Friendly little game store

[besilarius]

http://misternizz.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/has-the-sun-set-on-the-friendly-little-game-store/

Nice article on the dearth of brick and mortar game shops, with comments from fans.

[LongBlade]

"Friendly" Local Game Store?

I always thought the F stood for something else...  ;)

Gaming is certainly changing but I'm not ready to pronounce the death of the FLGS.

First, he's off-base about Barnes & Nobel. They lost a ton of money, but mostly because they failed to capture the fickle winds of the Nook platform. They invested big and lost. It's not because their brick and mortar stores are failing all over.

I don't have time to go into a full-blown analysis of the gaming industry, but games are changing. Miniatures seem to be exploding on the scene and they seem to drive a lot of sales these days.

Also, few people can afford to make 100% of their purchases at full retail prices. However, virtually every gamer I've ever talked with is cognizant of the fact that their FLGS has to be supported by local sales or it will fail.

New stores are being launched fairly regularly. No, we can't buy SPI games in a Hallmark anymore, but each FLGS seems to find a niche that supports it and manages to do OK.

I'll see if I can get back to this topic tonight or in the morning. 

[MetalDog]

Be interested to hear what you have to say LB.

[LongBlade]

There's all kinds of stuff going on in the gaming world.

Probably I should sit down and actually think about this rather than do a stream-of-consciousness forum post, but I'll wing it and hope it's coherent.

Remember you've got the big guy on the block, Hasbro, nerfing the D&D franchise. Their shareholders and management can't figure out why D&D, the granddaddy of RPGs, isn't raking in the huge bucks that World of Warcraft is. So with D&D 4.0 they created a pen and paper MMO.  It's a fine game, but one that doesn't much resemble its roots. Pathfinder stepped into the void left with the 3.0 series which further drove fragmentation of the pen and paper RPG market.

These days there are dozens of *good* pen and paper RPGs. But the challenge of a game store is to either wait for a community to form around some games...or to get into the bookstore business and attempt to carry most of the best RPGs as inventory and hope that they can draw a large customer base.

More significant (to me) is the growth of minis games. Games Workshop remains the gateway minis game for most young teens. It is extremely expensive to get into and every year GW raises the prices. However, despite this, it continues to thrive. Many minis gamers eventually look for something else. Two games stand out: Flames of War for the historical minis gamer, and Warmachine/Hordes for the fantasy/steampunk/sci-fi gamer. There are probably a hundred other minis rules and sculpts available but those two seem to be almost universally played, at least in the US.

So, generally speaking, a game store can fill some shelves with Warhammer/WH40K, Warmachine and Hordes and it will attract a minis crowd.

The next avenue of growth is to go the collectable/customizable card route. The 300 pound gorilla here is again Hasbro, with Magic: the Gathering. There are a couple of others: Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. A store can attract a crowd by supporting those games. It requires a pretty solid inventory of used cards to trade, and a solid working knowledge of how those cards are used and what they're worth. Probably more than any of the above games you need to know those inside and out. You can carry Warhammer products without knowing game too well, but those card games require someone who really likes to play them and is willing to keep the shop open past midnight for Friday Night Magic if they're going to make a living off of them.

And those are, to my eyes, the major ways to keep a game store running. Of course most game stores stock other games, but from my limited observations at least one of the above crowds is needed to support a store, and the more of those genres the store supports, the more gamers it will attract, the better its financial success.

Anecdotally I see two brand new stores in my hometown have opened in the last year. They're less than a mile apart and it will be interesting to see how they attract a crowd and survive.

One appears to have deliberately ignored the GW and card gaming route in favor of RPGs, a really solid selection of boardgames, and any other minis game someone will bring in. So far the Star Wars X-wing and Warmahordes have been the games of choice. The other has some small GW product and is angling toward the card game route. In my estimation both stores will survive as they don't have overlapping core games competing against one another. Edit: both seem to be angling for the same RPG crowd. This is the area I'd watch for some friction between stores.

In every case gamers recognize the utility of having neutral ground where they can find opponents/friends. Gamers are like every other social group: there are a few oddballs and having a game store to help referee and/or put distance between you and home also has merit. It's just like going to a sports bar to watch a game. You have a safe buffer within which you can enjoy the game, disagree on teams, and navigate away from folks who don't fit your social preferences.

Finding players over the internet is helpful, but there is no substitute for having a store that fosters and encourages the games you like to play. I haven't met anyone who hasn't recognized the upside to paying full retail for a game in order to ensure that their preferred games have a store where they can be played. That said, pretty much everyone I know also "sneaks" in a few discounted online purchases to help stretch their gaming dollar. The stores know this and look the other way because they know no one can afford to buy 100% of their games at full retail.

So a symbiotic relationship develops between gamers and stores. It's not a perfect relationship, but I simply do not see the total collapse of brick and mortar game stores. On the contrary, if you look around, you'll find some stores are outright *thriving* right now. The key is to understand their customer and provide support for them. Usually this means providing a clean, safe, and large gaming area in addition to just selling games. Stores that just sell games probably don't last long. You *must* provide gaming tables for players to game - for free - if you want to have a hope of remaining open. Sell them snacks and drinks. Let them bring their own snacks if they want. But the best stores have terrain and tables available as well as plenty of inventory for spontaneous purchases.

My favorite stores (and I have several across the eastern half of the US) have thus far managed to thrive quite nicely. No, the store owner(s) won't be driving a Ferrari but they will be able to make an honest, if somewhat humble living and the gaming community will reward them for it.

[bayonetbrant]

Gamer's Armory here is doing pretty darn good business, and supporting a variety of different game crowds.  They've got the wargaming niche pretty well to themselves around here, but also have a big minis community with both FoW and WM/H.  Not a ton of GW stuff played there, but they've sold a lot of it.

They own ASL in the area.  They've got a weekly ASL night that routinely has 6-12 people and will often have onlookers, too.

They support FNM and weekend release parties, in large part b/c it's a good way to keep events humming along with big-company support.

But they also have a weekly board game night, a weekly RPG night, a monthly wargame day all day on weekends, and do a lot of internet business (they started out primarily retail) and are great people to work with all around.

Note that they are just one of about 5 stores in the area that sell games, and all seem to be doing fine.  2 others are game-only, while some of the others overlap into other territory: one is a hybrid comics/RPG store, another splits minis w/ models and RC/rocketry.

[Greybriar]

I miss Babbage's.

[Arctic Blast]

Sadly, the FLGS is pretty much a myth in the Edmonton area. There are a fair number of comic shops that also sell some product, mostly RPG stuff. The only real specialized store is up in St. Albert, and it's something of a gong show. For every game that's at a very reasonable price, there is one so eye-poppingly over priced that I've had to stifle laughter. Example : C&C Napoleonics expansions for over $90 a pop. Gee, I wonder why those don't sell?  :o The staff can be a bit off as well.

So yeah, I pretty much buy all of my games and RPG stuff online as a result. Aside from The Sentry Box down in Calgary (a store that I have on occasion spent an entire day in), it's pretty much a dead zone around here.

[MetalDog]

Thanks for the insight, LB.  There is a shop not too far from my house and they do Magic and boardgames.  I may have to dig my cards out and give it a go.