The Myth of the FLGS

[cutebutpsycho]

For me, the whole gaming thing happened when a kid I was nannying decided he wanted to do Warhammer. Mom asked if I'd do it with him cause I 'got that whole Lord of the Rings thing' so I did. Then, when going into gaming shops, I found Reaper, my paint group, and the group I game with.

 

As for FLGS, I'm extremely fortunate to have 3 right here in the twin cities. We have Dreamers-where I have my paint club. They carry most of the reaper stuff (unless it's nude or exposed breasts), they have gaming space, and they'll order anything for you. Their staff isn't overly attentive, but if you go to the cash register, they'll sure help you out. They also have a weekly painting club. Then we have Misty Mountain-clean, newish, TONS of playing space, decent selection of Reaper, and they'll order anything they don't have. The staff (read owner) is helpful, friendly, and attentive. Last, but certainly not least, we have the Source. They have EVERYTHING gaming related, if by some odd chance they've sold out of what you want, they'll order it. They have friendly, helpful staff, lots of em too. They have gaming space, they have special events. It's like a little piece of heaven!

 

Maybe we're just lucky around here, but were it not for our wonderful gaming stores, I would still be stuck painting GW stuff that I'd never play with cause it takes too long to run a game and a lot of the kids are rules lawyers.

[kristof65]

LW said it well - FLGS are about the communities they foster. They serve two very important purposes, and they can serve those purposes in different ways. The first purpose is to connect gamers to each other. Some do this with in-store gaming, other's do this with bulletin boards or other means, like lists of players who play particular games.

 

The second purpose is a place to get your game stuff, and hear about new games. Part of the second purpose has been replaced by the plethora of online retailers.

 

A comic shop with a 4' section of games and a bulletin board can have just as much of an effect in connecting gamers as store with a huge in-store gaming area. The real key to it, though, is the people working the place being enthusiastic about connecting gamers. The comic shop through which I met one of my past game groups had a great employee named Mike who maintained the shops bulletin board, and made efforts to connect gamers to each other. He knew about most of the groups in town, and what people were playing, so when people he didn't recognize came in and showed interest in particular games, he'd point them to the group who was playing that particular game. He'd also special order anything, and get it in a timely manner (where he could). He managed all of that with no more than one 12' back wall devoted to gaming, in a store that couldn't have been more than 300 square feet.

 

On the flip side, a store with an in-store gaming area, but a staff who expects gamers to come to them, doesn't do anything to help foster a community. A prime example is the local GW store here. You can come in and play 40k or WFB or LOTR there, but don't expect them to help you find another Necromunda or Warmaster player.

 

I got into miniature gaming because of the aforementioned comic shop, which was in Farifield, CA. I was looking for a roleplaying group, and Mike suggested a couple names off the bulletin board. That's how I met the guy who's been my best friend for the last 20 years, and he got me into the mini's gaming. Mike sent a lot more gamers our way, too.

 

There are several stores here in the Denver Metro area that are good at connecting gamers. I met several members of my current RPG group via one of them - same thing - a staff who is enthusiastic about gaming and connecting gamers. Other stores here - not so much. I'm currently boycotting one store because the new owners don't seem to be fostering the communities that were there, and then dropped the ball on a special order for me last year at christmas time.

[wildbill]

Last I heard the owners were moving to Oklahoma.

 

Sweet. Thanks for that heads up. Maybe I can reap those benefits...

 

 

As far as other shops there is a great one in Springfield Missouri called Meta Games Unlimmited I sometimes go to. I've played Warmachine there a few times and had a blast. It's well stocked, well staffed, well lit, and has cleaner bathrooms than most department stores. I wish I lived closer to it but it's an hour and a half away.

 

I have wondered if this store was still open or not. I used to frequent that store when I was in college at Rolla, MO (also about an hour and a half away). I knew the owner (at the time) really well. His name was Rick. In 2002, he was killed in a motorcycle accident, and after that I could just never bring myself to go back there.

 

 

But, back to the topic at hand: my first experience with minis was also Battletech, like lots of other people. I was in high school at the time, and there were only 3 of us. One guy was "DM", while the other two ran two characters each just so we had a squad of 4 running around. It was a mix of role playing and minis that we attempting to do at 15 years old.

