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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5348550" data-attributes="member: 40522">The pay-to-play issue is one that I have some interest in. I used to make around $200 of purchases per month and play there once every two weeks, so around $100 or so per session I played there. I thought that'd mean I could get some table space. Thing is, people with nothing else to do on a weekend just hang around the game store until someone volunteers to run a one-shot or play Magic or whatever, then I'm asked to end my session of a regular campaign early to make table space for casual gamers who were just hanging out with nothing better to do with their weekend. People who might buy $10 of snacks and drinks over the course of their entire 12-hour stay at the game store that day and complain that a can of soda costs 80 cents. I seriously doubt that they were spending more than me at the store, so I doubt that it's a strictly monetary issue.I actually offered to pay for the table space so that we could have a place to play. They weren't keen on the idea, citing a concern that it would empower the people with money to dictate who plays at their store (to which I wondered why the hell a store wouldn't want paying customers to be attracted to their establishment). But it's not my store space. I just had to find another place to play. I learned that purchases do not equate to play space, at least in my local game store.I don't understand their actions, but again... It's not my retail space. Someone else is going to start getting my gaming money.Personally, the solution that I'd be happy with is to actually pay for the space itself. I'd gladly pay up to $50 or so to cover my entire session, around $10/hour or so. I'd pay it myself sometimes and sometimes I'd ask my players to either help pony up the cash for the table or volunteer a place to play on a rotating basis. As far as I can see, directly charging for the table space is the only way to directly affect the demand for the supply of table space.Another interesting idea might be to charge players a nominal fee to play (say, $2-5 per session), but not charge the DM to run his session there. The collected fees would be store credit to the DM. That'd be a certain degree of guaranteed purchases and it'd also be a way to encourage people to DM. I'd pay to play a game with a decent DM every once in a while, and I'd jump at a chance to run games there myself.Maybe. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I just get sick and tired of people complaining about money when RPGs have a lot of entertainment value in the long run. Many gamers don't have a solid perspective of exactly how much value they are getting out of their game of choice.</blockquote>

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