kronk wrote: The worst I had is very tame compared to these. When picking up my minis to clear the table for the RPG group coming in, one of the RPGers decided to help by grabbing several of my minis in one hand, popping one off the base. Fortunately, no lasting damage was incurred, and the other gamers in the group yelled at him for me. He apologized, and I went on my way.
Always put a finish on your minis, boys and girls. Protect your painted minis!
Reminds me of a couple weeks ago, was playing a new kid (and he really was a kid, not a "kid" because he was a bit younger than me), my old metal Terminator Chaplain that was deepstriking in with the terminators scatters onto the mishap table, so we roll, and the kid gets to place him wherever... So he kinda does the excited kid thing and somewhat slams it down into the table in the corner he wanted it to be, popping said terminator off the base. He starts flipping out, apologizing. I told him repeatedly its OK, told him that it's a heavy model, and that the contact points between the base (it's got gravel stuff) and his feet isn't the best, and anyhow, I have a spare terminator chaplain, so I just swapped the model out
Buttery Commissar wrote: Re. The Stank, I found it was quite often neatly dressed guys dropping in after work on the way home for a quick game that brought the funk. I felt for them, as there's not a quick answer there.
IIRC The Grid in Doncaster has a shower room for this very reason, and it's maintained very well.
I imagine that the problem is no different than what a restaurant or bar could have. Smallish rooms, not usually very well ventilated, body heat builds up over an evening...with the main difference being that people in bars are too drunk to care much, and people in restaurants have a delightful curry to smell instead. If gamers want to defeat the funk, since most of us already shower every day, the next step is probably just better ventilation in shops.
This seems like a good explanation as to why it's not a big problem at my FLGS. In the gaming hall, they have a huge barn style double door at the rear, and large double doors at the front. When the place is busy, they open both fully which usually gets a breeze through.
Buttery Commissar wrote: Re. The Stank, I found it was quite often neatly dressed guys dropping in after work on the way home for a quick game that brought the funk. I felt for them, as there's not a quick answer there.
IIRC The Grid in Doncaster has a shower room for this very reason, and it's maintained very well.
I can forgive this. This is different than someone just not showering ect.
Someone who got off work BO is much better than the Gamer who wears the same clothing that never bathes BO. First example is uncomfortable, yet more understandable, second example is unbearable and disgusting.
conker249 wrote: Someone who got off work BO is much better than the Gamer who wears the same clothing that never bathes BO. First example is uncomfortable, yet more understandable, second example is unbearable and disgusting.
Fresh sweat and BO never smells as bad as a smell thats been building up for days.
cuda1179 wrote: I was playing in an Apoc. game once. The guys on my side had a ton of titans, and we had agreed to group our Eldar revenants together as one large group. A guy from the other side needed to come to our side to move his models, leaning WAY over the side of the board. As he did his shirt caught a couple of the Revenants, causing a domino effect. Two Armorcast Revenants tipped back, tipping over a friend's Forgeworld Revenant and my scratch built Revenant, both of which slid off the side of the table. I had enough time to save one, and I chose my friend's Forgeworld piece do to the cost. My scratchbuilt one broke into 4 or 5 pieces. The only response from the guy that did it was "looks like you'll need some glue".
That lack of empathy from the player who caused the mishap, is what makes another player want to vault over the table, punch the guy in the face with car keys using them like spiked knuckles, and choke him til he turns blue and soils himself.
Totally. Any time there are tall, tipsy models near a board edge EXTREME caution is called for, which he didn't show. Even then I would have been relatively okay with it, as all he did was damage a scratch-build that cost me all of $20 and 10 hours of my time. That's easily fixed. The non-caring attitude is what made me pissed. If he had helped me gather the pieces, offered me some glue, and stated how sorry he was I'd have forgotten about it in seconds.
I am reminded of what happened to me one night when I was playing 40k. An old guy knocked over my army bag (to be fair I had precariously perched it on a chair) and spilled my models everywhere, breaking two of my Chaos Raptors. They only needed a little glue as it turned out (broke at the joints between pieces), but the old fart just kept walking and did not apologize or anything. I was tempted to get in his face and yell at the top of my lungs, but it would have looked bad, 300lb.+ of me yelling at an old man who was definitely shorter than me, so I let it go. Still pisses me off thinking about it, and like your story, what gets me is the guy acted like nothing happened.
tomjoad wrote: I imagine that the problem is no different than what a restaurant or bar could have. Smallish rooms, not usually very well ventilated, body heat builds up over an evening...with the main difference being that people in bars are too drunk to care much, and people in restaurants have a delightful curry to smell instead. If gamers want to defeat the funk, since most of us already shower every day, the next step is probably just better ventilation in shops.
Pretty much. If you pack 20-30 people into a room for a whole day at least some of them are going to need a shower by the end of the day, especially on a warmer day when the store owner is too cheap to pay for good AC. There was an X-Wing tournament a while back where temperatures got up into the 85-90* range, and anyone who thinks they're clean and smelling wonderful by the end of that is only fooling themselves.
In my experience the legendary "clueless person who hasn't bathed in a month" is just that: a legend. I'm sure there must be a few people out there who are that bad but I don't think they're anywhere near as common as the stereotypes suggest.
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conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
There's probably some underlying issue (depression, etc) that makes taking care of themselves difficult. I think in most cases it's one of those things you can't really understand unless you've been there yourself.
We have local gem that likes to waddle in and fill our hearts with woe at my flgs....
First off, this guy is about 450 pounds, homeless, wears a greasy bandanna, and has a massive pepper colored beard. He always wears combat pants and a leather jacket with a naked werewolf lady on the back. Also has some nude furry tats on his arms that he shows off when he takes the jacket off to reveal his wife-beater. Big old Choke chains in his pockets, and smells like putrefaction as well.
He shows up all the time and marches to the back corner and sets up his laptop to read my little pony fanfiction (fallout styled i think?) and look at porn. Reason I can guess at what fanfiction he s reading is cause he will start reading it out loud to you if you're nearby....he also mouth breaths and moans. Yeah...he fething moans at stuff. Hes extremely bigoted and sexist and loves telling you how to play your army or what you're doing wrong when he hasn't played since 4th edition. Speaking of which he has a "space marine army" if you can call it that, which consists of centaur bikers, wolf infantry, and bull dreadnoughts. Some have certain...organs painted on...
Also compulsively lies. Apparently he has a girlfriend in the Yakuza, used to be a navy seal, and a green beret, owns hundreds of weapons, and worked for the CIA (and knows all of the Gov. Secrets!!!)
We never say is name cause we've come to the conclusion that he operates like beetle juice, say his name three times and he just appears. Seriously, its happened multiple times.
Recently he was picked up by a local officer who comes to the game shop for multiple warrants for (improvised explosives). What scale and how dangerous these were is unknown, but man does he have his priorities straight.
Hello there, first post for me here, but I've been reading this topic for a good dose of amusement (or disgust, or, in a few unfortunate cases, depressing feelings) and felt like sharing a story that's not really horrible or disgusting, but rather disappointing.
I was playing a campaign at my "Not so friendly" local game store. I'm not an overly competitive player, but I was prodded into playing it by an annoyingly eager store guy.
Anyway, we do an escalating campaign: 2 weeks at 500 points per army, 2 at 750 and 2 at 1000. Won games earn 3 points, draws earn 1 point, losses, zero, plus bonus points for fully painted armies. This is rather important.
First week two of my friends challenge me. I give it a go with a basic reclamation Legion, fully painted, and win (one because of bad luck, second one because my opponent played awfully bad, but that's beside the point). So 6 points, plus 5 for my painted units, and 3 more for the painted Troop choices. 14 points in the first evening of the campaign. Not too shabby!
Second week my friends drop the game, I go anyway, play against the store guy, who played Khorne demonkin (And used a Land Raider at 500 points, but alright...)
For a couple weeks, up to playing at 750 points, I keep winning or at the least ending in a draw. Am not a competitive player, I repeat, but I do have some good tactics, and, frankly, when the opponent, between 3 tomb blades, and 3 spider-buffed Wraiths, assaults the Wraiths, it's not my fault.
Anyway, mid-campaign I was on top of the ladder, with the store guy lagging behind at second place mostly because he was working there and could do "introduction plays" with his campaign Army, or pretend he played and up his score.
Then the fourth week he decided all on his own (it was mostly just me and him playing anymore, actually, the other players dropped the campaign as it had no real interesting rules, I kept going because, well, I like playing smaller battles) that winning against the player with the highest campaign score (me) would earn 5 points, drawing 3 and losing 1, while if I were to win I'd have gotten a single point.
When I said it was a bit one-sided he smiled and said that those would be the rules for the rest of the campaign.
Needless to say, I barely played any game the rest of the 2 weeks, won one against Guard, earning more painting points and 1 victory point. I don't remember the weekly rules, but I kind of remember one being "Gain 4 campaign points if you challenge the top player" or something. In the end, the rules were changed mid-campaign to have me lose the advantage.
Still, I won, and for a month and half of gaming I won.... a free admittance to the tournament the week after, but without being eligible to win any prize because I partecipated for free...
The LGS back where I lived in college turned really anti GW at one point in time. I believe it was around the time warmachine came out. They would run 40k tournaments, but then one day stopped, and it wasn't just a "we no longer will run these" it was a "we refuse to host these". 40k players (myself included) were asked to leave, to make room for MTG, Pokemon, and Hordes/Warmachine players.
Since I was asked to leave, mid game, for walk ins, I stopped going to that shop. Instead I drove 45min to the next nearest shop. There was better selection, nicer people, and the place didn't smell bad!
Looking at photos on Gmaps, I would have to bet someone new took over, as they have a decent selection now (and carry disc golf stuff?)
gwarsh41 wrote: The LGS back where I lived in college turned really anti GW at one point in time. I believe it was around the time warmachine came out. They would run 40k tournaments, but then one day stopped, and it wasn't just a "we no longer will run these" it was a "we refuse to host these". 40k players (myself included) were asked to leave, to make room for MTG, Pokemon, and Hordes/Warmachine players.
Since I was asked to leave, mid game, for walk ins, I stopped going to that shop. Instead I drove 45min to the next nearest shop. There was better selection, nicer people, and the place didn't smell bad!
Looking at photos on Gmaps, I would have to bet someone new took over, as they have a decent selection now (and carry disc golf stuff?)
You dont happen to live in the Putnam county area of NY do you? This EXACT same thing happened with a store in my area years ago.
You guys are in Putnam, near Carmel? Come to Norwalk CT and hit up Battlegrounds. They have a decent group for 40k and play on Sunday's. It's always full up, and I've gone in on ash days Multiple times. Never been an odor issue there, and they have a decent selection of GW stuff in stock. It'll be like a 40 minute drive for you, take 84 to exit 3 in CT and follow route 7 all the way into Norwalk.
conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
It just doesn't register to some people, and you very quickly stop smelling it yourself. Most of the cases I'm aware of are nice guys who are just totally oblivious.
conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
It just doesn't register to some people, and you very quickly stop smelling it yourself. Most of the cases I'm aware of are nice guys who are just totally oblivious.
I'm sorry, but this just seems like an excuse to me every time I hear it. A person with any common sense knows you get smelling when you don't bathe regularly, and sometimes you get smelling when you DO bathe regularly. If you know these things, then why do you go without bathing (you not meaning you personally). I can forgive someone who just got off work and doesn't have the option to go home and get cleaned up first. I can forgive someone for being gassy (happens to everyone now and then). I just can't forgive someone who thinks they don't need to worry about personal hygiene. It is one thing when you are homeless or don't have running water. It is quite another when you have a home with a working bathroom or access to a working bathroom.
conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
It just doesn't register to some people, and you very quickly stop smelling it yourself. Most of the cases I'm aware of are nice guys who are just totally oblivious.
I'm sorry, but this just seems like an excuse to me every time I hear it. A person with any common sense knows you get smelling when you don't bathe regularly, and sometimes you get smelling when you DO bathe regularly. If you know these things, then why do you go without bathing (you not meaning you personally). I can forgive someone who just got off work and doesn't have the option to go home and get cleaned up first. I can forgive someone for being gassy (happens to everyone now and then). I just can't forgive someone who thinks they don't need to worry about personal hygiene. It is one thing when you are homeless or don't have running water. It is quite another when you have a home with a working bathroom or access to a working bathroom.
I agree its disgusting, but its not an exscuse, some people do not have a sense of smell and like Herzlos said, and some people that smell are used to the smell and therefor are pretty oblivious.
I guess not everyone counts washing and personal grooming as part of their daily routine for some reason or another.
conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
It just doesn't register to some people, and you very quickly stop smelling it yourself. Most of the cases I'm aware of are nice guys who are just totally oblivious.
I'm sorry, but this just seems like an excuse to me every time I hear it. A person with any common sense knows you get smelling when you don't bathe regularly, and sometimes you get smelling when you DO bathe regularly. If you know these things, then why do you go without bathing (you not meaning you personally). I can forgive someone who just got off work and doesn't have the option to go home and get cleaned up first. I can forgive someone for being gassy (happens to everyone now and then). I just can't forgive someone who thinks they don't need to worry about personal hygiene. It is one thing when you are homeless or don't have running water. It is quite another when you have a home with a working bathroom or access to a working bathroom.
They're called standards and people aren't held to them anymore - hence most of this thread and others of its kind.
I also don't buy the 'I'm depressed so I don't wash my clothes, self, or own deodorant' line either - not that depression doesn't affect people differently - but if someone is that depressed, as far as my experience has taught me, they don't go out in public BECAUSE of that depression.
I'm going to chalk most of the Greater Unclean Ones up to laziness, or douchebaggery, either one.
conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
It just doesn't register to some people, and you very quickly stop smelling it yourself. Most of the cases I'm aware of are nice guys who are just totally oblivious.
I'm sorry, but this just seems like an excuse to me every time I hear it. A person with any common sense knows you get smelling when you don't bathe regularly, and sometimes you get smelling when you DO bathe regularly. If you know these things, then why do you go without bathing (you not meaning you personally). I can forgive someone who just got off work and doesn't have the option to go home and get cleaned up first. I can forgive someone for being gassy (happens to everyone now and then). I just can't forgive someone who thinks they don't need to worry about personal hygiene. It is one thing when you are homeless or don't have running water. It is quite another when you have a home with a working bathroom or access to a working bathroom.
They're called standards and people aren't held to them anymore - hence most of this thread and others of its kind.
I also don't buy the 'I'm depressed so I don't wash my clothes, self, or own deodorant' line either - not that depression doesn't affect people differently - but if someone is that depressed, as far as my experience has taught me, they don't go out in public BECAUSE of that depression.
I'm going to chalk most of the Greater Unclean Ones up to laziness, or douchebaggery, either one.
NorseSig wrote:
I'm sorry, but this just seems like an excuse to me every time I hear it. A person with any common sense knows you get smelling when you don't bathe regularly, and sometimes you get smelling when you DO bathe regularly. If you know these things, then why do you go without bathing (you not meaning you.
Depression is a thing, sadly, and not physically looking after yourself,cor thing is often a symptom. I've known numerous people who have suffered from depression who never cleaned, eaten, washed their clothes, groomed, and so on. I've been a few steps down thst road myself, once upon s time. And sadly, I think personally that depression shows up in a higher frequency amongst us nerds, misfits and social outcasts than the general population,
Talking about 'common sense' is all fine and well when you are mentally healthy. Saying that, with respect shows you have no understanding of what it's like to go through it. A slap on the shoulder and words of encouragement just fall into the void, all thst you feel is despair. When you are depressed, and in 'that place', common sense just isn't really a thing. It doesn't really apply. It's irrelevant. Depression is a disease - it's a monster, and until you have faced that beast, you simply don't know how crippling it is to you, how tiny and insignificant you feel, and hoe impossible even the most simple tasks can be. And your ability to do things and reason, You just don't care, and even the simple acts described above are simply overwhelming in their burden.
Frankenberry wrote:
I also don't buy the 'I'm depressed so I don't wash my clothes, self, or own deodorant' line either - not that depression doesn't affect people differently - but if someone is that depressed, as far as my experience has taught me, they don't go out in public BECAUSE of that depression.
.
Again, you'd be surprised. Regardless of you buying it or not, ( and FYI, whether you ,want it or not, it is an appalling and insensitive thing to say about the subject) Sometimes gsming might be the only thing that keeps them going (on a personal note, and I really don't want to delve into it too much, but ii was never severely depressed to thst extent, but I remember how gaming was often my 'safe place', as well as my way to get out and deal with people) and could be their only reason to go outside, because often times it is a way to not be themselves, and immerse themselves in a fantasy world where they are an important, empowered individual and the burdens of their lives disappear. Because hey, they're
Like minded needs who like the same stuff as I do, and it's safe to be around them.
And FYI, people do go out in public with depression. Oftentimes it can be one of the hardest things to do. I knew a guy who was so depressed after a breakup that work was all but overwhelming to him, and he barely turned up, who barely ate, couldn't sleep, couldn't look after himself or his flat (he moved south for a job, and couldn't even get himself together enough to either pack his gear up or tidy the flat, and it was a mess. Six month of crap lying about, expired food, no dishes washed, no clothes washed, no hoovering or cleaning etc -he spent the three days he was supposed to be packing literally staring at the floor) and while he could go out into the real world it was typically after a bottle of vodka or pills.
SlaveToDorkness wrote: My opinion is that all male hygiene is based upon the possibility of sex. If there's no possibility, some guys just give up trying.
I was going to disagree and then I remember having a conversation with a friend who basically said the reason he commits to hygiene at all is on the off chance he might bump into some girl on his way to class. What a time to be alive.
conker249 wrote: Yup. Never understood why bathing yourself and washing your clothes are foreign to some people
It just doesn't register to some people, and you very quickly stop smelling it yourself. Most of the cases I'm aware of are nice guys who are just totally oblivious.
I'm sorry, but this just seems like an excuse to me every time I hear it. A person with any common sense knows you get smelling when you don't bathe regularly, and sometimes you get smelling when you DO bathe regularly. If you know these things, then why do you go without bathing (you not meaning you personally). I can forgive someone who just got off work and doesn't have the option to go home and get cleaned up first. I can forgive someone for being gassy (happens to everyone now and then). I just can't forgive someone who thinks they don't need to worry about personal hygiene. It is one thing when you are homeless or don't have running water. It is quite another when you have a home with a working bathroom or access to a working bathroom.
They're called standards and people aren't held to them anymore - hence most of this thread and others of its kind.
I also don't buy the 'I'm depressed so I don't wash my clothes, self, or own deodorant' line either - not that depression doesn't affect people differently - but if someone is that depressed, as far as my experience has taught me, they don't go out in public BECAUSE of that depression.
I'm going to chalk most of the Greater Unclean Ones up to laziness, or douchebaggery, either one.
Thanks, Granddad
Back in my day...we had to walk up hill, both ways, naked, in the snow to my FLGS. They only had one army and it was Squats! AND WE WERE DAMN HAPPY WITH JUST THAT! /oldguy
Frankenberry wrote:
I also don't buy the 'I'm depressed so I don't wash my clothes, self, or own deodorant' line either - not that depression doesn't affect people differently - but if someone is that depressed, as far as my experience has taught me, they don't go out in public BECAUSE of that depression.
.
Again, you'd be surprised. Regardless of you buying it or not, ( and FYI, whether you ,want it or not, it is an appalling and insensitive thing to say about the subject) Sometimes gsming might be the only thing that keeps them going (on a personal note, and I really don't want to delve into it too much, but ii was never severely depressed to thst extent, but I remember how gaming was often my 'safe place', as well as my way to get out and deal with people) and could be their only reason to go outside, because often times it is a way to not be themselves, and immerse themselves in a fantasy world where they are an important, empowered individual and the burdens of their lives disappear. Because hey, they're
Like minded needs who like the same stuff as I do, and it's safe to be around them.
And FYI, people do go out in public with depression. Oftentimes it can be one of the hardest things to do. I knew a guy who was so depressed after a breakup that work was all but overwhelming to him, and he barely turned up, who barely ate, couldn't sleep, couldn't look after himself or his flat (he moved south for a job, and couldn't even get himself together enough to either pack his gear up or tidy the flat, and it was a mess. Six month of crap lying about, expired food, no dishes washed, no clothes washed, no hoovering or cleaning etc -he spent the three days he was supposed to be packing literally staring at the floor) and while he could go out into the real world it was typically after a bottle of vodka or pills.
Saying that I don't believe something isn't appalling and insensitive - it's that I don't care, and I don't have to - attacking me because I refuse to go along with every story of 'I'm depressed, let me get away with whatever I want and feel bad for me' is pretty pointless - perhaps you should stay on topic.
As far as the whole BO situation goes I'd be surprised if there were people who HADN'T experienced this before - it's almost a guarantee at the places I've haunted in the past and, sad to say, you can tell who the culprit is/will be as soon as they show up. It's a shame, because soap and water is vastly less expensive than little plastic men, you'd think people would be more conscious of their aroma and do SOMETHING about it.
I've actually been pretty lucky as far as BO goes at my FLGS. Then again, I have a horrible sense of smell, so I'm actually super self-conscious about that. I can never tell when I start to smell, so I bathe pretty often and usually slap on some deodorant before rushing to my FLGS after work. I mean, hell, I've never even experienced a bad smell at places like Dragoncon, which I frequent pretty much every year. Of all the senses, smell is the one I'm glad I'm awful at.
Depression is a thing, sadly, and not physically looking after yourself,cor thing is often a symptom. I've known numerous people who have suffered from depression who never cleaned, eaten, washed their clothes, groomed, and so on. I've been a few steps down thst road myself, once upon s time. And sadly, I think personally that depression shows up in a higher frequency amongst us nerds, misfits and social outcasts than the general population,
Talking about 'common sense' is all fine and well when you are mentally healthy. Saying that, with respect shows you have no understanding of what it's like to go through it. A slap on the shoulder and words of encouragement just fall into the void, all thst you feel is despair. When you are depressed, and in 'that place', common sense just isn't really a thing. It doesn't really apply. It's irrelevant. Depression is a disease - it's a monster, and until you have faced that beast, you simply don't know how crippling it is to you, how tiny and insignificant you feel, and hoe impossible even the most simple tasks can be. And your ability to do things and reason, You just don't care, and even the simple acts described above are simply overwhelming in their burden.
I know about depression. I have it. Have spent some time in a facility to get help for it. Even at my worst when making suicide attempts (came very close to being successful at it more than once), I never stopped with bathing myself. So don't give me that crap that having depression makes it okay to not bathe and that the disease is too crippling to do so. I know better than that from my personal experience.
I can understand if someone has untreated mental diseases that things get get out of hand and away from oneself.
I know about depression. I have it. Have spent some time in a facility to get help for it. Even at my worst when making suicide attempts (came very close to being successful at it more than once), I never stopped with bathing myself. So don't give me that crap that having depression makes it okay to not bathe and that the disease is too crippling to do so. I know better than that from my personal experience.
I can understand if someone has untreated mental diseases that things get get out of hand and away from oneself.
That's just the thing with depression. Just because, even at your worst you still bathed. Not everyone has that same experience.
While it still remains socially unacceptable to be unbathed, don't sit there patronizing others because you experienced mental illness in a particular way.
I don't have any horror stories worth talking about. I do remember a funny incident that happened while I was hanging out at my FLGS though.
A young women walked into the store, went strait to the employee at the register and says "Hi, I'm looking to start streaming The Witcher 3 and I was looking at getting a computer to do that". My FLGS doesn't sell video games or computers at all. The employee simply told her that, she exclaimed "oh" and walked out the store.
It was clear she had never played video games before and was only getting into it for the attention and/or profit her looks could get her from video game streaming. I just find it amusing that she managed to stumble across across the FLGS (whose only possible relation is that it has "Game" in its name) instead of the numerous chain stores that actually sell electronics and video games.
Ensis Ferrae wrote: That's just the thing with depression. Just because, even at your worst you still bathed. Not everyone has that same experience.
While it still remains socially unacceptable to be unbathed, don't sit there patronizing others because you experienced mental illness in a particular way.
Frankenberry wrote:
Saying that I don't believe something isn't appalling and insensitive - it's that I don't care, and I don't have to - attacking me because I refuse to go along with every story of 'I'm depressed, let me get away with whatever I want and feel bad for me' is pretty pointless - perhaps you should stay on topic.
whether you believe it or not, it happens. It is a 'thing'.
You don't have to care about it at all - by all means, don't bother. Who you give a damn about is entirely up to you. But what you should do at the very least is try to understand and acknowledge where other people might be coming from, and not dismiss it out of hand. These things happen to people. These things cause effects. After that, you can do whatever the hell you want.
NorseSig wrote:
I know about depression. I have it. Have spent some time in a facility to get help for it. Even at my worst when making suicide attempts (came very close to being successful at it more than once), I never stopped with bathing myself. So don't give me that crap that having depression makes it okay to not bathe and that the disease is too crippling to do so. I know better than that from my personal experience.
I can understand if someone has untreated mental diseases that things get get out of hand and away from oneself.
Firstly, I will apologise for saying that it sounded like you had no idea what it was like to go through. That was crude. You've been on that road too, and I can only hope and encourage you on so you beat the monster.
Thst said, I never said having depression made it 'okay to not bathe'. I merely acknowledged that it can be as aspect of it. Like I said, I know numerous people who I can only describe as who 'stopped caring' when they fell into that pit. It overwhelmed them. Those simple things that you managed - well, they couldn't. That's depression - there are so many different ways in can manifest itself.
Saying it's horrible to not bathe and whatever - yes, you are right, it is. And I never said it wasn't. I merely acknowledge there might be a reason behind it other than smelly insensitive gamer?
Regardless of what naysayers may incorrectly believe, depression is very real, and the effects can very much include the kind of things that have been described here
At the same time acknowledging that someone struggling with mental illness may not even consider personal hygiene does not negate public standards.
