How long until game stores are gone?

[ExploderWizard]

So the FLGS, to survive, must find products or services to offer that cannot be digitally duplicated. CCGs are one answer; while there are of course such games as Magic Online, those of us who play with physical cards have a substantial barrier to entry (the money we've already invested in paper), which prevents us making the jump as easily as D&D players can jump to DDI.

Yes. Organized events and a place to hang out and play top the list.

 

[maddman75]

Yes. Organized events and a place to hang out and play top the list.

As I said, I use the internet to run my meetup group, but we still need a place to play. Part of the purpose is so you can meet new gamers before bringing them to your house. Without a place to game in peace, it wouldn't work. Gamers networking online will strengthen game stores, not weaken them.

And the DDI applies only to D&D. If it frees up game shelf space for other games, I only see that as a good thing.

 

[Lackhand]

As I said, I use the internet to run my meetup group, but we still need a place to play. Part of the purpose is so you can meet new gamers before bringing them to your house. Without a place to game in peace, it wouldn't work.

Not picking on you, I just see this a lot: so what about big cities? We here in NYC used to have playspace at Neutral Ground (they closed and moved, in the opposite order) and, ages ago, in Forbidden Planet (they remodeled and got a whole lot less friendly, not to mention losing their entire playspace). What's a lower-east-sider to do?

The answer tends to be "find a sympathetic diner and play there" (we don't really have IHOP's), at least for me; it really doesn't work.

If rent goes up too high, there's just nothing for the gamestore to do but move.
Depending on where it has to go to find an actual site, however, that also kills off its entire clientelle...

Anyway. From an urban standpoint, I'd say the FLGS has been dead for a while, and a few holdouts just hadn't noticed yet.

 

[Plissken]

It will all end in 2012.

 

[Festivus]

I was planning on opening a game store and coffee shop when I retire in 19 years. Perhaps by then, there won't be much competition according to your prognostications.

 

[Treebore]

Yes. Organized events and a place to hang out and play top the list.

Yet, how do you expect them to stay open if no one is buying books, cards, etc... there? Do you expect fee's to be paid? If so what amount do you think will be charged that players will be willing to pay to play? Or do you think enough people will keep paying premium prices for books, etc... to keep the location open?

 

[Monkey Boy]

I for one have no doubt game stores are going away.

I agree. Gamestores are an endangered breed and no amount of spindle racks will save them.

Some will survive by way of diversifying to such a point that RPG's will be such a small part of what they do as to be completely irrelevant.

Bookstores will continue to stock WW, WOTC, FFG and maybe PAIZO. Everything else goes the way pdf and lulu.

My guess is 7 years.

 

[Intense_Interest]

Yet, how do you expect them to stay open if no one is buying books, cards, etc... there? Do you expect fee's to be paid? If so what amount do you think will be charged that players will be willing to pay to play? Or do you think enough people will keep paying premium prices for books, etc... to keep the location open?

Excuse me, but you are begging the question.

How can a business sell product to maintain a profit? By providing services that costumers value, like gaming space. If you can't provide those values, customers won't buy. If you can't sell product, you can't provide those values. It is a circular argument with no provided means towards an actual conclusion.

To achieve a mature exchange of ideas in this thread, we have to move beyond these type of tar-pit rhetorical devices.

 

[ShadoWWW]

This relates to the crysis. A man can make only 5 things: 1) To work in farm sector, 2) to work in industry, 3) to work in service trades, 4) to be in public service or 5) to be unemployed. As civilization rises, most people come from farming to industry, then from industry to service trades. 80% workers in USA are employed in services, because farming and industry are technologically mastered and there is hard to create new opportunities.

However, US economy is so advanced that services are going to be technologically mastered as well, especially due to internet. People in services lose their jobs. And now what? There are no new opportuties in farm sector. There are no new opportuties in industry. There are limited new opportunities in public service (because it doesn't make GDP). The unemployment is a big exclamation point. The lost jobs seem to be lost forever.

It is cruel. And it is a challange as well. He who finds the cure he proves largely service to mankind.

RPG market nowadays is affected much like US economy. Internet services (E-shop, E-mail, E-banking etc.) are great as well as cruel. The near future is the challange and the new world after will be be changed forever.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I don't see it happening as much as the game stores changing. While there are a few places like the War Store, and of course ordering online, part of the hobby, that of miniatures, tends to rely more on seeing what you're getting in the first place. The miniatures, paint, brushes, etc... are generally not available at the massive discounts Amazon.com orders and they're expensive enough that some stores are dedicated to them.