Where you live: Gamer Paradise or Gamer Wasteland?

[billd91]

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - gamer paradise. I only shop at three of the local game stores, but there's at least 6, I think.

From Gygax to Noah, that state of Wisconsin has it all! (or, had it all, until GenCon moved )

I've got to second that about Wisconsin, at least southern Wisconsin (sorry about that up in Wausau). Madison has at least 3 game stores I can think of and well distributed across town. Most other mass-market style bookstores stock RPGs. Groups meet at the UW student union and are open to non-student participants as long as at least one person has a union membership. We've got a mini-convention that focuses mostly on sci-fi publishing but also has some gaming. We HAD Gen Con (bastards, this will be the first year in a while I will have to miss because Indy is too far for my wife to travel in her 9th month of pregnancy... meaning it will be the very first Gen Con my 6 year old daughter will miss since she was born) and TSR within easy driving distance of my home.
And from my college days in Beloit, we had an on-campus special interest house full of gamers with a budget for buying more out of the student activity fees. A friend of mine roomed off campus with Gary Gygax's son. Other friends in Whitewater used to play from time to time with Rob Kuntz. It's like living in an area with old money, in a sense. There's a lot of old, core gamers bumping around.

 

[Belen]

Paradise:

North Carolina- Triangle area- At least 5 local cons, and periodic EnWorld game days. I belong to several yahoo groups with 80-100 members that allow for easy recruitment of new players and a number of male and female gamers exist in the area.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

If it weren't for the fact I've been with the same basic group of players for nearly 16 years, where I live would pretty much be a wasteland full of munchkins and holier than thou old school D&D players who refuse to do or learn anything new.

 

[Laurel]

The whole DC area is mixed, I agree. Some good stores across the area, and games all over. A bonus and negative though is that everything is spread out (MD/DC/VA) so lots of traveling normally, but then you get more options and diversity.

Little ol' Chattanooga, TN (lived there for a short time) though has to go down as wasteland in my opinion.

 

[dumbdiety]

Been playing since 1st ed throu 3.5, and yes that many years In So FL as well, Miami Area; relocated a few years back & never found a group to game with. email me if interested. Thanks

E-Mail me at dumbdiety[at]hotmail.com. Can't seem to e-mail or PM you today.

Doug

 

[scott-fs]

Or is it a little bit of both?

Where do you live? Why do you think your area is a Gamer Paradise/Gamer Wasteland/or a little bit of both?

Where I live you really have to look at the different games, rather than games in general. For instance:

Yu-gi-mon: Paradise: One comic store is packed every weekend usually with 16+ people attending.

Magic: the Addiction: Between Heaven and Hell. We have two shops who do Mtg, though one only runs friday nights (though I think they actually stopped doing Friday nights now that the other shop has become much more popular), and one that has some Mtg for the whole weekend. As well, on Saturday nights we have a third shop (focusing primarily on Paintball supplies, but the owners were in on Mtg from almost the beginning) which we go to play casual. I've actually been having more fun lately with mtg when I've built a deck from the "Commons" box.

d20 RPGs: Wasteland, though just barely. One upside is that through the paintball shop, we can get a pretty nice discount on WotC stuff (we pay the $US price in $CDN. For instance, for the 3.5 PHB, one player in the group paid $30 (I believe with tax), rather than $40-45 that you may have to spend after the exchange rate. When I got my D&D minis, I paid $9.95 CDN for each booster. Pretty nice compared to the $15 per that I would've had to spend.

non-d20 RPGs: Complete and utter hell. I know one group who played Warhammer FRP, and one player familiar with Gurps but that is it!

 

[The_Universe]

In the DC metro area, as well.

Stores are good, if geographically spread out.

We lucked out and found a great gaming group (of which Laurel is a founding member!) in a little over a month from moving here from South Dakota. The convergence of numerous colleges and universities, a highly transitive population, and reasonably large amounts of disposable income make this a great place to game. Huzzah!

 

[Kanegrundar]

I'm in mid-Missouri and it's a wasteland. There is nothing in my small town of 12,000 (other than the 2 people that I game with), and the only 2 shops under an hour away are filled with either kids or adult card gamers. Not my mug of beer by any means. One carries little to no RPG material, and the other carries a few WotC items, but few to no 3rd party material. However, they are a great place to go to get D&D minis. There are a few RPG'ers in Sedalia, but finding a group of people that I really want to game with is tough since many that I've met are teenagers.

When I was going to college at the University of Missouri - Columbia I was in gaming heaven. It was a mixed bag as far as the quality of gamers go (isn't it everywhere?), but I was in a couple really good groups. Plus Columbia now has an EXCELLENT game shop called Valhalla's Gate that stocks a ton of D20 material. I hit that place every time that I'm in town for work.

Warrensburg has one shop, but the Hastings across the highway usually has a better selection of D20 material. It's not a bad store, just focused more on Games Workshop's overpriced games and the whole Clix craze more than anything.

There are a couple shops in KC, but I don't know where exactly. Seeing as how I may be moving that way in the next year, I'll have to listen to the handful of KC gamers here on ENWorld to get hooked up with gaming and good shop hints!

Adios,
Kane

 

[Pravus]

Where do you live? Why do you think your area is a Gamer Paradise/Gamer Wasteland/or a little bit of both?

GTA (Greater Toronto Area), ON - While there are some reasonable FLGS they are far from a 'paradise.' Also consider the over 3 million people in the area and no major convention. So it's not a wasteland but far from a paradise.

 

[Krieg]

Usual stuff I guess . So, you local? I know of or have at least tried to meet all the locals on the boards....

Born & raised in Xenia. Moved back to Ohio ('Cincy) a little over a year ago after spending 4 years or so in Maryland (Ft. Meade).

I come up to Columbus during most of the weekends during the fall. (probably not hard to figure out why. lol)