 

Once I got to college in Rolla, gaming was only board games at first. Then, as computers got better, I branched out into those games. A friend got a job at a local store called Eclipse Books and Comics. At that time, it was owned by this little old lady who started the store to only sell science fiction and fantasy books. Barnes & Noble has nothing on what she had for those genres. The store had been open like 15 years or more by the time I got a job working there. Sometime in the 80s, one of the college kids convinced her to order the D&D books in for him to buy. Someone else saw them, wanted them, and so she branched out to RPGs in general. Eventually, that lead to comic books. Not too long before I started frequenting the place, she had been convinced to try out ccgs as well as mini based games (mostly GW products). I eventually worked up to running all of the mini gaming in the store, including what to order, and ran a game night every Thursday starting at 6 PM (an hour after the store normally closed) and ending whenever I felt like going home. I would run tournaments for Warhammer all the time, and people from Metagames would come for them, and we would go to their tournaments. It was a blast.

 

After I graduated, I moved back home to Kansas City, where there was only one LGS, Table Top. Now, I have friends that go there faithfully every week and have a good time and all of that. Maybe I'm just an a-hole or something, but as soon as I walked into the place to try and start hanging out and playing Warhammer, everyone just acted like I was encroaching on sacred Indian land or something. I never met the owner, but one of his employees was a total schmuck, so I told him off in front of everyone with a few choice words (getting a few gasps along the way) and then left, never to return. So, I basically retreated to computer gaming and Magic.

 

Fast forward several years to 2005: I transfer to Tulsa, OK for my job (having money to pay bills is a good thing ) and once there, I started looking in the yellow pages to see if there were any game stores. I called two or three likely prospects before finally getting a hold of Top Deck Games. I got directions to the place, telling them I had just moved to the town. I walked in, Magic deck in hand (my Warhammer stuff was still packed in a box), and the owners (Eddie and Rick) acted like I was a long lost buddy finally making it back to the store. Wow. That was more like it. I have been there ever since. That first week I showed up, Warwick and another gentleman were playing what I thought was a new Warhammer skirmish game. I found out instead it was this little upstart game called Warlord by some no-name company called Reaper.

 

Now I hardly play computer games any more, and I have sold all of my Magic cards (gotta feed that mini habit! ) and I have been at Top Deck ever since.

 

Wild Bill

Edited October 26, 2007 by wildbill

[Beowulfthehunter]

Gaming, My Life, My Love, My Obsession, Gaming.

 

For me I have always been a tinkerer. I like putting things togeather, taking them appart, and coloring books so it was natual that I would get into gaming/miniatures.

 

I first got into gaming via Hero Quest and Battlemasters. Both where bought on cleance from the local Venture (white trash K-mart). Then moved on to Sige of the Citadel. I played with the local mess ups most of whom are now in jail, rehab, etc... Someone mentioned that there was a store a few miles away that sold miniatures I could use in Hero Quest. I went in an for 2.15 I bought my first mini a Julie Guthie Female Barbarian. There was just something about the minis that called to me. I ended up getting into D&D Via the Brown Box bought at the local book store and Battletech purchased from a swap meet.

 

My first game store was a local comic book store called The Fiction House. I went in to get my weekly comics or my Dad would stop for me on his way home from work. One day he told me about a game they where playing called Magic. I went down and checked it out. Now I know I am being rather disjointed but I was involved in gaming, comics, and other htings of that nature to deal with the world around me. Having low self-esteem gaming was a great way for me to socialize.

 

My senior year of High School I got into 40k and Warzone and was told I could not play if the minis where not painted so I learned to paint. I continued on all throughout Highschool and College. There where various game stores in the area, but for the most start I spent my time at the orignal game store.

 

After a falling out I started hanging out at another game store where I went to school Challenge Games. After same bad decisions the store went under and now I am in a situation where there are no game stores within 20 miles of my house. The nearest is 40min away and only will order stuff (which takes ages). The other two stores are 70 miles North or South of me and I try to take monthy trips to one of them.

 

As it stands I goe to Games Plus up in Mt. Prospect, the baest darn game store ever or down to Armored Gopher in Champaign. While they might be small they are indeed freindly.

 

 

I have seen my share of bad game stores. I use to go to a 3D House of Games which would not allow people to eat White Castle in the store and would not allow you to enter if you have. He even had a Swear Jar where he tried to charge people if the cussed. The store wnet under and as people came in to check things out he would badmouth them over the phone to his freinds "here come more vultures to pick the bones.