The key is to have both the courage and the sensitivity to take a gamer aside and address the issue when it arrises. This seems to be where gamers (especially store owners/staff) seem to fail. They are much more likely to come here and complain about a smell than address the issue when it arises.
Eilif wrote: I think some folks may be talking in circles.
Regardless of what naysayers may incorrectly believe, depression is very real, and the effects can very much include the kind of things that have been described here
At the same time acknowledging that someone struggling with mental illness may not even consider personal hygiene does not negate public standards.
The key is to have both the courage and the sensitivity to take a gamer aside and address the issue when it arrises. This seems to be where gamers (especially store owners/staff) seem to fail. They are much more likely to come here and complain about a smell than address the issue when it arises.
It was clear she had never played video games before and was only getting into it for the attention and/or profit her looks could get her from video game streaming. I just find it amusing that she managed to stumble across across the FLGS (whose only possible relation is that it has "Game" in its name) instead of the numerous chain stores that actually sell electronics and video games.
How were you actually able to discern this information?
That's how I found out about Games Workshop when I was 12. I walked into GW Glasgow: Queens Street and asked about what computer games they were selling.
Miniature Wargaming was just a completely alien concept to mini-Compel.
Eilif wrote: I think some folks may be talking in circles.
Regardless of what naysayers may incorrectly believe, depression is very real, and the effects can very much include the kind of things that have been described here
At the same time acknowledging that someone struggling with mental illness may not even consider personal hygiene does not negate public standards.
The key is to have both the courage and the sensitivity to take a gamer aside and address the issue when it arrises. This seems to be where gamers (especially store owners/staff) seem to fail. They are much more likely to come here and complain about a smell than address the issue when it arises.
Actually from what I've seen they're more likely to act like insensitive passive-aggressive gits in person and then come here and complain about it. The type of knuckle-dragging cretins who dismiss mental illness out of hand aren't capable of sensitivity or understanding.
Eilif wrote: I think some folks may be talking in circles.
Regardless of what naysayers may incorrectly believe, depression is very real, and the effects can very much include the kind of things that have been described here
At the same time acknowledging that someone struggling with mental illness may not even consider personal hygiene does not negate public standards.
The key is to have both the courage and the sensitivity to take a gamer aside and address the issue when it arrises. This seems to be where gamers (especially store owners/staff) seem to fail. They are much more likely to come here and complain about a smell than address the issue when it arises.
Actually from what I've seen they're more likely to act like insensitive passive-aggressive gits in person and then come here and complain about it. The type of knuckle-dragging cretins who dismiss mental illness out of hand aren't capable of sensitivity or understanding.
+1 for obliquely insulting people.
Anyhow, back in topic; I was in my old FLGS once looking at some Khador stuff (had Karchev in my hand) and this...spawn appears and proceeds to try and grab it out of my hands with a guffaw and 'Karchev sucks'. I change my grip and keep it solid and look at him, frowning.
Seriously he wouldn't let go. He tugged once and laughed stupidly. It was probably a good fifteen seconds of him not getting that my IFF indicator was rapidly changing him from friend to foe. Before I could fire up a 'what the feth' the owner appeared and shooed him away.
One of the few times I locked up, not out of fear, but disbelief.
I've only ever had minor issues, but I have had three things happen at three different places. Two being ye'old FLGS and one being a bonafied GW.
I got into WH40k when I was.. around 10 or 11, it was very early in the 2,000s and back in 3rd edition. Anyway I was at the GW in the Denver Mills Mall back.. A long time ago, I think I was 15. It was nearly a decade. I was playing a random 2,000 points game vs someone.. I think they were necrons, I was using my (only army) Dark Angels. Back then I was trying to go for a partial-fallen vibe with the models, so quite a few of them were rather heavily converted or kit-bashed. My favorite bit being that I'd used the old Dark Eldar Scourge jump-packs instead of large and bulky space-marine ones, so my HQ's which I'd outfitted them with as well as my assault squad had a big batman aesthetic.
Long story short I had said assault squad and choppy HQ deployed ontop of a large building ready to jump down.. When this sub 10 year old kid came into the store bouncing a ball, and bounced it against the building. The full squad (10 assault marines + 2 HQ units) dropped onto the table, and several more of them dropped / rolled / bounced onto the floor. Everyone lost at least an arm or a jump pack, and several were far more severely broken. I was quite livid, especially given the mother of the little monster simply grabbed his hand and hauled him out as soon as she saw that her child had destroyed something; no apology, no scolding, no checking to see if anything was damaged.
Fortunately the staff at the store were awesome and helped me search for all the bitz that had broken off. We ended up finding most of it in a few minutes, and they brought out their back-of-store bitz box and let me rummage through it to replace the few that I didn't find. So all was largely well in the end.
The FLGS are pretty bland. When I was 20 I moved to Spokane Washington, spent a few weeks hanging out at the FLGS there and chatting with the manager, and he ended up selling me over 800$ over second-hard ork models for 200$ on the nose, so that I could start playing again after having been out of the hobby for awhile. First night I went to play after spending a week repairing them / assembling the few others I needed to run a functional army.. I was followed around all night by some scrawny little guy telling me that I needed more PKs and Boyz in my army, never mind the entire list being mechanized other than my nob bikers. At another store where I live now I turned up with my Renegades and Heretics army list the first time I went there to play (but I also brought an IG codex incase FW wasn't allowed). Everyone said they had no problem with it and would let me run it rather than vanilla IG, and everyone also wanted to do a big 3v3 game with everyone using 1,500 points. Playing to the strengths of Renegades and Heretics I was running The Purge, Ordnancy Tyrant, and lots of stationary arty pieces. The IG player on the other side spent the entire game complaining about how cheap and effective my stuff was, and scoffing in disbelief at it in the FW book I brought.
So like I said, relatively uninteresting. Nothing compared to some of the more genuine horror stories which a few have posted.
On the front of BO... I've not had much bad luck with that in any gaming stores.
Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
They break it, they pay for it. And if the culprit is a child then responsibility passes on to their parents.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
You play in a place with children running around?
I play in GW Stockholm, maybe 70% kids. Most of these are 12 or younger.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
You play in a place with children running around?
I play in GW Stockholm, maybe 70% kids. Most of these are 12 or younger.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
You play in a place with children running around?
I play in GW Stockholm, maybe 70% kids. Most of these are 12 or younger.
Now there's a horror story for you.
Aye. I'm 14 so I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but I don't literally melt parts of my models with glue. There's always that one kid who buys a Knight and can't even glue it properly.
I'm 35 and still melt parts of my minis. It's a combination of poor eyesight and trying to accomplish as much hobbying as possible in the time it takes a four year old to go to the bathroom, not including wiping time or what I like to call "damage control."
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I'm 35 and still melt parts of my minis. It's a combination of poor eyesight and trying to accomplish as much hobbying as possible in the time it takes a four year old to go to the bathroom, not including wiping time or what I like to call "damage control."
I'm not talking about the odd spill here or there, they literally smear glue all over the models.
Matthew wrote:
Aye. I'm 14 so I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but I don't literally melt parts of my models with glue. There's always that one kid who buys a Knight and can't even glue it properly.
Flashbacks of buying the Black Reach box in GW and letting one of the teenage regulars glue the dread together...
BobtheInquisitor wrote:I'm 35 and still melt parts of my minis. It's a combination of poor eyesight and trying to accomplish as much hobbying as possible in the time it takes a four year old to go to the bathroom, not including wiping time or what I like to call "damage control."
I still use gloopy poly cement, but sparingly, and with paper towels nearby. I've also discovered liquid poly cement, and love the way that, without fillers (I guess), any minor spills or squeeze-outs just evaporate away and leave little but a slightly shinier finish on the surface.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
You play in a place with children running around?
I play in GW Stockholm, maybe 70% kids. Most of these are 12 or younger.
I was there, and this is the absolute truth. I find the just above preteens the worst though. The GW I wrote about was the Stockholm one. It is really nice for a GW though as far as interiors go.
Time your days. They have adult workshops, and kid days on the weekends.
Matthew wrote: Just a question, if someone breaks a model in a way it can't be repaired (as in smashing a Rhino in half), what do you do? I see a lot of kids running around dangerously close to my stuff.
I had a Sisters of Battle Exorcist that was close to the corner of the game table(hey with sisters, 48" range is amazing) a smaller kid ran by the table, and I cant remember if he bumped the table or I did reactivly to grab the model before certain death awaited her. It fell off and exploded everywhere. After that I didn't have the servitor missile loader, or either of the organ players arms. Sad day. I just chalked it up to my fault for putting it on the edge of the table. After that I do not put any models that close to the table edge.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I'm 35 and still melt parts of my minis. It's a combination of poor eyesight and trying to accomplish as much hobbying as possible in the time it takes a four year old to go to the bathroom, not including wiping time or what I like to call "damage control."
I had a buddy in the army that I had to save his FW Bloodthirster.... Seriously. Here was a 20-something dude (he was single, so no kids to use as an excuse) who had caked Green stuff, super glue, plastic cement, elmers glue and god knows what else to the various bits of this giant model.
I got it home, scraped, bathed and cleaned it up and got it painted literally just in time for him to return back to the states with it.... Sadly, the only pics I have are a few WIP pictures... But, I think he came out looking a bit like Diablo, a nice dark mahogany red, with awesome looking metallic armor and stuff.
I used to play at this store in New York about 10 years ago. Was a nice friendly store with 2 or 3 really big game tables that you could split in half and have plenty of space for a 1000 to 1500pt games easily. Anyway im reminded of the day that i was playing there and holding my tape measure in my hand with my right hand gripping the tape and my left holding the box and the kid i was playing with ripped it out of my hand and the tape cut all of my fingers and my palm pretty deeply. Can still see the scars on a few of my fingers. Don't think i every played a game against him again. Less of a store horror story more of a opponent horror story i guess.
I also have an opponent horror story. So at my LGS I knew this one kid who played Salamanders. Now the kid himself was a nice person, but I swear some of the stuff he did in games was utterly infuriating. So to begin he asks me if I'm fine with him proxying some stuff. I tell him no problem, I proxy weapons as other weapons and models as other models all the time. So then he brings out little circles of cardboard and begins arranging them into squads. He didn't even bring models. Just pieces of cardboard. The second thing he did that irritated me was how he deployed said models. Now my LGS has come custom terrain in the form of tall ruined buildings (some of these buildings had 6+ floors to them), and one of the house rules at the LGS was that you couldn't deploy above the third floor on the building unless you received permission from your opponent (the buildings had been donated a long time ago before the rule was implemented). So the kid deploys his cardboard thunderfire cannons on top of the buildings, so that I can't even tell if any of my units have line of sight to them, while he's claiming that they can see everything from their position on top of the building. I haven't really played the kid in Warhammer since then, although I do still see him around from time to time in the store.
War Kitten wrote: I also have an opponent horror story. So at my LGS I knew this one kid who played Salamanders. Now the kid himself was a nice person, but I swear some of the stuff he did in games was utterly infuriating. So to begin he asks me if I'm fine with him proxying some stuff. I tell him no problem, I proxy weapons as other weapons and models as other models all the time. So then he brings out little circles of cardboard and begins arranging them into squads. He didn't even bring models. Just pieces of cardboard. The second thing he did that irritated me was how he deployed said models. Now my LGS has come custom terrain in the form of tall ruined buildings (some of these buildings had 6+ floors to them), and one of the house rules at the LGS was that you couldn't deploy above the third floor on the building unless you received permission from your opponent (the buildings had been donated a long time ago before the rule was implemented). So the kid deploys his cardboard thunderfire cannons on top of the buildings, so that I can't even tell if any of my units have line of sight to them, while he's claiming that they can see everything from their position on top of the building. I haven't really played the kid in Warhammer since then, although I do still see him around from time to time in the store.
Not going to lie, if someone set up a bunch of cardboard tokens as 'proxies', I'd laugh, ask him if he was serious, then ask again with a sense of disbelief, and then refuse to play. Because a game that works so much around line of sign is impossible with cardboard tokens. Not to mention that I have no desire to play against cardboard tokens. I'd be on Vassal if I wanted to play virtual warhammer.
War Kitten wrote: I also have an opponent horror story. So at my LGS I knew this one kid who played Salamanders. Now the kid himself was a nice person, but I swear some of the stuff he did in games was utterly infuriating. So to begin he asks me if I'm fine with him proxying some stuff. I tell him no problem, I proxy weapons as other weapons and models as other models all the time. So then he brings out little circles of cardboard and begins arranging them into squads. He didn't even bring models. Just pieces of cardboard. The second thing he did that irritated me was how he deployed said models. Now my LGS has come custom terrain in the form of tall ruined buildings (some of these buildings had 6+ floors to them), and one of the house rules at the LGS was that you couldn't deploy above the third floor on the building unless you received permission from your opponent (the buildings had been donated a long time ago before the rule was implemented). So the kid deploys his cardboard thunderfire cannons on top of the buildings, so that I can't even tell if any of my units have line of sight to them, while he's claiming that they can see everything from their position on top of the building. I haven't really played the kid in Warhammer since then, although I do still see him around from time to time in the store.
Not going to lie, if someone set up a bunch of cardboard tokens as 'proxies', I'd laugh, ask him if he was serious, then ask again with a sense of disbelief, and then refuse to play. Because a game that works so much around line of sign is impossible with cardboard tokens. Not to mention that I have no desire to play against cardboard tokens. I'd be on Vassal if I wanted to play virtual warhammer.
Yeah. What's the point of playing 40k without the models? For the rules?
I might make an excuse for cardboard tokens if playing with a friend who wanted to playtest certain units before making a purchase if he asked me up front, but to ask permission for something without first explaining what that means in practice is taking advantage.
I would have withdrawn permission the moment I saw the cardboard.
Matthew wrote:
Aye. I'm 14 so I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but I don't literally melt parts of my models with glue. There's always that one kid who buys a Knight and can't even glue it properly.
Flashbacks of buying the Black Reach box in GW and letting one of the teenage regulars glue the dread together...
Had a guy with some Black Templars in a GW I used to go into had a Predator that looked liked he'd sneezed over it...
War Kitten wrote: I also have an opponent horror story. So at my LGS I knew this one kid who played Salamanders. Now the kid himself was a nice person, but I swear some of the stuff he did in games was utterly infuriating. So to begin he asks me if I'm fine with him proxying some stuff. I tell him no problem, I proxy weapons as other weapons and models as other models all the time. So then he brings out little circles of cardboard and begins arranging them into squads. He didn't even bring models. Just pieces of cardboard. The second thing he did that irritated me was how he deployed said models. Now my LGS has come custom terrain in the form of tall ruined buildings (some of these buildings had 6+ floors to them), and one of the house rules at the LGS was that you couldn't deploy above the third floor on the building unless you received permission from your opponent (the buildings had been donated a long time ago before the rule was implemented). So the kid deploys his cardboard thunderfire cannons on top of the buildings, so that I can't even tell if any of my units have line of sight to them, while he's claiming that they can see everything from their position on top of the building. I haven't really played the kid in Warhammer since then, although I do still see him around from time to time in the store.
I can understand if he was playing Tyranids with a lot of termagants. Especially if there was multiple Tervigons spouting forth a ton of gaunts per turn. Other than that I can't see a feasible reason to use mass stand-ins.
Ketara wrote:
Not going to lie, if someone set up a bunch of cardboard tokens as 'proxies', I'd laugh, ask him if he was serious, then ask again with a sense of disbelief, and then refuse to play. Because a game that works so much around line of sign is impossible with cardboard tokens.
Not gonna lie, I think that's as much laid at 40K's feet than at cardboard counters.
Grimtuff wrote:Had a guy with some Black Templars in a GW I used to go into had a Predator that looked liked he'd sneezed over it...
I really hope it was glue.
Heh. I know that feeling. It's made me flamin' wary of second-hand from ebay, too.
War Kitten wrote: I also have an opponent horror story. So at my LGS I knew this one kid who played Salamanders. Now the kid himself was a nice person, but I swear some of the stuff he did in games was utterly infuriating. So to begin he asks me if I'm fine with him proxying some stuff. I tell him no problem, I proxy weapons as other weapons and models as other models all the time. So then he brings out little circles of cardboard and begins arranging them into squads. He didn't even bring models. Just pieces of cardboard. The second thing he did that irritated me was how he deployed said models. Now my LGS has come custom terrain in the form of tall ruined buildings (some of these buildings had 6+ floors to them), and one of the house rules at the LGS was that you couldn't deploy above the third floor on the building unless you received permission from your opponent (the buildings had been donated a long time ago before the rule was implemented). So the kid deploys his cardboard thunderfire cannons on top of the buildings, so that I can't even tell if any of my units have line of sight to them, while he's claiming that they can see everything from their position on top of the building. I haven't really played the kid in Warhammer since then, although I do still see him around from time to time in the store.
I can understand if he was playing Tyranids with a lot of termagants. Especially if there was multiple Tervigons spouting forth a ton of gaunts per turn. Other than that I can't see a feasible reason to use mass stand-ins.
I would also be fine with if it he played a horde army. But he played Salamanders, so to me there's not much of an excuse. It wasn't even like he wanted to try out a new unit, he just never brings models to his games.
This happened to me when I was younger and first going to the store, so have that in mind as I didn't want to create any drama since the guy had been going to the store for a while now (I later found out he wasn't very well liked anyway). So the store I was going to had a 1500/1850 point tournament (I can't remember exactly what) for 40k. So my first game I was playing against a nurgle daemon list, the dude rolls up and starts putting models down and almost half of his army was just blank bases. He also never measured anything and just eyeballed it saying he "was a carpenter and was good at not measuring things but getting the right distance", suffice to say I lost the game (mainly to me being new and him cheating). So I eventually told the manager of the store and he talked to the guy and I believe kicked him out of the tournament or told him he wouldn't win the whole thing even if he did.
I would also be fine with if it he played a horde army. But he played Salamanders, so to me there's not much of an excuse. It wasn't even like he wanted to try out a new unit, he just never brings models to his games.
With salamanders I would have been tempted to buy the kid a bag of green plastic army men from the cornershop for a couple of quid. IIRC they normally come with an artillery piece too that would make a passable thunderfire cannon and they come prepainted in salamander colours .
Compel wrote: That's how I found out about Games Workshop when I was 12. I walked into GW Glasgow: Queens Street and asked about what computer games they were selling.
That's where I started! You're showing your age, saying it was on Queen Street. In some ways, my games club is the spiritual descendant of the one that used to meet in the basement (!) there on Saturdays.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Some of the Warmachine games I see make me want to use wooden dowels with "warjack" written on them; I mean, given the scope of the setting, there's something ... [sad about seeing people play on a black board with bits of paper representing terrain features. :(
Given the amount of terrain at our club, it's even a little insulting.
Ustrello wrote: This happened to me when I was younger and first going to the store, so have that in mind as I didn't want to create any drama since the guy had been going to the store for a while now (I later found out he wasn't very well liked anyway). So the store I was going to had a 1500/1850 point tournament (I can't remember exactly what) for 40k. So my first game I was playing against a nurgle daemon list, the dude rolls up and starts putting models down and almost half of his army was just blank bases. He also never measured anything and just eyeballed it saying he "was a carpenter and was good at not measuring things but getting the right distance", suffice to say I lost the game (mainly to me being new and him cheating). So I eventually told the manager of the store and he talked to the guy and I believe kicked him out of the tournament or told him he wouldn't win the whole thing even if he did.
Similar story, makes my blood boil.
My mate came back to play 40k after a hiatus and got paired against a dude with D'eldar, shortly after their new codex came out.
The guy had unpainted venom spam. There were no infantry models. He said that he had paid for the infantry but they would never disembark.
If a venom was ever wrecked, he would write them off as casualties.
He wanted to win games of 40k, not actually play40k.
Needless to say, my friend lost the match, and I don't think he's been back in store since. We're looking at running Killteam games with a close circle in our homes.
My FLGS nightmare comes from going to an FLGS acution and having to spend over an hour sitting behind someone whose crack was completely exposed. There wasn't anywhere else to sit and I kept racking my brain but couldn't think of a polite way to let him know that his butt was on display for all to see. If it happened now, I'd probably slip him a note or find some way to let him know.
Some of the Warmachine games I see make me want to use wooden dowels with "warjack" written on them; I mean, given the scope of the setting, there's something ... [sad about seeing people play on a black board with bits of paper representing terrain features. :(
Given the amount of terrain at our club, it's even a little insulting.
I've not seen dowels or tokens used as minis in warmachine but I've noticed the 2d terrain thing (usually plaincardboard or felt around here) around as well. I asked my buddy who used to play Warmachine and he tells me that the game is so sensitive to ranges and angles that many warmachine players actually prefer this kind of terrain!
Unfortunately I think it's just a logical progression. Easily 80-90% of the Warmachine models at that FLGS (otherwise a great store) were unpainted anyway. I guess if your minis are unpainted there's no reason to worry about nice looking terrain either.
I stopped going to the FLGS due to the overall smell that seemed to permeate the carpet/furniture and the condition of the bathroom. Seriously, if you let pee stand on non-ceramic tile long enough, I've learned that it peels up off of the floor. Disgusting.
WarbossDakka wrote: It seems that Warmachine is becoming less of a game. Sad to hear that actually.
at the LVO they had this really REALLY cool convergence board.......the terrain with this 2d felt cutout......made me sad.
ME and some other attendees said this "Their argument is that its a good tactical game, well so is chess, if you dont want to participate in some form of hobby, dont play a game"
Warmachine is such a GREAT game. cool models, fun fluff, but the community seems to have ruined it.
The guy had unpainted venom spam. There were no infantry models. He said that he had paid for the infantry but they would never disembark.
If a venom was ever wrecked, he would write them off as casualties.
Friggin' hell, thats almost brilliant in its strangeness.
Eilif wrote:My FLGS nightmare comes from going to an FLGS acution and having to spend over an hour sitting behind someone whose crack was completely exposed... If it happened now, I'd probably slip him a note...
snort guffaw
agnosto wrote:I stopped going to the FLGS due to the overall smell that seemed to permeate the carpet/furniture and the condition of the bathroom. Seriously, if you let pee stand on non-ceramic tile long enough, I've learned that it peels up off of the floor. Disgusting.
Ah, the toilet in the FLGS I recently visited. Wasn't quite bad enough to put me off. I just gotta remember to hold my foot against the door when I go back...
I live in the Midwest of the US, Iowa in specific. I have about 5 stores around me, but they are all 70-90 miles away. When the wife and I go into the city I use it as an opportunity to pick up GW supplies.
My wife has a bladder the size of a peanut, which was complicated by her being 8 months pregnant at the time. I rolled up to the FLGS, got out, and told her the bathroom was in the back. About 30 seconds later she was standing beside me, asking me to please hurry.
I guess that a single-toilet, unisex bathroom with exposed pipes, peeling wallpaper, and a Dr. Doom poster that was barely passable for local gaming nerds didn't appeal to her.
Luckily the store moved to another nearby location with 3 times the interior space, and 4 bathrooms all in good condition.
Not necessarily a hygiene issue but I recently had an issue with Discount Games. I preordered a Skitarii getting started bundle and am still waiting more than a month after payment. No communication unless I initiate it about the delay or anything just silence until I inquire via email and then a continued song and dance about supply while other retailers magically have stock and even increase stock during the month I've been waiting. It's not even the $66 really, I don't like being jerked around.
It's funny they offer a 30-day guarantee on E-Bay; I bet those people are getting their produce somehow.
Thank god for PayPal is all I can say. I'll be sure to get my money back.
A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
About 6 years ago I ordered some figures from ebay. The seller was in California. After 5 weeks of not receiving my items, or answering several emails, I filed a claim with paypal.
The entire "arbitration" period passed with no word from the seller, so I got my refund. The very next day my packaged arrived. (it was however a loyalist predator, not the Chaos Predator I ordered). I open my e-mail to find out the seller was SUPER MAD. He said I should have known service would be slow considering the wildfires that were going on in his area and he couldn't get to his store. (How should I know again?)
He called me a fraud and demanded I either send him the money back or send the item back. I told him that since he sent me the wrong item I'd be happy to return it, if he credited me the cost of return shipping. After no reply for a year afterwards I just assumed he abandoned it and kept it anyway.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
This store sounds like hell. I used to game at a place that had an OPTIONAL membership. for $20 per year you got a 15% discount on Tuesdays (that was the scheduled 40k gaming night) I could understand a membership, but dang those prices are astronomical.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
ROFL! So to play at their tables you had to drop $1440 a year at a minimum. Were their tables made out of gold and their terrain hand crafted by the best terrain makers in the world? For that money I'd just buy my own tables, terrain and make my own gaming club.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
I cannot believe a word of this unless you provide the name and location of this store. Half of this sounds utterly ridiculous, and the other half sounds illegal. Not giving people back change but a gift voucher? The first time a store attempted this, I'd be on the phone with the local police department
Shadow Captain Edithae wrote: I'd cancel my purchase there and then and walk out of the store if they refused to give change. That's gotta be illegal.
Not if they run it as a members only store. Much like how a lot of bars around here get away with allowing smoking and selling beer after normal hours by being 'members only' bars.
Shadow Captain Edithae wrote: I'd cancel my purchase there and then and walk out of the store if they refused to give change. That's gotta be illegal.
Not if they run it as a members only store. Much like how a lot of bars around here get away with allowing smoking and selling beer after normal hours by being 'members only' bars.
Possibly, but even someone with half a brain would have to understand the sheer stupidity of that type of business plan for a game store. Even if you could find enough suckers to think this might be a good idea, any 5th grader with basic math skills would quickly realize that the amount you'd need to spend per month just to "earn" your 20% discount is actually $300, not $60.
Is not a recipe for success. Sure, you can pay full price and I've heard of stores that have memberships for discount clubs but nothing that asinine and not letting you buy from the clearance bin is just rampant stupidity. "Well, I could make a sale and make money or I can turn this random shopper away and make nothing.....hmmmmmm.....I'll go with nothing."
