Did a FLGS introduce you to the hobby?

buzz

Adventurer

• Feb 24, 2004

• #1

Over on the Hero Games boards, I've been in a discussion about whether FLGS's are necesary to the continued healthy of gaming as a hobby, and if puchasing from online retailers is somehow "harmful", i.e., putting these supposed gathering places out of business, and, ergo, "killing the hobby."

I tend not to agree with this sentiment (big time), and, in my perosnal experience, have never seen a FLGS have much of any community-building or introductory impact on me or the other gamers I know. Honestly, save for the supremely wonderful Games Plus (home of ENWorld Chicago Game Day, at which I make sure to spend as much money as I can), my experience with FLGS's has geenrally been fairly netural to negative. If anything has given me a sense of gaming as a "community," it's been Web sites like ENWorld.

So, I'm asking you. Did a FLGS actually bring you into the hobby? Or, like me, was it a friend or acquaintance? Or some other means entirely?

 

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KB9JMQ

First Post

• Feb 24, 2004

• #2

For me no.
I think this would be hard to do because if I wasn't a gamer I cannot think of any reason I would go into a FLGS in the first place.
My gaming supplies stores have always been small private book stores which just happened to carry RPGs.
A friend of mine introduced me to Gamma World and I asked if there was a game more LOTR type. He said look for a game called D&D. So I bought the Red Box

 

MeepoTheMighty

First Post

• Feb 24, 2004

• #3

Well, a FLGS owner taught me how to play Magic back when it first came out, but I was already playing D&D before that.

 

Calico_Jack73

First Post

• Feb 24, 2004

• #4

When I lived in Dover Delaware there was only one LGS. The stench of the place was almost unbearable so I avoided it as much as possible only going to sell old books I didn't use anymore. While I lived there I then had to get all of my books on-line and once I saw how much I was saving by buying books from Amazon I quit buying books at the LGS altogether. As I said in a previous post, RPG books are marked up in price entirely too much. Amazon and Overstock still make money on their sales even when a book is marked down by $10 or more from their retail price. FLGSs could do the same thing and still turn a profit. The problem is that rarely is a FLGS enticing for non-players to go to. My wife hated accompanying me to the Dover LGS. The only one I've personally seen that is non-gamer friendly is Lone Star Comics & Games which is in Dallas.

 

Desdichado

Hero

• Feb 24, 2004

• #5

Totally friends and acquaintances, in my book. I like a good FLGS as much as the next guy, but I'm also not convinced that they're essential to the survivial of the hobby. They're just more convenient than ordering online, or buying from Barnes & Noble.

 

Davelozzi

Explorer

• Feb 24, 2004

• #6

I got into D&D through watching my older brothers play when I was little (even though the gaming hooks never sunk too deep in either of them). I don't know anyone who was introduced to gaming through a retailer. Still, I like having LGSs around and prefer to buy stuff from them, be able to flip through new materials, and avoid the hassles of ordering online. But, as I mentioned in another thread today, though I think that the Friendly part of FLGS often does not apply.

 

diaglo

Adventurer

• Feb 24, 2004

• #7

schoolmates and chums.

 

Kichwas

Half-breed, still living despite WotC racism

• Feb 24, 2004

• #8

My mother made me spend some birthday money I got in 1982 on D&D because she had a coworker who said it was good for a child's imagination. That, and she felt it was a better purchase than the D&D Electronic Boardgame.

Game stores have never had anything to do with my access to or interest in the hobby.

 

johnsemlak

First Post

• Feb 24, 2004

• #9

I was giving the basic D&D set by my Grandmother (bless her heart).

I got a friend to game, and it went from there...

I have never viewed FLGSs as essential to my gaming, or to the hobby in generail, but they were always nice. I got most of my stuf at Waldenbooks or BDalton (or as gifts from Family, who I assume went to chain stores) back in the day. Nowadays I use a combination of onlineshops, FLGSs, and others.

I would be gaming now with or without the existence of 'game stores' but they are very useful at times and cool to visit. It's nice to know they're there.

 

BigFreekinGoblinoid

First Post

• Feb 24, 2004

• #10

I'll give an FLGS the credit, as the game was actually at one, although my friend invited me to play. ( OD&D)

Also, an FLGS got me back into the hobby ( after a several year break ) when someone showed me the Planescape boxed set!

edit: to me or not to be

 

Last edited: Feb 24, 2004