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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5348193" data-attributes="member: 40522">Let me play a bit of "Devil's advocate" here.First off, I think an important feature of a game store is the fact that it's a "third space," in a way that cafes, bars, your favorite restaurant and the like are. Part and parcel of their appeal is the fact that you come there to socialize and have a place to hang out with your buddies. Coming in to check out a new product or to pick up a special order is one thing. Coming in to spend four to six hours playing a game there is an entirely different creature.Would you be surprised if a restaurant asked you to make a purchase or leave if you took two hours poring over the menu? Would you be surprised if the coffee shop looked askance at you hanging out with your buddies for hours on end without getting a cup of joe? Would you go to your favorite downtown bar and bring your own liquor?Furthermore, game stores are sort of unique in that people expect to be able to use products they buy in the store. I don't know of any other sort of business that does this on any sort of regular basis. I can't imagine Best Buy or H.H. Gregg letting you sit in their store and play your PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii every weekend just because you made the purchase there. I don't expect to buy my groceries, then go back to the grocery store a few days later to cook my dinner and eat it. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in any other retail business.Retail space isn't free. The game store has to pay for that floor space, whether they put up a table and chairs for you to play D&D Encounters or they put up shelves for more product. I don't understand this attitude that a game store somehow owes people a free place to play. Go price a conference room at a local hotel or even a coffee place--in my area, the cheapest that conference space generally gets is around $30/hour.It's issues like this that make me ashamed of the hobby.</blockquote>

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