When you have a paywall as imposing as described, you need some sort of incentives to get people to join.
But I agree that the whole concept reeks of failure at that scale.
I can totally understand discount clubs, or paying to use tables, etc. But it has to be at a tempting price point. Plenty of other places willing to take my hobby dollar.
timetowaste85 wrote: Seriously, unless the sales people were all attractive porn stars working naked, I fail to see how this could possibly work as a business plan!
That's the best business plan I've heard yet. Everyone keep an eye on Kickstarter this year.
Well, keep in mind that the poster was Canadian, so those dollar figures are really in Canadian pesos. I kid, I kid...especially since at the time it could have been when there was more parity.
While those "incentives" seem exorbitant at those prices even with possible exchange rates, it also kind of depends on the market. If they're the only store to reliably stock some things and they're better maintained than any competition (or indeed, have no competition), then it might be viable. Outside of highly bizarre market circumstances though, I can't imagine how that would work out well in the long-term as it leaves a place for a competitor to come in and gain market share.
Man... I also have trouble believing some of that story... Up until that point, my only experience with stores having a "club" atmosphere or discount, it only asked you to put your name on a ledger, like the facebook page, and make a purchase once a year (The discount was doubled I think for buying something the day you signed up, and proved you liked the facebook page, like almost half off).
I mean, obviously I've heard some stories here on Dakka about paying memberships and whatnot, but not much actual experience myself.
agnosto wrote: Not necessarily a hygiene issue but I recently had an issue with Discount Games. I preordered a Skitarii getting started bundle and am still waiting more than a month after payment. No communication unless I initiate it about the delay or anything just silence until I inquire via email and then a continued song and dance about supply while other retailers magically have stock and even increase stock during the month I've been waiting. It's not even the $66 really, I don't like being jerked around.
It's funny they offer a 30-day guarantee on E-Bay; I bet those people are getting their produce somehow.
Thank god for PayPal is all I can say. I'll be sure to get my money back.
/end bitter rant
Literally same exact thing just happened to me dude. Ordered the Skitarii getting started set from them over almost six weeks ago. Contact them via email they gladly refunded the purchase. They offer a good discount, but are extremely slow sometimes!
agnosto wrote: Not necessarily a hygiene issue but I recently had an issue with Discount Games. I preordered a Skitarii getting started bundle and am still waiting more than a month after payment. No communication unless I initiate it about the delay or anything just silence until I inquire via email and then a continued song and dance about supply while other retailers magically have stock and even increase stock during the month I've been waiting. It's not even the $66 really, I don't like being jerked around.
It's funny they offer a 30-day guarantee on E-Bay; I bet those people are getting their produce somehow.
Thank god for PayPal is all I can say. I'll be sure to get my money back.
/end bitter rant
Literally same exact thing just happened to me dude. Ordered the Skitarii getting started set from them over almost six weeks ago. Contact them via email they gladly refunded the purchase. They offer a good discount, but are extremely slow sometimes!
They seem like nice people and offered to refund me whenever I like but seriously, how can a business expect someone to wait 6 weeks + for existing product that they can buy almost anywhere? It's about as annoying as an airline overbooking seats.
agnosto wrote: Not necessarily a hygiene issue but I recently had an issue with Discount Games. I preordered a Skitarii getting started bundle and am still waiting more than a month after payment. No communication unless I initiate it about the delay or anything just silence until I inquire via email and then a continued song and dance about supply while other retailers magically have stock and even increase stock during the month I've been waiting. It's not even the $66 really, I don't like being jerked around.
It's funny they offer a 30-day guarantee on E-Bay; I bet those people are getting their produce somehow.
Thank god for PayPal is all I can say. I'll be sure to get my money back.
/end bitter rant
Literally same exact thing just happened to me dude. Ordered the Skitarii getting started set from them over almost six weeks ago. Contact them via email they gladly refunded the purchase. They offer a good discount, but are extremely slow sometimes!
They seem like nice people and offered to refund me whenever I like but seriously, how can a business expect someone to wait 6 weeks + for existing product that they can buy almost anywhere? It's about as annoying as an airline overbooking seats.
If they're not a retailer buying direct from GW? I could see it.
That Skitarii set and the Tau set have been in/out of stock since the day it went up for preorder. My local GW cannot keep them in stock. They get bought up as soon as they come in.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
I cannot believe a word of this unless you provide the name and location of this store. Half of this sounds utterly ridiculous, and the other half sounds illegal. Not giving people back change but a gift voucher? The first time a store attempted this, I'd be on the phone with the local police department
The gift voucher shenanigans was someone else posted online, so I cannot verify if it was true or if it's just a disgruntled customer making an outrageous claim (and considering I might be losing real moolah on it, I'm not gonna try anytime soon). I'm reluctant on giving out the name because I actually did get attacked by rabid fans of the store (all of whom were members) the last time I publicly outed them, and that's not something I'd like to have happen again (but I can PM you the name if you want). The membership thing was real though since I lived through it.
EDIT: Also this was before the Canadian dollar took a dip. It was around Feb 2014.
I talked to some disgruntled ex-employees. The shop basically turned into a private club for the owner and his closest pals; I think the only reason he even still keeps it as a shop is to get a discount while ordering from GW so he doesn't have to pay normal prices, and get some money from the occasional rube he cons.
So around six years ago, I drove about an hour and a half to have a game of 40kApoc with my friends. I hadn't seen them in a while, with my wife being pregnant and all.
I had at least a couple thousand points of Blood Angels, not including superheavies, at the time (I had started them with the PDF codex) and was finally putting down my last model on the table. Just as I put Dante down, my phone began to ring.
The same thing happened to me and the new Star Wars launch.
Well, maybe if you encouraged her to keep it quiet, you know, not scream out due to the ridiculous pain, she could've come to deliver in the theater, and you would have witnessed two great things happening... at the same time!
/bad joke
Honestly, after reading through this thread, I feel basically spoiled to have not dealt with anything truly terrifying of the sorts. The worst thing that is happened was me nearly slipping into a semi-TFG state when a friend's CCB/Overlord would not die back in that little window after 7th ed came out, but before the Necrons codex happened where reanimation became more of a FNP style roll. It'd get tipped, and get back up and kill some more stuff. Rinse and repeat. I was alarmed by my own levels of salt, and made sure to apologize for it.
The same thing happened to me and the new Star Wars launch.
Haha I did not miss the birth! I think I would have gotten divorced a lot sooner than I did, had I missed the birth of my daughter so that I could play a game of 40k! I had plenty of time to drive back and get her and take her to the birthing ward.
So around six years ago, I drove about an hour and a half to have a game of 40kApoc with my friends. I hadn't seen them in a while, with my wife being pregnant and all.
I had at least a couple thousand points of Blood Angels, not including superheavies, at the time (I had started them with the PDF codex) and was finally putting down my last model on the table. Just as I put Dante down, my phone began to ring.
My wife was going into labor with my 2nd child.
The true horror? Responsibility
One of the many reasons I miss childhood.
My responsibility only extended to my homework deadline and remembering clean underwear.
So around six years ago, I drove about an hour and a half to have a game of 40kApoc with my friends. I hadn't seen them in a while, with my wife being pregnant and all.
I had at least a couple thousand points of Blood Angels, not including superheavies, at the time (I had started them with the PDF codex) and was finally putting down my last model on the table. Just as I put Dante down, my phone began to ring.
My wife was going into labor with my 2nd child.
The true horror? Responsibility
One of the many reasons I miss childhood.
My responsibility only extended to my homework deadline and remembering clean underwear.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
I cannot believe a word of this unless you provide the name and location of this store. Half of this sounds utterly ridiculous, and the other half sounds illegal. Not giving people back change but a gift voucher? The first time a store attempted this, I'd be on the phone with the local police department
The gift voucher shenanigans was someone else posted online, so I cannot verify if it was true or if it's just a disgruntled customer making an outrageous claim (and considering I might be losing real moolah on it, I'm not gonna try anytime soon). I'm reluctant on giving out the name because I actually did get attacked by rabid fans of the store (all of whom were members) the last time I publicly outed them, and that's not something I'd like to have happen again (but I can PM you the name if you want). The membership thing was real though since I lived through it.
EDIT: Also this was before the Canadian dollar took a dip. It was around Feb 2014.
I talked to some disgruntled ex-employees. The shop basically turned into a private club for the owner and his closest pals; I think the only reason he even still keeps it as a shop is to get a discount while ordering from GW so he doesn't have to pay normal prices, and get some money from the occasional rube he cons.
He sounds like the kind of lucky guy who's got plenty of money and can afford to treat the gamestore as a hobby and not have to worry about it actually turning a profit to stay open.
His way of running it certainly shows that making money is not a primary concern.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: I think the only reason he even still keeps it as a shop is to get a discount while ordering from GW so he doesn't have to pay normal prices, and get some money from the occasional rube he cons.
Hardly worth paying taxes, utilities, rent, etc just to get a 40% discount on GW products.
There is something of a horror story happening at my local gw at present, which is a shame as I used to work there. Last year a new manager took over, seemed like a very nice bloke, when he found out I used to work there he asked for my opinion on a lot of things, which I thought was nice. He introduced his own way of doing things, as is his right as store manager, however, as we have warhammer world up the road, the 'my way or the highway' approach that had obviously worked for him in previous stores (where he had done well) didn't get the result he'd planned on. Rather than accept having to phone in advance for games and painting seats, 75%ish of the regular visitors simply went to whw instead. That's when things went odd. He took it very personally, and rather than accept that it wasn't a decision that was appropriate for the store, thought some regulars (who are friends of mine) where deliberately trying to sabotage him. I'll say now, they definitely weren't. Anyway, last summer I finished my teacher training and had a 9 week summer break, so went to whw quite a lot, but still bought everything from the store I'd worked in. He asked why I was gaming there, and if I'd game in store to try and get people back in, AoS was just about to be released, so I organized half a dozen games in store with various "defectors". By this point, in his store, in three months, I'd bought a harlequin army, a cult mech army, preordered AoS, and bought the pestilent swarm box. So I was trying to help support the store. Thing was, every time I was in, at least once, he'd properly tell off one of the mos, on the shop floor. He replaced me, and is a really good friend (it's only because he has now left that I'm posting this). So seeing him treated in such a manner made me feel very uncomfortable. I went less and less, and the people I'd tried to encourage to go back didn't, for their own reasons. I found out later that the manager had made a huge deal out of me buying an £11 model online rather from the store, and thought I shouldn't have been allowed to exchange it for a £25 box in store as I hadn't bought the original purchase there. He tried telling my mate I was only friends with him for what I can get (I already have more than I could build and paint in 5 years), and accused another friend of not going to his store because he was getting discount from a friend that worked in the exhibition hall. He seems determined to believe that everyone else is out to get him, rather than consider that he might have made a few fixable mistakes. I've stopped going. Whw and 4tk-gaming get my hobby money now.
There was also quite a lot of other dubious practice going on, but it isn't appropriate for me to comment on that.
Okay I got a small one but definitely not bad at all compared to some true horror stories. For this we go back to young me at age of about 8 so about twenty years ago. My friend is a super geek and I love talking to the guy and he was always telling me where he was buying new comics and anime videos and since I was into Gundam Wing at that time I really wanted to get the anime boxed set or even just the tv movie that came out. He swore up and down at this FLGS friendly atmosphere and expert knowledge of things. I asked around and other people had the same experience. So I make it a point to pester my parents to take me and see if I can buy something. Time passes and I am now due to get my anime dvd gundam wing endless waltz I am super hyped and happy. Make the trip across the city.
I arrive and me and my dad are not greeted with a big smile but an accusation stare like we're crooks who just walked in to case the joint. I'm a little intimidated since I'm so young and my dad just doesn't give a gak so he walks around looking. I go up to him and the owner just sneers at me like I'm some disgusting kid. I mean I was a kid but I wasn't disgusting or anything. At least I didn't think so. "Can you order me an anime dvd?" He just points at the wall and says look at his stock. It's not there. "Hey it's not here so can you order it or not?" He looks at me kind of angry like I'm ruining his whole life. I don't tell him who sent me here or how high their recommendations were. feth this donkey-cave he will be judged by 8 year old me. My friend said he orders new stuff in and it should only take a week or two at most maybe a month for something obscure and far away. "I want to order Gundam Wing Endless Waltz" He doesn't reply to me and looks like I've ruined his whole day making him move his fat ass over to the end of the counter like I asked him to do chores or something. He had this childish dumb look and he is supposed to be an adult and he looked old enough to have grandkids. He spends an inordinately long time wasting my time pretending to look for it. "Uh yeah that will be at least 6 months or more." I look at him like he is crazy "Six months? I was told you can get almost anything quickly." He just shakes his head and starts reading his computer. My dad at this point is a little confused as to why this guy is being a prick but he can see I'm dealing with it. "The mall has a store that can have it here in a few weeks to a month tops though. I was told to come here to support the geek community." Just waves me off "Sorry can't help you." He even charged more than the mall. I don't undestand how he is in business.
Years later I went back to this place because my friend swore I caught him on a bad day. This time I was just going in to look at Warhammer 40k. He looked at me and despite it being years clearly recognized me since he did have a small crowd and his smile went off his face. Like he looked like santa and then like Professor Snape when he stared at me. I ask him about Warhammer 40k and the first thing he says before anything else "This game is expensive kid." In like an accusation way that someone like me and my dad couldn't POSSIBLY have money. He was selling whatever edition of 40k was current I didn't pay attention much back then I was only thinking of getting into it. 140 CAD for the core rules and that was with a much stronger economy than we have now. "Wow that's expensive I say trying to lighten the mood". He stops drinking to stare at me "Yeah. IT IS." Well thanks a lot for trying to sell a customer your goods you fat donkey-cave. He wouldn't answer any questions about it at all to me but would to others. Other people got starter discounts. THen he says "Are you going to buy anything!?" Me and my dad look at each other like hell no. We left and I never did get into 40k for years and years until a few years ago at this WAAAY better FLGS that is super friendly and popular while the other guys scrapes by the other FLGS is booming and looking to expand. I got my starter discount from him and everything. My friend still says the bad fat ass owner is super friendly.
Just not to me and my dad it appears. If it wasn't for him being an donkey-cave maybe I would have been a 40kTT player long ago.
JamesY wrote: There is something of a horror story happening at my local gw at present, which is a shame as I used to work there. Last year a new manager took over, seemed like a very nice bloke, when he found out I used to work there he asked for my opinion on a lot of things, which I thought was nice. He introduced his own way of doing things, as is his right as store manager, however, as we have warhammer world up the road, the 'my way or the highway' approach that had obviously worked for him in previous stores (where he had done well) didn't get the result he'd planned on. Rather than accept having to phone in advance for games and painting seats, 75%ish of the regular visitors simply went to whw instead. That's when things went odd. He took it very personally, and rather than accept that it wasn't a decision that was appropriate for the store, thought some regulars (who are friends of mine) where deliberately trying to sabotage him. I'll say now, they definitely weren't. Anyway, last summer I finished my teacher training and had a 9 week summer break, so went to whw quite a lot, but still bought everything from the store I'd worked in. He asked why I was gaming there, and if I'd game in store to try and get people back in, AoS was just about to be released, so I organized half a dozen games in store with various "defectors". By this point, in his store, in three months, I'd bought a harlequin army, a cult mech army, preordered AoS, and bought the pestilent swarm box. So I was trying to help support the store. Thing was, every time I was in, at least once, he'd properly tell off one of the mos, on the shop floor. He replaced me, and is a really good friend (it's only because he has now left that I'm posting this). So seeing him treated in such a manner made me feel very uncomfortable. I went less and less, and the people I'd tried to encourage to go back didn't, for their own reasons. I found out later that the manager had made a huge deal out of me buying an £11 model online rather from the store, and thought I shouldn't have been allowed to exchange it for a £25 box in store as I hadn't bought the original purchase there. He tried telling my mate I was only friends with him for what I can get (I already have more than I could build and paint in 5 years), and accused another friend of not going to his store because he was getting discount from a friend that worked in the exhibition hall. He seems determined to believe that everyone else is out to get him, rather than consider that he might have made a few fixable mistakes. I've stopped going. Whw and 4tk-gaming get my hobby money now.
There was also quite a lot of other dubious practice going on, but it isn't appropriate for me to comment on that.
Sounds like that manager was a bit paranoid. Learning to recognize and deal with mentally ill folks can be tricky.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: A local FLGS use to give out great discounts, had exclusive models and a second hand bin. I use to go there every chance I got (which, due to it being 2 cities away, I rarely got a chance) and snatched up whatever caught my eye, but I could never play there due to the distance.
One day I came in and rummaged through the second-hand 40k box like I usually do, saw nothing interesting and put it back. As I did so one of the workers (not sure if he's the new manager or not) was right behind me and "kindly" informed me of their new policy:
Anything in the "clearance" or "consignment" section is not available to non-members of the store. The tables are off limits too; they're for members only. The only stuff I'm allowed to buy are the normal, packaged GW stuff and sealed MTG boosters; none of the singles or the binders were available to me as I wasn't a member. He then told me that I could get around this by just signing up for a membership. Then he showed me the "levels" of membership: 60 dollars a month got me the standard 20% discount on Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff. 120 (or was it 150, can't remember but it was something pretty ludicrous) got me 30% off and use of the tables. for a whopping 250 something a month, I got all of those "benefits" and also access to the consignment bin.
Oh and I had to spend a minimum of 200 dollars each time to actually get those discounts and benefits. I left the store and never looked back. A few weeks later I saw someone post in the Warhammer facebook group about the store; on top of all those shenanigans they decided that they weren't gonna hand out change anymore; if you paid in cash and didn't have the EXACT change, they instead gave you a gift voucher for the remaining difference.
This actually sounds like a good way to make sure you completely kill your own business. Sounds like they were failing then really desperate to come up with that.
MechaEmperor7000 wrote: I think the only reason he even still keeps it as a shop is to get a discount while ordering from GW so he doesn't have to pay normal prices, and get some money from the occasional rube he cons.
Hardly worth paying taxes, utilities, rent, etc just to get a 40% discount on GW products.
[Obligatory "maybe the taxes, utilities, rent, etc are actually cheaper than the 40% discount from GW products" post]
JamesY wrote: There is something of a horror story happening at my local gw at present, which is a shame as I used to work there. Last year a new manager took over, seemed like a very nice bloke, when he found out I used to work there he asked for my opinion on a lot of things, which I thought was nice. He introduced his own way of doing things, as is his right as store manager, however, as we have warhammer world up the road, the 'my way or the highway' approach that had obviously worked for him in previous stores (where he had done well) didn't get the result he'd planned on. Rather than accept having to phone in advance for games and painting seats, 75%ish of the regular visitors simply went to whw instead. That's when things went odd. He took it very personally, and rather than accept that it wasn't a decision that was appropriate for the store, thought some regulars (who are friends of mine) where deliberately trying to sabotage him. I'll say now, they definitely weren't. Anyway, last summer I finished my teacher training and had a 9 week summer break, so went to whw quite a lot, but still bought everything from the store I'd worked in. He asked why I was gaming there, and if I'd game in store to try and get people back in, AoS was just about to be released, so I organized half a dozen games in store with various "defectors". By this point, in his store, in three months, I'd bought a harlequin army, a cult mech army, preordered AoS, and bought the pestilent swarm box. So I was trying to help support the store. Thing was, every time I was in, at least once, he'd properly tell off one of the mos, on the shop floor. He replaced me, and is a really good friend (it's only because he has now left that I'm posting this). So seeing him treated in such a manner made me feel very uncomfortable. I went less and less, and the people I'd tried to encourage to go back didn't, for their own reasons. I found out later that the manager had made a huge deal out of me buying an £11 model online rather from the store, and thought I shouldn't have been allowed to exchange it for a £25 box in store as I hadn't bought the original purchase there. He tried telling my mate I was only friends with him for what I can get (I already have more than I could build and paint in 5 years), and accused another friend of not going to his store because he was getting discount from a friend that worked in the exhibition hall. He seems determined to believe that everyone else is out to get him, rather than consider that he might have made a few fixable mistakes. I've stopped going. Whw and 4tk-gaming get my hobby money now.
There was also quite a lot of other dubious practice going on, but it isn't appropriate for me to comment on that.
We had a guy like that once at our local GW. We went as far as Sheffield to get away from him. Then we got lost and couldn't find said GW but by happenstance bumped into the manager of it in the street (who was on his day off too) who recognised our cases and lead us there.
@snurl yeah, I've probably got more experience than average with mental illness, didn't spot the signs of paranoia until I was told that I had been accused of covertly trying to sabotage the store though. That completely blind sided me after I'd done quite a lot to try and support it.
@grimtuff I was a regular at the lincoln store from when it opened in the 90's until around 2000. I remember a couple of very avoidable managers (the era of Stewart, Daz and Craig where the glory days, very fond memories). I think I've seen you refer to dog-**** Dave before, I used to know him personally outside of the gaming scene (friend of a friend of my parents). When I told him I was a gamer, I got a two hour lecture on his collection of Napoleonic miniatures, characters, colour schemes, the lot. Kinda killed that party for me.
You know what I hate? People who can't respect that you're playing. Seriously, I know my codex, I don't need your help. What is up with people coming up and telling me what to shoot at/assault? They even go as far as to move my models for me!
Matthew wrote: You know what I hate? People who can't respect that you're playing. Seriously, I know my codex, I don't need your help. What is up with people coming up and telling me what to shoot at/assault? They even go as far as to move my models for me!
Are you in a Stephen Hawking wheelchair?? If not, then yeah, it's pretty weird for someone to go as far as moving your stuff in game (I mean, occasionally my opponent will have a better angle to grab a casualty from a combat, but that's different)
Matthew wrote: You know what I hate? People who can't respect that you're playing. Seriously, I know my codex, I don't need your help. What is up with people coming up and telling me what to shoot at/assault? They even go as far as to move my models for me!
Ha ha, I think the thing that is worse than back seat gamers is when you catch your self doing it. Doesn't happen often at all, but on those rare moments I give myself a stern (internal) telling off.
@grimtuff I was a regular at the lincoln store from when it opened in the 90's until around 2000. I remember a couple of very avoidable managers (the era of Stewart, Daz and Craig where the glory days, very fond memories). I think I've seen you refer to dog-**** Dave before, I used to know him personally outside of the gaming scene (friend of a friend of my parents). When I told him I was a gamer, I got a two hour lecture on his collection of Napoleonic miniatures, characters, colour schemes, the lot. Kinda killed that party for me.
TBH I'd never met the guy, just heard stories of him from staffers. Small world eh?
Thinking back I can't even remember the manager in question; I know it was some point before the GK codex existed as on the trip to Sheffield in question one of us was using radical Daemonhunters. Though I do have a fair few tales of GW staff that are awful (both of these go back many years to when I was a teenager) such as a certain someone who seemed to despise geeky conversations instore (even about GW products ) and when I was geeking out about something he felt the need to quip "Is that why you're still a virgin?" Herp derp, so fething funny. feth that guy. That guy made me feel so belittled when you dared ask him anything. I was painting some Army of the Dead for LOTR and asked if the "3 colours minimum" thing still applied. I was told to "Release my sphincter". Yes, because both of those are appropriate responses...
Then we had the manager whose catchphrase seemed to be "Get out my store" and who told me straight to my face that I was awful at converting.
Buttery Commissar wrote: It's not legal here.
I mean neither is touching other people without consent, but the mace is a clearer issue.
I think this thread should be renamed to "Buttery finds yet another handsy scumbag". Sounds like you attract them
"Harry Potter Buttery and the Chamber of Repressed FLGS Incidents".
Basically I was in a new town for the day, and stopped over in a store to look at board games on the way to go home. Place was dead, and a guy in a badly fitting tracksuit and baseball cap follows me in. Already I'm getting the "he's come in here to make fun of the customers" vibe, so I ignore him.
He comes over, and the short of it was I made polite conversation and he suddenly starting hugging and kissing me whilst I tried to shove him away. He again, had a height and build advantage.
[He gets irritated] "I was just being friendly!"
"Stop!"
"Look, I'll walk you home, where do you live?"
[Complete confusion] "What? No! Bugger off you daft bastard!"
"Fine, Jesus. I was just being friendly!" [Storms out]
I turn to the shop staff who had been silently watching the entire time, hoping for some kind of assistance, and he just goes "Yeah that lad gets around a lot."
I have never gone back, weirdly.
What the hell!!? Do you put out some kind of pheromone that makes men act like dicks or what? That has to be awfully frustrating to you.
Matthew wrote: You know what I hate? People who can't respect that you're playing. Seriously, I know my codex, I don't need your help. What is up with people coming up and telling me what to shoot at/assault? They even go as far as to move my models for me!
Ha ha, I think the thing that is worse than back seat gamers is when you catch your self doing it. Doesn't happen often at all, but on those rare moments I give myself a stern (internal) telling off.
I have a friend who calls the backseat gamer types, "rules mumblers", because they would appear seemingly out of no where in the middle of our games and in a low voice give a half heard rule then fade out of sight, not to be seen anywhere.
Bookwrack wrote: He sounds like the kind of lucky guy who's got plenty of money and can afford to treat the gamestore as a hobby and not have to worry about it actually turning a profit to stay open.
His way of running it certainly shows that making money is not a primary concern.
That was pretty much his attitude when I was there. He didn't like people getting touchy with the merchandise (even if it's just to look at the back) and was rarely at the counter if he was running an event. In fact whenever a weekend MTG event happened, the store was only "open" so he could host the event (which he played in). Someone else had to man the cash register or the customers that weren't there for the event had to wait till his game finished.
The only good thing that came out of this (for me) was that his absentmindedness often caused him to price things wrong and cheaper than they were. I got 4 obliterators (three metal, one finecast) from him for 8 bucks in total once, and then an old metal Ogre Gorger for 3 bucks. He sorta just wanted to get my purchase done so he can get back to the game and assumed everything I grabbed was from the 2 dollar bin (I had a number of plague marines that were in the bin and he lumped it all together).