[matsumoto]

there are all kinds of FLGS...and do they differ....

 

the unfriendlies are vastly different...our local champion, Escape Games, fell under when the legendary Walt Mecham sold it to some ***** self interested tool-head who used the dealership to max out his GW collection at wholesale. i was gonna throw 200 dolars of reaper orders his way (warlord had just gotten momentum), but he woudn't even front an attempt....the ****** ***** ****!!

 

yeah. say the least, the hard part IM(NS)HO is finding the freindly.

we miss you, Walt!

 

My Bragging Rights:

 

Blackstone Hobbies, Dixon TN.

a very fine store, but made my mother hate what i loved. scars still remain...at least i got into historical wargamming early, despite the hippie queen's attempts...

O-Zone Comics, Pocatello ID.

gave a nod to RPG and Magic, but when L5R came out, i was hooked....gaming wasn't for them...

Escape Games, Poca ID:

the long running men-of-men's store. Walt was cool, but hired the roughest support. i remeber when i told some fools that GW paint jobs were representationaly inaccurate, and they asked me who i was to shoot down GW...(Beck, it's been 9 years, you had better have gotten good!)

Vostro Passione Hobbies, Chubbuck ID:

definitely a POS. the store did have the coolest manager who would open the store's backroom past hours for 8-to-4 am game romps! Dedros, you are still the man, too bad the store sucked....

A Street games, Idaho falls, ID:

the present Imperial gamestore, albeit 54 miles away from me house! these guys have a healthy store...it will soon be longer running than Escapes....

Excalibur games, Idaho falls, ID

A Street's closet-operation competition. they offer a discount, but it's cash only...*sigh*

Empire Comics, Poca, ID:

they run hero clix and magic...were it not for Anachronism and Halo Clix i would be just an occasional passing wind. John is very cool, and is slowly reaching local legend status

and our brand newest!...

Black Tower games, Blackfoot, ID:

too new to tell, at least he looks like he's got direction....

 

i've been in the sticks too long....

[Ironworker]

Gaming, My Life, My Love, My Obsession, Gaming.

 

For me I have always been a tinkerer. I like putting things togeather, taking them appart, and coloring books so it was natual that I would get into gaming/miniatures.

 

I first got into gaming via Hero Quest and Battlemasters. Both where bought on cleance from the local Venture (white trash K-mart).

 

You can get something lower than K-mart? K-mart is white trash Wal-Mart which is of course white trash Target. Although I've developing a sersious hate for Wally world. Never was impressed with it much but I won't buy things there unless it's an emergency. Every electronics item I've purchased from that place has been trash from DVD players to shop lites.

[Ironworker]

Last I heard the owners were moving to Oklahoma.

 

Sweet. Thanks for that heads up. Maybe I can reap those benefits...

 

 

As far as other shops there is a great one in Springfield Missouri called Meta Games Unlimmited I sometimes go to. I've played Warmachine there a few times and had a blast. It's well stocked, well staffed, well lit, and has cleaner bathrooms than most department stores. I wish I lived closer to it but it's an hour and a half away.

 

I have wondered if this store was still open or not. I used to frequent that store when I was in college at Rolla, MO (also about an hour and a half away). I knew the owner (at the time) really well. His name was Rick. In 2002, he was killed in a motorcycle accident, and after that I could just never bring myself to go back there.

 

Yeah a guy named Carl runs it now I think. I always liked the shop and it's really in top shape now. One of the best shops I've seen buisnesswise and quite a nice place to play.

After I graduated, I moved back home to Kansas City, where there was only one LGS, Table Top. Now, I have friends that go there faithfully every week and have a good time and all of that. Maybe I'm just an a-hole or something, but as soon as I walked into the place to try and start hanging out and playing Warhammer, everyone just acted like I was encroaching on sacred Indian land or something. I never met the owner, but one of his employees was a total schmuck, so I told him off in front of everyone with a few choice words (getting a few gasps along the way) and then left, never to return. So, I basically retreated to computer gaming and Magic.

 

I've been to Table Top. They use to have a great selection of minis from all over the place but I've heard they are cutting back to GW, Privateer, and Reaper for RPG players pluss the regular pre-painted crap. Never had a problem with the staff but I never went there to do anything other than shop.

