Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 ClassicCarraway wrote:
As a garage gamer, I find that I don't get to play as many games as I could if I were a dedicated store gamer. My friends and I have families and jobs, and so getting a game in is a rarer occasion than I'd like it to be. Of course, that is one of the primary reasons I became a garage gamer, life doesn't really support me playing at the local stores. That being said, I find that the few games I DO get to play in my garage are far more enjoyable than those in a store. There are a lot of things I don't have to worry about in my garage, such as cheating, min/maxing, store gamers inability to respect personal space and property. I do miss the player and army variety though.

i agree with you that life sometimes dosen't give you that free evening every night to slip over to the local store to play. We have one local store that has a 40k night..but its a very small crowd and basically the same feel as if playing at home(homemade terrain made out of pink foam ETC) the turn off for me was the 4-6 40k players get sent and packed into a basement like cattle with 20-30 other nerds playing various other games, which becomes a struggle for space and often times breathing air that dosen't smell like armpit and cheetohs. Theres also this odd occurence also where it seems like each little group kind of forms a gang and puts down other nerds that play a different game...which further increases the struggle for space, and augments the need to watch your pieces so jabba dosen't come over and trample your case of figs instead of focus on fun and the game. On the flip side there is a nice GW store about an hour away, fantastic store the owner is real cool and often times plays a mentor to the newer players while keeping a nice variety of stock. His tables are really nice and detailed, with fair rental prices..but the killer for me atleast is the drive and i don't want to show up and pay to rent a table and get steam rolled by some kid that devotes 100% of his time to writing the powerhouse list when i like to play the figs i like...also factor is that the majority of my figs are not table top quality(painted) because frankly i don't have alot of time to just sit and paint, which is not an issue when i play at home with close friends. I'm not against going to a store and playing by any means, i'd like to meet fellow 40k players but as adults who all work full time careers and have serious relationships/houses ETC its more convenient to just say "hey tuesday you want to get a game in?" have a few beers, laugh and enjoy the game.


On a side note i don't understand the direction this thread is going. Its like its turning into red vs blue...hello people we all play the same game theres more then one way to skin a cat. Some play at home..some play at stores..some do both. In the end we all play the same damn game and live different lives that dictate how or where we play..but its still the same game.

For me, it's been steadily been going downhill ever since the advent of 6th edition. Within a year, my FLGS closed down (it was about 3 miles away from where I lived) leaving the next 3 closest LGS's at 20 miles north which had next to no 40k players, ~40 miles south which had a pleasant 40k gaming group but 80 miles round trip just didn't feel all that worth it, and a GW store roughly 35 miles west but returning home required a 50-60 mile endeavor that would more often than not land you in some seriously miserable traffic. So for a while, those who had played at the FLGS that had closed shortly after 6th edition gathered up for weekly meets at one person's house and despite everything, for a couple years that group grew in size significantly. And I sort of developed a genuine liking for 6th edition. Then 7th edition dropped, the player whose house we'd meet up at dropped 40k altogether, the rest of us tried to keep it going but with no one else's house being a suitable location for everyone, it eventually dwindled from a group of ~35 to 10 to finally 6. And we held at 6 for a little while til the end of last summer when I moved to the other side of the country and two others went off to join the Marines.

Now, I live perhaps just 15 miles away from a GW store but I realm don't feel like picking up the game again. And right now it's not even that I'm in a new place and know no one, I get along fine at the GW store with everyone else the few times I've gone in to rebuild my armies which were lost in the move. It's more that 7th edition hadn't been that fun for me since its release and has only seemed to have grown worse. Now when I kick back and want to do some sort of "wargaming," I think first of the likes of C&C 3, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, Generals, or hell, even World of Tanks/Warships.

I still enjoy reading 40k and HH fluff. Still peek at codices every now and then, but the tabletop game grows more and more distant everyday for me.

