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Don’t let the recent events showcased by Digg deter you, Columbia, Missouri is actually a really nice place to live, gamer or otherwise.

I’ve lived in/near Columbia my entire life and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else (ok, maybe Boston. Go Red Sox!)

Columbia is a smaller city, basically just a college town really with its young population. Don’t let our youth fool you though, this is still the Midwest, so if you’re looking a place where the trends are set, you probably want to go somewhere else.

Since we’re all gamers, let me give you a rundown of the “sights.”

Columbia is home to the original Slackers CDs and Games a used game store started by two guys right out of college and grown into a small Midwestern chain.

If you’ve heard of Slackers before, it’s probably because of this (and I’ll admit, that’s pretty low,) but if you’re not looking to buy a console, it’s definitely a step up from the local Gamestop (of which we have two.)

One of the good things about Columbia is that things rarely are a huge deal. Excluding Slackers, it was pretty easy to find a Wii when it debuted (I got mine at a Best Buy about a week after launch and there were still around 10 in stock.) It makes buying things pretty painless.

Like Omar’s Paris, we too have a LAN-café type of place, called the Virtual Arena. Consoles, PC’s, they got it all and they project games onto huge pull-down screens. I don’t frequent it as much as I should, but it’s got that same sense of community Omar was talking about.

Unfortunately, that’s about it. Our arcade, Gunther’s Games, shut down a few years ago and the games columnist in our local paper got let go last year (not the student paper I sometimes work at mind you.)

I guess the only other reason for Bitmobbers to come to Columbia is to see two of your own: yours truly and AJ Hurst. And AJ’s graduating this semester, so by August, I’ll be the only one here.

A gamer’s paradise, it might not be, but it’s comfortable and it’s home — for me anyways.

In short: come visit! I’m going to be lonely!