Basically I was in a new town for the day, and stopped over in a store to look at board games on the way to go home. Place was dead, and a guy in a badly fitting tracksuit and baseball cap follows me in. Already I'm getting the "he's come in here to make fun of the customers" vibe, so I ignore him.
He comes over, and the short of it was I made polite conversation and he suddenly starting hugging and kissing me whilst I tried to shove him away. He again, had a height and build advantage.
[He gets irritated] "I was just being friendly!"
"Stop!"
"Look, I'll walk you home, where do you live?"
[Complete confusion] "What? No! Bugger off you daft bastard!"
"Fine, Jesus. I was just being friendly!" [Storms out]
I turn to the shop staff who had been silently watching the entire time, hoping for some kind of assistance, and he just goes "Yeah that lad gets around a lot."
I have never gone back, weirdly.
How in the feth did I miss this post?
Y'know, I understand the whole 'I don't want to get involved' thing, sorta. I mean, I've seen it enough times guys sticking their nose where it wasn't needed or wanted only to have it lopped off for their trouble. But THIS takes the fething cake.
Buttery, I don't know you, man/woman/french, but this gak was deserving of violence. The FLGS staff should've been on that guy like gak on velcro on principle alone, never mind the fact that he's assaulting a (possible) customer. Man, coupled with some of the other stories I really think you must've done something in a past life to warrant all of this attention, like burned down an orphanage or admitted to liking Nickleback.
Basically I was in a new town for the day, and stopped over in a store to look at board games on the way to go home. Place was dead, and a guy in a badly fitting tracksuit and baseball cap follows me in. Already I'm getting the "he's come in here to make fun of the customers" vibe, so I ignore him.
He comes over, and the short of it was I made polite conversation and he suddenly starting hugging and kissing me whilst I tried to shove him away. He again, had a height and build advantage.
[He gets irritated] "I was just being friendly!"
"Stop!"
"Look, I'll walk you home, where do you live?"
[Complete confusion] "What? No! Bugger off you daft bastard!"
"Fine, Jesus. I was just being friendly!" [Storms out]
I turn to the shop staff who had been silently watching the entire time, hoping for some kind of assistance, and he just goes "Yeah that lad gets around a lot."
I have never gone back, weirdly.
How in the feth did I miss this post?
Y'know, I understand the whole 'I don't want to get involved' thing, sorta. I mean, I've seen it enough times guys sticking their nose where it wasn't needed or wanted only to have it lopped off for their trouble. But THIS takes the fething cake.
Buttery, I don't know you, man/woman/french, but this gak was deserving of violence. The FLGS staff should've been on that guy like gak on velcro on principle alone, never mind the fact that he's assaulting a (possible) customer. Man, coupled with some of the other stories I really think you must've done something in a past life to warrant all of this attention, like burned down an orphanage or admitted to liking Nickleback.
Hey, whoa; that's not cool! Accusing a person of liking Nickelback! For shame!!
Basically I was in a new town for the day, and stopped over in a store to look at board games on the way to go home. Place was dead, and a guy in a badly fitting tracksuit and baseball cap follows me in. Already I'm getting the "he's come in here to make fun of the customers" vibe, so I ignore him.
He comes over, and the short of it was I made polite conversation and he suddenly starting hugging and kissing me whilst I tried to shove him away. He again, had a height and build advantage.
[He gets irritated] "I was just being friendly!"
"Stop!"
"Look, I'll walk you home, where do you live?"
[Complete confusion] "What? No! Bugger off you daft bastard!"
"Fine, Jesus. I was just being friendly!" [Storms out]
I turn to the shop staff who had been silently watching the entire time, hoping for some kind of assistance, and he just goes "Yeah that lad gets around a lot."
I have never gone back, weirdly.
How in the feth did I miss this post?
Y'know, I understand the whole 'I don't want to get involved' thing, sorta. I mean, I've seen it enough times guys sticking their nose where it wasn't needed or wanted only to have it lopped off for their trouble. But THIS takes the fething cake.
Buttery, I don't know you, man/woman/french, but this gak was deserving of violence. The FLGS staff should've been on that guy like gak on velcro on principle alone, never mind the fact that he's assaulting a (possible) customer. Man, coupled with some of the other stories I really think you must've done something in a past life to warrant all of this attention, like burned down an orphanage or admitted to liking Nickleback.
Looking back with my adult hat on, or if I saw someone do that to somebody else, I would have called the police because there was CCTV for the store, and tried to get the guy slapped with one of those things that gets you banned from town centre stores that follow the policy.
Back then I was 19, somewhat assumed it was my fault (the leading line was "I like your boots..."), and the total lack of reaction from the staff seeing a teenager being I guess at minimum, bothered by a mentally compromised young man, sold to me that I was making a fuss over nothing.
They teach you to stay safe of a night: buy your own drinks, never get in unmarked cabs, travel in groups of three, etc. They don't tell you how to react to someone half molesting you in broad daylight with others watching. I had zero idea.
This was nearly a decade ago, and it still bothers me that he could have gone on to do this to younger people, and I fethed up in not doing anything.
One that still makes me mad though to think about it comes to mind immediately. My friends and I basically ran one of the shops in a small chain of hobby stores in the area for quite some time. It was a great gig at the time, discount, friends, etc. The main issue though was for some reason the people that got hired (besides ones within our gaming group) by and large were just off.
The one involved in this one though, man, was just gross...
He was the type of guy that would stop was he was doing, register, conversation, or dealing with a customer, to run to the window if he thought an attractive woman was walking by. We were maybe 18ish at the time and he was 30 or so but without fail he would just start in on "what he would like to do..." again, oblivious to his surroundings. He carried sweat rags all the time despite the cold climate, you get the idea.
We all kept some of our favorite models in the display case near the register as conversation pieces to help sell product but generally the rule was don't touch other peoples stuff. There was really no reason to either, it was a nice case. But one day I came in to see the newly painted, super converted unit of rat ogres I made had sprouted a truly frightening amount of mold all over them.
After investigation, it turned out this guy was taking my stuff out to look at quite a bit and while he was eating mall food, messily as he was prone to do. Standing orders went out that violence was to be used should a fellow employee see this guy even looking at the case.
We're all used to some breakage by our friends, accidents happen right? But what do you do if some disgusting swamp donkey, forced to to share your space part time, turns your models into a petri dish.
He was the type of guy that would stop was he was doing, register, conversation, or dealing with a customer, to run to the window if he thought an attractive woman was walking by. We were maybe 18ish at the time and he was 30 or so but without fail he would just start in on "what he would like to do..."
Man, the guy who was the final straw at a club I wasn't enjoying. Only he was more in his fifties or sixties.
But one day I came in to see the newly painted, super converted unit of rat ogres I made had sprouted a truly frightening amount of mold all over them.
After investigation, it turned out this guy was taking my stuff out to look at quite a bit and while he was eating mall food, messily as he was prone to do... what do you do if some disgusting swamp donkey, forced to to share your space part time, turns your models into a petri dish.
I just thought of another one. When I was in college my 40k budget was limited to gift money, cans I found and returned for the redemption money (5 cents each), money I got from being a psychology department lab rat, and donating plasma.
It was the donating plasma part that got me. To kill time while I waited I brought codex, a pen, and a small piece of paper to write out my next army list for that night's gaming. The attending medical student took one look at the codex and said, "Warhammer? My ex boyfriend plays that." The then immediately proceeds to eviscerate my arm vein so bad I can't give blood out of that arm. Then she turns around and does it to the OTHER arm too.
The guy in charge comes over and is astonished, as this was the first (and second time I gather) that he had ever seen her mess up so bad.
I'm assuming her ex boyfriend and her parted ways on bad terms and Warhammer had something to do with it. No need to assault me with a weapon though.
cuda1179 wrote: I just thought of another one. When I was in college my 40k budget was limited to gift money, cans I found and returned for the redemption money (5 cents each), money I got from being a psychology department lab rat, and donating plasma.
It was the donating plasma part that got me. To kill time while I waited I brought codex, a pen, and a small piece of paper to write out my next army list for that night's gaming. The attending medical student took one look at the codex and said, "Warhammer? My ex boyfriend plays that." The then immediately proceeds to eviscerate my arm vein so bad I can't give blood out of that arm. Then she turns around and does it to the OTHER arm too.
The guy in charge comes over and is astonished, as this was the first (and second time I gather) that he had ever seen her mess up so bad.
I'm assuming her ex boyfriend and her parted ways on bad terms and Warhammer had something to do with it. No need to assault me with a weapon though.
Well gak, though not FLGS related I think we have our winner here.
cuda1179 wrote: I just thought of another one. When I was in college my 40k budget was limited to gift money, cans I found and returned for the redemption money (5 cents each), money I got from being a psychology department lab rat, and donating plasma.
It was the donating plasma part that got me. To kill time while I waited I brought codex, a pen, and a small piece of paper to write out my next army list for that night's gaming. The attending medical student took one look at the codex and said, "Warhammer? My ex boyfriend plays that." The then immediately proceeds to eviscerate my arm vein so bad I can't give blood out of that arm. Then she turns around and does it to the OTHER arm too.
The guy in charge comes over and is astonished, as this was the first (and second time I gather) that he had ever seen her mess up so bad.
I'm assuming her ex boyfriend and her parted ways on bad terms and Warhammer had something to do with it. No need to assault me with a weapon though.
Ha! All men are responsible for the transgressions of all other men. If we all take one for the team occasionally, there's less likely to be outbreaks of female-on-male mass murders. It really is better for the species this way
cuda1179 wrote: I just thought of another one. When I was in college my 40k budget was limited to gift money, cans I found and returned for the redemption money (5 cents each), money I got from being a psychology department lab rat, and donating plasma.
It was the donating plasma part that got me. To kill time while I waited I brought codex, a pen, and a small piece of paper to write out my next army list for that night's gaming. The attending medical student took one look at the codex and said, "Warhammer? My ex boyfriend plays that." The then immediately proceeds to eviscerate my arm vein so bad I can't give blood out of that arm. Then she turns around and does it to the OTHER arm too.
The guy in charge comes over and is astonished, as this was the first (and second time I gather) that he had ever seen her mess up so bad.
I'm assuming her ex boyfriend and her parted ways on bad terms and Warhammer had something to do with it. No need to assault me with a weapon though.
Tell me you filed charges, or at least sued. That was totally uncalled for, and almost certainly illegal on her part.
the_Armyman wrote: Ha! All men are responsible for the transgressions of all other men. If we all take one for the team occasionally, there's less likely to be outbreaks of female-on-male mass murders. It really is better for the species this way
There are a few women out there that hate warhammer pretty badly thanks to me!
Vulcan wrote: Tell me you filed charges, or at least sued. That was totally uncalled for, and almost certainly illegal on her part.
Probably not. Somebody getting annoyed and having a hard time sticking a needle is almost certainly not actionable. Even if it were, good luck proving it was intentional.
I thought the first arm was an accident. The second one was surely on purpose. In general I have huge veins that are extremely easy to poke, or so I've been told.
The worst part of the ordeal was that they refused to compensate me for anything because I couldn't donate anything do to having two messed-up arms.
There are limits to how many times a patient can be stuck, however (2 times is the maximum unless there is patient or Doctor consent to keep going). If she went beyond that limit she is breaking hospital/clinic policy and should have faced disciplinary action.
cuda1179 wrote: I thought the first arm was an accident. The second one was surely on purpose. In general I have huge veins that are extremely easy to poke, or so I've been told.
The worst part of the ordeal was that they refused to compensate me for anything because I couldn't donate anything do to having two messed-up arms.
Did you ask her to take you out for dinner? She makes my inner Slaneesh tingle
Yeah, when she mentioned her ex played and fethed up your first arm, it was time to ask for someone else or run. I'm sure that occurred in hindsight. Nurses are fething nuts. I grew up spending time in a hospital and even dated a nurse as an adult (my dad was a doc, so chill guys; not too terribly weird, as I visited dad at work. And the nurse I dated was one of his coworkers who was my age). Nurses are whacko. Technical terms only here.
gorgon wrote: I've had phlebotomists blow my veins even when they had no reason to be angry with me.
When I was going through liver failure a few years ago, i had to give 47 vials of blood over the course of a week. Let me tell you, they blew some veins, and I learned that the Docs have MANY places to draw blood from if the arms dont suffice :(
timetowaste85 wrote: Yeah, when she mentioned her ex played and fethed up your first arm, it was time to ask for someone else or run. I'm sure that occurred in hindsight. Nurses are fething nuts. I grew up spending time in a hospital and even dated a nurse as an adult (my dad was a doc, so chill guys; not too terribly weird, as I visited dad at work. And the nurse I dated was one of his coworkers who was my age). Nurses are whacko. Technical terms only here.
Given the garbage nurses go through daily at work, I'm not terribly surprised to hear they tend toward insanity in their private lives.
Here's a short horror story from my local shop. They recently started stocking 40k stuff after merging with two other game shops in the area; previously, the owner looked at 40k and was told by GW he couldn't stock it because there was another store within 10 miles that stocked it (no clue, that's what he said). Well, with this merger GW was begging him to stock, and he managed to get a small display with like a few starter sets, couple of paints, and various boxes (I think like a good 30ish boxes or product) for free (he says).
The horror story? I looked at the price of AoS, and he's charging $140 for it, or MORE THAN RETAIL. I laughed out loud when someone pointed that out to me. Ironically, Dark Vengeance is still retail price, but AoS had a $140 price tag on it.
gorgon wrote: I've had phlebotomists blow my veins even when they had no reason to be angry with me.
I had a trainee do that to me with my right arm, she could not find the vain and was turning that needle around like she was stirring the soup, It was not pleasant
Not to get way off topic here and delete if so but on the medical front, I was living in a small town and had to have a root canal and the dentist didn't use enough of the freezing needle stuff, but then fortunately for him he figured he could use my pain to judge how close he was to the nerve digging around in my tooth so he knew how far to clean out. It was absolutely excruciating.
I've had needles stuck in me and blood taken since I was eleven, but all this is still making me squeamish.
The horror story? I looked at the price of AoS, and he's charging $140 for it, or MORE THAN RETAIL.
I keep seeing new boxes going for a fair bit more than retail on ebay. I can't get me head round it, unless they just include postage (and then some) in the total price.
When I was in the ninth grade, my high school was downtown. A new FLGS opened about a ten minute walk from campus, so my friends and I would often take our lunch breaks down there. On one of our first visits, we noticed the shelf of anime the owner had at the front of the store, and he told us about some of them...but then started to talk about a certain variety of anime...involving tentacles...and kept going, describing his favourite in acute detail, for like half an hour. Bear in mind, we were like, 13/14 years old - so not entirely innocent, and at the time, we thought it was funny, but looking back....yeah....
General_K wrote: When I was in the ninth grade, my high school was downtown. A new FLGS opened about a ten minute walk from campus, so my friends and I would often take our lunch breaks down there. On one of our first visits, we noticed the shelf of anime the owner had at the front of the store, and he told us about some of them...but then started to talk about a certain variety of anime...involving tentacles...and kept going, describing his favourite in acute detail, for like half an hour. Bear in mind, we were like, 13/14 years old - so not entirely innocent, and at the time, we thought it was funny, but looking back....yeah....
I've never met anyone who was into that stuff, but I do remember a neighbor I had when I was 14ish who had an... active sex life. When I say active, of course I mean 2 kids to different women in different states, multiple partners every other moth or so, the works. And he let my friends and I know all about it when we hung out at his brother's house. At the time I thought it was cool for someone to be so candid, but now that I'm as old he was at the time, I only cringe.
General_K wrote: When I was in the ninth grade, my high school was downtown. A new FLGS opened about a ten minute walk from campus, so my friends and I would often take our lunch breaks down there. On one of our first visits, we noticed the shelf of anime the owner had at the front of the store, and he told us about some of them...but then started to talk about a certain variety of anime...involving tentacles...and kept going, describing his favourite in acute detail, for like half an hour. Bear in mind, we were like, 13/14 years old - so not entirely innocent, and at the time, we thought it was funny, but looking back....yeah....
There was a shop around here for a while when I was younger, more of a model shop but had a single table to play on, that had this gray-toothed, heavy smoker working there that would describe the Hentai videos they had behind the counter with his gravely voice. Major Creepy. My first exposure to the weird that is Japan.
timetowaste85 wrote: Yeah, when she mentioned her ex played and fethed up your first arm, it was time to ask for someone else or run. I'm sure that occurred in hindsight. Nurses are fething nuts. I grew up spending time in a hospital and even dated a nurse as an adult (my dad was a doc, so chill guys; not too terribly weird, as I visited dad at work. And the nurse I dated was one of his coworkers who was my age). Nurses are whacko. Technical terms only here.
Given the garbage nurses go through daily at work, I'm not terribly surprised to hear they tend toward insanity in their private lives.
Yeah, wrong. Wife's been a nurse for 20 years as are most of her friends. Take your average self important jerk and give him the sniffles or god forbid a case of diarrhea for longer then 45 minutes, much less a surgical procedure or trauma, and then bring their douche bag family along for the ride and see how you like dealing with them! These people are medical professionals that are the ones actually caring for you (hint its not the doctor) and you would be amazed how many people treat them like they are stewardesses! Get me a soda, can I have a warm blanket, I want a pillow, and these are the family members not even the patient! Did you ever hear it's a bad idea to send your food back because you don't know what the cook will do to it? Treat a nurse with respect and they will hit that vein on the first try every time !
Years ago, when I was visiting Banbridge, I noticed a store I had never been to. I popped in, bought a Gallant warjack, chatted a bit with the owner about latest releases, projects etc.
When I got home I told one of my friends about this hobby store I found and the really cool guy who ran it. He looked at me and said the guy who ran the store died a long time ago and the shop had been closed ever since.
Wooooooooooooo!
Only joking... I dont collect Warmachine.
To add to nurse OT discussion, I've been in and out of Hospital for the past four years and the nurses have been fantastic, hard working and very support. Whatever they're being paid, it isn't enough.
=Angel= wrote: The guy had unpainted venom spam. There were no infantry models. He said that he had paid for the infantry but they would never disembark.
If a venom was ever wrecked, he would write them off as casualties.
I see nothing wrong with that approach. He's playing a lot faster, and losing the passengers is to the opponent's advantage. Good guy, would play.
=Angel= wrote: The guy had unpainted venom spam. There were no infantry models. He said that he had paid for the infantry but they would never disembark.
If a venom was ever wrecked, he would write them off as casualties.
I see nothing wrong with that approach. He's playing a lot faster, and losing the passengers is to the opponent's advantage. Good guy, would play.
I think your sarcasm tags fell off!
While yeah, it's actually to the other players advantage ingame, the game experience is ruined.
1st by a netlist and 2nd because 40k is supposed to be about derring-do, brutal close range firefights and gratuitous fistycuffs. Simply removing any and all infantry from the board and rolling dice from mobile weapons platforms neagtes that .
In freo, at one point one of the major clients of the store started self-harming in front of like 4 8 year old boys. Manager asked him to stop, so he just moved outside and kept going at the front door.
After ten minutes the manager called the cops. ended with him writing an apology letter to the boys parents, and the store.
Severe gamer funk as usual. I always deodorize before going to store, but there's two people who absolutely refuse to do anything about their smell, and it's really sour.
We've had stoned and drunk guys instore, but usually ends up being okay. The only bad day was the manager locking us in the store after two indigenous australians started brawling out the front of the store.
=Angel= wrote: The guy had unpainted venom spam. There were no infantry models. He said that he had paid for the infantry but they would never disembark.
If a venom was ever wrecked, he would write them off as casualties.
I see nothing wrong with that approach. He's playing a lot faster, and losing the passengers is to the opponent's advantage. Good guy, would play.
I think your sarcasm tags fell off!
40k is supposed to be about derring-do, brutal close range firefights and gratuitous fistycuffs. Simply removing any and all infantry from the board and rolling dice from mobile weapons platforms neagtes that .
Nope, and nope. I play IG, and experience says that T3 Sv5+ has no business in close combat. Far better to shoot stuff dead.
OT: I saw a guy key a car after losing a game of 40k the other day. Seems ridiculous to get so upset over a game... if it isn't fun even while losing, why play?
OT: I saw a guy key a car after losing a game of 40k the other day. Seems ridiculous to get so upset over a game... if it isn't fun even while losing, why play?
Not really a horror story (for me), but there was this kid at the shop I play at (he's upper class high school... so, like 16-18 or so?) who spent the course of several weeks trash talking one of the other Eldar players (this guy's "standard" list included 2 CC Wraithknights). So, finally, this other eldar player relents and says, "however many Knights you bring, is as many as I'm bringing," so, he brought do D-cannon wraithknights to this game. The kid places one CC knight down, and puts the other in reserve..... AAAAAaaaaannndd He proceeds to get literally annihilated. Perhaps one of the most one sided 40k games I've ever seen.
That game happened at the beginning of January, and the high school kid hasn't been back since
So a few years ago after I had just gotten into 40k with my Marines I arranged for a game at my FLGS with one of the Guard players there. I forget how many points the game was supposed to be, I think around 1500. So there I am with my list, made up of the modes that I'd assembled. I only had 1 missile launcher in the entire army (sad to say, but that was my only anti-tank for a while). My opponent's army? A Baneblade, and 2 Russes. plus some other stuff that I forget. I got curbstomped in short order.
I can't remember if I already posted the time my FLGS owner and I almost ended up in a dogging ring by accident.
I'm not sure if "dogging" is an international term.
Buttery Commissar wrote: I can't remember if I already posted the time my FLGS owner and I almost ended up in a dogging ring by accident.
Im not sure if "dogging" is an international term.
That was a very interesting year, and looking back it's astounding that I didn't end up dead or violated.
I should elaborate: Everything I posted in this topic apart from the pony arguments, occurred in 18 months of itself (2006-2007).
After the guy flipping out and mailing me his sleepwear, I understandably dropped the hobby scene until March '15 because I realised I didn't have the requisite social awareness to avoid ridiculous gak.
Buttery Commissar wrote: I can't remember if I already posted the time my FLGS owner and I almost ended up in a dogging ring by accident.
I'm not sure if "dogging" is an international term.
Dog fighting? Or the er.... more car park oriented stuff.
Dog fighting? Or the er.... more car park oriented stuff.
And how does either happen by accident???
Clearly, Buttery has a very obvious friend named Tyrone, who showed himself on the wrong CCTV, and so BC got picked up, and taken to Bricktop for a few questions
Buttery Commissar wrote: I can't remember if I already posted the time my FLGS owner and I almost ended up in a dogging ring by accident.
I'm not sure if "dogging" is an international term.
Dog fighting? Or the er.... more car park oriented stuff.
And how does either happen by accident???
The voyeuristic sex in car parks/fields one.
I was sole passenger in the store's old two seater van*, and we had headed over to an event in Telford that was run by a company the game store bought a lot from. At that time I did weekend work on occasion for the store, so I was either there to lift or because I might've found it interesting.
We were driving back early evening, I think the trip was a couple of hours, long roads, all that.
The engine started seriously overheating. Radiator leak. So we stopped at a small town, grabbed a few 2 and 5 litre bottles of water and kept a close eye on that temp gauge. Every twenty minutes, stop, let the engine cool, feed the radiator a bottle.
It was dark, we hit back road countryside. So we stopped up on the side of the road in the side path of a field to repeat the process.
Sitting there, I noticed lights in the field, slowly turning on one by one. More cars. One of them flashed at us, and being friendly, I waved back. We sat in the car, and don't get out, with the lights on because it was dark.
I noticed several people stood around one of the cars, "Maybe they're having a breakdown too." I considered.
Another car pulled up behind us, flashed hello, and the people got out and walked into the field. My eyes adjusted and I could clearly see the actuality of the situation.
"We need to move."
"The engine isn't cool enough to fill yet."
"That is a dogging field."
People eventually started approaching us. I was 18, sat in the car with a mid thirties married guy, and rapidly regretting my life decisions.
*This is not a stupid sentence as it reads, if you know that on occasion I had to ride in the back of the van's seatless storage container, which prompted another incident.
Buttery Commissar wrote: I can't remember if I already posted the time my FLGS owner and I almost ended up in a dogging ring by accident.
I'm not sure if "dogging" is an international term.
Dog fighting? Or the er.... more car park oriented stuff.
And how does either happen by accident???
The voyeuristic sex in car parks/fields one.
I was sole passenger in the store's old two seater van*, and we had headed over to an event in Telford that was run by a company the game store bought a lot from. At that time I did weekend work on occasion for the store, so I was either there to lift or because I might've found it interesting.
We were driving back early evening, I think the trip was a couple of hours, long roads, all that.
The engine started seriously overheating. Radiator leak. So we stopped at a small town, grabbed a few 2 and 5 litre bottles of water and kept a close eye on that temp gauge. Every twenty minutes, stop, let the engine cool, feed the radiator a bottle.
It was dark, we hit back road countryside. So we stopped up on the side of the road in the side path of a field to repeat the process.
Sitting there, I noticed lights in the field, slowly turning on one by one. More cars. One of them flashed at us, and being friendly, I waved back. We sat in the car, and don't get out, with the lights on because it was dark.
I noticed several people stood around one of the cars, "Maybe they're having a breakdown too." I considered.
Another car pulled up behind us, flashed hello, and the people got out and walked into the field. My eyes adjusted and I could clearly see the actuality of the situation.
"We need to move."
"The engine isn't cool enough to fill yet."
"That is a dogging field."
People eventually started approaching us. I was 18, sat in the car with a mid thirties married guy, and rapidly regretting my life decisions.
*This is not a stupid sentence as it reads, if you know that on occasion I had to ride in the back of the van's seatless storage container, which prompted another incident.