[Fruggs]

I have a few around

The Hobbit : 5 min away

carries heaps of RPG's Table tops, models, card games, swords, paints, and even some forgotten realms books and warhammer books. they are 5 min from my house, been there for 37 years and they have some gems. partha models chainmail, battletech minis,as well as reaper, gw ranges, warmachie , clix games and everything, and they order anything they can get for you, very nice and they know me by name and set aside models they think I might like. they only have gaming Saturdays in the building beside them as the SPCA pays the rent and hosts bingo on fridays.

 

I go paint occasionally as there are a few guys who have placed in teh Golden Daemon comp who paint there, but it is rare as no kiddos are allowed under 14 there on sats to play and I have to get a sitter

 

Hit Point Hobbies: 45 min

carries reapers, tons of board games, card games, gw stuff, he will also order anything for me and knows me by name, and calls when he gets new things in, he has a gaming area open downstairs with tables, and a big tv with console games to play.

 

The Lost Goblin Games: 2 hours away

carries a smattering of reaper, mostly gw and has some paint but not much, I think it is a newish store and it was VERY hards to find. I got lost.

 

Game Masters: 1h 45 min away,

Has a fair selection of reaper and some paint, has models and lots of Gw also has a gaming area, but the owner was really creepy toward me, and kinda freaked me out so I haven't been back.

 

Gamer's Guild 20 min:

they hav mostly 40k stuff and cardgames, some vidoes and rpg stuff, but there stock is very limited, no reaper, and they have a goming area

 

I am sure there are more but they are out of the way further than these

 

Well I am a newb to the hobby and wouldn't even know about it without a FLGS.

I have always liked miniature stuff. Small thigns are cooler than big things.... Anyway and I vaguely remember my older brother talking about Warhammer and putting things together but He and I never really hung out together I was the annoying lil sis, and he was cool with his friends. My dad does model railroading and makes layouts and things and that has always intrigued me but the train aspect was slightly boring. I have always wanted to make a castle with knights and what not and had been looking into 1:72nd scale stuff. but nothing really was cool enough.

How I was introduced to minis was Hubby and I were looking for a place that carried model airplanes and found a store locater that stocked plane stuff or was listed as a distributer we took a ride and found Hit Point Hobbies. We went in and he had a small rack of Reaper minis. I had been playing Baldurs Gate 2 with my lil bro, and Heroscape, and thought the minis were sweet for heroscape. Well I looked through the rack of figs and found a model that looked exactly how I pictured my lil bro's character to be, even had a little beard, Garrity's Trathus Varr. Well I bought him and another that vaguely looked like mine.

Then I went back to the Hobbit and asked if they carried figures. YES! the way the shop it set up there is a big huge book rack down the middle of the store and it ends right by the cash register so I assumed you couldn't go back there (kinda liek a jewelry counter) and I had no idea customers could go behind there.

 

For me without a store I would not know about reaper or mini painting at all.... I am a littel worried about when we are finally stationed somewhere else, I like my FLGS's.

[Warlady]

We're lucky - we have four major FLGS out here in the metro Phoenix area, and all of them have events of all sorts pretty much all the time. Game Depot in Tempe is our major hangout, but we also like Gamemaster Games in Gilbert, and Imperial Outpost in Phoenix, and sometimes Gamer's Inn in Mesa. There are a few other game stores around, but overall, not impressive ones. But even the GameDaze at the malls sell Reaper minis and paints and have D&D nights in the store. We go to various events at Game Depot, and those have branched out to other contacts and other games/events outside the store. :-)

 

I got into tabletop gaming with Classic BattleTech more years ago than I care to say...I was living in Puerto Rico at the time, and a young friend got me into it. I started collecting wizards and dragons back then, too, and had to do most of it by mail order, as there was no such thing as a FLGS in Mayaguez. I did mail order for most everything until I was introduced to Game Depot about 4 or 5 years ago. Yay! A real store, where you could pick things up and really look at them in your hands before you bought them!

 

Right now, I do about half and half online vs LGS purchasing. It depends on what I'm buying. The stores around here pretty much carry the standard lines - Reaper, GW, PP, some Rackham. If I want anything else, I order it direct. The thing about miniatures games, I've been told by several store owners, is that it's hard to get people to play a new game (and hence, stock the minis for it) unless people are already playing the new game....so you need to have someone or some group to get things started and generate interest.

