) and met the only people who I consider my "soulmates". Needless to say we never mentioned our jobs until years passed and a genuine reason to discuss something job-related emerged. > but a diploma is a very good safety net, at least in France, and usually a requirement for people to consider your application Outside IT, right? According to my experience a diploma (unless it's a PhD in machine learning) means little in the IT sector. They mostly want experience, knowledge and some also intelligence of some sort (you know, the Interview puzzles), also some basic EQ perhaps.
fumblebee 5y ago
I spend a lot of time working in "normal" cafés. I'm struggling to see the benefit of paying for time and having sustenance (e.g. coffee) be free, instead of paying for sustenance and having the time be free. I've never once been asked to leave a cafe after I've paid for __, and subsequently spent a few hours there.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  >I've never once been asked to leave a cafe after I've paid for __, and subsequently spent a few hours there. I guarantee the proprietor will be complaining as soon as you have left.
  - bananamerica 5y ago
    Why should I care about a hypothetical complaint I will never hear about?
    - pantulis 5y ago
      Because if someone complains about you it is because they feel you did them some wrong. You should try to lead your life not making others think you are offending them because society as a whole is better when people are happy and not pissed off.
      - bananamerica 5y ago
        But its hypothetical, meaning that it may no even exist. If it ceases to be hypothetical I can act on it, otherwise why should I care?
  - goodcanadian 5y ago
    I guarantee the proprietor will be complaining as soon as you have left. If the place was busy and you were occupying a table without ordering anything, maybe. But if the place was otherwise fairly empty, they probably don't mind very much. It can even be a benefit to have a few tables occupied so that the place doesn't look completely dead.
ACow_Adonis 5y ago
Take consideration of the extent of public libraries, parks, actual cafes and co-working spaces that all provide these services in many places in the west. Many of those come with specific spaces for games and socialising and meeting rooms, and presumably often with a higher grade of food/service or are alternatively, free. If you remove the semi-american notion of being 'stink-eyed' or hurried out of the cafe, then I become more confused about how such a space has sufficient demand to keep surviving. I admit the thought of being charged by the minute irks me in a particular way...
the_gipsy 5y ago
When I was in my 20s in spain, we decided it wasn’t great to always hang out at bars and drink alcohol, and cafés offerings are too limited for prolonged time. We took out a rent of some half-cellar as a social club. We had pingpong, some videogames, and a mix of hobbies and tools around. We just pooled some money for rent, and additionally had some beverage/donations fridge for guests. It worked out fine for some years until some people moved out of town and it was getting too expensive. I really loved it because there was always someone around, no need to arrange meetings with different people (which gets complicated proportional to age).
edwcross 5y ago
In Paris and other French cities, you have "game cafés", where you pay per hour (or you buy food which is worth a "1-hour ticket"), and they bring you the games, so you don't have to own them. Good for trying out new games (which they of course sell you, if you want to take home), but neither free food nor free time. Otherwise, some places have public "ludothèques" for playing board games, like public libraries; but these are non-profit associations, and they usually don't sell anything.
elpescado 5y ago
> Do young people in big European cities have no problems with finding a place to meet friends? Here in Europe there are places like cafes, restaurants, bars, parks, libraries, museums, galleries, shopping centres, town squares, gyms, clubs or just plain outdoor areas that people use to hang out with one another.

Bayart 5y ago

From a French perspective, I don't really see what it brings besides novelty. Sitting all day long at a café is hardly problematic. Plus at noon you can just switch from coffee to beer or wine and order proper food without moving places ;) Though these half café, half co-working places might be more comfortable if they cater specifically to the laptop crowd.

elondaits 5y ago
There are many popular Anti-Cafés in Paris. I used them for working many times. Here in Buenos Aires I normally go to Starbucks, where you can stay for hours and hours without a problem… but cafes in Paris are small and crowded (and waiters might not appreciate you staying a couple of hours), and most Starbucks and similar chains are absolutely packed with students (of course with minor exceptions in some areas). Anticafes are a more comfortable option, and a safer one if you want to go to the bathroom or fetch something to eat without having to pick all your things from the table. I’m not the only one that has this opinion because the number of Anticafes in Paris was very quickly growing and they were normally full at peak times.

