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sourclams wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:Aren't there any community centres or parish halls in the USA? I thought people had enormous houses with huge garages to host wargames.

Wut? We don't have parish halls because the U.S. doesn't have parishes. Is that like a church facility? 40k and Grimdark would be pretty close to the locals' interpretation of the antichrist so I'm not thinking that one's very likely. Community centers are more like recreational exercise/arcade facilities for inner city kids; or at least that's the connotation where I'm from.

As to our huge garages, those are always filled with our hundreds and hundreds of gigantic American SUVs.

I think you are also forgetting the huge chest freezers in your garages for storing road kill, and game from your many many shooting expeditions and for high fat high corn syrup ready meals.

But seriously, American friends, cant you use libraries to host games or other government installations?

Doubtful. I don't think a library or anything of that nature would be willing to host packs of rowdy gamers, even if they put us in a soundproofed research room(if only because they'd constantly have to move things around).

The only place I know of where I've been able to get away with setting up games outside of my home or the FLGS is a college that had a student services building and just let us take over an unused auditorium every Thursday for a few hours worth of gaming, if there was nothing scheduled.

sourclams wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:Aren't there any community centres or parish halls in the USA? I thought people had enormous houses with huge garages to host wargames.

Wut? We don't have parish halls because the U.S. doesn't have parishes. Is that like a church facility? 40k and Grimdark would be pretty close to the locals' interpretation of the antichrist so I'm not thinking that one's very likely. Community centers are more like recreational exercise/arcade facilities for inner city kids; or at least that's the connotation where I'm from.

As to our huge garages, those are always filled with our hundreds and hundreds of gigantic American SUVs.

loca
Parish governments are actually used in Louisana.

And to answer questions of other public facilities: I think wargamning isn't big enough in the US to establish reservations at local facilities. Why would a library or club lease out space to a group of people that are playing a game many other guests have no prior experience with? Conventions happen in the US, but they aren't that frequent to be considered a primary way of gaming, and are almost always organized by a large group.

You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

Pretty rare, and often you have to pay for space.
I know that there have been issues with Scouting groups having places to meet due to all sorts of reasons. Most scout Groups used to get support from curches in the form of space to use for meetings. Doesnt happen much anymore, and even the schools bill the Scouting groups for space now.

mikhaila wrote:GW Prize support for US stores:

1) Store needs to have an account with GW directly, and not through a distributor
2) If a store meets certain requirements to become a Stockist, they are given 150.00 in merchandise as event support once a quarter, and free shipping.
3) Meet a higher level and get classified as a Partnership account, and they recieve 150.00 a month in event support.
4) Requirements are, IMHO, incredibly easy to meet. For a stockist account, the store needs to keep in stock two each of the better selling plastic boxes. If you aren't doing this, you aren't trying to hard to sell GW product.
5) For a Partnership account, you need to work harder. Have gaming tables, a paint rack, stock more of the line, etc etc.
6) I don't think it's written down, but probably helps if you don't piss GW off by breaking their rules for selling with a shopping cart, selling bootleg product, taking the support and not running any events, etc.
7) Event support does not have to be a tournament. Could be paints for a class or iron painter event, a modeling class, apoc battle, etc. The store has the flexibility to run events how they want.
8) If a store doesn't keep up to their end of the agreement, GW may choose to not send them support. Pretty simple and logical. Paying your bills on time is also a part of the agreement, which sort of goes without saying, but I have known stores to complain that GW treats them unfairly, only to find out that they owe 10 grand and aren't paying it off.)

How my 2 FLGS does it.

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

We don't have community halls such as this. I live in the Northeast USA. Most of our large scale events are run by individuals or clubs with lots of drive and motivation. Mihaila, is someone I consider a friend, who has a very well run shop with a store front dedicated to events. Its excellent. Many of the smaller shops do not have a similar set up.

From experience, not everyone who lives in the USA has a large home. I do not have a garage. I live in the City, and live in a 2-3 room condo. I do not have space in my place to have a gaming table. Many people are in the same boat. I understand the stereotype of america is "big house and cars" but many in the gaming community are the average joe. IE smaller house, lives an honest life, pays their bills, and are happy joyful folks. We meet at people's houses who have basements, or do have garages, and attend the 8-10 tournments and larger scale events.