That is a great story. I would have been howling with laughter, had I been you, or sweating profusely and praying to all the various gods that no one recognized me had I been the driver.
Edit: I am not familiar with the "rules" of dogging. It is likely you would have coerced or otherwise persuaded to "act" had the van been permanently broken down? Because then the story is not funny at all. No Ma'am.
Oh, no. We were in no danger other than being caught by police, and by association, arrested.
We were mostly worried that the store was written on the side of the van and may lose family friendly reputation of someone in attendance decided to be vindictive.
Back of the van story:
Basically the car behind us at traffic lights thought I'd been kidnapped. They flashed and followed us to a games tournament. Thankfully hands free phone devices were not as common then, and they did not call the cops.
Doctadeth wrote: In freo, at one point one of the major clients of the store started self-harming in front of like 4 8 year old boys. Manager asked him to stop, so he just moved outside and kept going at the front door.
Self-harming? Like cutting himself, or banging his head against a wall or something? That's.....pretty odd, but I guess that's the point of the thread.
You merely adopted the weird. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!
Honestly it's background noise at this point, and I only notice afterwards. At least I get to walk away from them, and I'm grateful for that.
You merely adopted the weird. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!
Honestly it's background noise at this point, and I only notice afterwards. At least I get to walk away from them, and I'm grateful for that.
You need to write your memoirs and sell the rights to a major movie studio.
I often joke with people, saying things like "You don't half attract them" or "You always find them". But with you, I mean it seriously. God, do you find 'em!
You merely adopted the weird. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!
Honestly it's background noise at this point, and I only notice afterwards. At least I get to walk away from them, and I'm grateful for that.
You need to write your memoirs and sell the rights to a major movie studio.
Might as well monetize your weirdness!
TBH Buttery's misadventures would make a great sitcom.
TBH Buttery's misadventures would make a great sitcom.
Yeah, see, it's funny until she ends up getting raped or as a JPEG in a 4chan "rekt" thread. I would hope she has learned to take better care of herself and be mindful of her surroundings at this point in her life. Expect the best of people, but be prepared for the worst.
TBH Buttery's misadventures would make a great sitcom.
Yeah, see, it's funny until she ends up getting raped or as a JPEG in a 4chan "rekt" thread. I would hope she has learned to take better care of herself and be mindful of her surroundings at this point in her life. Expect the best of people, but be prepared for the worst.
Um, dude. WTF? I don't think there was any reason to go there. Uncool. Very uncool.
TBH Buttery's misadventures would make a great sitcom.
Yeah, see, it's funny until she ends up getting raped or as a JPEG in a 4chan "rekt" thread. I would hope she has learned to take better care of herself and be mindful of her surroundings at this point in her life. Expect the best of people, but be prepared for the worst.
Um, dude. WTF? I don't think there was any reason to go there. Uncool. Very uncool.
What are you talking about? Why is it uncool to suggest that a naive female is going to have bad things happen to her if she persists in unsafe behaviors? I didn't wish it upon her, nor did I say she has it coming. Statisitcs are a bitch, do your best to not become one. But by all means, let's pretend that some of these antics aren't utterly cringeworthy.
Well that got dark quickly. No need to language like this thanks. Reds8n
Although not really a FLGS, it was at a GW at Romford I believe a few years ago. Anyway, I was a bit younger and hadn't been in the hobby long, and went to the store with my dad to have a look at stuff. The store stank of weed, mostly eminating from this one extremely stereotypically Jamaican guy attempting to assemble some devastators and failing miserably due to him being completely and utterly baked as a victoria sponge. He just kept grinning at everything and laughing as he fumbled these devastators, and the staff either didn't notice or care, he looked kind of homeless. Anyway, my dad, being a policeman, recognised the smell and we promptly left, leaving the giggling rasta to finish his mess of plastic.
Okay, chill. Despite his delivery, T_A has the seed of a point in his post.
However I did say on the previous page, that after this series of ludicrous events, I realised that I wasn't acting safely and withdrew from the hobby scene.
No, they weren't all avoidable. And none of them were fully my fault. But the fact I didn't expect them or know how to handle these things made me take a step back.
I didn't mention the time I got in a stranger's car and he dropped me off in an abandoned carpark in the middle of a city I didn't live in, because he was at a convention I was working.
That I basically hitchhiked solo around the UK working shows because it was fun, and didn't think about the amount of socially ill adapted people those events can attract. I had friends who saved my ass (in some cases literally) because I wandered around on the assumption that if I was nice to people, they'd be nice back.
That shouldn't be dangerous, but I think I'm the reason my parents went grey early. These days I'm no less trusting, but a lot less naive.
Also I'm a guy. A very girly guy, but this is not FLGS: Gender Politics.
TBH Buttery's misadventures would make a great sitcom.
Yeah, see, it's funny until she ends up getting raped or as a JPEG in a 4chan "rekt" thread. I would hope she has learned to take better care of herself and be mindful of her surroundings at this point in her life. Expect the best of people, but be prepared for the worst.
Um, dude. WTF? I don't think there was any reason to go there. Uncool. Very uncool.
What are you talking about?
I think it's abundantly clear what I'm talking about, given that I quoted you directly.
And with that, I decline to pursue further communication with you on this point. Or really, any other point. Good day!
TBH Buttery's misadventures would make a great sitcom.
Yeah, see, it's funny until she ends up getting raped or as a JPEG in a 4chan "rekt" thread. I would hope she has learned to take better care of herself and be mindful of her surroundings at this point in her life. Expect the best of people, but be prepared for the worst.
Also I'm a guy. A very girly guy, but this is not FLGS: Gender Politics.
My apologies. I thought it had been said earlier that you were female. But it doesn't make what I said any less relevant. Men are just as guilty of making poor decisions when concerning personal safety, moreso because they think being macho or tough is better than being wise or cautious.
This was back on topic for a total of a handful of posts. Awesome. Now it's Life Lessons According to the_Armyman. (Would not watch that show, 1/5 stars.)
Does anybody have actual FLGS stories to share, or has this thread outlived its purpose?
My buddy and I where setting up tables and chairs for his 3 year old daughters b-day party. He rented one of those bounce houses for the party for the kids to jump around in. The bounce house was delivered later that day by these two guys. They unloaded the bounce house and plugged it into the power and inflated. The guys then start telling us how hard it was to get all the baby oil and stains cleaned on the bounce house. They told us a swingers party rented it earlier in the week.
I did have an opponent at my old store years ago that was probably my worst match I have ever had. During our game he had his dark eldar lined up, then was shooting my ork army to shreds, killing almost 20 boyz. During my turn I shot back with 30 lootas(total) and both squads of 15 rolled a 6 for their deff guns. so 90 shots back at his ravengers. He said that I could not do that since I was out of range. I asked how. He replied that his shots were specifically measured as 36 inches from his gun. that I could not fire since I would have to hit the Hull which was 37 inches. I had to inform him Lootas have 48 inch range. He was so pissed at losing both his ravengers that he threw his metal tape measure across the room and put a nice sized dent into the display wall. He was red faced, cursing about my cheating(showed him my codex to prove) while yelling. Worst part was his 6 year old sitting at the table behind him watching the whole thing happen. this was all during game turn 1.
JohnHwangDD wrote: Ha! I've seen a guy get so mad over a bad roll, he threw a die across a store hard enough to bury itself into the drywall.
Actually, it was more funny than a horror story.
That sounds like store traditions can begin. Did the manager leave the die there for posterity? Did he stick a frame around it and start a competition?
"Embed a die in the wall and win a box set of your choice".
conker249 wrote: I did have an opponent at my old store years ago that was probably my worst match I have ever had. During our game he had his dark eldar lined up, then was shooting my ork army to shreds, killing almost 20 boyz. During my turn I shot back with 30 lootas(total) and both squads of 15 rolled a 6 for their deff guns. so 90 shots back at his ravengers. He said that I could not do that since I was out of range. I asked how. He replied that his shots were specifically measured as 36 inches from his gun. that I could not fire since I would have to hit the Hull which was 37 inches. I had to inform him Lootas have 48 inch range. He was so pissed at losing both his ravengers that he threw his metal tape measure across the room and put a nice sized dent into the display wall. He was red faced, cursing about my cheating(showed him my codex to prove) while yelling. Worst part was his 6 year old sitting at the table behind him watching the whole thing happen. this was all during game turn 1.
That sounds like store traditions can begin. Did the manager leave the die there for posterity? Did he stick a frame around it and start a competition?
"Embed a die in the wall and win a box set of your choice".
There were a father and ten/eleven year old son duo that would turn up when I or my partner ran tournaments at a certain store.
They had a weird dynamic that you could set your watch by.
They'd turn up, and they'd both have packed lunches. By about 11am the son would have stuffed his food down while his dad was busy, and then begin whining he was hungry. The father would berate him loudly for having done so, in front of everyone present.
Lunchtime, the kid would sit and complain while everyone else ate food and he had none, his father would berate him again.
Neither of them had read the rules fully, and 3/4 of the time gaming would be stopping them from cheating through ignorance.
But the father would yell at the kid over mistakes, it was really uncomfortable. During games.
They were also terrible for reverse engineering things if they made mistakes.
Say you remember a figure has Super Speed and can actually move 11" instead of 8", the father would then try and go back several turns to work out where the figure would actually have been, and what wounds it'd have accrued.
Utterly frustrating and impossible to stop as they would never listen to me.
Not quite a horror story but, I recently worked out that for at least the past 16 years, I have never had a positive experience playing a game with a Games Workshop staffmember.
Compel wrote: Not quite a horror story but, I recently worked out that for at least the past 16 years, I have never had a positive experience playing a game with a Games Workshop staffmember.
Why? What's been happening? When I used to play customers it was always a good laugh for both.
A kid came into our FLGS a couple years ago wielding a kitchen knife and a Darth Vader hoodie to steal some Yugioh cards... Did not take long for law enforcement to find the guy matching the description.
Compel wrote: Not quite a horror story but, I recently worked out that for at least the past 16 years, I have never had a positive experience playing a game with a Games Workshop staffmember.
At our GW store a long time ago (before it closed) the staff would cheat people during leagues and win the whole thing. One thing I saw them do was a team game league where they were playing Eldar vs. a new Necron player. On the Necron's turn he attempted to shoot the Avatar with a 12" ranged weapon and fell slightly short of range. On the next turn the Avatar assaulted the same model. When he questioned it while they were rolling dice (he'd just remembered the failed shot) the staff pair both shrugged and told him "you shouldn't have bumped the hill so much".
The manager would also completely lose his gak if you killed his one linchpin unit even if he had the entire rest of his army left. It was usually a LR full of Termies. He'd go stomping around the store fuming and yelling when it died. The rest of the game would be easy pickings because he was so thrown off.
Chute82 wrote: Not a FLGS horror story but a horror story
My buddy and I where setting up tables and chairs for his 3 year old daughters b-day party. He rented one of those bounce houses for the party for the kids to jump around in. The bounce house was delivered later that day by these two guys. They unloaded the bounce house and plugged it into the power and inflated. The guys then start telling us how hard it was to get all the baby oil and stains cleaned on the bounce house. They told us a swingers party rented it earlier in the week.
And that, gentle readers, is why you buy your own bouncey house. (I'm serious, if you have the room, it is _insane_ how cheap these things have gotten).
Compel wrote: Not quite a horror story but, I recently worked out that for at least the past 16 years, I have never had a positive experience playing a game with a Games Workshop staffmember.
Why? What's been happening? When I used to play customers it was always a good laugh for both.
Yeah, I've never had a bad game with staff. In fact I've played tourney games against them and they've easily been some of the best experiences (even if they stamped us).
Most of the available buildings around here are old mills and houses over 100 years old. One of the games I had was with a cute girl who really seemed to like me. I asked for her phone number but she didn't know what a phone was. It turns out she was a ghost the whole time.
Two incidents come to mind immediately about my experiences.
One (in fact, one of the incidents that convinced me to drop GW and 40k entirely), was a game with a GW staffmember a few years ago, whenever 6th edition was. His army?
Kairos Fateweaver
Bloodthirster
2 squads of pink horrors
Warpgate (aka Spawner of infinite demons)
2 flying demon princes
1 ground demon prince
I didn't kill a single model, I got tabled.
Another, 12 years ago, was playing in GW Glasgow in a LOTR tournament. I'd won every game, final match against a GW staffmember (there was an odd number of players), I was on course to win the tournament. The staffmember was playing as a player, with someone else as the adjudicator (supposedly).
We were playing a 'headhunter' mission - so, there were a whole bunch of extra points for killing the enemy general. - I had almost tabled the other force (therefore in a position to win), except for the enemy general was still alive (The Witch King, maybe...)
Their general charged Faramir (my General), who had already charged a random orc on the final turn.
I had planned for that, however, and then counter charged the Witch King with a Fountain Court Guard (the toughest to kill infantry model in the game at the time).
So, LOTR, had a fundamental rule that, there can never be a "multiple on multiple" combat, every single combat must be split to either 2 V 1, or groups of 1v1. This was a fundamental concept of the game.
Doing this move, meant that The Witch King (who had good odds on killing Faramir), had to fight the Fountain Court Guard instead of Faramir, whereas Faramir had to fight the random orc. - As the Court Guard wasn't in base contact with the orc.
Naturally, doing so would pretty much guarantee me the victory in the game (and therefore the tournament).
Except, the staffmember playing the game said. "Nope, not happening." Then the "Adjudicator" said, "he's the store expert, he's right" - despite all my (very calm, polite, yet firm) attempts to demonstrate with the rulebook otherwise.
I then got threatened with not only getting kicked out of the tournament, but being banned from the store for disagreeing with staff.
So, yeah... Faramir died, I lost the game, therefore the tournament (the first gaming tournament I ever took part in).
As you can guess, I'm still bitter about it. Which is kinda sad, considering, well, 12 years ago... but yeah, I never claimed to be a fully adjusted human being.
Ah yes, the GW glasgow LOTR tournaments...my missus used to take part until they asked her to leave for and I quote "Being too much of a beginner"
I also joined in an apocalypse tournament there, having asked for a loaner army (thank goodness) ended up getting handed all the store IG, including a baneblade with random basalisks on it, and the fortress of arrogance.....without Yarrick. As much as I liked their nice big store....the staff were not the best.
I don't remember the Glasgow staff being that bad, although 12 years ago was in the period where I didn't go near the place. Was that still at the top of Hope Street, or had it moved down to Central Station by that point?
Compel wrote: Two incidents come to mind immediately about my experiences.
One (in fact, one of the incidents that convinced me to drop GW and 40k entirely), was a game with a GW staffmember a few years ago, whenever 6th edition was. His army?
Kairos Fateweaver
Bloodthirster
2 squads of pink horrors
Warpgate (aka Spawner of infinite demons)
2 flying demon princes
1 ground demon prince
I didn't kill a single model, I got tabled.
Another, 12 years ago, was playing in GW Glasgow in a LOTR tournament. I'd won every game, final match against a GW staffmember (there was an odd number of players), I was on course to win the tournament. The staffmember was playing as a player, with someone else as the adjudicator (supposedly).
We were playing a 'headhunter' mission - so, there were a whole bunch of extra points for killing the enemy general. - I had almost tabled the other force (therefore in a position to win), except for the enemy general was still alive (The Witch King, maybe...)
Their general charged Faramir (my General), who had already charged a random orc on the final turn.
I had planned for that, however, and then counter charged the Witch King with a Fountain Court Guard (the toughest to kill infantry model in the game at the time).
So, LOTR, had a fundamental rule that, there can never be a "multiple on multiple" combat, every single combat must be split to either 2 V 1, or groups of 1v1. This was a fundamental concept of the game.
Doing this move, meant that The Witch King (who had good odds on killing Faramir), had to fight the Fountain Court Guard instead of Faramir, whereas Faramir had to fight the random orc. - As the Court Guard wasn't in base contact with the orc.
Naturally, doing so would pretty much guarantee me the victory in the game (and therefore the tournament).
Except, the staffmember playing the game said. "Nope, not happening." Then the "Adjudicator" said, "he's the store expert, he's right" - despite all my (very calm, polite, yet firm) attempts to demonstrate with the rulebook otherwise.
I then got threatened with not only getting kicked out of the tournament, but being banned from the store for disagreeing with staff.
So, yeah... Faramir died, I lost the game, therefore the tournament (the first gaming tournament I ever took part in).
As you can guess, I'm still bitter about it. Which is kinda sad, considering, well, 12 years ago... but yeah, I never claimed to be a fully adjusted human being.
Yup, I've had incidents with certain staffers where upon showing knowledge of the rules is makes you uncool and nerdy and thus you must be reprimanded for daring to know how to play the game.
But those are a minority in my experience. Doesn't stop me from thinking the individuals were tossers that soured my experience in this hobby though.
AndrewGPaul wrote: I don't remember the Glasgow staff being that bad, although 12 years ago was in the period where I didn't go near the place. Was that still at the top of Hope Street, or had it moved down to Central Station by that point?
They were in Central Station by then, with a pretty darn large gaming area for a GW, I think there were 12 tables or so at one point, if you included the demo ones, so hypothetically, it should have been a great place for tournaments.
Compel wrote: Two incidents come to mind immediately about my experiences.
One (in fact, one of the incidents that convinced me to drop GW and 40k entirely), was a game with a GW staffmember a few years ago, whenever 6th edition was. His army?
Kairos Fateweaver
Bloodthirster
2 squads of pink horrors
Warpgate (aka Spawner of infinite demons)
2 flying demon princes
1 ground demon prince
I didn't kill a single model, I got tabled.
Another, 12 years ago, was playing in GW Glasgow in a LOTR tournament. I'd won every game, final match against a GW staffmember (there was an odd number of players), I was on course to win the tournament. The staffmember was playing as a player, with someone else as the adjudicator (supposedly).
We were playing a 'headhunter' mission - so, there were a whole bunch of extra points for killing the enemy general. - I had almost tabled the other force (therefore in a position to win), except for the enemy general was still alive (The Witch King, maybe...)
Their general charged Faramir (my General), who had already charged a random orc on the final turn.
I had planned for that, however, and then counter charged the Witch King with a Fountain Court Guard (the toughest to kill infantry model in the game at the time).
So, LOTR, had a fundamental rule that, there can never be a "multiple on multiple" combat, every single combat must be split to either 2 V 1, or groups of 1v1. This was a fundamental concept of the game.
Doing this move, meant that The Witch King (who had good odds on killing Faramir), had to fight the Fountain Court Guard instead of Faramir, whereas Faramir had to fight the random orc. - As the Court Guard wasn't in base contact with the orc.
Naturally, doing so would pretty much guarantee me the victory in the game (and therefore the tournament).
Except, the staffmember playing the game said. "Nope, not happening." Then the "Adjudicator" said, "he's the store expert, he's right" - despite all my (very calm, polite, yet firm) attempts to demonstrate with the rulebook otherwise.
I then got threatened with not only getting kicked out of the tournament, but being banned from the store for disagreeing with staff.
So, yeah... Faramir died, I lost the game, therefore the tournament (the first gaming tournament I ever took part in).
As you can guess, I'm still bitter about it. Which is kinda sad, considering, well, 12 years ago... but yeah, I never claimed to be a fully adjusted human being.
See, that last bit? Staff woulda gotten a 'feth you, I don't play with cheaters', packed up my gak and never came back. Only way to deal with douchebags is to beat them stupid or take away their power; in this case, the guy was set to win anyway so short of beating another grown man over plastic man-dollies, the only option was to peace out. Shame that GW hires/hired people like this.
"Oh he's the store expert? Well your 'expert' is a fething idiot. I'll take my ban now please."
Chute82 wrote: Not a FLGS horror story but a horror story
My buddy and I where setting up tables and chairs for his 3 year old daughters b-day party. He rented one of those bounce houses for the party for the kids to jump around in. The bounce house was delivered later that day by these two guys. They unloaded the bounce house and plugged it into the power and inflated. The guys then start telling us how hard it was to get all the baby oil and stains cleaned on the bounce house. They told us a swingers party rented it earlier in the week.
Boggy Man wrote: Most of the available buildings around here are old mills and houses over 100 years old. One of the games I had was with a cute girl who really seemed to like me. I asked for her phone number but she didn't know what a phone was. It turns out she was a ghost the whole time.
Compel wrote: Except, the staffmember playing the game said. "Nope, not happening." Then the "Adjudicator" said, "he's the store expert, he's right" - despite all my (very calm, polite, yet firm) attempts to demonstrate with the rulebook otherwise.
I then got threatened with not only getting kicked out of the tournament, but being banned from the store for disagreeing with staff.
Sometimes, it's worth dying on the hill to make a point.
If it were me, back when I was "serious" about playing, I probably would have called that threat, and demanded that they either play by the rules or refund my money, because I don't pay money to be cheated.
I'm pretty sure I didn't pay to play in the tournament... Probably.
As for getting banned from the store, yeah, I wouldn't have been brave enough for that, or at least, not back then - I'm somewhat a little more assured of myself nowadays, rather than some kid just clean out of school. It was literally the only place I knew of that had decent gaming tables and people to game with. - Not to mention shopping, online stores hadn't really taken off then and I think even Static Games (the other major store in Glasgow), was still trading out of an indoor market stall.
Compel wrote: Not quite a horror story but, I recently worked out that for at least the past 16 years, I have never had a positive experience playing a game with a Games Workshop staffmember.
Why? What's been happening? When I used to play customers it was always a good laugh for both.
on subject of cheating/bad sportsmanship at GW I cheated some kids at a GW once by not realising characters lost the precision shot rule in 7th (they did have it in 6th, right?).
AndrewGPaul wrote: Money? I think you're misunderstanding the nature of the event.
I generally assume that tournaments have an entry fee.
Yes, if it was something like the official national tournaments they used to run, but I think calling in-store events at a GW store "tournaments" is stretching it. They were just something the staff put together for a laugh, really.
I once took part in a Necromunda "tournament", where the winner was decided on the increase in gang rating after four games. I won handily because I rolled up three (!) Archeotech Hoards (Honestly! I did it in front of everyone. I've never had such a good set of territories before or since.) and ransacked them after the third game; 18D6 x 10 credits, and spent the lot on all the extra equipment I could get my hands on.
To be generous to the staff in Compel's post, I think they were going for a heroic end, rather than Faramir winning because he picked on mooks like a chump. I'd have been fine with that, but I agree if you protested it was against the rules, they should have done it right.
Compel wrote: Not quite a horror story but, I recently worked out that for at least the past 16 years, I have never had a positive experience playing a game with a Games Workshop staffmember.
Why? What's been happening? When I used to play customers it was always a good laugh for both.
on subject of cheating/bad sportsmanship at GW I cheated some kids at a GW once by not realising characters lost the precision shot rule in 7th (they did have it in 6th, right?).
I think there's a difference of intent between maliciously cheating, and having edition amnesia (as us older gamers often have after playing so many editions of the game).
master of ordinance wrote: I think Paulson wins this thread unless a certain Dakkanought who's store tried to kill them turns up.....
Someone speaks the devil's name!?
Over the corse of nearly 5 years working for the local GW store, of which 2 of those years were during major mall renovations/expansion, I got to deal with A Lot! (and yes, it's true, our store indeed tried repeatedly to kill us all)
While God throwing a lightning bolt at us was a little disconcerting, (and which was my fault apparently...), our greatest nightmare was this one customer whom we coined 'Grossie'.
Just to give you an idea of how truly awful this individual was, think of every filthy, unhygienic, grotesque, Nurgle'fied stereotype that there is about larger-sized, geeky, socially awkward neckbeards...
Now apply those tropes to a female. (minus the actual beard, but slightly visible mustache)
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
Compel wrote: Two incidents come to mind immediately about my experiences.
One (in fact, one of the incidents that convinced me to drop GW and 40k entirely), was a game with a GW staffmember a few years ago, whenever 6th edition was. His army?
Kairos Fateweaver
Bloodthirster
2 squads of pink horrors
Warpgate (aka Spawner of infinite demons)
2 flying demon princes
1 ground demon prince
I didn't kill a single model, I got tabled.
Another, 12 years ago, was playing in GW Glasgow in a LOTR tournament. I'd won every game, final match against a GW staffmember (there was an odd number of players), I was on course to win the tournament. The staffmember was playing as a player, with someone else as the adjudicator (supposedly).
We were playing a 'headhunter' mission - so, there were a whole bunch of extra points for killing the enemy general. - I had almost tabled the other force (therefore in a position to win), except for the enemy general was still alive (The Witch King, maybe...)
Their general charged Faramir (my General), who had already charged a random orc on the final turn.
I had planned for that, however, and then counter charged the Witch King with a Fountain Court Guard (the toughest to kill infantry model in the game at the time).
So, LOTR, had a fundamental rule that, there can never be a "multiple on multiple" combat, every single combat must be split to either 2 V 1, or groups of 1v1. This was a fundamental concept of the game.
Doing this move, meant that The Witch King (who had good odds on killing Faramir), had to fight the Fountain Court Guard instead of Faramir, whereas Faramir had to fight the random orc. - As the Court Guard wasn't in base contact with the orc.
Naturally, doing so would pretty much guarantee me the victory in the game (and therefore the tournament).
Except, the staffmember playing the game said. "Nope, not happening." Then the "Adjudicator" said, "he's the store expert, he's right" - despite all my (very calm, polite, yet firm) attempts to demonstrate with the rulebook otherwise.
I then got threatened with not only getting kicked out of the tournament, but being banned from the store for disagreeing with staff.
So, yeah... Faramir died, I lost the game, therefore the tournament (the first gaming tournament I ever took part in).
As you can guess, I'm still bitter about it. Which is kinda sad, considering, well, 12 years ago... but yeah, I never claimed to be a fully adjusted human being.