And as an update to the story, The local store no longer carries anything related to GW, has sold off all of its terrain and boards and no longer allows GW players to play in the store as all space is reserved for Magic the gathering.

So, GW has lost its only store in the area. The only store as far as I know between Miami and Homestead is now the GW store in Northern Miami, roughly 1 hour away from those of us who play in Homestead.

Good work GW.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Purifier wrote:
This is actually something I've been thinking about lately too. It seems like everyone in the 'muricas has this awesome gaming basement.
Here in Sweden, everyone lives in a small apartment. Me and my friends have a gaming table that we've made out of three IKEA tables. This allows us to store it, but whoever has it has to store those three table tops and all the scenery. It is a problem. We don't really have that kind of storage, so we're making concessions to store it.

You don't really need that much space. A 6x4 table can be built in sections and stored against the wall in a closet and takes up very little space. Then when you want to play you can put it on top of your kitchen table. For terrain storage you just need a small bookshelf, which probably takes up less space than models/paint/etc. It's not an awesome dedicated gaming space, but most people should be able to play 40k at home if they really want to.

You are both right, but I'd like to pipe in:
I lived in america for a year on the east coast. It seemed to me that urban and "countryside" style residents both would use the same game store. So even if many guys lived with their mom, at their sisters house or in some small apartment, there would usually be some guys who had a access to a basement or a big garage, and could host games for their friends. In Sweden, Poland and other countries, you either live in an urban environment in tiny apartments or in the countryside with big houses (but no gaming groups).

 triplegrim wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Purifier wrote:
This is actually something I've been thinking about lately too. It seems like everyone in the 'muricas has this awesome gaming basement.
Here in Sweden, everyone lives in a small apartment. Me and my friends have a gaming table that we've made out of three IKEA tables. This allows us to store it, but whoever has it has to store those three table tops and all the scenery. It is a problem. We don't really have that kind of storage, so we're making concessions to store it.

You don't really need that much space. A 6x4 table can be built in sections and stored against the wall in a closet and takes up very little space. Then when you want to play you can put it on top of your kitchen table. For terrain storage you just need a small bookshelf, which probably takes up less space than models/paint/etc. It's not an awesome dedicated gaming space, but most people should be able to play 40k at home if they really want to.

You are both right, but I'd like to pipe in:
I lived in america for a year on the east coast. It seemed to me that urban and "countryside" style residents both would use the same game store. So even if many guys lived with their mom, at their sisters house or in some small apartment, there would usually be some guys who had a access to a basement or a big garage, and could host games for their friends. In Sweden, Poland and other countries, you either live in an urban environment in tiny apartments or in the countryside with big houses (but no gaming groups).

Yeah, I laughed when he started about closets and kitchen tables. Only large houses have those. The appartment I grew up in for example was just a kitchen (no room for table, let alone game board), a bathroom, a small common room and two tiny bedrooms. The entire appartment would probably fit into the average American bedroom. And that was actually one of the better appartments in the city.
Storage really is an issue in many countries, and if you live in a small house and don't have a flgs to play at and store tables etc. you are out of luck. Your only hope then is a friend with a large house. But in any case, a flgs is still extremely important for playing 40k or other wargames. Not only for the space, but also because playing with friends all the time against the same armies gets stale after a while. New armies to play against keeps things fresh.

In my experience, when the last store in the area closes down, that is also the end for 40k in that area. Sure, people will still try and organise things, but in the end it dies down because there are no new players and finding place and getting together require much more effort.

Makumba wrote:

Why is getting a debit card so hard?
Because there is a good chance they will never see the money back, as a lot of young people go to UK or Norway and are gone.

They usually go back to Poland from norway with a lot of credit they never bother paying back too. So someone has a lot of norwegian credit cards in Warzawa and Gdynia.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Yeah, I laughed when he started about closets and kitchen tables. Only large houses have those.

This probably varies with countries, but all houses I have lived in so far have had those.

