I took a part-time seasonal temp job at the FLGS for a change of pace and a refreshing break from my usual line of work. I looked upon it as a vacation. Even looked upon it as a way to learn more about the games market from a retail standpoint.
These are my observations from working in a FLGS in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA:
In spite of message boards like this one and others that discuss the game industry, many gamers still do not understand the nature of the game industry. Here's an overheard conversation-
"You know what? I bet Hasbro is making billions of dollars right now."
"Yeah. They own DnD and Magic, that's where they make all their money."
(I couldn't help myself and had a gigglefit one isle over after hearing this. They guys talking did not seem to realise the scope of Hasbro and how much they make off of their other games, like Monopoly and its licensees.)
In spite of a buy 1 get 1 free sale, an original price cut in half as well, and the strong recommendation of all the employees at the store - customers did not purchase the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Game because of the stigma attached to it. I have heard responses of "It's Evil", "Dungeons and Dragons makes young people go crazy", "That game leads to devil worship", and "That game attracts the wrong element to kids who play it" when I showed customers the game. Now, these same parents will immediately pick up anything boardgame related that has "Lord of the Rings" somewhere on its label, usually saying something along the lines of "Oh this is a much better game because you can fight evil in it", and purchase it even though it costs three times as much.
Oh, the irony.
(Now, I purchased one of these for myself to see if it was good or not. After playing it with a rambunctious 12-year old and his parents who picked up on the rules within 15 minutes, I can honestly say that this is the best introductory role-playing game that I have seen in years. IMHO, of course - but its damn good. Buy it if you want to get some total newbies started in the DnD game with minimal fuss.)
For some reason, the glue that holds the hangers onto the boxes of WizKids Marvel and DC Heroes heroclix does not stick. On about 25% of the boxes hung up, the glue seperates and the booster pack boxes fall right off the hanger. This did not deter people from buying them, buy the armful.
Pre-painted plastic miniatures from WotC were hot items. The store I worked at sold out of them. We just couldn't keep enough of them in stock. The miniatures combat rulebooks for both Star Wars and DnD, not as many people seemed to be interested in.
Most of the money made by the store was not from RPGs or Wargames, it was from sales of the games Blokus, Scene-It, Cranium, and Mad-Gab. The interesting thing about the sales of these games was that customers who bought them, would know nothing about the game itself - except that they had seen the game on a TV morning show and remembered the name. So if you want to sell more RPGs, advertise on TV. I also wonder about how a FLGS would be able to survive commercially if it didn't diversify, selling only wargames and RPGs.
All of the cartoons about a game store employee who has had to suffer through listening to the ramblings of a fanboy gamer are true. I watched in horror as a coworker had a "Dork Tower Moment" with a guy whose PC was 54th level in a Star Wars/Star Trek/Stargate/DnD/Cthulhu/Shadowrun/Battletech crossover universe and he had to tell her all about it. When the customer finally wound down and left, she looked at me and said, "That character was the twinkiest twink that was ever twinked."
I'll post some more, but I'm tired now, and could use a beer. G'night.
These are my observations from working in a FLGS in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA:
In spite of message boards like this one and others that discuss the game industry, many gamers still do not understand the nature of the game industry. Here's an overheard conversation-
"You know what? I bet Hasbro is making billions of dollars right now."
"Yeah. They own DnD and Magic, that's where they make all their money."
(I couldn't help myself and had a gigglefit one isle over after hearing this. They guys talking did not seem to realise the scope of Hasbro and how much they make off of their other games, like Monopoly and its licensees.)
In spite of a buy 1 get 1 free sale, an original price cut in half as well, and the strong recommendation of all the employees at the store - customers did not purchase the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Game because of the stigma attached to it. I have heard responses of "It's Evil", "Dungeons and Dragons makes young people go crazy", "That game leads to devil worship", and "That game attracts the wrong element to kids who play it" when I showed customers the game. Now, these same parents will immediately pick up anything boardgame related that has "Lord of the Rings" somewhere on its label, usually saying something along the lines of "Oh this is a much better game because you can fight evil in it", and purchase it even though it costs three times as much.
Oh, the irony.
(Now, I purchased one of these for myself to see if it was good or not. After playing it with a rambunctious 12-year old and his parents who picked up on the rules within 15 minutes, I can honestly say that this is the best introductory role-playing game that I have seen in years. IMHO, of course - but its damn good. Buy it if you want to get some total newbies started in the DnD game with minimal fuss.)
For some reason, the glue that holds the hangers onto the boxes of WizKids Marvel and DC Heroes heroclix does not stick. On about 25% of the boxes hung up, the glue seperates and the booster pack boxes fall right off the hanger. This did not deter people from buying them, buy the armful.
Pre-painted plastic miniatures from WotC were hot items. The store I worked at sold out of them. We just couldn't keep enough of them in stock. The miniatures combat rulebooks for both Star Wars and DnD, not as many people seemed to be interested in.
Most of the money made by the store was not from RPGs or Wargames, it was from sales of the games Blokus, Scene-It, Cranium, and Mad-Gab. The interesting thing about the sales of these games was that customers who bought them, would know nothing about the game itself - except that they had seen the game on a TV morning show and remembered the name. So if you want to sell more RPGs, advertise on TV. I also wonder about how a FLGS would be able to survive commercially if it didn't diversify, selling only wargames and RPGs.
All of the cartoons about a game store employee who has had to suffer through listening to the ramblings of a fanboy gamer are true. I watched in horror as a coworker had a "Dork Tower Moment" with a guy whose PC was 54th level in a Star Wars/Star Trek/Stargate/DnD/Cthulhu/Shadowrun/Battletech crossover universe and he had to tell her all about it. When the customer finally wound down and left, she looked at me and said, "That character was the twinkiest twink that was ever twinked."
I'll post some more, but I'm tired now, and could use a beer. G'night.
