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Yea for the most part I've noticed few of the other guys have been largerly taking a similar approach now and not engaging as much. I think he's picking up the cues...I hope he's going to change his attitude. He doesn't seem like a bad guy intentionally.

We have been mostly dealing with the minutia of urban life and questing... He's a smart ass merchant character with no combat skills and we're now in a dungeon. So I'm planning on asking him to take point and talk his way away from the next monster or stfu

 Thargrim wrote:
I've seen some stores be rather clique-y with the regulars, other than that though no real bad experiences. I always play with the same people every time though, if I was going into stores doing pickup games with strangers i'm sure i'd have more stories by now.

This is literally the metaphorical FLGS cancer.

All the new stores around here seem to follow this curve of being welcoming to begin with then slowly becoming less of a store and more a hangout for the same 5-15 people who treat it like an extension of home, typically with 1-2 of them working for free but then not really working.

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
What's being judged is the manner in which this person chooses to present himself to a stranger, where their time together is limited.

Not to be rude, but you are talking about playing Warhammer - I'm pretty sure that most strangers are judging you and your friends rather unkindly as well. There was a time when playing DnD would get you labeled as a devil worshipper. Nerds have to stick together because only other nerds can understand that deliciously awkward combination of obsession and cringe. Yeah, this guy is not totally appropriate in his obsession - but you know that. You understand it. That awkwardness is familiar. Because it is in you, whether you know it or not (I mean, you say you actually work at a FLGS). And yet you won't yield for it while expecting others to yield for your Warhammer? You think Boomer Karen with Social Media isn't rolling her eyes all the way back into her head while you try to patiently help her buy Pokemon cards for a birthday party her nine year old is attending?

The nerd world is too small for nerds to be criticizing other nerds on behalf of Boomer Karens and their Twitter feeds.

dude that;s complete bs.

plenty of nerds are capable of understanding what is and isn't socially acceptable (I have ASPERGER'S and I'm saying he was out of line) the folks who'd call me a devil worshipper for D&D? well first of all I'm an atheist myself so they'll call me a devil worshipper anyway, secondly those people haven't been relevant in 30 years.

let's look at today?

top movie of 2019 (ohh and all time) Avengers Endgame, A COMIC BOOK MOVIE. current top movie in the movie theatre? A STAR WARS MOVIE.
(if you look at the movies in the "billion plus" club a full half are what I'd call "geek movies")

Apparently throughout december the most streamed shows where the Mandalorian (Star Wars) and the Witcher (a fantasy series based off a polish book made famous by a video game) then there was game of thrones, a fantasy series and one of the biggest TV phenomia of all time...

what I'm getting at is that the idea that Nerds are a rare commodity etc is dated. We ARE mainstream

Thought I'd dive in on this topic, as I recently had a odd moment relating to this, but in a way I've not heard of before.

Now, mercifully, this is only kinda my local games store, as I was only dropping in as I was visiting my old home town. I don't go often, nor do I rely on it for supplies etc.

Their newest member of staff is a guy I went to school with. To gloss over some details, involving being chased with sticks, rumor spreading and fake social media accounts, the person in question, and their friends, was involved with making a significant portion of my middle school life pretty miserable, and, to an extent, I hold them accountable for a number of insecurities that I really only recently overcame. (Anyone familiar with my posts about my private life will have a notion of this)

While it was certainly gratifying to watch the person in question fumble (rant over ) the presence of said person made me genuinely unwilling to spend time in the store, and I re-scheduled plans to game as a result of it. I wouldn't be able to relax around said person, and frankly I don't care to have them anywhere close to my life.

Playing with strangers in a shop has never really been my style. I always played in clubs, even when we played at a shop we did so as a club.

So I only had one of these stories and it was pretty banal. I was playing in a GW store after moving to a new country, I figured it might be a good way to meet new hobbyists. This was back in 8th edition. I ended up playing against a guy who gave me a slightly uneasy vibe, a bit overeager and not really interested in chit chat. I deployed my fully painted night goblins, he threw down his unpainted and poorly assembled daemons.