 

From what I have seen, all these LGS have pretty solid communities of gamers of various sorts. There are D&D nights, board game nights, Magic tournaments, miniatures tournaments of all sorts, you name it. Just one of the advantages to living in a major metro area. I'm happy. ;-)

[Helltown]

Respectfully, I'll bow out of this one.. Kinda a conflict of interest and might quantify as advertising... I own my FLGS

[Dragon Snack]

I see no reason you can't toot your own horn, as long as everyone knows...

 

How did you get into miniatures? Was it by going to a game store - or more word of mouth from others?

Back in the day I got a few box sets (don't remember where, they may have been gifts, they may have been from Crazy Egor's). Didn't do much with them, basically clear coated them to protect me from the lead (so it must have been around the lead mini scare days).

 

I got back into minis after we had some "issues" with a player describing his actions a few years back. I didn't really drink the kool-aid until I joined a group and one of the players brought minis (mostly Reapers) that his sister had painted. He talked me into painting some of my minis and I was done...

 

Do you even have a local store (friendly or not...local I mean 30 minute drive tops)?

7 local stores...

 

However, I'm Black Lightning so I get most of my minis direct, but I also raid the bargain bins and clearance racks for minis (not necessarily from local stores).

 

How often does your local tin dealer host events? (From the survey I did this summer - it doesn't look like many people actually play at game stores often)

I have run events at 3 of the local stores. The big LGS has demos every Saturday and my FLGS has Clicky games every weekend (I was the first person to do demos there, but unfortunately the prepainted stuff worked out better for him).

 

What I've noticed in running events is that there will be a core group of players in a store and it's rather tough to bring in new people.

 

For various reasons it seems that Reaper and others place a lot of importance on brick and mortar stores to further the hobby...but I just don't see it as so. If the store were large enough to carry the whole line, and host games on a regular basis, and be inviting enough to not scare off passersby, and have friendly approachable staff - sure, it might help. But out of the 100 or so stores I have been in, I can only think of one or two which would fit that.

It's a strange relationship. Some game stores are not good stewards of the hobby, but they are the best way to get your product in front of the customer. Online storefronts may sell you some stuff, but (edit)not(edit) as much as the local stores will. You just have to trust them to do their job (or trust the capitalist system to take care of those that don't).

Edited October 27, 2007 by Dragon Snack

[Joe Kutz]

I know the scene is very different in the US but I've found here that the place to find gamers is in the local game clubs. This is where the regular gaming goes on and it's where you can find people to play your favorite games with.

That is one thing you don't really see in the States. Most people don't play as part of a game club, but rather a small group of friends (hopefully friends) in someones house.

 

Respectfully, I'll bow out of this one.. Kinda a conflict of interest and might quantify as advertising... I own my FLGS

Feel free to.

 

In the interest of full disclosure though, for the past year or so I have been acting somewhat as a store/mail order dealer. The local store is nearly useless for wargaming, and the local group (small group of not so much friends when I first showed up) was very much stagnant. They hadn't purchased new miniatures in over 3 years - and were playing a game which was no longer actively supported by it's publisher. It was only by chance that I happened to bump into one of them when I was at Lowes and overheard one of the members asking a store employee what type of foam would work best for carving (one thing led to another, and I found out they were going to try and make some terrain...). Anywho, I invited them over to play a few games on my game tables and it ballooned from there. After a couple weeks - they all wanted to get new armies for new games, so I helped them sort it out and took the list to the local store. Between everyone it would be about $1100 worth of tin (even at with bad terms it would still have been several hundred dollars in profit). I had the list with part numbers and a couple different distributors for the ones that wouldn't come straight from Alliance. He wasn't interested - said it would be too much hassle to deal with setting up the accounts.

 

Long short - I set up my retailers license that afternoon, and had placed orders for 90% of the stuff directly from the manufacturers (Alliance doesn't deal with you if you are not brick & mortar). The last bit, I ordered through a different online store. Since then, the small groups of gamers here in town (most of them didn't even know the others existed) have joined together and grown into an actual club. We game at several different public locations a few times a month and have larger games held every other month at a members house (that way we are not restricted by closing time). There are now 30 people who are regulars (2+ times a month) and over 60 who play from time to time (we have people who live as far as 5 hours away who come to play - so they can't make it every weekend). Just selling to the people in our group, I have sold over $35,000 worth of minis. But a lot of sales have had to be turned down - I am not a brick and mortar store, so certain manufacturers will not sell to me (and most people in the area will not buy from the local store).

