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 lord_blackfang wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.
And before you say "well they are loosing table space" no....no they are not, for a vast majority of time most tables in game stores are not used, and if there is an event, even games in tge store are pushed to the side.

I suppose there's two possible reactions to that sort of video. I realized I was being inconsiderate to the very real financial needs of the proprietor... you doubled down on your entitlement, to the point you're so livid you can't type

Im sure me playing trench crusade with my buddies having a fun time is such a financial burden, how will they recover.
Also good job insulting someone then come up with a counter argument

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Someone mentioned something in the thread about how games being expected to last forever being a relatively new thing. Id say it is partly due to price of models, but also how games are consumed.
I think there is a disconnect between older gamers here(Like Gen X and Boomers) and younger gens because something i noticed is it is drastically different from how we play games or look at them. quite a bit of older gamers have their gaming group, they play in garages or sheds, and with one another.
alot of younger players play in shop. we consider gaming a more "Go out and meet people" kinda activity. Going to tournaments and conventions and meeting people. meeting new people who play things differently from us.
And if a game dies......we cant do that anymore. Conquest around me died and im having two armies Im still painting for the hope it grows again. yeah i have my friends, but they have their lists and built them so there is nothing new.

It really depends on the kind of community you build. The mono game tournament style works, but its appeal has its limits and they can die out during lulls in the game's popularity or just as people's lives change. Locally we've built a community built on miniature gaming as a genre than any particular game. Most people have at least 2-3 games they play and when someone is interested in a new game there's a pretty good chance there will be half a dozen people willing to try it so most people can come in with whatever they're excited about and be part of the crowd. It's easily been the largest minis community I've ever been a part of and the ability to bounce around and play the new hotness or old stuff or whatever people are excited about.

 LunarSol wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Someone mentioned something in the thread about how games being expected to last forever being a relatively new thing. Id say it is partly due to price of models, but also how games are consumed.
I think there is a disconnect between older gamers here(Like Gen X and Boomers) and younger gens because something i noticed is it is drastically different from how we play games or look at them. quite a bit of older gamers have their gaming group, they play in garages or sheds, and with one another.
alot of younger players play in shop. we consider gaming a more "Go out and meet people" kinda activity. Going to tournaments and conventions and meeting people. meeting new people who play things differently from us.
And if a game dies......we cant do that anymore. Conquest around me died and im having two armies Im still painting for the hope it grows again. yeah i have my friends, but they have their lists and built them so there is nothing new.

It really depends on the kind of community you build. The mono game tournament style works, but its appeal has its limits and they can die out during lulls in the game's popularity or just as people's lives change. Locally we've built a community built on miniature gaming as a genre than any particular game. Most people have at least 2-3 games they play and when someone is interested in a new game there's a pretty good chance there will be half a dozen people willing to try it so most people can come in with whatever they're excited about and be part of the crowd. It's easily been the largest minis community I've ever been a part of and the ability to bounce around and play the new hotness or old stuff or whatever people are excited about.

Im curious, wjat kinda games? Are they more small models easy entry types of games or are people playing like, horus heresy or old world.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.
And before you say "well they are loosing table space" no....no they are not, for a vast majority of time most tables in game stores are not used, and if there is an event, even games in tge store are pushed to the side.

I suppose there's two possible reactions to that sort of video. I realized I was being inconsiderate to the very real financial needs of the proprietor... you doubled down on your entitlement, to the point you're so livid you can't type

Really I think it’s just about respecting the space. The same can be said about someone that buys all there 40K online then goes into a store to play. It’s fine until they start telling other how to get the miniatures cheaper without regards to why prices may differ.
When a new store open up here, there was a big thing just getting players in enough for drink and snacks sales. Since most people are not buying a box of miniatures each day. But magic players may buy cards if they drop by.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Someone mentioned something in the thread about how games being expected to last forever being a relatively new thing. Id say it is partly due to price of models, but also how games are consumed.
I think there is a disconnect between older gamers here(Like Gen X and Boomers) and younger gens because something i noticed is it is drastically different from how we play games or look at them. quite a bit of older gamers have their gaming group, they play in garages or sheds, and with one another.
alot of younger players play in shop. we consider gaming a more "Go out and meet people" kinda activity. Going to tournaments and conventions and meeting people. meeting new people who play things differently from us.
And if a game dies......we cant do that anymore. Conquest around me died and im having two armies Im still painting for the hope it grows again. yeah i have my friends, but they have their lists and built them so there is nothing new.

It really depends on the kind of community you build. The mono game tournament style works, but its appeal has its limits and they can die out during lulls in the game's popularity or just as people's lives change. Locally we've built a community built on miniature gaming as a genre than any particular game. Most people have at least 2-3 games they play and when someone is interested in a new game there's a pretty good chance there will be half a dozen people willing to try it so most people can come in with whatever they're excited about and be part of the crowd. It's easily been the largest minis community I've ever been a part of and the ability to bounce around and play the new hotness or old stuff or whatever people are excited about.