Proceeded to obliterate my army in a turn or two with vortex spells spammed down my battle line, so after spending ages setting up and waiting for a game I pretty much just packed my models back up again. He was kind of unpleasant in how he acted, calling his friends over and cackling a lot, and I just didn't enjoy the experience at all. I figured there were better ways to spend time and didn't go back to that shop again. Might sound like a sore loser, but I don't mind losing, I just don't like not actually geting to play the game. I think that was a combination of 8th edition poor balance and a WAAC type player going up against me with a fairly tame, generalist Night Goblin list.

Another experience, after moving to Germany. I was shopping in the local store, and on my way in I noticed they had a sticker from an anti immigrant party on the door. Being an immigrant to the country, I felt pretty put off. Then inside the place was super disorganised, everything stacked haphazardly, coated in dust. Sometimes you would be looking around on the shelves and find like a fossilised sandwich or something in there, long forgotten. The owner was unfriendly and had a little ratty dog that liked to bark at people.

They had a decent selection of OOP stock, because they never bothered to tidy up or anything, and some of it was pretty cheap because they never updated their prices, so I did enjoy going in there on little treasure hunts to see what I could find, but I was much happier giving my money to the friendly old hippy with the clean shop down the road, even though he had a smaller selection.

Theres always a guy with obscenely long fingernails, with dirt under them. I dont care if you wanna wear a leather trenchcoat and new rock boots, and grow your hair down to your arse, but buy a pair of damn clippers.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:


The wrath of a bored Boomer Karen with Social Media and the ability to do a Google Review can absolutely ruin a business. Even if it's trivial and petty. I've seen this stuff get so out of hand, it had to involve police running Karens off the property and outright restraining orders.

This man is speaking the abrasive truth. I have also run into it in the small business world.

One of the reasons a small business has a 95% failure rate before 5 years is because the business owner gets sick to death of always be treated like garbage by their entitled customers! Doesn't really make you want to keep going, unless you run on spite. That's why I managed to go beyond 5 years.....




Anyway..... stores are a public space, let's all act like we are in public. Seems like a pretty universal rule?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
What's being judged is the manner in which this person chooses to present himself to a stranger, where their time together is limited.

Not to be rude, but you are talking about playing Warhammer - I'm pretty sure that most strangers are judging you and your friends rather unkindly as well. There was a time when playing DnD would get you labeled as a devil worshipper. Nerds have to stick together because only other nerds can understand that deliciously awkward combination of obsession and cringe. Yeah, this guy is not totally appropriate in his obsession - but you know that. You understand it. That awkwardness is familiar. Because it is in you, whether you know it or not (I mean, you say you actually work at a FLGS). And yet you won't yield for it while expecting others to yield for your Warhammer? You think Boomer Karen with Social Media isn't rolling her eyes all the way back into her head while you try to patiently help her buy Pokemon cards for a birthday party her nine year old is attending?

The nerd world is too small for nerds to be criticizing other nerds on behalf of Boomer Karens and their Twitter feeds.

Honestly, the worst thing about being a Nerd is dealing with other Nerds. I say this with love and a huge helping of entitled elitism.

It can be a real chore bringing my family (wife and daughter) to the local shops. They both like to engage casually with the hobby, but they definitely do not feel welcome or included in the fun with a lot of the shop locals. I don't even play there, just go in shopping and it can get real awkward......

.... again, I say this with love. The shop is not your personal hang-out.

I feel very fortunate to have a FLGS that is a great environment to game with my daughter.

never had an issue at FLGS, did have a minor issue at a GW decades back though. Bratty kid gamed there, his parents spent a fortune though so the staff humoured him.

they asked if I didn't mind losing to him, got a few bits from the discount bin in the sale a month or so later though.

obnoxious brat though

otherwise no issues at shops

tournaments.. well I don't do 40k events any more

BrianDavion wrote:the folks who'd call me a devil worshipper for D&D? well first of all I'm an atheist myself so they'll call me a devil worshipper anyway, secondly those people haven't been relevant in 30 years.

You'd think so, but no.

Prosecutors still bring up the whole "D&D = satanism" bit today. Trey Gowdy does it in an episode of Forensic Files, he ended up being elected to the House of Representatives and was largely responsible for the Benghazi 'Inquiry' nonsense.