Fair enough. In fairness my worst games were against my manager. He claimed he only takes models he likes (he seemed to only like optimal build/net list models though). I had only just gotten back into 40k, and had bought a fairly tame Gk army, and when 7th ed came out an unbound list of pure kans and dreds. He'd go on about how he always beat me, but use old rules that no longer applied, optimised lists against casual lists, and get very arsy if he ever lost a model (I nearly packed up when he kept shouting 'but what about look out sir?' when a mind strike missile hit his jetbike riding warlock and farseer, and he had to take perils tests).
Boggy Man wrote: Most of the available buildings around here are old mills and houses over 100 years old. One of the games I had was with a cute girl who really seemed to like me. I asked for her phone number but she didn't know what a phone was. It turns out she was a ghost the whole time.
Matthew wrote: You know what I hate? People who can't respect that you're playing. Seriously, I know my codex, I don't need your help. What is up with people coming up and telling me what to shoot at/assault? They even go as far as to move my models for me![/quote
I'm still not sure if anyone knows their post has been exalted but I wish to +1, no +5, +800000!
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
You Sir, owe me a new keyboard. This one has chunks of half-digested breakfast all in it.
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff... Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
I'm also having flashbacks of you posting about this so-called store of the damned... Something about getting all the little 'uns to shout blood for the blood god really loud to annoy some religious bods as well as getting complaints from the mall management about being a bit too boisterous!??
You know the shouting is hilarious. The red shirts have indoctrinated everyone from 8 to 40-year olds to scream WAAAGH!/BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!/I AM THE END, FEAR ME/DEATH! DEAAAATH! Everytime you roll a dice. I love my FLGS.
I guess our 'Grossie' would be our GW equivalent to the fabled Cat Pee Man...
My first manager would end up either hiding in the back stock room for 2-3 hours, or else wind up finding some "paperwork" to do down at the food court for a couple hours and leave me to try and contain in million or so highly inappropriate moments.
The second manager I worked under would tend to find time to do the weekly bank run, and/or take another staff member (if three of us were on shift) for a very prolonged lunch/smoke break, again leaving me to deal.
Our final manager was also a stand-up insult comic, so things would at least end hilariously!
I was effectively 'voluntold' into dealing with this customer (who almost never bought anything, but loved using all the store's supplies of course!), simply because I was the only person who could keep their lunch/breakfast down while breathing in 2-3+ hours of this individual's rather Nurgle'fied musk...
In the summer there were days so bad I could smell them coming from 10-12 feet away from the front of our store.
Luckily years and years of minor hockey, mostly spent on highly competitive girls teams have all but rendered me immune to body funk. Even 'Grossie' is as nothing compared to goalie equipment that hadn't been aired out - let alone washed in 4+ years! (Cat Pee Hockey Girl I guess?!)
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
I'm also having flashbacks of you posting about this so-called store of the damned... Something about getting all the little 'uns to shout blood for the blood god really loud to annoy some religious bods as well as getting complaints from the mall management about being a bit too boisterous!??
I'll admit we fully enjoyed Mega Battle Sunday's and annoying the living crap out of the miserable old so-and-so's from the Edition Elle store across the hall. Never had a whole religious group to deal with though. (just the odd crazy parent blasting us for mentioning "magic" in an intro game)
We got a complain from the other end of our mall - 1.3km away! The day I threatened to eat the entire cake during the 5th ed launch events, because the barely audible excuse of a Waaagh! maybe three people attempted would've been drowned out by the purring of 1 kitten.
We did at least confirm however that the Power of the WAAAAGH! can destroy nearby walkie-talkie reception!
AndrewGPaul wrote: I don't remember the Glasgow staff being that bad, although 12 years ago was in the period where I didn't go near the place. Was that still at the top of Hope Street, or had it moved down to Central Station by that point?
Christ, I remember the Glasgow store - that was when I first stumbled across 40k (via Space Crusade), back in 1991. Skinny little 13 year old kid with a Home Counties accent. I suppose my only horror story is that they never understood what I was asking, and I never understood their answers
That'd be when I got into GW games (my first White Dwarf was issue 130), although I didn't go into the store until a few years later. There's a Clydesdale Bank on the site now.
I still see the shop manager from that period at wargames shows, although he's distanced himself from all that sci-fi nonsense now.
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
Experiment 626 wrote:@SlaveToDarkness: I'm sorry.
I guess our 'Grossie' would be our GW equivalent to the fabled Cat Pee Man...
My first manager would end up either hiding in the back stock room for 2-3 hours, or else wind up finding some "paperwork" to do down at the food court for a couple hours and leave me to try and contain in million or so highly inappropriate moments.
The second manager I worked under would tend to find time to do the weekly bank run, and/or take another staff member (if three of us were on shift) for a very prolonged lunch/smoke break, again leaving me to deal.
Our final manager was also a stand-up insult comic, so things would at least end hilariously!
I was effectively 'voluntold' into dealing with this customer (who almost never bought anything, but loved using all the store's supplies of course!), simply because I was the only person who could keep their lunch/breakfast down while breathing in 2-3+ hours of this individual's rather Nurgle'fied musk...
In the summer there were days so bad I could smell them coming from 10-12 feet away from the front of our store.
Luckily years and years of minor hockey, mostly spent on highly competitive girls teams have all but rendered me immune to body funk. Even 'Grossie' is as nothing compared to goalie equipment that hadn't been aired out - let alone washed in 4+ years! (Cat Pee Hockey Girl I guess?!)
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
I'm also having flashbacks of you posting about this so-called store of the damned... Something about getting all the little 'uns to shout blood for the blood god really loud to annoy some religious bods as well as getting complaints from the mall management about being a bit too boisterous!??
I'll admit we fully enjoyed Mega Battle Sunday's and annoying the living crap out of the miserable old so-and-so's from the Edition Elle store across the hall. Never had a whole religious group to deal with though. (just the odd crazy parent blasting us for mentioning "magic" in an intro game)
We got a complain from the other end of our mall - 1.3km away! The day I threatened to eat the entire cake during the 5th ed launch events, because the barely audible excuse of a Waaagh! maybe three people attempted would've been drowned out by the purring of 1 kitten.
We did at least confirm however that the Power of the WAAAAGH! can destroy nearby walkie-talkie reception!
Aah, now these are the better stories (and by that I mean the ones that do not leave images of someone whom resembles a certain member of my Princes trust team but on a significantly larger scale and waving a dildo around - sweet feth there goes my sex drive for the week or so). In particular I remember the one about the toxic solvent that meant the entire mall had to be evacuated.
Or the one which left you and some others literally holding a wall up whilst someone fetched help.
Or the one were the store flooded.
......
Hell, does anyone have a link to the big post Experiment did in another of these threads a few years back?
(And Experiment 626, I have to extract your stories some time and put them in an article. Or you should do that. Or someone else. They are amazing )
Back about 12-13 years ago, I used to work part-time at a game store in Nashville, TN. The store owner was a really nice guy and he ended up hiring one of the locals that hung out there ALL THE TIME as the general manager. The guy was the general manager before I started working there.
The general manager was the reason I finally quit, because he was extremely immature (roughly same ages - early 30s), insulting and demeaning to people. The owner understood my explanation completely.
Flash forward to a Friday morning a couple of months after I left, I was walking into my main job and my wife called me asking if I caught the news before I left for work that morning. I had not. Turns out, the general manager was busted as a pedophile the night before. The store ran Youngblood Thursdays, IIRC. The general manager was using it to get close to young boys.
My own perception at the time was that he was actually trying to use it to get close to the mom. The manager was, as indicated earlier, immature, so it wasn't a surprised that he didn't have friends our age. And looking back on it, hindsight is 20/20 and you say "Why didn't I realize that?" He was extremely verbally homophobic, but that appears to have been a smoke screen.
I was still in his cell phone contact list, so I got a call from the detective investigating the allegations. Again, I wish I had considered that was happening, but I was shocked. When questioned, I gave the honest answer that we thought he was emotionally undeveloped so that's why he was hanging around with the kid. We also thought he was trying to smooth in on a single mother that way.
IIRC, he ended up with 300+ years of contiguous sentencing.
The game store is still around. It's kind of amazing it survived that, but they managed to make it through. I haven't been there much since I quit, but I don't think the owner hires employees anymore.
AndrewGPaul wrote: That'd be when I got into GW games (my first White Dwarf was issue 130), although I didn't go into the store until a few years later. There's a Clydesdale Bank on the site now.
I still see the shop manager from that period at wargames shows, although he's distanced himself from all that sci-fi nonsense now.
138 was mine- odds are we probably crossed paths at some point
Imaginos wrote: Back about 12-13 years ago, I used to work part-time at a game store in Nashville, TN. The store owner was a really nice guy and he ended up hiring one of the locals that hung out there ALL THE TIME as the general manager. The guy was the general manager before I started working there.
The general manager was the reason I finally quit, because he was extremely immature (roughly same ages - early 30s), insulting and demeaning to people. The owner understood my explanation completely.
Flash forward to a Friday morning a couple of months after I left, I was walking into my main job and my wife called me asking if I caught the news before I left for work that morning. I had not. Turns out, the general manager was busted as a pedophile the night before. The store ran Youngblood Thursdays, IIRC. The general manager was using it to get close to young boys.
My own perception at the time was that he was actually trying to use it to get close to the mom. The manager was, as indicated earlier, immature, so it wasn't a surprised that he didn't have friends our age. And looking back on it, hindsight is 20/20 and you say "Why didn't I realize that?" He was extremely verbally homophobic, but that appears to have been a smoke screen.
I was still in his cell phone contact list, so I got a call from the detective investigating the allegations. Again, I wish I had considered that was happening, but I was shocked. When questioned, I gave the honest answer that we thought he was emotionally undeveloped so that's why he was hanging around with the kid. We also thought he was trying to smooth in on a single mother that way.
IIRC, he ended up with 300+ years of contiguous sentencing.
The game store is still around. It's kind of amazing it survived that, but they managed to make it through. I haven't been there much since I quit, but I don't think the owner hires employees anymore.
Imaginos wrote: Back about 12-13 years ago, I used to work part-time at a game store in Nashville, TN. The store owner was a really nice guy and he ended up hiring one of the locals that hung out there ALL THE TIME as the general manager. The guy was the general manager before I started working there.
The general manager was the reason I finally quit, because he was extremely immature (roughly same ages - early 30s), insulting and demeaning to people. The owner understood my explanation completely.
Flash forward to a Friday morning a couple of months after I left, I was walking into my main job and my wife called me asking if I caught the news before I left for work that morning. I had not. Turns out, the general manager was busted as a pedophile the night before. The store ran Youngblood Thursdays, IIRC. The general manager was using it to get close to young boys.
My own perception at the time was that he was actually trying to use it to get close to the mom. The manager was, as indicated earlier, immature, so it wasn't a surprised that he didn't have friends our age. And looking back on it, hindsight is 20/20 and you say "Why didn't I realize that?" He was extremely verbally homophobic, but that appears to have been a smoke screen.
I was still in his cell phone contact list, so I got a call from the detective investigating the allegations. Again, I wish I had considered that was happening, but I was shocked. When questioned, I gave the honest answer that we thought he was emotionally undeveloped so that's why he was hanging around with the kid. We also thought he was trying to smooth in on a single mother that way.
IIRC, he ended up with 300+ years of contiguous sentencing.
The game store is still around. It's kind of amazing it survived that, but they managed to make it through. I haven't been there much since I quit, but I don't think the owner hires employees anymore.
The worst part (for the store at least) was that the guy skipped bail and was on the lamb for a few months after his hearing, got captured, then had a trial and was sentenced. At each of those points the news had the storefront plastered all over the place so even more bad press. The store is definitely lucky to have survived it all.
It's a shame too, because the guy really helped the business grow and was always running tournies and events and building up a player base. We'd have up to 24 people in the back game room on game nights at that time. Now it's like 5. Of course the sad state of 40k is what really killed it for me. Besides the pedo tendencies he was a dream employee! (Not defending him in any way shape or form, a good friend of mine was one of his victims.)
cuda1179 wrote: I thought the first arm was an accident. The second one was surely on purpose. In general I have huge veins that are extremely easy to poke, or so I've been told.
The worst part of the ordeal was that they refused to compensate me for anything because I couldn't donate anything do to having two messed-up arms.
I am so glad I don't give blood
Not that they pay you for it in Canada, so I really have no reason to.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
JohnHwangDD wrote: "neither"? I think you're forgetting about Betrayal at Calth, Execution Force, and Deathwatch : Overkill at a minimum.
I don't know what any of those are, I left the GW loop when AoS came out and I have no real idea what those are.
I play Kings of War now.
I also am checking out that 9th age thingie, had a game of that, it's pretty good!
Got to return to my old flgs haunt. Everytime I go there I feel like I am in the 80s or something.
It's like a time capsule.
AndrewGPaul wrote: That'd be when I got into GW games (my first White Dwarf was issue 130), although I didn't go into the store until a few years later. There's a Clydesdale Bank on the site now.
I still see the shop manager from that period at wargames shows, although he's distanced himself from all that sci-fi nonsense now.
138 was mine- odds are we probably crossed paths at some point
Probably; the Thursday late opening nights were my gaming venue until the shop moved to the top end of Hope Street. Did you ever attend the club they used to run on Saturday afternoons, down in the basement stockroom? I'm surprised they never got shut down for H&S violations.
JohnHwangDD wrote: "neither"? I think you're forgetting about Betrayal at Calth, Execution Force, and Deathwatch : Overkill at a minimum.
Those are Specialist board games, separate to the core Warhammer and Age of Sigmar lines. Its disingenuous to point to them as evidence that the core games are good.
JohnHwangDD wrote: They are GW games with miniatures that are designed compatible with GW's primary game. It is dishonest and inaccurate to pretend they don't exist.
Nobody is pretending that they don't exist. Going back to the original comment, Rainbow dash was quite clearly referring to GW's two core Wargames - their two flagship products - not to all the minor spin off specialist board games.
I'm contesting that the existence of a few good quality, well written spin off board games in some way compensates for the design flaws of the core Warhammer 40,000 system. They are seperate and distinct rule sets. Yes, the miniaturesare compatible with 40K, yes, some data slates have been written to allow players to use them in games of 40K. But they do not in anyway compensate for the design flaws of 40K. You cannot point to a board game and say "this game is well designed, therefore 40K is also well designed".
I can enjoy a game of Deathwatch, or Space Hulk, whilst simultaneously disliking the Warhammer 40,000. They are separate games.
That is an inference that you are adding. Rainbow Dash posted in such a way that it implied GW only had a sum total of 2 games. I simply noted that there were more than 2. I didn't get into quality at all - that's another inference that you are adding.
Imaginos wrote: Back about 12-13 years ago, I used to work part-time at a game store in Nashville, TN. The store owner was a really nice guy and he ended up hiring one of the locals that hung out there ALL THE TIME as the general manager. The guy was the general manager before I started working there.
The general manager was the reason I finally quit, because he was extremely immature (roughly same ages - early 30s), insulting and demeaning to people. The owner understood my explanation completely.
Flash forward to a Friday morning a couple of months after I left, I was walking into my main job and my wife called me asking if I caught the news before I left for work that morning. I had not. Turns out, the general manager was busted as a pedophile the night before. The store ran Youngblood Thursdays, IIRC. The general manager was using it to get close to young boys.
My own perception at the time was that he was actually trying to use it to get close to the mom. The manager was, as indicated earlier, immature, so it wasn't a surprised that he didn't have friends our age. And looking back on it, hindsight is 20/20 and you say "Why didn't I realize that?" He was extremely verbally homophobic, but that appears to have been a smoke screen.
I was still in his cell phone contact list, so I got a call from the detective investigating the allegations. Again, I wish I had considered that was happening, but I was shocked. When questioned, I gave the honest answer that we thought he was emotionally undeveloped so that's why he was hanging around with the kid. We also thought he was trying to smooth in on a single mother that way.
IIRC, he ended up with 300+ years of contiguous sentencing.
The game store is still around. It's kind of amazing it survived that, but they managed to make it through. I haven't been there much since I quit, but I don't think the owner hires employees anymore.
Jesus wept. See, my stories are funny because everyone walked away. Even if it was mildly disturbing.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me fear for having children.
Though I'm actually surprised it's not more commonly reported.
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
This gives me flashbacks of a recent event when I worked the night audit shift. I am a hotel front desk clerk. I had this woman similar to the one you described here come up to the front desk to ask to "borrow some batteries for the night" for her quite large vibrator that looked and smelled like it had never been cleaned. Though I am not sure what smelled worse. Her or the vibrator. I do know it was still a little shiny and was dripping stuff as she waved it around talking to me. At one point she was rolling it on the counter-top. She thought she was being sexy, but I just wanted to throw up. Finally had to ask her to go back to bed so I could "Finish the Night Audit reports and procedures". We ran out of bleach and lysol that evening, and the room she stayed in was out of order for three days. This is related to gaming because among her bags when she checked out early was a Battlefoam pack bag. I did not bring up that I was a 40k player.
I'm kinda surprised that nobody beat the guy to death. As the store manager, he's probably closing the shop alone, late at night. It wouldn't have been hard for an aggreviated parent to come up behind him with a lead pipe...
Still, as long as he's outed as a pedophile in prison, I think it'd work out.
NorseSig wrote: This is related to gaming because among her bags when she checked out early was a Battlefoam pack bag. I did not bring up that I was a 40k player.
Just to make the story that much worse, it could be that that's how she transported the object you had the misfortune of seeing
JohnHwangDD wrote: They are GW games with miniatures that are designed compatible with GW's primary game. It is dishonest and inaccurate to pretend they don't exist.
Nobody is pretending that they don't exist. Going back to the original comment, Rainbow dash was quite clearly referring to GW's two core Wargames - their two flagship products - not to all the minor spin off specialist board games.
I'm contesting that the existence of a few good quality, well written spin off board games in some way compensates for the design flaws of the core Warhammer 40,000 system. They are seperate and distinct rule sets. Yes, the miniaturesare compatible with 40K, yes, some data slates have been written to allow players to use them in games of 40K. But they do not in anyway compensate for the design flaws of 40K. You cannot point to a board game and say "this game is well designed, therefore 40K is also well designed".
I can enjoy a game of Deathwatch, or Space Hulk, whilst simultaneously disliking the Warhammer 40,000. They are separate games.
Yeah I adore Dreadfleet and Blood Bowl, but neither make 40k or AoS any better...
Imaginos wrote: Back about 12-13 years ago, I used to work part-time at a game store in Nashville, TN. The store owner was a really nice guy and he ended up hiring one of the locals that hung out there ALL THE TIME as the general manager. The guy was the general manager before I started working there.
The general manager was the reason I finally quit, because he was extremely immature (roughly same ages - early 30s), insulting and demeaning to people. The owner understood my explanation completely.
Flash forward to a Friday morning a couple of months after I left, I was walking into my main job and my wife called me asking if I caught the news before I left for work that morning. I had not. Turns out, the general manager was busted as a pedophile the night before. The store ran Youngblood Thursdays, IIRC. The general manager was using it to get close to young boys.
My own perception at the time was that he was actually trying to use it to get close to the mom. The manager was, as indicated earlier, immature, so it wasn't a surprised that he didn't have friends our age. And looking back on it, hindsight is 20/20 and you say "Why didn't I realize that?" He was extremely verbally homophobic, but that appears to have been a smoke screen.
I was still in his cell phone contact list, so I got a call from the detective investigating the allegations. Again, I wish I had considered that was happening, but I was shocked. When questioned, I gave the honest answer that we thought he was emotionally undeveloped so that's why he was hanging around with the kid. We also thought he was trying to smooth in on a single mother that way.
IIRC, he ended up with 300+ years of contiguous sentencing.
The game store is still around. It's kind of amazing it survived that, but they managed to make it through. I haven't been there much since I quit, but I don't think the owner hires employees anymore.
Jesus wept. See, my stories are funny because everyone walked away. Even if it was mildly disturbing.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me fear for having children.
Though I'm actually surprised it's not more commonly reported.
I see why you would think that, coming from the UK. I imagine Europe in general has a better infrastructure for these things. In America, they get media coverage, but that's about it.
JohnHwangDD wrote: That is an inference that you are adding. Rainbow Dash posted in such a way that it implied GW only had a sum total of 2 games. I simply noted that there were more than 2. I didn't get into quality at all - that's another inference that you are adding.
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
This gives me flashbacks of a recent event when I worked the night audit shift. I am a hotel front desk clerk. I had this woman similar to the one you described here come up to the front desk to ask to "borrow some batteries for the night" for her quite large vibrator that looked and smelled like it had never been cleaned. Though I am not sure what smelled worse. Her or the vibrator. I do know it was still a little shiny and was dripping stuff as she waved it around talking to me. At one point she was rolling it on the counter-top. She thought she was being sexy, but I just wanted to throw up. Finally had to ask her to go back to bed so I could "Finish the Night Audit reports and procedures". We ran out of bleach and lysol that evening, and the room she stayed in was out of order for three days. This is related to gaming because among her bags when she checked out early was a Battlefoam pack bag. I did not bring up that I was a 40k player.
I would've likely used a flame thrower at that point...
I just don't get why it seems that geeky/nerdy, fantasy/sci-fantasy style hobbies seem to attract such repulsive individuals.
Hell, there was the one time I volunteered to help work at the painting station at a local LotR convention where GW had most of an entire room...
The coolest part was getting dragged off by Craig Parker (Haldir!) to join in a reading the he and a couple of the other actors were doing - I voiced Gollum.
The worst part was the themed Medieval Times event, which had a costume contest prior to the tournament/dinner part, and we were all left retching and clawing our eyes out as a 300+lbs Elf 'Belly Dancer' took the stage. (the convulsing masses of liquid flesh - even Slaanesh would have run screaming for the nearest exit!)
Note: I apologise right now to every member who suddenly finds that their "fun" side of life no longer has any drive for the next 3 weeks.
To be honest, I don't think that geeky hobbies do, particularly - I think it's something that geeks/nerds end up letting ourselves get beat up over.
I think every hobby and interest has their share of terrible people partaking in them. - There's some big news in the UK today about a footballer (presumably a major-ish one), being arrested for allegedly doing much the same thing as in that post.
Maybe it's more because geeky hobbies tend to be a little more introspective, or maybe it's because they still have the 'weird' label by the old fashioned types, that more attention is drawn to when the terrible people become more visible in geeky communities.
Haven't been in the game that long so I don't have any real horror stories, per-say, but there was this one time a guy dropped a can of black primer and it hit a stool in just the right way to rupture the can. Paint exploded everywhere and the guy literally picked up the can and ran out of the store with it. When he came back inside his hands were completely black. Some people had to go outside because they were getting light-headed from the fumes. Thankfully nobody's models were hurt.
Oh, and we were okay, too. But we were honestly less concerned with our own well-being as much as our models.
Vitali Advenil wrote: Oh, and we were okay, too. But we were honestly less concerned with our own well-being as much as our models.
Sounds like my attitude. If my apartment were on fire, I'd probably put high priority on saving my 40k minis, even before clothes, my computer, etc., even at the risk of my own body being horribly burned.
Vitali Advenil wrote: Oh, and we were okay, too. But we were honestly less concerned with our own well-being as much as our models.
Sounds like my attitude. If my apartment were on fire, I'd probably put high priority on saving my 40k minis, even before clothes, my computer, etc., even at the risk of my own body being horribly burned.
As expensive as these minis are, it is entirely legitimate to want to save them first. It's also a lot harder for fire insurance to accurately cover them, much easier to replace a computer
Not a horror story more a "This is why people think we are wierd" story.
A couple o f years ago before my "new" job situation. I visited my local GW at least once every month during work breaks. Thier store was very close to the toy store I work in.
Had lots of little building projects going and was browsing the shelves for Eldar/Dark Eldar kits for parts.
The first thing I noticed was the smell as in a I have not washed for a couple of days and don't know what deoderant is smell. Than the looming shadow besides me.
I assume that the guy want's to browse the same section as me so I think nothing of it at first. Than the first thing that come's from his mouth is this sentence:
"You should get the Dark Eldar witch set. All of the woman in there got double D tits. Thats why I get them." No greeting or nothing. He just walked up to me and says that a complete stranger. I have met socially awkward people before, but none this blatant as this guy.
Luckily I found the box I wanted, rang it up and left before I had to start a conversation with him.
This is why we cant have nice things.
The reason I don't give people my Facebook profile unless I trust them (forgot this one):
Added a guy I played a pick up game of Clix with, and he'd then message me once a day or so, clearly very lonely. He was sole carer for a family member, so online talk was his only outlet.
Then it was a few times a day. Then almost hourly. Then constantly. He kept track of my location on the messenger GPS thing. If I got up at night to piss and caught my phone, he obviously had my name on the sidebar, and would start up. I generally just replied when I was awake and gave a feth.
He stopped asking for games and started asking for unnecessarily detailed dating advice ("This girl I like keeps doing crack, wat do??")
One day I wasn't replying fast enough (okay, at all), so he started sending cat .gifs
"Sorry mate, I'm on the train, catch you later" - me
"[Large sequence of gifs of a crying young woman being mastubated onto]" - him
"No."
"gak gak gak I didn't mean to!!!!!"
"Yeah I'm blocking you now."
Buttery Commissar wrote: The reason I don't give people my Facebook profile unless I trust them (forgot this one):
Added a guy I played a pick up game of Clix with, and he'd then message me once a day or so, clearly very lonely. He was sole carer for a family member, so online talk was his only outlet.
Then it was a few times a day. Then almost hourly. Then constantly. He kept track of my location on the messenger GPS thing. If I got up at night to piss and caught my phone, he obviously had my name on the sidebar, and would start up. I generally just replied when I was awake and gave a feth.
He stopped asking for games and started asking for unnecessarily detailed dating advice ("This girl I like keeps doing crack, wat do??")
One day I wasn't replying fast enough (okay, at all), so he started sending cat .gifs
"Sorry mate, I'm on the train, catch you later" - me
"[Large sequence of gifs of a crying young woman being mastubated onto]" - him
"No."
