Your FLGS and You - What's your take?

[jdcash]

I travel a lot and always try to snoop out local game stores. I have probably been to 50 in the last year. Unfortunately, many of those experiences are similar to those already described .

OTOH, I have recently been participating LFR at a relatively new FLGS and have absolutely found it to be a great experience. I have been exposed to character builds and play strategies that I never would have learned playing in my own little box. I have seen different DM styles in action and learned greatly from them. Additionally, the store people are great. Even if the staff person working is not into DnD, they are very respectful and try to help out the best they can. They also do a good job dealing with personal hygiene and other social issues that sometimes can arise and have made it a very family friendly place.

This experience has tipped my hand to pay a few extra bucks locally rather than saving online.

 

[lin_fusan]

I enjoy going to my FLGS. We have several in the SF Bay Area and all have some kind of charm.

Honestly, I like a physical space to go to. I get out of the house, I can browse titles that catch my eye, and sometimes I find something new or interesting.

Browsing online doesn't feel fun to me. If there is something I specifically want, bang, I'm online, but if I want to browse and peruse games, I'll take a little road trip.

It might also be that I work online all the time, so getting away from the computer feels refreshing.

 

[Crothian]

I'm curious, what did they do to turn you against them? (Same question for others here who've had bad experiences)

These are the 4 stores currently in Columbus Ohio. There are more then a few gamers on En World from around here so hopefully someone will also talk about them.

The closest store to me is the Armory. It is about a mile away. The guy who runs it is friendly enough. The selection is not that great but it is the cleanest of the gaming stores. The books they carry though are all ones I can get so much cheaper on line or at the local B&N store.

The store with the best selection is the Guard Tower. It is the farthest drive for me and because of that I never went there all that often. Great selection and I've found some great books there. But the place smells and the customer service was never good. Even going in on Tuesday around noon there seemed to be people in there talking to the clerks and the clerks never seemed to like to be interrupted to check out a customer. It's also a store were they seem to like the games they like and bad mouth games they don't right to you when you are buying the games they don't like.

Ravenstone used to be good but the selection just got terrible. The last time I went in it looked like they the only new stuff was from WotC. A few years back I lived in the area and went there a lot. I think it is close to going out of business especially when they changed there hours to being open like 6 hours a day. I've been there when the hours said they were open but it was not.

Soldiery is the only place in Columbus I encourage other people not to go. They ripped me off and when I spoke of it to the owner he basically said that they did and challenged me to do something about it. Since then I've never gone back and never speak well of them in threads like this here and other places on the net. When they've had a booth at Origins I've talked to many people there about not shopping there.

I know there are locals who use and like these stores. I did for many years, but slowly it became not worth my time and effort to put up with all the negatives.

 

[Mortiana27]

I have to say that it's nice having two FLGS in town. Both are friendly and both are decently stocked. Both are quite willing to special order anything they don't have on their shelves and even tack on a small discount to the price for not having it in the store for ya.

Both shops have space available to play/host games, and this is one of the best parts of a game store. One is about half the size as the other one so the playing space is more limited and it can be much louder when the place is full ... that could also explain why it is always fun too heehee. Of course, noise is a given in any store that has game space. You have to put up with the guys at the other table hollering about rules or laughing obnoxiously loud, or even just taking up more space than is needed for their game. The best thing (for me) is that obscenities in language are at a minimum as per store rules, and that alone makes me wish all my games could be hosted at one of the FLGS!

Being the only girl at the table (for most of my games), it's nice to have a neutral territory to be in. I've played in games where because the game is hosted at an individual's house there is an unwritten rule that he/she gets to act however rudely, crudely or obnoxiously as they want because of a "you're in my house dammit" mentality.

The unfortunate trend I've noticed in both shops is that they've both begun to put a huge focus on the crack-heads oops, I mean Magic players lately. It's all you hear about these days ... tournament here, draft there, pre-release event here. But, having said that, I can see why. I mean, apparently other sales are down and no matter how rough things are ... magic players always manage to have enough to keep their addiction going

At any rate, both shops get two thumbs up from me!!

