Let me preface my comments by mentioning that I organize the ENWorld Chicago Gameday, which is held at Games Plus in Mt. Prospect, IL, one of the best stores in the US. The event brings anywhere from 30-50 people together for a day of gaming and shopping three times a year. Older gamers sometimes bring their kids. Basically, I do something to support a good store and the hobby.
fredramsey said:
While this is not an exact example of why you should support your FLGS, it's close. It's not landing wheels, it's dice. It's impulse buys. It's leafing through the game book. It's being able to look at and buy non-d20 stuff, or d20 stuff from smaller publishers. It's about being able to buy a boardgame that We-Be-Toys would never think of selling.
Making an impulse buy online is something I can do quite easily from home, and the low prices are an added incentive. Leafing through the game book is sort of moot now; most companies who have a clue offer extensive previews, and I can pour over them at my lesiure, rather than fit all my browsing into the time I have when I am at a store. Non-d20 products and small press products are much easier to find online than in a store.
Let's also add that the collective online gaming community can offer me far more and far more insightful opinions than the staff of the average game store; we're simply talking more available brainpower here. The online retailer also doesn't require me to get up, get dressed, and drive to a physical location in order to make the purchase or do the browsing. And speaking of being able to physically handle the product before buying, there's something to be said for not being at the mercy of a store's manhandled inventory. This is one of the main reasons I rarely buy books (gaming or non) from brick-and-mortar retailers anymore.
Honestly, I find it very difficult to fault people for making decisions based on price. That's pretty much how we buy just about eveyrthing else. How many people here will pay more for, say, gasoline in order to patronize a particular seller, barring some perk program?
I also don't see the value in appealing to people's sense of "community" or whatever in an effort to get them to patronize LGSs. Joe Gamer, like Joe Public, isn't looking that far ahead, and shouldn't necessarily have to. Gaming is a luxury, not a charity.
Does the hobby need FLGSs to survive? I don't think so.
(Then why do you run Gamedays, buzz?)
Does the hobby need
a means for players to get together, form communities, and be there to introduce new people to the hobby, particularly in a social, out-in-the-public way?
Heck yeah! The question is, does the FLGS need to serve that purpose? My answer: not necessarily.
First off, I see no reason why a Wal-Mart-like gaming megastore couldn't serve the same sort of function. People love to complain about Starbucks, but the fact is that Starbucks locations are generally very comfortably-decorated, clean, "homey" shops that serve tasty drinks and treats. They actively encourage people to just hang out in the store, chat, read a book, or sit quietly, regardless of whether they've bought anything. Big n' Corporate doesn't have to mean crappy and impersonal.
Big bookstores like Border's and B&N figured this out, too. When I was a lad, the local bookstores in my town (Kroch's, Crown, both out of business *hint*) were like any other store: lots of shelves and aisles, somewhat okay selection of product. What does any good bookstore look like now? Like a large version of the classic, hole-in-the-wall used book shop: tons of books and lots of places to
sit down. Most have Starbucks built into them, too.
I.e., when you can't compete on price, you need to compete on some other aspect. If what the FLGS is really contributing to the hobby is networking and community, not selection and price, then it needs to focus on the former.
And if not the FLGS, then the publishers. If companies (like WotC) have the wherewithal to have delegates who do demos at stores, they can do demos at other venues as well.
(Let's also not neglect to mention the online community. My renewed interest in gaming with the release of 3e, the three gaming groups I'm in, and my involvement with Gameday all had the 'Net as a starting place.)
And if, you, as a gamer, care about the hobby community, you'd probably be contributing to it more by organizing events, running demos, offering to teach an RPG class at the local community college, giving RPGs as gifts to potential gamers, and making sure a PHB ends up in your local library than you would by haranguing people to support their LGS. (Especially given how dismal the economy has been; I can't blame people for wanting to save a few bucks when they can, even on luxury items.)
That said, if you have a FLGS that you feel gives you benefits worth paying full price, by all means patronize the place.
I think the simple fact is that markets change. To stay viable, businesses need to change right along with them. They need to get creative. The RPG hobby, like many other things, has been transformed by the 'Net. The natue of the LGS, if it is to survive, needs to transform as well.
