On the ground floor of the Santa Maria Town Center mall, Kenneth John Guge III runs a business unique from any other in the realm. With Leisure Time Games, Guge has created not only a well-stocked store dedicated to selling a large selection of board games, card games, and related merchandise, but also a central agora for the many players of those games on the Central Coast. Thanks to these enthusiastic champions of the board, who often sit embroiled in battles at game tables placed right in front of the store’s entrance, Leisure Time Games adds a great deal of activity and excitement to its surroundings.
When asked how he got into this business, Guge said, “Well, it was a hobby gone totally wrong. Started with Dungeons and Dragons and started playing Magic [the Gathering] and started playing some of the Games Workshop war games. You know, fell in with the wrong crowd and the next thing you know here I am.”
Originally founded as KJG Games Group in 1999 in the Big 5 shopping center off of Broadway, the business moved to the Santa Maria Town Center in 2003. The store is hard to miss, even when a tournament isn’t taking place outside. The store’s entire frontage opens as wide as a castle gate, revealing well-lit shelves full of the colorful games and merchandise that line every one of its walls. Currently the store also offers comic books, used video games, and a cluster of networked computers for gamers, along with classic board and card games. Customers have a powerful resource in Guge, who operates the store himself most days. He enjoys offering some of his encyclopedic knowledge about games of all shapes and sizes to gamers of all levels.
Despite the fun-oriented nature of the store, Guge still has to think like a businessman. “There are definitely [business] cycles. At one time, Pokémon, that was the huge thing and then it died off. It’s still around, but not like it used to be. And Yu Gi Oh!—same kind of thing. Magic has gone through a few cycles.”
The market also has been changing each year due to the continued growth of video games, which Guge has started selling with his other merchandise.
“Now when people come in and they say, ‘Do you have games here?’ They’re usually asking for video games,” he said.
In addition to running the store, Guge holds a number of different game sessions throughout the week, including Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Magic the Gathering. He also organizes tournaments throughout the year for other games and he even puts on a big games convention, called CENCON, which is about to take place Dec. 8 through 10.
“That’s going be our big one,” Guge said of CENCON. “We do something like that five times a year. Usually it’s a one-day thing, just the one we do in December is a three-dayer.
“The CENCON thing usually gets 100 or more people coming in to play board and card games all day long,” he continued. “We take over another room in the mall here and load it with tables and chairs.”
A lifelong gamer himself, Guge’s passion for organizing these events is palpable.
“[I] turned a hobby into a career. I was painting houses before that. This is way better,” he said laughing.
Going into the future, Guge is confident about the position of his business in the marketplace.
“As long as there’s somebody out there who actually wants to interact with another person, there will be board games,” he said.
For more information about Leisure Time Games and its frequent game-related events, call 614-4263 or go to leisuretimegames.com.
Highlights
• A current and a retired employee of Marian Regional Medical Center have been featured as authors in a recently published book, “Great Health Care—Making It Happen.”
Kathleen Sullivan, the hospital’s vice president of Dignity Health Home Health, and retired employee Kathi Farrell, the former congestive heart failure program coordinator, are the authors of a chapter on “great health care. The contributors to the book share their stories, motivations, and the methods they have used to transform care for their own patients within their own practices and health systems.
The chapter Sullivan and Farrell wrote details the hospitalization process for patients with congestive heart failure and outlines how Marian Regional Medical Center established and operates its successful Congestive Heart Failure program.
Biz Spotlight was written by Intern Frank Gonzales. Highlights are written and compiled by Managing Editor Amy Asman. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2012.