 

[samursus]

My LGS sucks and always has...the same 2 employees have been there for at least 25 years and they are only interested in CCG's and are curt with any other topic. They are also a comic book/used book/cd/movie store. Any RPGS are waaay over the MSRP and the place is showing its age (used to be an old fruit-packing warehouse I think). The only FriendlyLGS that I know of is about 45 minutes away and is really good. Any visit there turns into a 45 minute discussion on D&D and RPGS with the owner (who I barely know). The place is very small, but seems to have a regular Magic/WH/D&D clientele. Unfortunately, he has raised his prices on the 4e books (I suspect because he is selling out of them so fast, he was always underestimating what he would sell (his words) and frequently was out of the book I came there for) and because of the failure of the mini's line, he doesn't have individuals there for me to check out, the trip isn't worth it anymore. I have switched to Amazon.ca for all my stuff now.

I chose to forego the savings at first, because he was able to at least be in the same ballpark as the Amazon prices... AND he was fun to talk to and get minis from...but you take away 2 of those reasons to go, and I am done.

 

[carmachu]

I'm curious, what did they do to turn you against them? (Same question for others here who've had bad experiences, including the OP.)

Well as someone who use to actually buy where you play....

No selection. They claimed to be say, GW stockers when it fact they pretty much slide out of it and have no stock. And have nothing else of interest. No CCG and paintball arent my interest.

Open wargaming for example, is wensdays at 6-9pm. Yeah no thanks, some of us work. Yes I understand CCG's tournments bring in more money, but not everyone wants to play CCG's on teh weekend.

They had invited one in and start a club, only months later to change their mind and kick you(and others) out and dont want gaming. Twice. But its fun to watch you years later scramble putting what we did as a club did for you in gaming.

Frankly thats just the start. I dont expect a store to cater to my desires. But when you make it clear in your actions yoru not interested in offering me anything that I do want, its clear you arent going to get my money.

If you want my support, you have to give support.

 

[innerdude]

Great replies so far from everyone.

So from what I'm hearing, most people have one of three experiences at their FLGS:

1. It's a well-run business, that caters to its clients, and provides reasons (community, selection, variety of games, atmosphere) to visit regularly. These stores do well, but from most people's descriptions so far, they are few and far between--meaning, a typical metro area of 250,000+ people is lucky if it has ONE FLGS of this caliber.

2. Their FLGS is mostly "meh." Not great, not horrible, just sort of there. They visit once in a while to just "see what's there," but don't make purchases there, and don't really have any interest in being in the "community."

3. The stereotypical "rat hole," infested with poor selection, poor service, and poor atmosphere (sanitation and hygiene, attitude).

Okay, that being the case then, I am still just baffled at the assertion by the head of Goodman Games (anybody recall his name?) that the FLGS is still one of the primary marketing arms / ground forces for PnP RPG distribution. The dearth of quality FLGSes would seem to indicate that they're not really the best indicator of the RPG movement (minis games and CCGs is another story). So why this "faith," or "trust" that the FLGS is really "in touch" with the PnP RPG community?

Also, what has been everyone's experiences in playing in an RPG with a group formed at your FLGS? Good, bad, in between? Are the caliber of people / players high enough to make it worthwhile (i.e., few power gamers, good citizens (want to constructively help the group have fun), have showered in the last 48 hours, etc.)? And what's the deal with the "living" campaigns? Are they a worthwhile experience?

 

[darjr]

I dunno.

I think a thread like this brings out folks who want to help others and warn them of bad stores.

 

[jdcash]

double post, please remove

 

[Chainsaw]

? And what's the deal with the "living" campaigns? Are they a worthwhile experience?

Depends on the players and the DM, probably. For a while I played in a weekly pick-up game with rotating DM's, some regulars, some irregulars and some newbs that come once and never show up again. My experience was that there's no real continuity, little roleplaying and people use it to test drive the latest rules additions. Now, I'm not one of these folks that has to speak in weirdly accented and stilted speech for 25 minutes with every trivial NPC that comes along, but I also don't like constant meta-gaming that completely ruins any willing suspension of disbelief - which is what happened more often than not. There were a few good sessions, but most weren't great (railroading, meta-gaming, little/no roleplaying, rules lawyering).

Edit: Oh, and there are always the know-it-alls giving unwanted advice like, "Gosh, I can't believe you took power X instead of power Y. What? You took that because it fits the theme of your guy? Doesn't make any sense. You are 5% less likely to be successful in situation X and, as your teammate, I'm going to suffer. Thanks alot."