At Vortex Games, the tables are as important as anything on the shelves. They’re where people come to play, but they’re also where they spend time together.
That’s what Chris Harborne had in mind when he opened the downtown Sackville game store in 2016.
“I wanted to make sure there was a community gaming space, a way that people could enjoy their hobbies and their games,” Harborne said.
He calls Vortex a “third place.” People spend much of their lives at home and at work. This gives them somewhere else to go.
“It gives them somewhere else to be,” Harborne said. “But they can still enjoy the game or hobby that they love.”
Vortex grew out of another game store in Sackville. Black Bowser Comics was operating in the same building as Harborne’s computer business Downtown Digital when its owner decided to close.
Harborne was already a longtime gamer. He had played Magic: The Gathering and had been into Warhammer since Grade 8, so he decided to open a game store of his own.
Vortex started primarily as a card store. Games Workshop approached Harborne about carrying its products around 2017 or 2018, and Warhammer grew from there.
Harborne says Vortex is now the largest Warhammer retailer in Atlantic Canada. Miniature wargaming has become the store’s biggest category.
But Warhammer is only one part of the store. Vortex carries Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Lorcana and Riftbound cards, along with games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
There’s also an arcade.
Harborne has been building it up as a personal project for about six years. Vortex now has seven pinball machines, including a new Pokémon machine.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Harborne remembers people turning to Warhammer because they suddenly had time at home to build and paint.
Vortex spent part of that period handing model kits through the door for people to work on at home.
But the tables inside the store have remained just as important as the shelves.
Vortex runs regular events throughout the week. Friday Night Magic gives card players a place to meet, while wargaming takes over on Thursdays. More structured tournaments are usually held on weekends.
Some of those events reach well beyond Sackville. Harborne says players come from Halifax for Warhammer and card game events, while a group of Warhammer players regularly makes the trip from Truro.
The store also tries to make room for people who don’t already know the games.
Some customers walk in knowing the exact Space Marine army they’re building. Others are parents who have heard their child talking about Space Marines and have no idea what that means.
Harborne says the goal is to make both feel comfortable asking for help.
“Someone can usually talk to you about your hobby, the game, whatever it is that you’re interested in to try to give you advice if you need it,” he said.
For Harborne, the physical space still matters.
He believes there are fewer places where people, particularly young people, can simply spend time.
“There’s definitely not enough spaces for kids, for third spaces,” Harborne said. “It’s really important for the community to have access to that.”
Games give people a reason to use that space.
Harborne points to Commander, a multi-player way to play Magic: The Gathering. He jokes that it’s for “nerds who wanted to play poker but didn’t like poker.”
But the game also gives friends an excuse to meet every week.
“You can hang out with your friends and just talk,” Harborne said. “If you get together once a week, you can talk about things that happened, and you just, you have a medium to do it.”
Harborne says that can be particularly important for boys.
Growing up, he remembers that getting together with his own friends usually required something to do. The activity made the gathering easier.
“For guys especially, having a medium to get together is something that is kind of needed,” Harborne said.
He believes getting people out of their homes and away from their daily routines can also ease some mental stress.
The relationships that start around those games can stick.
Harborne remembers a local customer who first came into Vortex in middle school interested in learning Magic. He was high-energy and would run the length of the store during events.
Staff taught him how to play.
He now works at Vortex part-time.
Jesse Francis first found the gaming space while attending Mount Allison University.
He came to Sackville from Prince Edward Island and started playing there around 2012, back when it was still Black Bowser Comics.
Francis eventually left Sackville to do his master’s degree and later moved back. The people he met through gaming were still here.
“This store specifically, these are people I’ve known for years,” Francis said. “Stopping coming here would be like giving up a friend group that I’ve had for what, like a decade at this point.”
Francis says tabletop gaming offers something different from playing against someone online.
“When you play against someone in person, you’re constantly forced to recognize that it’s a person exactly like you, equally as invested, maybe more invested, and deserving of consideration,” Francis said.
“It’s not always easy when it’s like a faceless person on the internet.”
For Francis, the value of a game store also goes beyond friendship.
He spent years playing fighting games and remembers how difficult losing could be when there was nobody else to blame. There was no bad roll of the dice or teammate responsible for the outcome.
He says games can give people a place to deal with that kind of frustration and learn how to improve.
“What a game store can do and what games can do is give you a space to sort of face difficulty and face failure in trying to learn something or improve at something,” Francis said.
“It’s very rarely about the games. It’s about what you can take away from those experiences to apply in everyday life.”
Vortex is approaching its 10th anniversary and Harborne is still working on the space.
New furniture is planned for the play area. He’s also preparing to make Vortex’s own online content from a studio inside the store and work with more gaming content creators.
Running Vortex in a small town can be difficult. Harborne says there are fewer customers than in Moncton or Halifax, and it can be hard to bring people into Sackville.
But he’s proud of what Vortex has been able to build here.
“We’ve been able to provide for the gaming community in a rural location,” Harborne said.
After nearly a decade, the question for Harborne isn’t whether Vortex should keep its play space. It’s what else he can do with it.
“Is there something else we can do that makes the third place more inviting and more open to more people?” he said.
Theodore Ramharack holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Western University and a diploma in Broadcast Journalism. He recently completed an internship with CBC News’ The National.
Originally from Ontario, he moved to Sackville to join CHMA as a local journalist and is excited to get to know the Tantramar region and share stories from the community.