 

So, in spite of a worthless game store (actually two of them...there is also another store - though I have never actually seen an employee in it, and they don't stock games - but they call themselves a game store... ) a gaming community that was once in a persistent vegetative state has become very lively.

 

Anywho...

 

Like a lot of people who have posted so far, D&D was my gateway drug. Long time ago, a friend got a copy of the Expert Edition boxed set for Christmas and we started playing it. Didn't have a clue what it was, or that anything else existed. The area were I grew up had no game stores. The closest thing that eventually carried anything game related was a bookstore that was 30 miles away. After awhile, we started using a mish mash of rules from the D&D boxed set, games like Axis and Allies and bags of cheap plastic toy soldiers from the 5 and Dime (only a 2 hour bike ride each way). That went well for several years till I was visiting my older brother who was stationed at Carswell AFB (down in Fort Worth area). He had a bunch of toy soldiers too - but his were cooler looking, made of metal and painted badly. I managed to bug him enough to take me to the store he bought them at...and I spent all the money I had on these neat new toys - I also got a catalog for a company called Ral Partha.

 

We wore that catalog out when I got home. Once I had shown my friends what I had gotten - they all wanted some too. The much of the money we earned working on farms during the summer months (back before all these silly child labor laws) went towards getting new miniatures. It wasn't for another several years that we even realized that there was more than one company that made the tin monsters and stuff. While visiting my grandpa in the hospital in the huge metropolis (I think around 10,000 people or so at the time) of Fon du Lac, WI - I needed to go for a walk (hospitals bug me). Down the road and around a corner...behind a half abandoned warehouse next to the railroad tracks - I saw a picture on a building...it was a Chimera (I had a miniature one...so I knew). I walked on down to take a closer look, and it was a store that had miniatures - and games - and lots of other stuff. But it might as well have been on a different planet. That was the nearest store to were I lived - and it was over an hours drive (in a city that you only came to if you needed to go to the hospital). I could have arranged to need stitches or have a broken bone set now and a gain in order to visit the store - but that wasn't likely to happen.

 

So - that was about it. The minis went to the wayside for the most part once I had a car (and could now drive myself to the store if I wanted - but other things preoccupied my mind at that age), and although I started to actually paint them (found it relieved my headaches after a night out drinking [not an endorsement for underage drinking]) I didn't buy anymore or really play games with them again for awhile.

 

Fast forward a few more years, and when I was unpacking a box of junk at my first base in the Air Force one of the guys from across the hall saw my miniatures. Pop - another group started up without the benefit of a store. The dorms we were in had mostly first termers on the floor that we were on, and most of us didn't have a clue about the area we were in (other than sirens went buy three or four times a night, and someone had shot at the security guards shack at the front gate). Several months went by were we were playing with miniatures that a I and a few others had - and now we even had some real rules to use. Something called Battlesystem. After awhile, you got used to the sirens and gun shots - and we managed to find the local game stores.

 

So on and so forth. I don't think I have ever met anyone I gamed with at a game/hobby store. Even from the beginning of my experience with minis, I used mail order to get my fix.

 

It's a strange relationship. Some game stores are not good stewards of the hobby, but they are the best way to get your product in front of the customer. Online storefronts may sell you some stuff, but as much as the local stores will. You just have to trust them to do their job (or trust the capitalist system to take care of those that don't).

I think there in lies my problem with the whole mess of things. Capitalism should handle things, but the method which some of the companies distribute - it props up stores which should otherwise close. Quite often the consumer has little choice as to where they go in the local area. I've seen the results of poor retailers, and I have also seen what good retailers can do. Personally I have seen a lot more damage done by poor retailers than I have seen good done by good retailers.

[LostGoblinGames]

The Lost Goblin Games: 2 hours away

carries a smattering of reaper, mostly gw and has some paint but not much, I think it is a newish store and it was VERY hards to find. I got lost.