Im curious, wjat kinda games? Are they more small models easy entry types of games or are people playing like, horus heresy or old world.

A little bit of everything. The GW stuff all sees a bit of play, though 40k is the biggest by far with AoS being about as niche as Necromunda and smaller than Blood Bowl. Conquest is probably the other large scale game and a crowd that plays historicals and there's a lot of skirmish stuff like MCP, Shatterpoint, Malifaux, Warmachine, Infinity, Judgement etc. I do think its a LOT easier to spin up skirmish stuff and they're where a lot of the crossover happens being a lot of 2nd, 3rd+ games in people's collections.

Jealous, I cant get people to so much as Blanche at another game

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.
And before you say "well they are loosing table space" no....no they are not, for a vast majority of time most tables in game stores are not used, and if there is an event, even games in tge store are pushed to the side.

Ultimately, the game store is exactly that - a store. The purpose of having gaming space is to encourage people to get into the games that they sell. Having people play other games that they don't sell doesn't do that... it results in people making use of the game space (that costs the store money) and then those players spending their money elsewhere. It can potentially be useful for growing a gaming community, some of whom will then spend money in the store... or it can just wind up costing the store a bunch of money to maintain a space for no worthwhile return.

The fact that you don't have room at home to play doesn't automatically make a store public space to use as you wish.

GrosseSax wrote:
Could it just be Star Wars IP fatigue?

I don't know if there is any crossover between SW wargames and SW merchandise as a whole, but the latter doesn't seem to be doing too well.

You can skip most of this video to 17:05 to see where most SW product ends up.

I'll admit I didn't watch the whole video because it was really annoying, but it seems to be conflating 'Star Wars Merchandise is in discount stores' with 'Star Wars Merchandise isn't selling any more!'... which is a stretch. It means that this specific merchandise isn't selling, but we have no way of knowing whether the 'Looks Like a Statue Obi Wan' figure at Ollies isn't selling because nobody is buying Star Wars merch anymore, or if it's because they produced 12 trillion of them and everyone who wanted one has one by now.

But given that Disney is apparently making around a billion dollars a year in merchandise sales, I'm betting on the latter, myself.

Overproduction is definitely a problem as it means that Disney's sales forecasters are using an inaccurate metric, it winds up costing them money and, as is happening here, creating the impression that the brand is unpopular. But it's a very different problem to 'nobody wants their merch anymore'...

Pokémon is similar to Star Wars, you can trip over cheap Pokemon stuff all the time. But can’t deny it isn’t selling.
And they refresh the range often for new things rather than keep it in stock for long times.
Disney is similar in how they use most of there merchandise IP.

Another thought about the store situation is something like battletech, our store, several are struggling to stock it due to world events. It sells well enough, but stock is low. So a new player is often left scrambling to find the mechs in a store without having to import or 3d print.
Honestly I think 3d printing is more scary for a store, as a miniature range can be stocked in a specialty way. But 3d printing is like the Wild West at this point.
I was even given shatterpoint proxy models all 3d printed a few weeks ago. He has an ork army that 80% 3d prints as well.

Also, over the last 10 years I have noticed the games stocked in a lot of game stores are really shrinking. Back before then I was able to go to a bunch of stores for a bunch of items. But now I’m not even finding D&D IotR boxes in stock. Which is a consistent seller still, but only specialty stores carry anything that not released in the last 4months.

 Apple fox wrote:
Pokémon is similar to Star Wars, you can trip over cheap Pokemon stuff all the time. But can’t deny it isn’t selling.
And they refresh the range often for new things rather than keep it in stock for long times.
Disney is similar in how they use most of there merchandise IP.

Another thought about the store situation is something like battletech, our store, several are struggling to stock it due to world events. It sells well enough, but stock is low. So a new player is often left scrambling to find the mechs in a store without having to import or 3d print.
Honestly I think 3d printing is more scary for a store, as a miniature range can be stocked in a specialty way. But 3d printing is like the Wild West at this point.
I was even given shatterpoint proxy models all 3d printed a few weeks ago. He has an ork army that 80% 3d prints as well.

Also, over the last 10 years I have noticed the games stocked in a lot of game stores are really shrinking. Back before then I was able to go to a bunch of stores for a bunch of items. But now I’m not even finding D&D IotR boxes in stock. Which is a consistent seller still, but only specialty stores carry anything that not released in the last 4months.

i have noticed many stores really shrinking what they carry ot GW, and maybe a few others, you might find the gem carrying things like infinity or conquest, but the offerings are meager and stuff you may have already.

 Apple fox wrote:

The same can be said about someone that buys all there 40K online then goes into a store to play.

I was told I wasn't welcome in a Warhammer store with minis I'd purchased from Element Games. I just stopped going to that store completely and spent my hobby budget at 3rd party retailers.

 Daba wrote:
Would that scale really have much reach though? The big moments in SW would be 'character' (skirmish 28mm) scale and space battles. The ground war section in Empire was cool, but very assymetrical and far less of a focus than space battles or character actions.

