Are hobby shops like porn shops?

[Sir Edgar]

I would greatly appreciate it. And I would also like to say that only someone loke Sir Edgar (and maybe a few more of you) would actually think of starting this thread. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go and ask myself why I chose to participate in this sick and very strange conversation.

Whatever, Mom.

 

[Tetsubo]

My FLGS actually rents porn, so the fusion has been achieved! It also employees at least one very attractive college age woman and has had others over the years. I've been shopping there longer than any of the current employees... It seems to be fairly friendly to women but the percentage of male gamers to female gamers is highly slanted towards the former.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

How can you not have a girl friend in Chapel Hill? That school is like 65% female!

Only 65%? That seems low to be honest. Chapel Hill is a good place to be sure.

As for Cerebral Hobbies, the place is dead 90% of the time. Nearly every time I've been in there, the only person other than me inside the store is the owner. Once I went in there and there were 2 other people inside. It was like a mini-convention. Generally, I find the store to be decent in terms of selection and the owner is pretty helpful/friendly. Most of the time, though, I try to order on line because the 6.5% sales tax in Orange County hits me pretty hard in the wallet — if I can wait and order on-line from amazon or someplace else, I can usually get it cheaper (especially on amazon, as I can usually pick up a bunch of books I need for school at the same time and get a wicked good discount plus free shipping).

On some level, I think I'm just spoiled. My old FLGS, Pandemonium Games in Harvard Sq. up in Boston, was pretty much everything I could want in a gaming store, especially clean and bright — Cerebral Hobbies is kind of like a dungeon, being in the basement of that little complex. It's appropriate in a funny sort of way, but it doesn't make me feel like buying anything.

Best,
tKL

 

[Gez]

This is from my own experience.

1. They are full of bearded men and pimply teenage boys.
And mums buying magic, pokémon, or other cards for their kids. As well as chessboards or monopoly.

2. Everything you buy is discreetly put in a brown paper bag or black plastic bag.
Transparent plastic bag, or tranluscent white bag with the name of the shop in big on it.

3. A lot of people browse around the shelves but don't buy.
True.

4. It's eerily quiet in the store.
No more, no less than in any other little shop.

5. Lots of funny-looking toys and games.
Sophism, as the definition of "funny-looking", and that of "toys and games" are not the same for a hobby shop and a porn shop.

6. The store owners look kinda weird.
Not from my experience.

7. You walk in and out discreetly.
No, I don't.

Of course, I'm not an unitedstateofamerican. So the context is different. Yet, if we don't have Jack Chicks, we do have Mireille Dumas or Jacques Pradels, and they are more dangerous (TV animators rather than weird little sect gurus). So, there is a bias against RPGs here too.

 

[Mercule]

Doesn't sound like my FLGS at all (okay, not much).

Granted, it is a male-dominated store, but I see quite a few women there. I also never have problems taking my wife in.

Heck, I even take my two-year old daughter in quite frequently. She loves to look at the minis.

 

[TommyTutone]

Well, they both smell the same and have random bits of stickiness throughout the store, but at least in a porn shop the boobs are found on the women.

 

[Templetroll]

How in the hell did cerebral palsy get into the conversation of porn and D&D shops?

One of the posters mentioned a game store, Cerebral Games and that his gaming group referred to it as "cerebral palsy". YMMV as to the wit or offensiveness of this. He did apologize in the thread for causing offense as that was not his intent.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go and ask myself why I chose to participate in this sick and very strange conversation.

Pray-tell, what answer did you come up with?

 

[alsih2o]

owners and customers at both think society judges them too harshly, and would like what they do if they just gave it a try

 

[Seaver]

This is a funny topic. In Columbia, the better local game store is owned and run by a pretty redhead and her husband, and the store is very female-gamer friendly. In fact, there are several female gamer employees, and many times when I go in, there are several female customers. My girlfriend (a recent gamer convert) loves the store, and doesn't feel uncomfortable at all. They use plain red plastic bags for their products, but the store is located beneath a mexican restaurant.

The local porn store is a huge building that is brightly lit, and people are constantly joking around in it. I had never been in it before my girlfriend got me started going with her, but the fat, old, bearded guys are still to be found there. Their bags are floral print paper bags, but there isn't much of a stigma attached to going there, so nobody reall cares. Heck, I've even seen professors from the university there!

Ah yes the Olde Un Theatre. Definately saw some funny stuff in there. My favorite was the extremely uptight, nervous, and uncomfortable looking couple with huge armloads of stuff at 2am.

Oh and what's the name of the new gaming shop out there? It must have opened after I graduated back in 2000. Which of the other two old stores closed? The one with the big suit of armor in the front window on 9th street or the small one up on Cherry?

 

[Seaver]

Columbia is almost its own little dimension that seems very out of place in Missouri. Its a college town, very liberal mindset, about 85,000 people, and LOTS of college girls around who actually seem interested in gaming. Hell, my experience has been that it is hard to NOT have a female in your gaming group here, and she is often as or more into the game than most guys are. I have been in four different gaming groups here, and there has been at least one female in each group, often two. Don't mistake me- there are still lots of women around here that if you mention you are a gamer, they get the panic face and look for the nearest exit, but more often than not, they ask what the game is about and want to learn more or sit in on a session. If you can believe it, I actually caught three knockout sorority girls in one of the labs I teach here discussing their characters! (Changling I think). Just goes to show you not to assume too much about somone based on preconceptions.

Yeah, you are almost guaranteed to have a higher percentage of girl gamers considering the college age gal to guy ratio in that town is 3 to 1. You have three colleges all within walking distance of each other, one of which is almost a completely all girl's school. It's not technically an all girls school, but it used to be at one point, with about 90% of the population there still being female. Back in 1993 there were only two male students at Stephens.