My FLGS has a gaming room you have to pay to use, so it might have nasty regulars and I’d never know it. The shop itself feels like a porno shop: every customer is quiet, focused, and really hesitant to touch anything, the only chit chat is from people who came in together, and a sense of guilty shame hangs over everything.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Prosecutors still bring up the whole "D&D = satanism" bit today. Trey Gowdy does it in an episode of Forensic Files, he ended up being elected to the House of Representatives and was largely responsible for the Benghazi 'Inquiry' nonsense.

"Nonsense" that resulted in dead Americans. As you can see, that's no longer tolerated. People tend to miss their flights for that now.

Also, I was among the many that scoffed at the 'satanism' in D&D...

But there's no shortage of wannabe edgelords trying to be Satanic on some of the D&D nights. It's not something that'll make you dangerous in a 'deliberately evil' sort of way, but very much so in a 'stupid enough to actually do it' kind of way if you get in with some of the weirdos I've seen. Also, they all tend to smell bad.

My old FLGS haunt had to ban the Book of Vile Darkness and the Book of Erotic Fantasy from the same group of stankers. I'll let you picture it.

EDIT: This wasn't neccessarily a popular decision- not because people thought it should be openly played in the store, but because the guy had no problem having it out on a shelf, out of the plastic, in plain view after we repeatedly warned him about the content. It only became a problem when a bunch of smelly dudes started using it.

That's kind of tragihumorous, since the Book of Vile Darkness is so immature and silly, its target audience is clearly not primarily adults. So much of it is the kind of edgelord stuff that 15-16 year old (primarily) dudes find cool, like having a magic nipple clamp that gives you buffs.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Prosecutors still bring up the whole "D&D = satanism" bit today. Trey Gowdy does it in an episode of Forensic Files, he ended up being elected to the House of Representatives and was largely responsible for the Benghazi 'Inquiry' nonsense.

"Nonsense" that resulted in dead Americans.

You really need to read more carefully. I'm not talking about the Benghazi incident itself.

I'm talking about the Benghazi Investigation(s).

Not here please.

There's currently a particular form of human disease man making the rounds in my greater metro area who has found a new way to irritate me.

Basicallly, any time a new smallish game is being tried out, this guy turns up, ostensibly to participate in a decently enthusiastic manner. He gets into the rules, chats happily about theorycrafting, starts building his miniatures, and the only warning sign you get is that he loves to compare the new game you're trying out very favorably to The Bad Mainstream Games. Usually 40k and WMH, talking about how much better this system or this mechanic is than the stuff braindead GW and PP uses for their stupid dumb games for dumb people.

And then...he plays a few games, and the first time he loses, he mysteriously figures out that the thing he lost to is so unsolvably, irrevocably broken that it completely ruins this game.

But fear not! For Game Killer Mccancerman has the solution! And the solution is this NEW game he has discovered! Usually, a game system that is either brand new, or hasn't come out yet and he's invested into on Kickstarter. What if we took this game club and everyone just started playing this new game? Wouldn't that be great??? He then starts relentlessly posting on any social media group you're trying to use bitching about the current games balance, and arguing that the club should be made more generic so people who want to try "other games" can use it too.

Then as soon as the group goes dead and stops meeting regularly, and mysteriously the fledgeling playerbase doesn't want to shack up with this toxic abrasive donkey-cave, he goes back to bitching that nobody plays anything but 40k, the dumbest game for dumb-dumbs.

This guy drives me ABSOLUTELY NUTS. He's tanked fledgeling groups that I've either run or participated in trying to start up

-Shadow War Armageddon
-Necromunda
-Age of Sigmar
-Infinity
-Blood Bowl
-marvel superhero game thingy, whatever it is, the new one (didn't join that group but heard he tanked it)
-Gorkamorka
-Kill Team at a different store
-Second Necromunda group at a different store

After messing with groups I was running twice, I told him I was sick of his gak and didn't want to see him joining any group I was forming in the future, so info I have on his current exploits is secondhand. He dumpstered my attempt to get a Necromunda campaign going (new Kill Team is going to be sooo much better and deeper and more balanced you guys, and we can use miniatures we already HAVE! We have got to try it, just make the group into a Warhammer Skirmish group!!) and my Blood Bowl league (BB is a game for babies! Guild Ball is so much better balanced! Look at these cool miniatures I painted!) and he's currently in his larval infiltration/cuckoo chick stage in a Necromunda group at a nearby store.