 

Hi Fruggs-

 

We're over here at Lost Goblin Games and just wanted to clarify a few things because reading your post we're confused!! First, I'm really sorry you got lost- did you call for directions or use the ones on the website? We think we're really easy to find as long as you know what you're looking for- the plaza's at an intersection, a straight mile down our street off Capital.

 

Also, we're a little low on Reaper at the moment but there are still a couple of hundred blisters up on the rack. I guess "smattering" is kind of a relative term

 

The main thing is that we don't carry any GW - did you mean Privateer Press? We do have a ton of Warmachine and Hordes, they're really popular here. We've also got three racks of paint- one Reaper and two Vallejo- so if you think that's "not much" I'm really sorry. We do the best we can to provide supplies and space for everyone from RPGs to minis to boardgames and Magic.

 

I don't mean this to be a commercial- I hope it's not against the rules here- we just wanted to clear up any confusion and let you know we're sorry if you didn't find what you were looking for and that you got lost-- but it also kind of sounds like you're talking about a different store and not us! There are a lot of game stores in this area so it wouldn't be surprising if you got a couple mixed up!

 

Thanks, have a great weekend-

 

Robin

Lost Goblin Games

Raleigh NC

[Dragon Snack]

It's a strange relationship. Some game stores are not good stewards of the hobby, but they are the best way to get your product in front of the customer. Online storefronts may sell you some stuff, but (not) as much as the local stores will. You just have to trust them to do their job (or trust the capitalist system to take care of those that don't).

I think there in lies my problem with the whole mess of things. Capitalism should handle things, but the method which some of the companies distribute - it props up stores which should otherwise close. Quite often the consumer has little choice as to where they go in the local area. I've seen the results of poor retailers, and I have also seen what good retailers can do. Personally I have seen a lot more damage done by poor retailers than I have seen good done by good retailers.

I agree with you there as well. People even complain to me about my FLGS, since the owner can rub people the wrong way (and, by his own admission, some of his employees have been "less than stellar"). I think gamers have been conditioned to accept the fact that game stores will be wonky and not adhere to the standards of other types of stores, but a (possible) new gamer may not know that and be turned off.

 

However, I don't think it's distribution that props up bad stores. A lot of stores are run for reasons other than a pure profit motive, so they survive on sales that would doom a regular store. The thing is, they are still the best avenue for a manufacturer to get their product in front of the customer - and that is the be all end all of the 'game'...

 

Do you have a magic solution to solve the dilema? I would be interested in hearing it, I have looked into opening my own game store (even with 7 competitors) but gave it a pass (I don't think most people would like it anyway, since it wouldn't be stocked with a lot of slower moving products to browse through).

[Fruggs]

The Lost Goblin Games: 2 hours away

carries a smattering of reaper, mostly gw and has some paint but not much, I think it is a newish store and it was VERY hards to find. I got lost.

 

Hi Fruggs-

 

We're over here at Lost Goblin Games and just wanted to clarify a few things because reading your post we're confused!! First, I'm really sorry you got lost- did you call for directions or use the ones on the website? We think we're really easy to find as long as you know what you're looking for- the plaza's at an intersection, a straight mile down our street off Capital.

I got lost cause I don't know the Raleigh area very well, I can do ok but Raleigh turns me about.

 

Also, we're a little low on Reaper at the moment but there are still a couple of hundred blisters up on the rack. I guess "smattering" is kind of a relative term

when I went in July there was a little three sided carousel of reaper DHL and Warlord. I haven't been back to look as it is a long trip with a two year old and I don't travel to Raleigh for one store, I have to make it worth the drive with gas being what it is.

The main thing is that we don't carry any GW - did you mean Privateer Press? We do have a ton of Warmachine and Hordes, they're really popular here. We've also got three racks of paint- one Reaper and two Vallejo- so if you think that's "not much" I'm really sorry. We do the best we can to provide supplies and space for everyone from RPGs to minis to boardgames and Magic.

 

And yes I mean warmachine, the stuff in the boxes, there were lots of boxes. Any from a glance across a room all the boxes are darkish colored and look similar.

again when I was there there was a lot of paint racks with no bottles. I couldn't find Vallejo Smoke specifically.

I did see a large space for gaming and your staff was helpful and nice.

 

I will have to head back to play warlord if you have gamers who play it. I wasn't trying to bash just point out things I noticed.