Zababa 5y ago

We have a few in France, but I don't thing they are that popular. > Do young people in big European cities have no problems with finding a place to meet friends? It's a mystery to me too how people do this. From what I understand it's mostly through studies and/or work.

jeltz 5y ago
I would say it is the same in Sweden we have a few of these places here too but most people make friends through studies or work.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  To me work seems a very wrong place for this. Mixing personal and work worlds sounds like a terrible idea. And I hate when people I meet ask me anything about my job (although the job is nothing special). As for the university though - quite the opposite, I actually consider the friends you make there the number-one value to attend it for, all the actual education can be gotten from free (incl. some pirate like LibGen and SciHub) sources on the Internet, often more efficiently.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Zababa 5y ago
    Interesting, I don't think about it this way. I don't mind friends at work, though those are usually less close to me than friends I made in school/university/on the internet. For university, yes you can get the actual education for free, but a diploma is a very good safety net, at least in France, and usually a requirement for people to consider your application. I also liked the freedom it gave me, I had a few years to "breathe" between high-school and working. University is also very cheap in France, I paid less than 1000€ for a master's degree in computer science/software engineering.
    - qwerty456127 5y ago
      > I don't mind friends at work, though those are usually less close Neither do I, but exactly the second part. Those are people you would probably feel sympathetic to, care about and enjoy a drink with occasionally but not have sex with (this can ruin everything), invite to your wedding or actually want to visit your home any often. But an Anti-Café is a totally different story: you meet relaxed, intentionally open complete strangers there, having no interest in you other than your actual person and having good time with you, and the magic happens. There I had some happiest moments in my life (without alcohol - almost unimaginable when colleagues meet outside the office) and met the only people who I consider my "soulmates". Needless to say we never mentioned our jobs until years passed and a genuine reason to discuss something job-related emerged. > but a diploma is a very good safety net, at least in France, and usually a requirement for people to consider your application Outside IT, right? According to my experience a diploma (unless it's a PhD in machine learning) means little in the IT sector. They mostly want experience, knowledge and some also intelligence of some sort (you know, the Interview puzzles), also some basic EQ perhaps.

fumblebee 5y ago

I spend a lot of time working in "normal" cafés. I'm struggling to see the benefit of paying for time and having sustenance (e.g. coffee) be free, instead of paying for sustenance and having the time be free. I've never once been asked to leave a cafe after I've paid for __, and subsequently spent a few hours there.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago
>I've never once been asked to leave a cafe after I've paid for __, and subsequently spent a few hours there. I guarantee the proprietor will be complaining as soon as you have left.
- bananamerica 5y ago
  Why should I care about a hypothetical complaint I will never hear about?
  - pantulis 5y ago
    Because if someone complains about you it is because they feel you did them some wrong. You should try to lead your life not making others think you are offending them because society as a whole is better when people are happy and not pissed off.
    - bananamerica 5y ago
      But its hypothetical, meaning that it may no even exist. If it ceases to be hypothetical I can act on it, otherwise why should I care?
- goodcanadian 5y ago
  I guarantee the proprietor will be complaining as soon as you have left. If the place was busy and you were occupying a table without ordering anything, maybe. But if the place was otherwise fairly empty, they probably don't mind very much. It can even be a benefit to have a few tables occupied so that the place doesn't look completely dead.

ACow_Adonis 5y ago

Take consideration of the extent of public libraries, parks, actual cafes and co-working spaces that all provide these services in many places in the west. Many of those come with specific spaces for games and socialising and meeting rooms, and presumably often with a higher grade of food/service or are alternatively, free. If you remove the semi-american notion of being 'stink-eyed' or hurried out of the cafe, then I become more confused about how such a space has sufficient demand to keep surviving. I admit the thought of being charged by the minute irks me in a particular way...

the_gipsy 5y ago

When I was in my 20s in spain, we decided it wasn’t great to always hang out at bars and drink alcohol, and cafés offerings are too limited for prolonged time. We took out a rent of some half-cellar as a social club. We had pingpong, some videogames, and a mix of hobbies and tools around. We just pooled some money for rent, and additionally had some beverage/donations fridge for guests. It worked out fine for some years until some people moved out of town and it was getting too expensive. I really loved it because there was always someone around, no need to arrange meetings with different people (which gets complicated proportional to age).

edwcross 5y ago

In Paris and other French cities, you have "game cafés", where you pay per hour (or you buy food which is worth a "1-hour ticket"), and they bring you the games, so you don't have to own them. Good for trying out new games (which they of course sell you, if you want to take home), but neither free food nor free time. Otherwise, some places have public "ludothèques" for playing board games, like public libraries; but these are non-profit associations, and they usually don't sell anything.

elpescado 5y ago

> Do young people in big European cities have no problems with finding a place to meet friends? Here in Europe there are places like cafes, restaurants, bars, parks, libraries, museums, galleries, shopping centres, town squares, gyms, clubs or just plain outdoor areas that people use to hang out with one another.