I'm kind of torn on this. I feel like things get blown out of proportion online especially...

However, I did recently experience a store manager making an un-self-aware racist comment (the kind that isn't explicit, but would only ever be said by someone who has no exposure to someone from the culture they're referring to, and definitely wouldn't be said in the presence of someone from that culture).

I was pretty down about this, having just moved to the area and hoping to use that store as my local. Thought about getting him in trouble with the owner, etc but felt that also might be a bit vindictive, since he clearly didn't Mean to offend...

But in the end, although I thought about it (like in the thread title!) I've decided it's better for me to continue to engage with that community, rather than leave over one bad apple (even if he is an employee).

Appreciate this thread as an opportunity to put down some thoughts about it!

Reminds me of the guy who works the tabletop games area at Pegasus Hobbies. He would say things so racist and crazy that I never knew if he was serious or not. Many of the regulars were members of minority groups the guy slurred against, and they all seemed to think he was funny, so I assumed there's probably a history there I wasn't privy to. Not the best situation to walk into as a new customer, though.

the_scotsman wrote:

But fear not! For Game Killer Mccancerman has the solution! And the solution is this NEW game he has discovered! Usually, a game system that is either brand new, or hasn't come out yet and he's invested into on Kickstarter. What if we took this game club and everyone just started playing this new game? Wouldn't that be great??? He then starts relentlessly posting on any social media group you're trying to use bitching about the current games balance, and arguing that the club should be made more generic so people who want to try "other games" can use it too.
.

We've got one of those too, ignoring them above and beyond my usual lack of social skills works most of the time

Never been run out of a store by a player before. I get the occasional smelly individual but I just smile and try to hold my breath when possible or breathe through my mouth instead.

I have stopped going to my local FLGS due to terrible customer service and rude behavior by the owner. I think my locale area is cursed or something. Hobby stores never last long around here and every time one opens its run by someone who has no clue how to run a successful business and give good customer service.

the_scotsman wrote:
There's currently a particular form of human disease man making the rounds in my greater metro area who has found a new way to irritate me.

Basicallly, any time a new smallish game is being tried out, this guy turns up, ostensibly to participate in a decently enthusiastic manner. He gets into the rules, chats happily about theorycrafting, starts building his miniatures, and the only warning sign you get is that he loves to compare the new game you're trying out very favorably to The Bad Mainstream Games. Usually 40k and WMH, talking about how much better this system or this mechanic is than the stuff braindead GW and PP uses for their stupid dumb games for dumb people.

And then...he plays a few games, and the first time he loses, he mysteriously figures out that the thing he lost to is so unsolvably, irrevocably broken that it completely ruins this game.

But fear not! For Game Killer Mccancerman has the solution! And the solution is this NEW game he has discovered! Usually, a game system that is either brand new, or hasn't come out yet and he's invested into on Kickstarter. What if we took this game club and everyone just started playing this new game? Wouldn't that be great??? He then starts relentlessly posting on any social media group you're trying to use bitching about the current games balance, and arguing that the club should be made more generic so people who want to try "other games" can use it too.

Then as soon as the group goes dead and stops meeting regularly, and mysteriously the fledgeling playerbase doesn't want to shack up with this toxic abrasive donkey-cave, he goes back to bitching that nobody plays anything but 40k, the dumbest game for dumb-dumbs.

This guy drives me ABSOLUTELY NUTS. He's tanked fledgeling groups that I've either run or participated in trying to start up

-Shadow War Armageddon
-Necromunda
-Age of Sigmar
-Infinity
-Blood Bowl
-marvel superhero game thingy, whatever it is, the new one (didn't join that group but heard he tanked it)
-Gorkamorka
-Kill Team at a different store
-Second Necromunda group at a different store

After messing with groups I was running twice, I told him I was sick of his gak and didn't want to see him joining any group I was forming in the future, so info I have on his current exploits is secondhand. He dumpstered my attempt to get a Necromunda campaign going (new Kill Team is going to be sooo much better and deeper and more balanced you guys, and we can use miniatures we already HAVE! We have got to try it, just make the group into a Warhammer Skirmish group!!) and my Blood Bowl league (BB is a game for babies! Guild Ball is so much better balanced! Look at these cool miniatures I painted!) and he's currently in his larval infiltration/cuckoo chick stage in a Necromunda group at a nearby store.