 Ghazkuul wrote:
And as an update to the story, The local store no longer carries anything related to GW, has sold off all of its terrain and boards and no longer allows GW players to play in the store as all space is reserved for Magic the gathering.

So, GW has lost its only store in the area. The only store as far as I know between Miami and Homestead is now the GW store in Northern Miami, roughly 1 hour away from those of us who play in Homestead.

Good work GW.

I get what you're trying to say. GW is driving stores to not sell their products, and that's bad.
However... I live in Belgium and the closest store that I know of is also 1 hour away and I make that trip weekly (and I'd do more if I had the time). It's always been that way for me and I've never complained about it. Wargaming just isn't as big here and even if FLGS sell GW, they don't offer space to play (and even if they do, you just get a table without terrain). If I want to play, I'll have to either make a one hour trip to the GW or a 30 minute trip to the closest friend that plays 40K which we rarely do because neither of us has got any terrain.

In fact, I was amazed that the GW store lets you play there for free on fully prepared tables when I first started playing.

In short, I get that it's annoying that you have to travel further and possibly get to know new people in order to keep playing 40K again, but I don't think it's worth making such a fuzz about. It's what people would call a "mild inconvenience".

In fact, I was amazed that the GW store lets you play there for free on fully prepared tables when I first started playing.

Envy your GW then. We have one in the whole country. It has 3 tables, which is kind of a cool. But you have the option they give you are, either to play a demo games if your first time, play a small game if there is no one that wants to play a demo game, play a different demo game. If you have a 1500pts army bought in store or outside of the store, they never let you play.

This probably varies with countries, but all houses I have lived in so far have had those.

Define has. Does our kitchen have a table? yes. Can max two people sit at it, by which the block access tot he fridge ? yes too.

DaPino wrote:

 Ghazkuul wrote:
And as an update to the story, The local store no longer carries anything related to GW, has sold off all of its terrain and boards and no longer allows GW players to play in the store as all space is reserved for Magic the gathering.

So, GW has lost its only store in the area. The only store as far as I know between Miami and Homestead is now the GW store in Northern Miami, roughly 1 hour away from those of us who play in Homestead.

Good work GW.

I get what you're trying to say. GW is driving stores to not sell their products, and that's bad.
However... I live in Belgium and the closest store that I know of is also 1 hour away and I make that trip weekly (and I'd do more if I had the time). It's always been that way for me and I've never complained about it. Wargaming just isn't as big here and even if FLGS sell GW, they don't offer space to play (and even if they do, you just get a table without terrain). If I want to play, I'll have to either make a one hour trip to the GW or a 30 minute trip to the closest friend that plays 40K which we rarely do because neither of us has got any terrain.

In fact, I was amazed that the GW store lets you play there for free on fully prepared tables when I first started playing.

In short, I get that it's annoying that you have to travel further and possibly get to know new people in order to keep playing 40K again, but I don't think it's worth making such a fuzz about. It's what people would call a "mild inconvenience".

It is beyond a mild inconvenience when you factor in the costs of getting their. Between my house and that store their are about 5-10 Tolls depending on your route so its going to cost you $10-15 to even go to the store before you factor in anything. On top of that if theirs traffic (and in miami there is always traffic) that 1 hour trip just turned into 2-3 hours. I understand its hard for you guys in other countries but think about how much nicer it would be if GW pulled their collective heads out of their anal orifices.

I just started getting into 40K and live in Homestead, FL as well. I was bummed when I went to Sunshine to pick up some minis and found it devoid of anything GW. Now, if only us Homestead dwellers had a place to play locally. Looks there is enough of us to get some gaming done.

 Blacksails wrote:
Regardless of the why GW does what it does, do you feel that it's a good direction for the game?

What does GW do that is a good direction for the game?

While we may agree here krodarklorr, unfortunately this a thread necro raised from its slumber by Corellis.

Let this thread rest in peace.

 Blacksails wrote:
Let this thread rest in peace.

So mote it be.