"gak gak gak I didn't mean to!!!!!"
"Yeah I'm blocking you now."
See, I can be taught.
your life could be a sitcom. You really need a close mate who'd watch out for you and vet your acquaintances - "Right, don't add him. He'll be camping out on your lawn within a week".
To clarify, the content was neither here nor there; whatever lights your candle. My concern was more that he thought it was appropriate to share with me randomly.
No "Hey, you like Slaanesh..."
Just bam, right in there with the inner contents of his spank bank and no comment until I objected.
Maybe this is how the younger generation flirt? I'm not very contemporary.
I don't have any real horror horror stories, but I have plenty of interactions with the utterly socially inept. Here are some of my favourites.
So, I'm just casually browsing the 40k shelves, looking for that box of Ork Boyz I'm sure I saw the other day (The boxes at my store are arranged in no way on the shelves, so you have to dig around to find the stuff you want). When suddenly, this huge, greasy, 'I don't know what deodorant is' guy shows up next to me and just says "Hey man, what are you looking for?", pretty normal question for an employee and heck, even not so bad for some random guy. So I tell him I'm looking for some Orks, and then he says "Don't you play Eldar?", okay so maybe he's seen me around before and knows about my massive amounts of Elves, not so bad and it's just hobby talk. Then he asks he asks for my phone number, I politely declined. Then he asked for my address. not my email address, my where I live and sleep address. I just had to leave then.
Same guy, some two or three months later sent me a text. He had asked the store for my phone number, saying he had some of my models or something (which he didn't). I don't blame the store, because they deal with a lot of the community and they had no reason to think it was malicious. But I digress, right now I'm kind of freaked out because I never told him my name, but managed to get my number. At the time I was 15 and I was genuinely worried, so I told him not to contact me. Have since had him stare at me creepily. However he is now not allowed back anymore because everyone had serious complaints about him (including the lovely individual in my next paragraph of rambling).
Once just playing a game at one of the tables with a buddy of mine, and then he makes a joke about how his Chaos Marines have no moral issues with killing my 'civilian' Eldar Guardians. Weird short dude who appeared from nowhere suddenly makes a comment about killing children in Skyrim, so that was kind of weird. Then he starts to shout to the whole shop this random rant about not being able to kill children and the mods that let you and all sorts of weird stuff. He also has a tendency to join other people's conversations entirely unsolicited to make his strange comments and then just doesn't leave. Kind of creepy.
Here's my contribution, I hope you cringed sufficiently.
Same guy, some two or three months later sent me a text. He had asked the store for my phone number, saying he had some of my models or something (which he didn't). I don't blame the store, because they deal with a lot of the community and they had no reason to think it was malicious.
I'd have gone fething spare. They had no business at all handing out your personal details. Fethwits (edited, because swearfilter let that one through!)
Same guy, some two or three months later sent me a text. He had asked the store for my phone number, saying he had some of my models or something (which he didn't). I don't blame the store, because they deal with a lot of the community and they had no reason to think it was malicious.
I'd have gone fething spare. They had no business at all handing out your personal details. Fethwits (edited, because swearfilter let that one through!).
Well, I've done a lot of trading and bartering in the community, so I was used to getting calls from people interested in exchanging models or money or both in either direction. They have since changed the system to something much more functional, so I'm just glad of that.
Compel wrote: To be honest, I don't think that geeky hobbies do, particularly - I think it's something that geeks/nerds end up letting ourselves get beat up over.
I think every hobby and interest has their share of terrible people partaking in them. - There's some big news in the UK today about a footballer (presumably a major-ish one), being arrested for allegedly doing much the same thing as in that post.
Maybe it's more because geeky hobbies tend to be a little more introspective, or maybe it's because they still have the 'weird' label by the old fashioned types, that more attention is drawn to when the terrible people become more visible in geeky communities.
These kinds of people exist everywhere. When you start a thread about 'tell us your hobby horror stories-,' you're going to get the worst of them so if you don't think about it too much, you might go, 'what's wrong with our hobby?!' When the actual answer is, 'nothing.'
If you started a thread, 'tell your worst sports club stories,' you'd see exactly the same stuff. The guy who never washed his kit, the one with no sense of personal space who was always 110% about the game, and you know it's going to be an EPIC story when a post opens, 'the home team just lost to their big rivals...'
korbenn wrote: Not a horror story more a "This is why people think we are wierd" story.
A couple o f years ago before my "new" job situation. I visited my local GW at least once every month during work breaks. Thier store was very close to the toy store I work in.
Had lots of little building projects going and was browsing the shelves for Eldar/Dark Eldar kits for parts.
The first thing I noticed was the smell as in a I have not washed for a couple of days and don't know what deoderant is smell. Than the looming shadow besides me.
I assume that the guy want's to browse the same section as me so I think nothing of it at first. Than the first thing that come's from his mouth is this sentence:
"You should get the Dark Eldar witch set. All of the woman in there got double D tits. Thats why I get them." No greeting or nothing. He just walked up to me and says that a complete stranger. I have met socially awkward people before, but none this blatant as this guy.
Luckily I found the box I wanted, rang it up and left before I had to start a conversation with him.
This is why we cant have nice things.
This reminds me of the days of the Diaz Daemonettes...
You knew right away the socially inept, 'living in his parent's basement while being a 40'ish year old virgin' guy, as he was the one who had an entire army of the same "triple breast" Daemonettes, led by the 'Booby Keeper.'
These models were literally the closest this guy was ever going to get to feeling up the actual thing in life, beyond screen time with bad pornos. What made it super creepy was just how shiny his Keeper's "goods" were, as it appeared they had been doused in varnish in order to endure his constant fondling for at least 12+ hours/day.
The greasy, unwashed, food stained cloths & neckbeard where bad enough. Being one of the only two females attending the GT that year, and feeling his eyes mentally raping you from the table just two rows behind you was creepy as feth. *shudders*
That was also the last year I played on the Fantasy side of the GT, as I wanted to at least put half the entire gaming hall between us the next year. (and there were more military/ex military guys on the 40k side who would jump to your defense the second Mr.Creeper took a step in your direction!)
korbenn wrote: Not a horror story more a "This is why people think we are wierd" story.
A couple o f years ago before my "new" job situation. I visited my local GW at least once every month during work breaks. Thier store was very close to the toy store I work in.
Had lots of little building projects going and was browsing the shelves for Eldar/Dark Eldar kits for parts.
The first thing I noticed was the smell as in a I have not washed for a couple of days and don't know what deoderant is smell. Than the looming shadow besides me.
I assume that the guy want's to browse the same section as me so I think nothing of it at first. Than the first thing that come's from his mouth is this sentence:
"You should get the Dark Eldar witch set. All of the woman in there got double D tits. Thats why I get them." No greeting or nothing. He just walked up to me and says that a complete stranger. I have met socially awkward people before, but none this blatant as this guy.
Luckily I found the box I wanted, rang it up and left before I had to start a conversation with him.
This is why we cant have nice things.
This reminds me of the days of the Diaz Daemonettes...
You knew right away the socially inept, 'living in his parent's basement while being a 40'ish year old virgin' guy, as he was the one who had an entire army of the same "triple breast" Daemonettes, led by the 'Booby Keeper.'
These models were literally the closest this guy was ever going to get to feeling up the actual thing in life, beyond screen time with bad pornos. What made it super creepy was just how shiny his Keeper's "goods" were, as it appeared they had been doused in varnish in order to endure his constant fondling for at least 12+ hours/day.
The greasy, unwashed, food stained cloths & neckbeard where bad enough. Being one of the only two females attending the GT that year, and feeling his eyes mentally raping you from the table just two rows behind you was creepy as feth. *shudders*
That was also the last year I played on the Fantasy side of the GT, as I wanted to at least put half the entire gaming hall between us the next year. (and there were more military/ex military guys on the 40k side who would jump to your defense the second Mr.Creeper took a step in your direction!)
Edit: spelling durp!
gak, I have heard the stories but I thought that these where just bad stereotypes. Now I am really glad to have never encountered any of these before
I played in a HackMaster tournament at a game store in Houston. I brought my mini case filled with monsters, humans, etc to use for myself and friends, and also offer to the GM. A guy not playing in the event saw the minis and asked to see some. I was concentrating on the game, but I pulled a few out.
"No, do you have any females?"
"Maybe. Here's a female elven archer."
"Do you have any nude ones?"
That's when I noticed he was rubbing his hand in his pocket whlie looking at my elven archer. Total creeper guy.
"No, dude. I'm in the middle of a tournament. Step off." I put away my minis and the case. He walked away.
Later, I found out the guy was a regular at the store and asked for X-rated comics and gak all of the time. I heard later that he was arrested for molesting some kid. fething weirdos out there, man.
Downloaded the Old Boston Radio mod. Now I'm sat in my Sanctuary Hills house listening to Twilight Zone radio stories whilst it rains buckets outside. Meanwhile in the real world I'm also painting a raider Warlord miniature for a Fallout wargame whilst it rains buckets outside my bedroom window.
As bad as the 'creepy-rapey geek guy' is, I'd still honestly rather deal with him & his eye raping than the horridness of some of the crap I've been through in women's hockey...
Nothing worse than fighting for a puck in the corner, and the lesbian with a noticeable mustache gives you a little feel. (and no, I don't get it either, since the equipment pretty much hides everything anyways.)
Experiment 626 wrote: As bad as the 'creepy-rapey geek guy' is, I'd still honestly rather deal with him & his eye raping than the horridness of some of the crap I've been through in women's hockey...
Nothing worse than fighting for a puck in the corner, and the lesbian with a noticeable mustache gives you a little feel. (and no, I don't get it either, since the equipment pretty much hides everything anyways.)
As opposed to wrestling? Where it's not uncommon for one guy to "check the oil" or cup the "package" of another? I swear, the stories I hear about wrestling...
Experiment 626 wrote: As bad as the 'creepy-rapey geek guy' is, I'd still honestly rather deal with him & his eye raping than the horridness of some of the crap I've been through in women's hockey...
Nothing worse than fighting for a puck in the corner, and the lesbian with a noticeable mustache gives you a little feel. (and no, I don't get it either, since the equipment pretty much hides everything anyways.)
As opposed to wrestling? Where it's not uncommon for one guy to "check the oil" or cup the "package" of another? I swear, the stories I hear about wrestling...
Speaking of getting an exam from strangers: it's GenCon story time!
My buddy and I were walking around in costumes, taking pictures of chicks in their costumes. There was this one girl wearing a Hooters outfit, complete with short orange shorts that I wanted a picture with. Her older friend (mom?) that I hadn't noticed, asked to be in the picture too. She was in her 50s and wearing a pirate outfit. I said sure! Right as my buddy is taking the picture, I feel a hand on my back, slide down to my rear, and then up and under to cop a feel of the boys. Old lady wanted to see what Mr. Kronkington was carrying, I guess.
I grabbed a handful of both asses in return before I walked off.
Experiment 626 wrote: As bad as the 'creepy-rapey geek guy' is, I'd still honestly rather deal with him & his eye raping than the horridness of some of the crap I've been through in women's hockey...
Nothing worse than fighting for a puck in the corner, and the lesbian with a noticeable mustache gives you a little feel. (and no, I don't get it either, since the equipment pretty much hides everything anyways.)
As opposed to wrestling? Where it's not uncommon for one guy to "check the oil" or cup the "package" of another? I swear, the stories I hear about wrestling...
Speaking of getting an exam from strangers: it's GenCon story time!
My buddy and I were walking around in costumes, taking pictures of chicks in their costumes. There was this one girl wearing a Hooters outfit, complete with short orange shorts that I wanted a picture with. Her older friend (mom?) that I hadn't noticed, asked to be in the picture too. She was in her 50s and wearing a pirate outfit. I said sure! Right as my buddy is taking the picture, I feel a hand on my back, slide down to my rear, and then up and under to cop a feel of the boys. Old lady wanted to see what Mr. Kronkington was carrying, I guess.
I grabbed a handful of both asses in return before I walked off.
Fun times!
Thus reminds me of one of those "weird but actually quite sweet" moments, from gencon before it was dissolved here.
The company I was working fir had a rep come over from Germany, age probably 50 or so, and she was as far as I can tell, not a gamer. She was absolutely insane.
There was a costume party (the one I mentioned earlier that went south), and everyone else was a super hero.
She hadn't been told that it was a themed party, so she came as a witch, with long wig and hat, dress and broom. Which was really cute. But when she heard it was a themed party, she said, 'Then I will be the miniatures witch! I have shrunk you all and turned you into miniatures!'
She then gathered heroclix figures of all the people she could find in hero costume, and attached them to her wig and hat.
I was the only person she explained this to, all evening. No idea what anyone else thought was happening.
Buttery Commissar wrote: To clarify, the content was neither here nor there; whatever lights your candle. My concern was more that he thought it was appropriate to share with me randomly.
No "Hey, you like Slaanesh..."
Just bam, right in there with the inner contents of his spank bank and no comment until I objected.
Maybe this is how the younger generation flirt? I'm not very contemporary.
Ok, here's the plan.
I'm going to get a team of camera-persons together. We're going to use secret go-pro style cameras. BC is going to wear a wire.
Then, we're going to go to every major gaming convention in England, following BC around and filming everything. We'll do it documentary style.
We'll all be rich. Probably win an Oscar or something.
JohnHwangDD wrote: As opposed to wrestling? Where it's not uncommon for one guy to "check the oil" or cup the "package" of another? I swear, the stories I hear about wrestling...
When you're in a close grapple, sometimes what you grab in the course of securing a hold isn't what you'd prefer to grab. Just the nature of the beast. Complaining about it is like complaining about getting tackled in football. It's part of the game, and if you can't deal with it (being the grabbed or grabber, either or), don't play.
JohnHwangDD wrote: As opposed to wrestling? Where it's not uncommon for one guy to "check the oil" or cup the "package" of another? I swear, the stories I hear about wrestling...
When you're in a close grapple, sometimes what you grab in the course of securing a hold isn't what you'd prefer to grab. Just the nature of the beast. Complaining about it is like complaining about getting tackled in football. It's part of the game, and if you can't deal with it (being the grabbed or grabber, either or), don't play.
You're not one of those people who argues that a blatantly late hit, facemask grab, or collar grab, whatever, is totally a part of the game and banning them is bs, are you?
if you'd ever wrestled, you woud probably have the exprience to know the difference between contact that just happens, so whatever, when grappling, and having to deal with a guy who just keeps going for the junk.
Buttery Commissar wrote: To clarify, the content was neither here nor there; whatever lights your candle. My concern was more that he thought it was appropriate to share with me randomly.
No "Hey, you like Slaanesh..."
Just bam, right in there with the inner contents of his spank bank and no comment until I objected.
Maybe this is how the younger generation flirt? I'm not very contemporary.
Seriously Buttery, I can't even. It's like there's a group of folks around you that are all apart of a club or something with the sole goal of...I don't even fething know. But if I were you I'd go about armed.
Best (or rather worst) was the day this person decided to bring their crystal dildo into the store thinking it would be a hilarious joke for the guys on staff...
Unfortunately, there was a mother with her young son maybe 10 feet away, and then the realisation of where this implement had repeatedly been.
This gives me flashbacks of a recent event when I worked the night audit shift. I am a hotel front desk clerk. I had this woman similar to the one you described here come up to the front desk to ask to "borrow some batteries for the night" for her quite large vibrator that looked and smelled like it had never been cleaned. Though I am not sure what smelled worse. Her or the vibrator. I do know it was still a little shiny and was dripping stuff as she waved it around talking to me. At one point she was rolling it on the counter-top. She thought she was being sexy, but I just wanted to throw up. Finally had to ask her to go back to bed so I could "Finish the Night Audit reports and procedures". We ran out of bleach and lysol that evening, and the room she stayed in was out of order for three days. This is related to gaming because among her bags when she checked out early was a Battlefoam pack bag. I did not bring up that I was a 40k player.
I've been doing Night Audit and Front Desk for about 7 years now. Working all the way from some nicer hotels to the really bad "I don't think we should stay here" motels and I could write three pages on the stuff I've seen, but i'll narrow it down to some of the good ones.
1. I've had to have police escort out a local homeless man that decided to sleep in the lobby bathroom. He snuck in through a side door after a guest didn't close it all the way and must of slipped into the bathroom while i was processing paperwork in the back. It was quite a shock when I open the bathroom to find a man snoring when i went to check it later as part of my rounds. When I asked him if he was ok, He told me that "He was trying to get some sleep hiding from the man that was after him." Someone one that he described was "12 feet tall, never slept and could fly". I told him to wait there to be safe, called the cops and had them deal with him. Whether he was drunk, mentally ill, or still half asleep, I don't do crazy and I didn't feel like trying to reason with a guy that would probably mean a tetanus shot if the conversation went poorly.
2. I've had to deal with a team of very drunk and very frustrating peewee hockey parents and one in particular that I've dubbed, "The Trapmaster". The Trapmaster decided that because he was staying in a place that wasn't his home and had payed a discounted rate because he was part of a group of twenty rooms, that he had a free check to act like the biggest fool. I don't think I saw this man without an open beer in his hand, and I mean that too. This guy had a beer at breakfast at 6AM, and every time I saw him that day forward. Including when he was getting out of his car after his kids game. We don't allow drinking in the lobby, and I enforce that rule. Which of course made me his favorite person. So, he decided one night after all his fellow parents went to bed, that he was going to play a big prank on all of them. I disarmed 16 or so improvised "pranks" which included: putting the outdoor potted plants in front of his fellow parents and other guests room doors. Filling buckets of ice water and leaning them against other doors and walkway doors, so if they're opened, they pour all over the unfortunate opener. Making a pyramid from breakfast lobby chairs, blocking doorways and halls. It seemed every time I'd run into another one of his traps and disarm it, another one would show up elsewhere. I seriously thought it was all the children they were neglecting to watch. You can imagine my surprise when I finally caught him while he was trying to make sure all the pool furniture that was supposed to be outside the pool was instead floating in the pool. I flat out told him to pack his gak and leave or he would be escorted out by cops. He proceeded to wake every parent in his group up and have them confront me in the lobby at 4AM. Not only did they think everything he did was ok, but actively decided I was the aggressor and If I was going to kick him out, I'd have to kick them all out. Which means I had to back down. I don't care how well protected you are, If you kick out 20 rooms at 4AM, you may as well hand in your resignation letter right then.
3. To be sorta on topic, I had a group of MTG players stay with us while they were passing through as part of a tournament. Upfront, they were nice, quiet, and stayed out of trouble. Imagine the surprise we felt when we found the room they stayed in completely destroyed. I've seen self proclaimed rockstars do less damage. Holes in the wall, carpet tore up, a shower rod missing, what we hoped was water damage, a chair nailed to a ceiling, and it invoked an odor like what I would imagine a meat plant smells like. We had to put that room out of order for 2 months to repair fully, and we never got the smell all the way out. Thankfully, with a remodel coming up, It'll be fixed for good. The worse part of it, They had made the reservation through a third party website that refused to help us find them. Sure, we had taken a credit card for incidentals, but we only authorize enough to make sure you can pay for a lamp or something if you break it, not thousands of dollars in remodeling. Needless to say, their credit card didnt pay for much.
4. Probably not the worse, but the most memorable. I've been working in the industry a whole month or two, I'm young, eager, and about 500% less cynical that I am now. I've proven that I can manage the hotel by myself. My boss and hotel owner has an important family dinner he needs to attend and asks me to watch the hotel for him. "All right" I think to myself, "Here's my chance to really prove how good and reliable I am." Its a slow night, I'm checking people in, answering phone calls, and all that jazz. This is when one of the workers that is staying with us monthly comes in. Except he's been stabbed in the face. As I call 911, he proceeds to stomp around the lobby pissed off, bleeding everywhere. Right after I get off the phone with them, I proceed to call my boss and tell him that we have a problem. A "He needs to leave that important family dinner they've been planning for months" problem. Needless to say, It wasn't a good night. Turned out that the guy who stabbed him was one of his buddies that he was working with at the site. He made up some story about getting jumped by some black guys on the way back from the bar. In a town as white as the movie Footloose. Needless to say, the cops didn't buy it. But he wasn't gonna rat out his union workpal like that. Apparently unions are ok with stabbings as long as its eachother. Anyway, that is the story of how the first time I was left alone with any responsibility at work, Someone got stabbed.
Seriously Buttery, I can't even. It's like there's a group of folks around you that are all apart of a club or something with the sole goal of...I don't even fething know. But if I were you I'd go about armed.
. Basically I somehow reached young adulthood entirely blind to social warnings. That's the horror story. That while I disagree with his attitude, the_Armyman was pretty much on the money with what could have happened.
You do meet some truly beautiful people by walking around with your arms open, and to me that more than makes up for a few uncomfortable experiences.*
The vast majority of my good friends are probably two spoons short of a tableware set in some aspects, but I did learn who to value and who to slip away from.
It took time for me to learn. I am definitely not a good thing to be.
*One of the stories I told, about the guy who mailed me his pyjamas?
That was not actually funny given the full context.
Spoiler:
Looking back, I was being groomed at age 18 by a lonely 40 year old tabletop obsessive who set himself up as my best friend. By crashing gaming meetups and stopping me from really being alone, he cut me off from both the gaming group and my longterm friends who could watch out for me.
I was oblivious.
Things like, he would bring hard liquor to my apartment at night, and try to coerce me to drink with him. I never did, but not because I was remotely aware what was happening, I've just always been teetotal. We went places alone all the time, in his car. Nobody else knew. I let him sleep in my room pretty much weekly, rather than a hotel, because that's what good friends do, right? And I forgave him the occasional silly moment of saying that he liked me in another way, because I blindly trusted him to keep himself in check when I politely declined. He got increasingly manipulative to the point I was apologising daily. For things like not writing him texts or talking on Skype.
The only reason the mask slipped was a complete accident. I hurt myself on a day out, and stupidly accepted some high power painkillers from a well meaning friend.
I ended up high as feth, alone with someone who I trusted implicitly. He tried to get me to confess my true feelings and accept him. I laughed. He flipped.
If I had kept the materials, abuse and threats he sent me over the following week, I could have legitimately ruined his life. I didnt. When he filled my phone, I deleted the messages. When he sent me emails explaining how I was useless, I read them and believed him. I genuinely believed it was my fault for being a bad friend.
Right up until the end, I saw him as my family and best friend.
Thankfully a "guardian angel" of sorts opened my eyes before I begged for forgiveness.
When I finally understood what had happened, I just remember being in a ball trying to comprehend why anyone would do this, while my friend, my real friend, sat and didn't touch me, just stayed.
If you're cringing or think that I was acting dangerously, you're correct.
Not all socially blind folk end up being creepy. Some of us are just genuinely naïve as hell. And when the two cross paths, people get hurt.
I make jokes because the alternative just kills me.
Seriously Buttery, I can't even. It's like there's a group of folks around you that are all apart of a club or something with the sole goal of...I don't even fething know. But if I were you I'd go about armed.
. Basically I somehow reached young adulthood entirely blind to social warnings. That's the horror story. That while I disagree with his attitude, the_Armyman was pretty much on the money with what could have happened.
You do meet some truly beautiful people by walking around with your arms open, and to me that more than makes up for a few uncomfortable experiences.*
The vast majority of my good friends are probably two spoons short of a tableware set in some aspects, but I did learn who to value and who to slip away from.
It took time for me to learn. I am definitely not a good thing to be.
*One of the stories I told, about the guy who mailed me his pyjamas?
That was not actually funny given the full context.
Looking back, I was being groomed at age 18 by a lonely 40 year old tabletop obsessive who set himself up as my best friend. By crashing gaming meetups and stopping me from really being alone, he cut me off from both the gaming group and my longterm friends who could watch out for me.
I was oblivious.
Things like, he would bring hard liquor to my apartment at night, and try to coerce me to drink with him. I never did, but not because I was remotely aware what was happening, I've just always been teetotal. We went places alone all the time, in his car. Nobody else knew. I let him sleep in my room pretty much weekly, rather than a hotel, because that's what good friends do, right? And I forgave him the occasional silly moment of saying that he liked me in another way, because I blindly trusted him to keep himself in check when I politely declined. He got increasingly manipulative to the point I was apologising daily. For things like not writing him texts or talking on Skype.
The only reason the mask slipped was a complete accident. I hurt myself on a day out, and stupidly accepted some high power painkillers from a well meaning friend.
I ended up high as feth, alone with someone who I trusted implicitly. He tried to get me to confess my true feelings and accept him. I laughed. He flipped.
If I had kept the materials, abuse and threats he sent me over the following week, I could have legitimately ruined his life. I didnt. When he filled my phone, I deleted the messages. When he sent me emails explaining how I was useless, I read them and believed him. I genuinely believed it was my fault for being a bad friend.
Right up until the end, I saw him as my family and best friend.
Thankfully a "guardian angel" of sorts opened my eyes before I begged for forgiveness.
When I finally understood what had happened, I just remember being in a ball trying to comprehend why anyone would do this, while my friend, my real friend, sat and didn't touch me, just stayed.
If you're cringing or think that I was acting dangerously, you're correct.
Not all socially blind folk end up being creepy. Some of us are just genuinely naïve as hell. And when the two cross paths, people get hurt.
I make jokes because the alternative just kills me.
This entire post not only had my eyebrows raised in sheer disbelief, but I let out an audible whistle at the end. Buttery, for whatever it's worth I hope Karma slides you something amazing at some point - like, I dunno, millions of dollars or a private island, because damn.
1. I've had to have police escort out a local homeless man that decided to sleep in the lobby bathroom. He snuck in through a side door after a guest didn't close it all the way and must of slipped into the bathroom while i was processing paperwork in the back. It was quite a shock when I open the bathroom to find a man snoring when i went to check it later as part of my rounds. When I asked him if he was ok, He told me that "He was trying to get some sleep hiding from the man that was after him." Someone one that he described was "12 feet tall, never slept and could fly". I told him to wait there to be safe, called the cops and had them deal with him. Whether he was drunk, mentally ill, or still half asleep, I don't do crazy and I didn't feel like trying to reason with a guy that would probably mean a tetanus shot if the conversation went poorly.