ohh god THESE GUYS, I've never encountered them in a table top enviroment but they're a PLAGUE in online game enviroments. they'll join a brand new MMO, join a guild and after a month or two of the new MMO decide this MMO is crap and how this new one thats not even out yet is going to be "so much better" and they hop from MMO to MMO apparently seeking, I dunno.. perfection?

the_scotsman wrote:

Spoiler:

There's currently a particular form of human disease man making the rounds in my greater metro area who has found a new way to irritate me.

Basicallly, any time a new smallish game is being tried out, this guy turns up, ostensibly to participate in a decently enthusiastic manner. He gets into the rules, chats happily about theorycrafting, starts building his miniatures, and the only warning sign you get is that he loves to compare the new game you're trying out very favorably to The Bad Mainstream Games. Usually 40k and WMH, talking about how much better this system or this mechanic is than the stuff braindead GW and PP uses for their stupid dumb games for dumb people.

And then...he plays a few games, and the first time he loses, he mysteriously figures out that the thing he lost to is so unsolvably, irrevocably broken that it completely ruins this game.

But fear not! For Game Killer Mccancerman has the solution! And the solution is this NEW game he has discovered! Usually, a game system that is either brand new, or hasn't come out yet and he's invested into on Kickstarter. What if we took this game club and everyone just started playing this new game? Wouldn't that be great??? He then starts relentlessly posting on any social media group you're trying to use bitching about the current games balance, and arguing that the club should be made more generic so people who want to try "other games" can use it too.

Then as soon as the group goes dead and stops meeting regularly, and mysteriously the fledgeling playerbase doesn't want to shack up with this toxic abrasive donkey-cave, he goes back to bitching that nobody plays anything but 40k, the dumbest game for dumb-dumbs.

This guy drives me ABSOLUTELY NUTS. He's tanked fledgeling groups that I've either run or participated in trying to start up

-Shadow War Armageddon
-Necromunda
-Age of Sigmar
-Infinity
-Blood Bowl
-marvel superhero game thingy, whatever it is, the new one (didn't join that group but heard he tanked it)
-Gorkamorka
-Kill Team at a different store
-Second Necromunda group at a different store

After messing with groups I was running twice, I told him I was sick of his gak and didn't want to see him joining any group I was forming in the future, so info I have on his current exploits is secondhand. He dumpstered my attempt to get a Necromunda campaign going (new Kill Team is going to be sooo much better and deeper and more balanced you guys, and we can use miniatures we already HAVE! We have got to try it, just make the group into a Warhammer Skirmish group!!) and my Blood Bowl league (BB is a game for babies! Guild Ball is so much better balanced! Look at these cool miniatures I painted!) and he's currently in his larval infiltration/cuckoo chick stage in a Necromunda group at a nearby store.

Ever read one of those things from someone on the internet and get that chill? That feeling that 'oh God this person lives near me' feeling for a moment? I did.

See:



And you mentioned having the issue with the guy opening up new gaming groups when you start an event? Yeah, that exact issue was a problem. He was the worst at bringing in a new game, and then once he'd realize he wasn't the best at it or his broken combo wasn't as broken as one someone else discovered, or (more often) he was wrong about the rules... the game was 'trash' and 'dying'... even when, to the contrary, it was picking up popularity when he stepped away from it.

When I hosted my N17 "Cult Insurrection" game (A single Chaos Marine + cultists with some hilarious rules, like the CSM using cultists as meat shields and beating a cultist senseless after a loss) he tried to derail it because he HATES chaos and refuses to play anything that isn't IG-related. He tried to go around my back and schedule his own Necromunda thing on the same night and draw people away from my event... but it didn't work so well since the guy whose books he intended to 'borrow' wanted in on what I was doing. And, well, he's known to 'borrow' things and doesn't so much 'give them back afterward' as 'begrudgingly gets up to find them in all of his junk when you show up at his front door an demand your stuff back after asking for weeks'.

