I haven't been to the downtown bars and clubs in my city nearly at all in the past two-and-a-half years. Maybe just once or twice. Before that I used to go there fairly often. My face was known in nearly every establishment in the downtown area. However, even back then, Inever got anything from it. I never got laid from any girl during that entire period I used to go downtown (which was on and off for 4 years). I never even got a single phone number or a social media. Although I didn't really try, either. My focus was mainly on just getting drunk.
I no longer drink alcohol. I haven't had a drop of alcohol in two and a half years. I quit because I was drinking everyday and I no longer want to do that.
I just randomly and accidentally drove by downtown while people were out at the bars. The girls that I was mostly looked immature and like kids. I'm 34. I'm not sure if there's any point in me trying to go downtown again.
Your experience is only unusual in the sense that you were not trying. Many men are active in nightlife and are trying to get vagina. Many men, despite their activity in nightlife and their goal of sex, fail to get sex. In any given night of nightlife, well over 95% of men fail to have sex that night. A few more men than that emerge with phone numbers, but the majority of those phone numbers go nowhere.
On the whole, meeting women in non-bar venues will generally be more productive. However, the major advantage that bars have is the quantity of attractive women in one area who are single, reasonably attractive, and looking to meet men. No grocery store, mall, gym/fitness class can make the same claim. You'd be hard pressed to find a walking/hiking path or dense city street that could offer you that either.
Women you meet at non-bar locations will be more likely to take an approach seriously if there are actively in the market for meeting new men. Attention whoring is common in nightlife, and even more common on social media and swipe apps.
You saying that you generally are very quiet until you have had 3-4 drinks makes me feel like you need to work on your approach/confidence if you are that closed off. Plus, you don't necessarily want to be very tipsy/drunk when you are making your first approach. You can get sloppy and you are automatically going to turn some women off if they sense you have a lot of alcohol on board.
This is one of the big barriers to entry of daygame. Most men are unable to approach women in a non-bar location while sober. That explains the popularity of social media/swipe apps for men with no social circle, an increasing % of the male population. It also explains why nightlife exists and why men have tried to build social circles. The men who do daygame regularly have the best chops in game.
I live out in the burbs, if you want any action it's gotta be downtown. I pretty much have no choice
It depends on the city, though most metropolitan areas follow the model you describe.
One of the few examples of a metropolitan area that does not follow that model is Phoenix, Arizona. In Metro Phoenix, the biggest areas of nightlife have been in two suburbs, Scottsdale and Tempe. Tempe is the home to Arizona State University, one of the biggest party colleges in the United States. However, Scottsdale has had an active nightlife scene for decades. For instance, in 1990, its population was 130,000 when Phoenix's was 983,000. Tempe was 141,000 in 1990. All 3 cities have grown immensely since 1990. Even then, Scottsdale had active nightlife, though the 1990s is about when Scottsdale overtook Phoenix as the center of nightlife in that metroplitan area.
Phoenix proper now has a population of 1,681,000, so there's enough of a singles scene in Phoenix itself that a person would have solid options even if they confined themselves to Phoenix. Scottsdale is now just over 250,000 and Tempe is in the high 100s. Both suburbs have a big congregation of 20s/30s singles and nightlife.
