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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 5130639" data-attributes="member: 40961">I don't really know or care about the third post.But the first two I can relate to.  I'm a bit sympathetic to the first post's worry about the changing relation of gamers and game stores.  I understand that WotC basically has no public relations choice but to point out the positives, and that there are in fact some positives, but I'm a little pessimistic about the general health of gaming stores as a whole if they remain straight retail.Basically, this guy is completely right about the gaming store functioning more as an "order taker" than a retail store.  That is precisely how I use my local gaming store.  I know what I want far in advance of it being available, or alternately what I want is a product that I would have to order and pay shipping on, and I'd rather have someone else handle the hassle.  The gaming store probably has no clue about the product I want.  Often they don't even know it exists.  Essentially they take the order from me and then turn around and try to find out if or when their distributor will have the product in question.  They then obtain the product, and call me when its available.This means that I care about the following things from my gaming store:1. Breadth of selection from their distributors.2. Response time between requesting something and receiving it.3. Customer service and follow up in contacting me once the product is in the store.  Most stores fail horribly at this.4. A meeting place for other consumers of the same product, if in fact that is relevant for the particular item.  For example, I care about being able to play Infinity at my gaming store.  I don't care about being able to play D&D there because I already have a group.  I don't care about finding other miniature painters because that's a hobby I do on my own.  I don't care about finding other boardgamers because I already have a group for that.I don't care about the following things:1. Inventory actually on the shop floor when I walk into the store.  I already know what I want.  Browsing can be fun, but I can almost guarantee that I'm not going to make a purchased based on browsing.  I probably already know about the miniatures, and I'm not going to buy a game book without reading up on it online.2. Atmosphere, although I could have my mind changed on this if I found a game I needed to play at the store itself.  There's a boardgame store in my area that's managed to make atmosphere a selling point, but I don't know if that would be possible with an rpg and miniature store.  Not for me and my preferences, which tend towards buying the product, leaving, and painting alone or playing the RPG with my friends.3. A knowledgeable staff.  I only care whether they're knowledgeable about what I consider to be their job, ie, finding and obtaining things I want to buy in a timely manner.Honestly, if I found a really good online retailer, I'd probably stop going to gaming stores completely.  The problem for me is that its just annoying going to a half dozen different sites in order to get one miniature from this company, two from that company, two more from overseas, a new paintbrush from yet another company, and paints from one more.  Anyways, yeah.  The idea that the gaming store has changed from a place to find information and purchase products from the shelves into a place to make orders is one that really struck home for me.Oh, and yeah, the DDI makes books obsolete for me.  Sorry, stores.</blockquote>

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