Game Over for Gamer's Paradise

[Mark]

Bah! GW is a toy manufacturer. The real deal in figs is Old Glory!

I mix em up when the price is right. The DBM/Field of Glory 25mm Medieval army I am building will feature both Old Glory minis and GW Bretonian bowman. Army building is too expensive to not grab deals where you can.

 

[ronin]

I was just in the Woodfield Mall location this weekend. I asked if the store was closing and one of the workers told me that the manager of that store was trying to purchase the remaining three locations. Hopefully he'll be able to do so and turn things around.

 

[Halivar]

I mix em up when the price is right. The DBM/Field of Glory 25mm Medieval army I am building will feature both Old Glory minis and GW Bretonian bowman. Army building is too expensive to not grab deals where you can.

Ah, I'm not familiar. I'm used to doing exclusively 15mm Napoleonics, though my gaming group switched en masse to 25mm ancients after I left.

EDIT: Although I have fond memories of Armati and WRG 7th. The best metaphor for 4E and 3.5E I can think of. ;P

EDIT EDIT: Upon reflection, that comparison is highly unfair to 3.5E, which is as rule-intensive as Chutes & Ladders next to 7th.

 

[Mark]

Ah, I'm not familiar. I'm used to doing exclusively 15mm Napoleonics, though my gaming group switched en masse to 25mm ancients after I left.

I've stayed away from purchasing ancients and/or 15mm (although I do join in with games my friends run) because I can always get some RPG use out of 25mm Medievals, if all else fails. In fact, the upcoming CMG MF WARS (Medieval Fantasy Wargame and Rolepaying System, a trimmed down and beefed up 3E/3.5E system) will include rules for large scale battles that will also take advantage of 25mm figs based in what has become semi-standard 60mm wide with varying depths. Naturally people will be able to use counters or 3D cardboard figs or any number of other solutions but one of my goals has been to integrate RPGing with my favorite style of miniature wargaming. I've done both since the early seventies and played many systems but have never seen them very successfully married to the point where an RPG can be moving along to where a large pitched battle can break out with interludes of RPGing intermixed. I think the Grognards and Neo-Grogs are going to find it a very fun system to play. Hopefully, people who find the CRPGs that feature large scale battles fun but are dissatisfied with what passes for RPGing in a CRPG will find this a excellent game, as well.

 

[neceros]

Gaming Stores have to make sales by other means, like Card Games or board games. Purely selling roleplaying books ends badly.

 

[Kzach]

I don't believe this is a state of the industry problem.

I think it's happening across a lot of industries due to the changing habits of societies invested heavily in multi-media technologies.

People are spending less time shopping at physical stores and more time shopping on the internet. Some businesses aren't affected as much by this, or even benefit, but it most definitely is having a profound impact on the way society works and how people live and shop.

Check out other industries like video rental. Blockbuster, for instance, is trying to diversify into new markets and is slowly closing or downsizing branches all over the place. Starbucks just closed 61 stores in Australia.

RPG's are only one area that are affected by the changes.

 

[CountPopeula]

Bah! GW is a toy manufacturer. The real deal in figs is Old Glory!

My only experience with WH40K was watching a table of teenagers play it from across the hall at our local historical miniature wargaming convention. What's funny is I always put them down, never realizing I'd probably have gotten addicted to it if I'd played it at all. At least, I guess this because ten years later, I play Warmachine.

But, man.... $70 for a TANK???

Warhammer/40K and Warmachine are very very different, actually. Warmachine is... faster. A lot faster. And a lot cheaper. Ditto for Anima Tactics.

Warhammer prices are insane, even when you get them cheap. $50 for 5 Space Marine Terminators is about the same as 5 Anima minis (MSRP $10, but usually $7-8), but... 5-6 Anima minis makes an entire force, whereas 10 Terminators is about 200 points, and 1500 is average sized.

Warhammer falls into the same category as Anima. A Heavy 'Jack is $25-35, but you only need one or two. $30 for an all-metal unit when you only need 1 or 2 units in a good sized game is one thing.... $30 for a plastic unit when you need 5-6 units is something else entirely.

That's not doing brick and mortar stores any favors, when the industry leader is jacking up prices like crazy. Terminators went from $35 to $50 (for 5) in under 5 years. Of course, GW isn't kind to B&M retailers... or online businesses... I guess when your online store charges full retail and shipping starts at $7 for one mini, well... unfair, borderline illegal pressure tactics are all that you have left.

 

[Mark]

Gaming Stores have to make sales by other means, like Card Games or board games. Purely selling roleplaying books ends badly.

Gamer's Paradise had a relatively small RPG section. It was mostly board games and puzzles and novelty stuff.

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

It wasn't the taxes. It was the very poor store layout and crappy customer service.

The change to 10% taxes in Chicago is very recent (a month?), and does not apply to any of the many Gamer's Paradise stores that have already gone out of business.

 

[kclark]

It had been a while since I stopped by Gurnee Mills, but both the Gamer's Paradise and the Games Workshop store there were gone.
It was kind of a shock as I used to work at the GW store. Now there isn't really any reason to go to Gurnee Mills anymore.

I agree that Games Plus is a great game store. I just wish it wasn't such a haul to get to Mount Prospect.