Also:

#6: The Weirdest Flex that went wrong

Dude was actually pathetically hilarious. He would throw obscene money at games, powergame, and gloat just as bad as the other guy I mentioned. There was no way to play a game other than 'competitive'. His longest time in a RPG group was 3 sessions, because he powergamed and rules-lawyered his way through it. He gloated about how much he paid for his 'studio quality' painted miniatures- obscene amounts of money. He gloated about how many armies he owned for AoS, 40k, etc.

He made the mistake of bringing his girlfriend. Now, of course he did this to show off how good he was at 'wrecking the scrubs' at the FLGS, but also to show the scummy nerds how awesome he was for having a hot girlfriend.

...I've never seen a more bored and disinterested woman in my life, and trust me- I've paid attention to some of them when I have had sex with them, so I know what bored and disinterested looks like.

I said this was a mistake, though- and I meant it. Me and a few of my friends were painting and doing Necromunda conversions and terrain. She stuck her head in and asked what we were doing. I explained, friends showed her what they were working on, and I have sprues for damn near every Necromunda gang tucked into a box, so I told her she was more than welcome to use some of my tools and do what she liked with whatever sprue she wanted.

She played, got chatty, seemed like a nice enough sort. Her fella was a piece of garbage, got all assy because she wasn't fawning over his ultimate victory and was instead hanging with the 'filthy casuals'. I don't think it's my place to discuss the specifics of what went down after they left, due to me being close to this gal now... but let's just say we 'lost' him as a customer because she was going to the FLGS on the weekends to hang out and he couldn't stand to be around his ex (she never badmouths him, to her credit).

She's absolutely great, and I'm glad I met her. That was... almost a year ago now, and yeah... I think the results are easy to infer. I mean, I -have- been nicer...

Eh, no, this guy is 100% more of a scrub than a powergamer. He chooses a faction, then generally spends his whole time theorycrafting ways his faction CANNOT POSSIBLY have any solutions (solutions that don't involve surrendering himself completely to the Cheap and the Anti-Fun mechanics, anyway) to counter some other, generally fairly casual and middle of the road army.

He picked Goliaths in necromunda and the first time we played, we were basically just figuring out the rules and I took a shot with an autogun and took out one of his gangers who was standing right in the open. Rolled a skull on the injury roll, just right out of the game. Little bit of luck for me.

He immediately proceeded to just run his guys straight forward, totally ignoring cover and attempting to shoot anything, and he got mad when his now 1/3 strength gang still lost when they got into melee. He decided that the escher's poison mechanic was the most broken thing in the entire game, there was no counter to it, and the game would never be balanced as long as it existed. Stupid tiny knives should not be able to beat big muscly guys! It just makes NO SENSE!

I've just never mastered the art of explaining to a grown-ass adult that, you lost, of course you lost, you very clearly lost on purpose so that you can be mad about it. I've seen people do that to me several times in various game systems, and I just don't know how to approach that particular situation with someone over the age of 5.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Reminds me of the guy who works the tabletop games area at Pegasus Hobbies. He would say things so racist and crazy that I never knew if he was serious or not. Many of the regulars were members of minority groups the guy slurred against, and they all seemed to think he was funny, so I assumed there's probably a history there I wasn't privy to. Not the best situation to walk into as a new customer, though.

Yeah, that's definitely possible, and actually turned out to be the case with another person at the store (who was just a regular, not an employee) who made even more inappropriate remarks . Still, that's not really my jam, since in this case the people being made fun of are Not present...

It turned out that the same day I posted the previous post above, I got pointed to another local store that actually plays my main game (warmachine / hordes). I checked it out that same night and it's an awesome venue!! So, problem solved . Still planning to keep in touch with the several folks I befriended at the first store, but my regular game night will be at the new venue. Pretty stoked with how it worked out

Right now I'm going through another situation. There's sort of a clique atmosphere going on at the painting table. A bunch of players that always sit there seem to enjoy very specific people but dislike others. I wish they weren't the usual crowd. It's sad because there's a lot of good people there but the awful ones are more regular customers. I might actually consider another store and I usually stick to the same store. It's the local gw so I may see what another game store is like.

1. Most of the really good painters in my local area are really cliquish, and mostly concerned with winning a painting award at a local con. But if you ask them to help you improve your painting skills while not being in that clique, heaven help you.