2. I've had to deal with a team of very drunk and very frustrating peewee hockey parents and one in particular that I've dubbed, "The Trapmaster". The Trapmaster decided that because he was staying in a place that wasn't his home and had payed a discounted rate because he was part of a group of twenty rooms, that he had a free check to act like the biggest fool. I don't think I saw this man without an open beer in his hand, and I mean that too. This guy had a beer at breakfast at 6AM, and every time I saw him that day forward. Including when he was getting out of his car after his kids game. We don't allow drinking in the lobby, and I enforce that rule. Which of course made me his favorite person. So, he decided one night after all his fellow parents went to bed, that he was going to play a big prank on all of them. I disarmed 16 or so improvised "pranks" which included: putting the outdoor potted plants in front of his fellow parents and other guests room doors. Filling buckets of ice water and leaning them against other doors and walkway doors, so if they're opened, they pour all over the unfortunate opener. Making a pyramid from breakfast lobby chairs, blocking doorways and halls. It seemed every time I'd run into another one of his traps and disarm it, another one would show up elsewhere. I seriously thought it was all the children they were neglecting to watch. You can imagine my surprise when I finally caught him while he was trying to make sure all the pool furniture that was supposed to be outside the pool was instead floating in the pool. I flat out told him to pack his gak and leave or he would be escorted out by cops. He proceeded to wake every parent in his group up and have them confront me in the lobby at 4AM. Not only did they think everything he did was ok, but actively decided I was the aggressor and If I was going to kick him out, I'd have to kick them all out. Which means I had to back down. I don't care how well protected you are, If you kick out 20 rooms at 4AM, you may as well hand in your resignation letter right then.
3. To be sorta on topic, I had a group of MTG players stay with us while they were passing through as part of a tournament. Upfront, they were nice, quiet, and stayed out of trouble. Imagine the surprise we felt when we found the room they stayed in completely destroyed. I've seen self proclaimed rockstars do less damage. Holes in the wall, carpet tore up, a shower rod missing, what we hoped was water damage, a chair nailed to a ceiling, and it invoked an odor like what I would imagine a meat plant smells like. We had to put that room out of order for 2 months to repair fully, and we never got the smell all the way out. Thankfully, with a remodel coming up, It'll be fixed for good. The worse part of it, They had made the reservation through a third party website that refused to help us find them. Sure, we had taken a credit card for incidentals, but we only authorize enough to make sure you can pay for a lamp or something if you break it, not thousands of dollars in remodeling. Needless to say, their credit card didnt pay for much.
4. Probably not the worse, but the most memorable. I've been working in the industry a whole month or two, I'm young, eager, and about 500% less cynical that I am now. I've proven that I can manage the hotel by myself. My boss and hotel owner has an important family dinner he needs to attend and asks me to watch the hotel for him. "All right" I think to myself, "Here's my chance to really prove how good and reliable I am." Its a slow night, I'm checking people in, answering phone calls, and all that jazz. This is when one of the workers that is staying with us monthly comes in. Except he's been stabbed in the face. As I call 911, he proceeds to stomp around the lobby pissed off, bleeding everywhere. Right after I get off the phone with them, I proceed to call my boss and tell him that we have a problem. A "He needs to leave that important family dinner they've been planning for months" problem. Needless to say, It wasn't a good night. Turned out that the guy who stabbed him was one of his buddies that he was working with at the site. He made up some story about getting jumped by some black guys on the way back from the bar. In a town as white as the movie Footloose. Needless to say, the cops didn't buy it. But he wasn't gonna rat out his union workpal like that. Apparently unions are ok with stabbings as long as its eachother. Anyway, that is the story of how the first time I was left alone with any responsibility at work, Someone got stabbed.
I worked in a budget hotel for three years next to a night club. So I completely get where you're coming from. Since it's not completely on topic, I'll spoiler a few of my own personal favourites for you.
Spoiler:
1. We had a bathroom in our ground floor lobby, so naturally, there was a progressive line of drunks who would try and get in at 3AM to use it. We also had about five local homeless people who would use it to wash up. They'd dash in before anyone could say anything, and lock themselves in for a good twenty five minutes whilst they stripped and attempted to wash themselves and their clothing using the small basin. Naturally, this led to yours truly having to scrub pubic hairs and muck out of the sink, not to mention air freshening the hell out of the room afterwards. Sometimes, if it was winter, they'd try and sleep in there. I always had a lot of sympathy for people in their position, and would occasionally make them a cup of tea on a slow night shift and let them keep warm in the lobby for a few early morning hours during winter. But cleaning the sink after a homeless man has washed his balls in it wasn't exactly on the job description when I got hired.
2. I had a load of North London 'gangstas' check in during the afternoon once before a big clubbing night out. They went up to their room, and came down and left the building half an hour later stinking of weed. I went up to the room to confirm they'd been smoking in it, found the traces, and collected all their stuff in a bag (so I could just deactivate the keycard and just eject them without having to prise them out the room). Just as I thought I'd finished, I found a package stashed under the bed. Instead of the drugs I was expecting, I found half a dozen switchblades, the illegal kind with the springs. I put them to one side behind the reception counter, and returned the rest of the goods when the 'gentlemen' returned a few hours later. Naturally, they took their stuff out, couldn't find the knives, and started trying to persuade me that they'd left something in the room. I kept asking them what they'd left behind (knowing they weren't going to admit to illegal weapons), and saying I'd go up and get whatever it was if only they'd describe it to me. They then proceeded to spend about ten minutes trying to convince me to go up with them, saying that I'd found out.
Understandably, I declined the polite offer, told them to stop wasting my time, and turfed them out by threatening to call the police. Just goes to show though, if I hadn't checked under the bed, I probably would have been shanked in the room that day.
3.Found a fire door open and a foam extinguisher emptied out. Someone had tried to build a snowman out of the foam.
4. So. Many. Prostitutes. We'd regularly have Romanian prostitutes (usually) booked in with stolen cards coming in. Wouldn't speak a word of english, but would just hand us the booking number and stare mutely. Naturally, you had to come up with a reason to deny them that didn't involve, 'you're obviously a prostitute'. I read about one Holiday Inn worker who said just that to a Romanian student, and got nailed for it, yikes! So we'd just say there was a problem with the card, smile sweetly, and tell them to contact head office. You'd usually see their pimps waiting outside, and they'd rush in and argue with you about two minutes later in broken and aggressive english. Every so often, a prostitute would slip in, and you'd just see a line of men coming to and from the room, the whole night through. We'd usually lock the door, so you'd have a discussion on the intercom where the men said they were here to visit a friend in Room X, but when queried on the name for the room booking, wouldn't be able to tell you. Then you'd see the girl come down and let them in (the final proof, usually, they'd be in something quite skimpy). That would be the signal to boot them out twenty minutes later (after the men had gone, I was never too keen on interrupting the act).
We also had a pair of English girls who we tolerated plying their trade. The difference was, there were no pimps involved (so no exploitation, they marketed themselves online), and they never had more than one client a night (which made it no noisier than a drunk couple from the club next door).
5. We had a pair of guys arrested for dealing hardcore drugs out of one room. We were slightly sad to see them go, as they always had the munchies so bad, they'd buy a good five or six of our revolting microwaves burgers every night! We were the highest scoring hotel in the district for food sales during the time they were staying with us by a massive margin.
6. I had an alcoholic mother check in one night, and the husband coming to reception a few hours later searching for her. He had the kids with him, and they were searching for 'their mum'. Naturally, I couldn't just let them go up to the room (we have to ensure that an abusive partner couldn't chase their counterpart, for example), so I had to go fetch her and make sure she wanted to see them. It was heartbreaking though. You got the sense of a family at the end of it's tether, with the kids in tears and the mum staggering out of the hotel.
I have plenty more stories, but I'd be here all day if I tried to list them. I've had my life threatened at least two dozen times, cleaned up vomit too many times to count, evicted people from every walk of life, dealt with a few minor celebrities, and generally learnt that there are far more preferable jobs out there! So you have my sympathy Mr Piddlez, and hopefully you'll be able to move on soon!
Seriously Buttery, I can't even. It's like there's a group of folks around you that are all apart of a club or something with the sole goal of...I don't even fething know. But if I were you I'd go about armed.
. Basically I somehow reached young adulthood entirely blind to social warnings. That's the horror story. That while I disagree with his attitude, the_Armyman was pretty much on the money with what could have happened.
You do meet some truly beautiful people by walking around with your arms open, and to me that more than makes up for a few uncomfortable experiences.*
The vast majority of my good friends are probably two spoons short of a tableware set in some aspects, but I did learn who to value and who to slip away from.
It took time for me to learn. I am definitely not a good thing to be.
*One of the stories I told, about the guy who mailed me his pyjamas?
That was not actually funny given the full context.
Looking back, I was being groomed at age 18 by a lonely 40 year old tabletop obsessive who set himself up as my best friend. By crashing gaming meetups and stopping me from really being alone, he cut me off from both the gaming group and my longterm friends who could watch out for me.
I was oblivious.
Things like, he would bring hard liquor to my apartment at night, and try to coerce me to drink with him. I never did, but not because I was remotely aware what was happening, I've just always been teetotal. We went places alone all the time, in his car. Nobody else knew. I let him sleep in my room pretty much weekly, rather than a hotel, because that's what good friends do, right? And I forgave him the occasional silly moment of saying that he liked me in another way, because I blindly trusted him to keep himself in check when I politely declined. He got increasingly manipulative to the point I was apologising daily. For things like not writing him texts or talking on Skype.
The only reason the mask slipped was a complete accident. I hurt myself on a day out, and stupidly accepted some high power painkillers from a well meaning friend.
I ended up high as feth, alone with someone who I trusted implicitly. He tried to get me to confess my true feelings and accept him. I laughed. He flipped.
If I had kept the materials, abuse and threats he sent me over the following week, I could have legitimately ruined his life. I didnt. When he filled my phone, I deleted the messages. When he sent me emails explaining how I was useless, I read them and believed him. I genuinely believed it was my fault for being a bad friend.
Right up until the end, I saw him as my family and best friend.
Thankfully a "guardian angel" of sorts opened my eyes before I begged for forgiveness.
When I finally understood what had happened, I just remember being in a ball trying to comprehend why anyone would do this, while my friend, my real friend, sat and didn't touch me, just stayed.
If you're cringing or think that I was acting dangerously, you're correct.
Not all socially blind folk end up being creepy. Some of us are just genuinely naïve as hell. And when the two cross paths, people get hurt.
I make jokes because the alternative just kills me.
This entire post not only had my eyebrows raised in sheer disbelief, but I let out an audible whistle at the end. Buttery, for whatever it's worth I hope Karma slides you something amazing at some point - like, I dunno, millions of dollars or a private island, because damn.
Well the trade off is I genuinely made some friends who I would trust with anything, and that trust nowadays wouldn't be misplaced.
But that incident is why I stopped gaming for nearly a decade; I realised that I had no compass as to what was safe.
I mostly posted this to give scope that there are some fairly vulnerable individuals out there amongst the various stereotypes. And because I didn't want it to appear that my misadventures had no repercussions.
Guy who saved me was a security guard for the dorm I lived in. He made a joke about the "gentleman visitor" I had, thinking that basically I was working this older guy for money or sex, that I was on some kind of gain from it.
I just cheerfully replied that he was my friend and we literally went for picnics and played Halo. And this guy realises that after a couple of months, I'm not joking, I'm genuinely clueless.
JohnHwangDD wrote: As opposed to wrestling? Where it's not uncommon for one guy to "check the oil" or cup the "package" of another? I swear, the stories I hear about wrestling...
When you're in a close grapple, sometimes what you grab in the course of securing a hold isn't what you'd prefer to grab. Just the nature of the beast. Complaining about it is like complaining about getting tackled in football. It's part of the game, and if you can't deal with it (being the grabbed or grabber, either or), don't play.
You're not one of those people who argues that a blatantly late hit, facemask grab, or collar grab, whatever, is totally a part of the game and banning them is bs, are you?
if you'd ever wrestled, you woud probably have the exprience to know the difference between contact that just happens, so whatever, when grappling, and having to deal with a guy who just keeps going for the junk.
No, I'm not 'one of those people'.
But I can't argue the second point; yeah, you can usually tell the difference. The problem comes when the refs CAN'T tell the difference...
Not really a horror story, but amused me none the less.
I was employed at a company (nothing to do with the gaming industry) and I left, nothing unusual so far. Anyway they wanted a collection that was a bit different from an envelope with a bit of cash and they knew I gamed so they got me some GW vouchers...
Wasn't really playing 40k or warhammer at the time but the thought that counts etc.
So far nothing all that out of the ordinary, but then I heard how they bought the vouchers.
They literally drew straws for who would have to find and even enter the place, and even then it took two of them, the senior finance guy and the head of the contracts team, both of whom could easily have nerded for their country if the need arose but in a different field.
So in they walked, on the gaming night, in very nicely tailored suits, probably looking like somewhat nervous mafia, and came out with the vouchers, and from what I gathered a 40k starter set and some paints they bought simply to make the store manager stop talking to them (apparently they binned them, the swines, but put them on expenses, would have loved to see that one).
Finance guy was telling me later he was amazed to see the store manager utterly running rings round the contracts guy but was impressed with the technique to get one over on that shark (nice guy really, honest), was also very impressed by the appearance of the place as they were expecting a dungeon of some sort with actual trolls in by the sound of it.
Seriously Buttery, I can't even. It's like there's a group of folks around you that are all apart of a club or something with the sole goal of...I don't even fething know. But if I were you I'd go about armed.
. Basically I somehow reached young adulthood entirely blind to social warnings. That's the horror story. That while I disagree with his attitude, the_Armyman was pretty much on the money with what could have happened.
You do meet some truly beautiful people by walking around with your arms open, and to me that more than makes up for a few uncomfortable experiences.*
The vast majority of my good friends are probably two spoons short of a tableware set in some aspects, but I did learn who to value and who to slip away from.
It took time for me to learn. I am definitely not a good thing to be.
*One of the stories I told, about the guy who mailed me his pyjamas?
That was not actually funny given the full context.
Looking back, I was being groomed at age 18 by a lonely 40 year old tabletop obsessive who set himself up as my best friend. By crashing gaming meetups and stopping me from really being alone, he cut me off from both the gaming group and my longterm friends who could watch out for me.
I was oblivious.
Things like, he would bring hard liquor to my apartment at night, and try to coerce me to drink with him. I never did, but not because I was remotely aware what was happening, I've just always been teetotal. We went places alone all the time, in his car. Nobody else knew. I let him sleep in my room pretty much weekly, rather than a hotel, because that's what good friends do, right? And I forgave him the occasional silly moment of saying that he liked me in another way, because I blindly trusted him to keep himself in check when I politely declined. He got increasingly manipulative to the point I was apologising daily. For things like not writing him texts or talking on Skype.
The only reason the mask slipped was a complete accident. I hurt myself on a day out, and stupidly accepted some high power painkillers from a well meaning friend.
I ended up high as feth, alone with someone who I trusted implicitly. He tried to get me to confess my true feelings and accept him. I laughed. He flipped.
If I had kept the materials, abuse and threats he sent me over the following week, I could have legitimately ruined his life. I didnt. When he filled my phone, I deleted the messages. When he sent me emails explaining how I was useless, I read them and believed him. I genuinely believed it was my fault for being a bad friend.
Right up until the end, I saw him as my family and best friend.
Thankfully a "guardian angel" of sorts opened my eyes before I begged for forgiveness.
When I finally understood what had happened, I just remember being in a ball trying to comprehend why anyone would do this, while my friend, my real friend, sat and didn't touch me, just stayed.
If you're cringing or think that I was acting dangerously, you're correct.
Not all socially blind folk end up being creepy. Some of us are just genuinely naïve as hell. And when the two cross paths, people get hurt.
I make jokes because the alternative just kills me.
This entire post not only had my eyebrows raised in sheer disbelief, but I let out an audible whistle at the end. Buttery, for whatever it's worth I hope Karma slides you something amazing at some point - like, I dunno, millions of dollars or a private island, because damn.
Well the trade off is I genuinely made some friends who I would trust with anything, and that trust nowadays wouldn't be misplaced.
But that incident is why I stopped gaming for nearly a decade; I realised that I had no compass as to what was safe.
I mostly posted this to give scope that there are some fairly vulnerable individuals out there amongst the various stereotypes. And because I didn't want it to appear that my misadventures had no repercussions.
Guy who saved me was a security guard for the dorm I lived in. He made a joke about the "gentleman visitor" I had, thinking that basically I was working this older guy for money or sex, that I was on some kind of gain from it.
I just cheerfully replied that he was my friend and we literally went for picnics and played Halo. And this guy realises that after a couple of months, I'm not joking, I'm genuinely clueless.
Holy gak, Buttery, that was.. uncomfortable reading. I can't imagine it was easy to open up about those experiences, but thank you for doing so.
I also was utterly clueless at 18, but I got away with it. Luck, not judgement. I now have a 1 year old boy, and protecting him as he grows is my #1 priority. Your story resonated with me in a big way.
If it helps people keep an eye on those around them (protectively or cynically), then I'm okay with sharing it.
At no point did I tell my parents that I had a 40 year old man staying in my bedroom overnight, because I didn't think it was unusual.
I didn't tell them we were making cross country trips alone. All
They knew was I was pretty happy and went to gaming events.
It's only difficult to talk about not because I have to think carefully about what to leave out so that I didn't sound like I was needlessly ripping on someone, but what to leave in to explain how serious things could have been.
I don't bear any ill feelings towards the guy, or feel upset thinking back.
Very occasionally I had black moments where it'd all come back and make me feel super at 3am, but they're maybe yearly if that now.
Seriously Buttery, I can't even. It's like there's a group of folks around you that are all apart of a club or something with the sole goal of...I don't even fething know. But if I were you I'd go about armed.
. Basically I somehow reached young adulthood entirely blind to social warnings. That's the horror story. That while I disagree with his attitude, the_Armyman was pretty much on the money with what could have happened.
You do meet some truly beautiful people by walking around with your arms open, and to me that more than makes up for a few uncomfortable experiences.*
The vast majority of my good friends are probably two spoons short of a tableware set in some aspects, but I did learn who to value and who to slip away from.
It took time for me to learn. I am definitely not a good thing to be.
*One of the stories I told, about the guy who mailed me his pyjamas?
That was not actually funny given the full context.
Looking back, I was being groomed at age 18 by a lonely 40 year old tabletop obsessive who set himself up as my best friend. By crashing gaming meetups and stopping me from really being alone, he cut me off from both the gaming group and my longterm friends who could watch out for me.
I was oblivious.
Things like, he would bring hard liquor to my apartment at night, and try to coerce me to drink with him. I never did, but not because I was remotely aware what was happening, I've just always been teetotal. We went places alone all the time, in his car. Nobody else knew. I let him sleep in my room pretty much weekly, rather than a hotel, because that's what good friends do, right? And I forgave him the occasional silly moment of saying that he liked me in another way, because I blindly trusted him to keep himself in check when I politely declined. He got increasingly manipulative to the point I was apologising daily. For things like not writing him texts or talking on Skype.
The only reason the mask slipped was a complete accident. I hurt myself on a day out, and stupidly accepted some high power painkillers from a well meaning friend.
I ended up high as feth, alone with someone who I trusted implicitly. He tried to get me to confess my true feelings and accept him. I laughed. He flipped.
If I had kept the materials, abuse and threats he sent me over the following week, I could have legitimately ruined his life. I didnt. When he filled my phone, I deleted the messages. When he sent me emails explaining how I was useless, I read them and believed him. I genuinely believed it was my fault for being a bad friend.
Right up until the end, I saw him as my family and best friend.
Thankfully a "guardian angel" of sorts opened my eyes before I begged for forgiveness.
When I finally understood what had happened, I just remember being in a ball trying to comprehend why anyone would do this, while my friend, my real friend, sat and didn't touch me, just stayed.
If you're cringing or think that I was acting dangerously, you're correct.
Not all socially blind folk end up being creepy. Some of us are just genuinely naïve as hell. And when the two cross paths, people get hurt.
I make jokes because the alternative just kills me.
This entire post not only had my eyebrows raised in sheer disbelief, but I let out an audible whistle at the end. Buttery, for whatever it's worth I hope Karma slides you something amazing at some point - like, I dunno, millions of dollars or a private island, because damn.
Well the trade off is I genuinely made some friends who I would trust with anything, and that trust nowadays wouldn't be misplaced.
But that incident is why I stopped gaming for nearly a decade; I realised that I had no compass as to what was safe.
I mostly posted this to give scope that there are some fairly vulnerable individuals out there amongst the various stereotypes. And because I didn't want it to appear that my misadventures had no repercussions.
Guy who saved me was a security guard for the dorm I lived in. He made a joke about the "gentleman visitor" I had, thinking that basically I was working this older guy for money or sex, that I was on some kind of gain from it.
I just cheerfully replied that he was my friend and we literally went for picnics and played Halo. And this guy realises that after a couple of months, I'm not joking, I'm genuinely clueless.
There's a level of...irony? Here that I hope isn't lost. Alls well that ends well I suppose.
On topic: At the FLGS in the town I grew up in there was this guy who helped out the owners (they are/were older than god), nice guy, loved everything about miniature gaming.
So one day I'm in there debating on whether or not I should buy more gak (the struggle is real)and dude appears, starts bsing like he would, no biggie. We hear the door to the store open, i don't take any notice but he looks; stops talking immediately and shuffles off towards the new customers.
Didn't think much of it until I heard the pitch of the voices; local college kids had made they're way in (all of which turned out to be women, this town was awesome like that)and were now being introduced to the flgs guy. Despite his overall okish social skills when dealing with other geeks, they seemed to evaporate when faced with dealing with the opposite sex.
Apparently, the conversation became so difficult for him he actually vomitted almost mid interaction. I heard the pre-gag noise and shouts of alarm and then the 'Jesus Christ!' followed by the site of a couple figures sprinting out of the store. Found the guy sitting against the wall in the back, completely dejected, so I got him cleaned up and bought him a beer. Not overall horror incarnate, just sorta sad really.
Frankenberry wrote: On topic: At the FLGS in the town I grew up in there was this guy who helped out the owners (they are/were older than god), nice guy, loved everything about miniature gaming.
So one day I'm in there debating on whether or not I should buy more gak (the struggle is real)and dude appears, starts bsing like he would, no biggie. We hear the door to the store open, i don't take any notice but he looks; stops talking immediately and shuffles off towards the new customers.
Didn't think much of it until I heard the pitch of the voices; local college kids had made they're way in (all of which turned out to be women, this town was awesome like that)and were now being introduced to the flgs guy. Despite his overall okish social skills when dealing with other geeks, they seemed to evaporate when faced with dealing with the opposite sex.
Apparently, the conversation became so difficult for him he actually vomitted almost mid interaction. I heard the pre-gag noise and shouts of alarm and then the 'Jesus Christ!' followed by the site of a couple figures sprinting out of the store. Found the guy sitting against the wall in the back, completely dejected, so I got him cleaned up and bought him a beer. Not overall horror incarnate, just sorta sad really.
Sounds a lot like Stan on South Park trying to talk to Wendy...
In all seriousness, I feel very bad for the poor guy. Some people get very nervous when talking to the opposite sex.
leopard wrote: Not really a horror story, but amused me none the less.
I was employed at a company (nothing to do with the gaming industry) and I left, nothing unusual so far. Anyway they wanted a collection that was a bit different from an envelope with a bit of cash and they knew I gamed so they got me some GW vouchers...
Wasn't really playing 40k or warhammer at the time but the thought that counts etc.
So far nothing all that out of the ordinary, but then I heard how they bought the vouchers.
They literally drew straws for who would have to find and even enter the place, and even then it took two of them, the senior finance guy and the head of the contracts team, both of whom could easily have nerded for their country if the need arose but in a different field.
So in they walked, on the gaming night, in very nicely tailored suits, probably looking like somewhat nervous mafia, and came out with the vouchers, and from what I gathered a 40k starter set and some paints they bought simply to make the store manager stop talking to them (apparently they binned them, the swines, but put them on expenses, would have loved to see that one).
Finance guy was telling me later he was amazed to see the store manager utterly running rings round the contracts guy but was impressed with the technique to get one over on that shark (nice guy really, honest), was also very impressed by the appearance of the place as they were expecting a dungeon of some sort with actual trolls in by the sound of it.
Takes all sorts.
Had a similar experience with a coworker of mine. Only a diametric opposite one. At the store we used to have a Birthday fund e.g. people put a small amount of money down for a birthday present for a coworker when his or her birthday came up.
I was the difficult one to find a present for. Since I had bought several GW kits from the GW store thats practicaly around the corner. They decided to get me a gift voucher. The person they sent get it was the last person to step foot in a gamestore.
She was glad I was happy with it, but next year someone else was going to buy it. A case of I was apparently ok, but those guys where NERDS!
bound for glory wrote: Yeah. I'm thinking that there are a few folks here that are having a laugh and BS'ing.
I don't doubt the truth of what people have said... I worked in retail.
Indeed. If it were a horror stories in retail thread, I'd never stop typing.
A top 10 was a mother who went absolutely mental at me for saying that her son was lying, when he'd claimed that he'd never worn the trainers that were covered in mud. I hadn't called him a liar, just pointed out that he wasn't telling the truth.
Echo and the Bunnymen said it best; people are strange.
Speaking of which he has a "space marine army" if you can call it that, which consists of centaur bikers, wolf infantry, and bull dreadnoughts. Some have certain...organs painted on...
.
In some ways, my games club is the spiritual descendant of the one that used to meet in the basement (!) there on Saturdays.
