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there are no GW stores in florida.

i have found this hard to belive, even with the generaly "ok" amount of independent retailers scattered about, because of two key things.

1. florida is one of the largest tourist generator's in the country, next to places like, say, california. i'm willing to bet gamers go on vacation too.

2. mass amount population. i.e. we're a pretty big state when it comes to people, and even though alot of us don't have much money, i think we'd spend money on a hobby.

i can also see why gw would think florida would not provide any profit at all. people from other states i've talked to generaly (but not all the time) think florida is full of the elderly, which we are, but not ot the levels some people claim.

what are your thoughts?

I'd just prefer to get something alittle more L for my GS, the hour & 40 minute drive and dealing with I4 Traffic puts a damper on my being able to game..

A LGS in St. Johns, Flagler, or Volusia that had some GW & PP would make me rather happy.

Hell even just a gaming group in a library or something would be nice.

Florida suffers from the "darn, it's really nice outside" syndrome. Less gamers overall, as people go outside to do stuff.

I know that there are a few stores up in Jax. Gainesville's dry. Tampa's good, Orlando's got some good places, and I don't really know dink about the area you're in (just the periphery).

Good luck finding a store!

The vacation thing might not be super-valid. I've considered going to look for a GW store on a few trips, but very rarely. Usually only if it's a trip where I'm expecting some not-fun stuff... Even then, I don't think I've actually done it.

i live in titusville, so i have to drive a good 45 minutes to an hour to get a game in = orlando.

Cyporiean makes it a 1 hour drive just to game. I feel for you guys.

Seriously I have heard since 2002 GW has been wanting to do a GW store in Florida. South Florida in general is pretty much a gaming desert and from what information I have heard, Tampa is low on stores (had some folks come to a tournament in Kissimmee that hailed from the Tampa area).

By contrast, Jacksonville has no less than 3 FLGS's: Broadsword, Borderlands, and Suncoast Comics. There are even more independants floating around like comic dealers that have a few items knocking around.

Knowing the GW store placement policy, they'd probably put it here in Jax to drive the independents and FLGS's out rather than in a periphery area like St. Johns or Tampa.

i passed through florida once.......all i really remember is mile after mile of palm trees, held up by two by fours.
maybe the tree's scare off games workshop

thehod wrote: South Florida in general is pretty much a gaming desert and from what information I have heard

I can confirm this: I lived in Miami for 3 years (Dec 2005- Jan 2009). There is ONE small LGS with virtually no gaming space, extremely cramped, and with unfriendly/creepy staff and regulars. I think there are several factors causing South FL to be a black hole:

1. the aforementioned "It's nice outside" effect. Most people go to the beach, or the Keys, or something. I'm not into that stuff, but even I would occasionally step outside of my cave, see that the sky was clear, and consider going to the shooting range.

2. Cultural differences/influences. I come from the Northeast (New Jersey) where it seems that gaming stores and hobby shops are EVERYWHERE. Many of South Florida's residents are 1st or 2nd generation Cubans, Colombians, Haitians, Venezuelans, etc. Not exactly places where the idea of pushing little toys around on a table has permeated the culture, which isn't surprising as impoverished Banana Republics don't exactly have luxury consumer goods stores on every corner. But even the poorest country has alcohol and music, which makes a good party/nightclub easy to do, so drinking/partying/clubbing are the major recreational experiences that they bring with them. In contrast though, good luck trying to find a top-notch nightclub (abundance of hotties, open til 5am) in the Northeast outside of New York. This region is frickin' BORING. I blame the Puritans and Quakers, myself.

3. Hot chicks. Everywhere. The concentration of top-notch poon of all varieties is simply unparalleled. At Florida International University there is an area with a HUGE flatscreen TV where all the CCG kids hang out. Every time I've walked by them, I thought "I bet I could find a gamer in this bunch.".....and then I would look beyond to the food court, which was overflowing with big-bootied Colombian chicks chatting away. I only played one game of Warhammer the whole 3 years, and that's because a friend got curious after seeing my WHFB figures on my bookshelf. Priorities, man, priorities.

My friend hated Warhammer, finding it a boring waste of time, but then again he found Fallout 3 boring and Oblivion lacking in violence, so he's a dyed-in-the-wool 2-sec attention span twitch gamer, and definitely a product of "South Florida culture", having lived his whole life there.

i got three games in last year, if your counting the apoc game i had to drop out of halfway throu because of time constraints. i am kinda fed up with not getting any gaming in, and i can't move, so i guess i'm stuck......

Orlando/Kissimmee has three great FLGSs though, and you can routinely get 1.5 40k RTTs in a month if you don't mind some driving. So, in Orlando, it's not so bad.

well thats my point. there is nothing on the sidelines (i.e. titusville, merrit island, coaco, etc except for wizards wall in melbourne, so its takes a considerable amount of time and money to get to orlando for a game.

I'm sure a few of the NASA employees play games. You may want to, you know, hang out at the shuttle assembly building, Crux Terminatus hanging from you hand. See if anyone chats you up.

(Heh, trolling for gamers.)

Good luck finding people. There's honestly probably a lot of garage gaming going on (and nothing makes the colors on your models "pop" like Florida sunlight).