2. Most of the local LGSes are extremely cliquish and if you're not in the crowd then you might as well not exist. At one of the stores it's so bad that people don't feel welcome there.

This also includes most of the LGS employee's behavior.

Thankfully I just found a store that's not like that at all and I really hope it stays that way.

3. One of our local WM players, who was also a PG would routinely make sexual advances to any female with a pulse in the store. He ended up chasing away about a half dozen women with those antics.

4. A few of the local Infinity players stole some prizes from the group at a bigger tourney. I called them on it repeatedly and while I took a hiatus from that group they decided to ban me from that group over it.

5. I've asked around to several people to check out a few games and the last few times I've been blown off.

I'll add to the discussion here with a few gems of my own. Full disclosure, I work at the FLGS part time and have for almost three years. I only work there around 15 to 20 hours a week, as I have a 40+ hour full time job/career that keeps me fairly busy. I see the full spectrum of cringe in every element of most any FLGS frequenters from MTG, Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, Tabletop, RPG, etc. etc.

Each sub sect has their own stand outs, but I'll limit this to the Warhammer crowd.

First, we've got the two worst offenders.

Neither of them come to the store any longer to speak of, and not because I personally ran them off. Their own toxic behavior saw fit to ensure they no longer could get a game in with anyone but unfortunate newbies to the hobby whom, after we told them what to look for, realized they were being cheated or jerked around in general.

Offender 1 I met before the current FLGS opened, and is the kind of guy that, after interacting with him for a while, you just want to punch. I'm not speaking in hyperbolic terms. He's a smarmy, self aggrandizing, know-it-all who thinks he's smarter than everyone he meets and has zero issue trying to 'pull one over' on a potential opponent. Case in point: our first game at another, less popular game store in the area (the FLGS I work at had not yet opened). While coordinating with him I specified I did not own a Lord of War model and that I would appreciate it if he didn't bring a Lord of War to our 2000 point game. Beyond that, I didn't ask him what he was playing, though he asked me, to which I replied I'd be bringing Marines (my Blood Angels) but didn't elaborate further. We get to the store and set up, get things ready and I see him set out a storm trooper guard army. I notice it looks a little small for 2k points and ask him if he's bringing in another allied force, to which he proudly plops a Knight on the table with a 'Gotcha!' look on his face. I give him a rather incredulous look, eyes narrowed, and remind him of our gentleman's agreement to not bring lords of war to the game, as I didn't own one at the time. He then smiles wider and he says he didn't bring it with a Lord of War slot, but brought it into the game another way that I don't recall (This might have been late 7th edition, I've slept a lot since then and specific details on his army and the rules in use are a tad fuzzy). I just stared at him for a long moment and reiterated that it's *still* a LoW model. He shrugged and said he didn't have any other models with him (Also a lie I'm pretty sure, as he had at least two good size cases of models and what he had set out on the table would have fit in just one of them) and make out to try and make me feel like I was being the bad guy for possibly turning the game down after we'd both made the trip, gotten the table ready, and I'd set my army out. I told him I'd play his list, but that he was not starting out our game on a good foot and that if he wanted to use his LoW model, all he had to do was tell me ahead of time and I'd have happily played against it, even with the same list I was planning on using that day. It wasn't about playing the LoW, but pulling a fast one on someone he never met by going against the one thing we both agreed not to do. He seemed to understand and to his dim credit, did apologize for doing it.

I managed to win the game, which was deliciously satisfying I'll admit, though he made the game just... not fun at all. His attitude, know-it-all remarks, and general demeanor just soured the entire experience starting at the jump with his attempt to 'Gotcha!' and every single person who had any interaction with him just echoed this sentiment. It's sad, honestly, and I can't help but pity him for how he literally ran himself out of the hobby.

Offender 2 I met afterward, and actually invested some time and effort into bringing into the community much to my chagrin. He wound up being a massive cheater, and even more massive poor sport despite sinking thousands of dollars into the hobby and time to get at least one army fully painted. If a game even started to look like it was not going his way, he would turn into a giant man-baby and just start picking his models up (Space marines, mind you) without even taking their saves when they were wounded on an enemy turn. If he was winning, he was up beat and happy to be playing. If he was losing, he literally made the entire room know it and was just a horrible person to be around. In one tournament that comes to mind, he was playing another friend of mine and after a particularly bad turn for him, he sat down at the table, pulled a Nintendo switch out and plugged earphones in before starting to playing it, instead of engaging with his opponent. No more conversation, wouldn't roll dice, just picked up models without rolling saves and didn't move or shoot on his turn. It was sad. He just checked out of the game, and gave up in the middle of the match. He didn't get many invitations for games after that stunt. Again, I felt bad for him, but he put himself into the situation he wound up in.