GW in the US does not have a good tournment circuit. They have gotten remarkable better and more proactive running more events. Local GW stores are hit or miss, my local store Voorhees is pushing hard, but it is difficult to motivate people to goto tournments. Regional Clubs exist who organize events, but again, we rely on our own money to fund these events. We don't have churches or parishes that will donate their space for free. Many Grant Tournments are 2 day events which take thousands of dollars to run. Then add in required insurance because of laws and etc and being a gamer is not an easiet decision if you look to run or organize events.

One local store runs all of his tournys in the local library. Another gentelman runs a large yearly tourny out of his church hall. We also have AMVET, Moose lodge, VFW,American Legione, Etc., and there are comunity halls in every comunity I know of around here. I am close to Milwaukee Wis.. I would have to say most of you people have never looked for a place.

sourclams wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:Aren't there any community centres or parish halls in the USA? I thought people had enormous houses with huge garages to host wargames.

Wut? We don't have parish halls because the U.S. doesn't have parishes. Is that like a church facility? 40k and Grimdark would be pretty close to the locals' interpretation of the antichrist so I'm not thinking that one's very likely. Community centers are more like recreational exercise/arcade facilities for inner city kids; or at least that's the connotation where I'm from.

As to our huge garages, those are always filled with our hundreds and hundreds of gigantic American SUVs.

Yeah, they're church halls. I fing it wierd that you wouldn't be able to use them if you made a donation to the curch or something, even if ithey think it's grmdark antichrist stuff they don't need to know the background

No school classrooms, town halls, scout halls etc. either that you could hire out?

Commuinity centers over here are more like halls, they might do sports classes, arts and crafts stuff maby have the local library/gym attached even a pool if you're lucky.

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

Not at all. Not to say that they don't exist anywhere in the country, but I've never heard of anything like that. Our society seems to actively discourage such things.

Captain Solon wrote:Just 10? Here it can be as much as 30 for one!!

But we pay more for everything.

Neconilis wrote:

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

Not at all. Not to say that they don't exist anywhere in the country, but I've never heard of anything like that. Our society seems to actively discourage such things.

wouldn't republicans call that part of the 'evils of socialism'

Neconilis wrote:

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

Not at all. Not to say that they don't exist anywhere in the country, but I've never heard of anything like that. Our society seems to actively discourage such things.

A lot of rural areas have VFW halls and such that serve this purpose. You might need a member to reserve it, but I've been to a few parties at them and such. They'd work for small-ish local tournaments that have outgrown in-store gaming, I think.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Neconilis wrote:

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

Not at all. Not to say that they don't exist anywhere in the country, but I've never heard of anything like that. Our society seems to actively discourage such things.

wouldn't republicans call that part of the 'evils of socialism'

Indeed they would. The fact that anyone who makes less than $150K a year would ever vote for a Republican absolutely astounds me. Read their policies and agenda, the Republican platform is not one aimed at helping the non-rich. Sadly, it gets turned into a popularity contest interjected with moral pandering, and people are so easily deceived and swayed. It's so frustrating, sad, and ultimately disappointing.

That's a discussion for somewhere else though, and for those of you in other civilized nations, do appreciate the things your government does for you to support your social well-being.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Balance wrote:

Neconilis wrote:

sebster wrote:You don't have community halls? Like, large open buildings owned by your local government, which is typically used for socials for under 18s, bake sales and all that kind of stuff?

Not at all. Not to say that they don't exist anywhere in the country, but I've never heard of anything like that. Our society seems to actively discourage such things.

A lot of rural areas have VFW halls and such that serve this purpose. You might need a member to reserve it, but I've been to a few parties at them and such. They'd work for small-ish local tournaments that have outgrown in-store gaming, I think.

I do know of some private properties that are able to be rented out to members and/or the general public, the cost is often a large prohibitive factor however, especially for a local tournament or other such small event. I won't say it's an impossibility or anything such as that, but sometimes the cost and logistics simply make it infeasible, best left to annual/semi-annual events if at all.