EN PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY – Game of Magic: The Gathering takes place on the final day of operations at Game Haven on Saturday afternoon. Store owner Scott Turner attributed the decision to his reduced income after moving from the Marshalltown Mall earlier this year and the resulting deterioration in his mental and physical health.

Scott Turner has worked at least two jobs since he was a teenager and has poured his heart and soul into Game Haven for the past three years; It was a store he advertised as a safe place for customers of all ages. Gamers of Magic: The Gathering, Mario Kart, or something in between. But after calculating that the operation was taking a toll on his mental and physical health, Turner made the difficult decision to close the mall and give himself time, acknowledging the financial hit he had suffered since leaving the beleaguered Marshalltown Mall in March. hold your breath

The last day Game Haven was open was Saturday. Since its move, 204 S. 1st Ave. It was located behind a building shared with Remix Dance Studio, another “mall orphan” that moved in after the New York-based ownership group was consistently unable to pay its utility bills. until the power went out in common areas last November.

Turner, who also works full-time at Emerson, announced the impending closure in a video posted to Facebook last month, attributing it primarily to the three factors mentioned above.

“When the power went out (at the mall), our income immediately halved and we never recovered. “So I’ve been self-financing this since January and I kind of ran out of money,” he said.

He added that the situation had led to increased stress levels and although it had to try to update its stock of stock, the store was not generating enough revenue to support this. By contrast, the new space “doesn’t actually look like a retail store” and the main entrance was through a back door in an alley.

“We had difficulty getting people there, which could have been solved with money, but it was something we didn’t have,” Turner said.

Perhaps most alarming was the sharp deterioration of the owner’s physical health: Between September and October, he was admitted to the emergency room four times and suffered seizures twice.

“That was kind of the nail in the coffin. “When all this started happening, we all collectively decided, ‘Yes, while the store is great and good for the community, it’s not worth risking my health,'” he said.

While he feels he made the right decision, the negative impact of losing yet another “third place” in Marshalltown, where like-minded people have the opportunity to gather and make friends, is certainly not lost on Turner. Marshalltown’s Brecken Gavagan regular shared his thoughts at one of the final Magic games on Saturday, joking that his mother calls Game Haven “home.”

“We started a family here. We knew everyone here by name, and it was so much fun to have a place where we could be ourselves,” she said.

Seth Anderson, another member of the unofficial family, said he drives here every Friday from his home in Ames because he loves the area.

“This was the one day of the week where I actually got out of the house and spent time somewhere other than work or home,” Anderson said. “So I’m really going to miss this.”

For some of Turner’s clients, who fit the “basement-dwelling” gamer stereotype, Game Haven was the only opportunity to socialize.

“They started coming to the store and then they had friends. They were hanging out with people outside Game Haven. “We’ve helped a lot of people with their schoolwork, so now they’re doing well in school, where they were struggling before,” he said. “So it’s a big resource to waste because there’s no other place in the city where you can go and hang out. You have a bowling alley, but there’s just no space to sit and do your own thing. What about bowling? you have to play or play little arcade games or sit at the bar and most of these people are not old enough to sit at the bar.

Besides the city’s entertainment venues for people 21 and over, the public library is another meeting place, but it has its own restrictions, and although there is a new gaming store in Marshalltown (Artemis Tavern), Turner noted that that store closes at 5 p.m. most days. Realistically, he acknowledged that he probably should have closed Game Haven after the mall issue, but his desire to provide such a space pushed him to move forward regardless.

“Sometimes it doesn’t happen and that’s what happens,” he said.

Luckily for local gaming fans, the community Turner played such a big part in creating won’t be completely destroyed. His assistant Max Pietrzak will continue to run Smash tournaments at Marshalltown Community College (MCC) through the school’s eSports program, and the Game Haven Discord chat will remain “active” with regular meetups and events currently in the works.

On a personal front, Turner is looking forward to “doing absolutely nothing” for the next six months; relax, take a few vacations with his girlfriend, spend time with his family and friends, and try to be a normal guy for a while.

“I’ve had two jobs since I was 14, so this will actually be the first time I’ve had one job in 30 years, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with all my work time. But after my little break is over, I’m looking forward to attending some (Dungeons and Dragons) games and seeing some Magic players at a “I intend to see if I can get it together and organize some events,” he said. “I’m actually enrolled in college for next year, so right now I’m going to try to join the eSports team and try to get some scholarship money. “Even though I’m not very good at Smash, I’m pretty good at Street Fighter.”

He and Pietrzak still talk “every day” and plan to keep the core group intact, even if it’s not in person for now. Ray Taton, who regularly goes to Game Haven with his wife from their home in Eldora, said discussions are ongoing about hosting events and finding other stores with a similar atmosphere, but he knows that would likely require traveling to Ames, Des Moines or further afield. Waterloo-Cedar Falls area.

“It’s always going to be hard to find something like this, even at other stores,” Taton said. “It can be hard to find a place with like-minded people who enjoy the same things without being looked down upon by everyone around us, and losing another space like this makes it even harder to find people who enjoy those things. Maybe there are a few different people on the internet who are close enough that maybe you’ll get along.” We do that without going through the loop. Whereas in places like this, you show up, everyone’s here, it’s Tuesday night, everyone’s here to play Pokemon, and after you’ve only appeared a few times, you’ve played with everyone, and the same goes for Magic… Playing with them. “You find people you like and who really help you with everything, and that’s hard to find now.”

While it may be “game over” for the store, which first opened almost three years ago in November 2021, Turner hopes those who loved Game Haven will remember it as a safe place where lifelong bonds were formed and people were accepted for who they were.

“It didn’t matter who you were. We always smiled at the door and said, ‘Hey.’ We made a lot of friends, a lot of memories. I hope people remember that there is a need for some kind of community center for kids and young people, even old people, to come together and do their own thing without judgment ” he said. . “Maybe one day someone else can take on this task and do it. “It will never be Game Haven, but it could be a great thing for the community.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or [email protected].