The icing on the cake was when I tried to help him and give him the feedback from the rest of the community (along with the store owner, as I was employed at the FLGS I mentioned above when I met him and we both wanted him to be a part of the community if he wanted to be), he flat told us he wouldn't apologize for his behavior and that it was just how he was and if people didn't like it, that was their problem. It got so bad that he refused to even speak with me after a time, telling the store owner that he was "afraid of me". I'd never done anything to the guy beyond try to help him and while I'm no small guy (6' tall), he made me look small by comparison with his height and girth. He doesn't come around the store anymore that I've seen, though I only work 3 days a week, it's possible he's up there when I'm not. C'est-la-vie.

The ole adage, good riddance to bad rubbish springs to mind.

We have a few other less bad offenders in the shop, though I'll save those for another post.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

The wrath of a bored Boomer Karen with Social Media and the ability to do a Google Review can absolutely ruin a business. Even if it's trivial and petty. I've seen this stuff get so out of hand, it had to involve police running Karens off the property and outright restraining orders.

are there many pensioners posting scathing reviews on Google in your area? Surely it’s more likely the parents of the kids in the shop - millennials - who’d be doing that?

My parents are “boomers”, and all they’ve had is a rather amused tolerance at the sort of things I wasted my time on.

I’m not sure if the OP means leaving the shop in terms of being a customer or in terms of being part of the gaming community there. I don’t play games in shops, but an unfriendly atmosphere from the staff means I’m unlikely to go back to a shop. Thankfully the old cliché of a hobby shop being a dark, dusty hole run by a grumpy old man has mostly died away.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

The wrath of a bored Boomer Karen with Social Media and the ability to do a Google Review can absolutely ruin a business. Even if it's trivial and petty. I've seen this stuff get so out of hand, it had to involve police running Karens off the property and outright restraining orders.

are there many pensioners posting scathing reviews on Google in your area? Surely it’s more likely the parents of the kids in the shop - millennials - who’d be doing that?

My parents are “boomers”, and all they’ve had is a rather amused tolerance at the sort of things I wasted my time on.

You must have missed the mad mothers back in the eighties. In St. Louis they protested the broadcast of Robotech during afternoon cartoon hours, because people got killed! But G.I. Joe was just fine...

Mad mothers reading Jack Chick material kept trying to get game stores banned.

And then there's the mad mothers demanding a rating system for music much like was in force for movies. Of course, that backfired on them...

While the bad social media reviews are most likely to be a late GenXer or a Millennial, they're just following in the path they were taught by their own Boomer mothers.

 Vulcan wrote:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

The wrath of a bored Boomer Karen with Social Media and the ability to do a Google Review can absolutely ruin a business. Even if it's trivial and petty. I've seen this stuff get so out of hand, it had to involve police running Karens off the property and outright restraining orders.

are there many pensioners posting scathing reviews on Google in your area? Surely it’s more likely the parents of the kids in the shop - millennials - who’d be doing that?

My parents are “boomers”, and all they’ve had is a rather amused tolerance at the sort of things I wasted my time on.

You must have missed the mad mothers back in the eighties. In St. Louis they protested the broadcast of Robotech during afternoon cartoon hours, because people got killed! But G.I. Joe was just fine...

Mad mothers reading Jack Chick material kept trying to get game stores banned.

And then there's the mad mothers demanding a rating system for music much like was in force for movies. Of course, that backfired on them...

While the bad social media reviews are most likely to be a late GenXer or a Millennial, they're just following in the path they were taught by their own Boomer mothers.

dont get me started on the damn self-righteous mad moms. My Mom made fun of them but had a problem with my playing D&D.

I've been exposed to them in a professional capacity and it took all of my composure not to tell her straight to the face that she was a complete fething moron and to get the feth out of my store(not game related).