I don't know.

For me the big epic of Star Wars is the big battles of the clone wars and the age of the republic.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.

Fine. What about losing money. A shop is paying for staff, electricity, AC, wear and tear on furniture, presumably scenery and the like. If people coming to play aren't buying from them, and aren't paying for the overhead plus required profit margin (normally single figures) they will be gone soon. A board/card game shop opened near a friend recently thinking to let people come and play and on the back of that they will be able to sell them stuff. 3 months in they have started charging people £10 to sit and play because they were going down.

try setting up a club. Find a church hall or community building or library willing to let you store terrain and use the area. See their running costs and what you will need to pay them so they don't lose money.

Don't they charge for gamespace?

Pay where you play.

Clubs require membership fees to pay for hall hire and often storage.

GW stores have never charged, but then few if any now offer open gaming tables.

FLGS are very much a use it or lose it. Granted, there will be situations where your preferred game just isn’t stocked. And so, no problem with them charging for table time.

Compare all those costs to buying, building and painting your home table and scenery, and it typically works out favourably.

I was amazed to discover GW shops described as showrooms with no gaming tables. I am amazed they are still going bar company dogged determination.

Many GW stores are barely break-even in the UK, though I think the company strategy has shifted towards trying harder to make them profitable. GW has always seen them as partially about advertising rather than purely about retail. It works. There's a reason so many people know about GW, especially in the UK, even when they haven't ever seen a game or mini. If you live anywhere near a major city you'll have seen a GW store. That's why I was really confused when they rebranded them all to Warhammer stores. Seemed like a step backwards to me.

 Daba wrote:
Don't they charge for gamespace?

Most stores in the US(in my experience having lived in various places across the country) don't charge for play space, no.

But, there's also the whole thing where, especially in the US, Magic keeps the light on, not miniatures players.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 insaniak wrote:

I'll admit I didn't watch the whole video because it was really annoying, but it seems to be conflating 'Star Wars Merchandise is in discount stores' with 'Star Wars Merchandise isn't selling any more!'... which is a stretch. It means that this specific merchandise isn't selling, but we have no way of knowing whether the 'Looks Like a Statue Obi Wan' figure at Ollies isn't selling because nobody is buying Star Wars merch anymore, or if it's because they produced 12 trillion of them and everyone who wanted one has one by now.

But given that Disney is apparently making around a billion dollars a year in merchandise sales, I'm betting on the latter, myself.

I will point out that this video's premise is not a Disney problem, it's a Hasbro problem. Hasbro needs to fill out waves for the line and will often pick very weird variants to reuse molds as cost cutting measures. This is not a Disney decision and is part of why Hasbro's constantly declining sales revenue toy division is so dependent on funding from the much more successful WotC side of things.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
GW stores have never charged, but then few if any now offer open gaming tables.

This is not true. Back when GW had Battle Bunkers in the US, they did charge for table usage(in fact, the only place I've ever encountered in the US that did charge across the hundreds of stores I've played at).

Yeah in US store Miniature players are an afterthought and lucky if they are allowed to play.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The_Real_Chris wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.

Fine. What about losing money. A shop is paying for staff, electricity, AC, wear and tear on furniture, presumably scenery and the like. If people coming to play aren't buying from them, and aren't paying for the overhead plus required profit margin (normally single figures) they will be gone soon. A board/card game shop opened near a friend recently thinking to let people come and play and on the back of that they will be able to sell them stuff. 3 months in they have started charging people £10 to sit and play because they were going down.

try setting up a club. Find a church hall or community building or library willing to let you store terrain and use the area. See their running costs and what you will need to pay them so they don't lose money.

We really don't have that stuff in the US lol

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
We really don't have that stuff in the US lol

I mean, we do have some, but it's more that if you don't know the person that owns/runs those places, the fees are way higher than a group is willing to pay(if they even say yes) and they won't let you store stuff there.

Pretty sure there are churches and libraries in the US. The trick is you don't just waltz in and demand gaming space, you give something back.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Jealous, I cant get people to so much as Blanche at another game

I've bought a lot of little minis sets for games other people were interested in to foster a more open attitude. About a decade ago I started a policy of "if its 5-10 minis lets play" and made myself an available opponent for whatever people were interested in. Now there's a focus game each week but people mostly play whatever they want. It's really grown way beyond my expectations. It really helps that the local 40k community leader is great and really brought the game to a new level of popularity. There's never been a sense of poaching players between game systems. It's all about growing a miniatures community and not a specific game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Platuan4th wrote:

But, there's also the whole thing where, especially in the US, Magic keeps the light on, not miniatures players.

Learned recently that locally that's only been partially true. The local owner mentioned that hobby sales have started matching Magic.

American houses, if you have one, tend to be on the bigger side than EU and UK ones, so I'd expect more Americans play at home.

Could be wrong. I'm from NY, I lived in a shoe box in Astoria and I was glad to have it.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
American houses, if you have one, tend to be on the bigger side than EU and UK ones, so I'd expect more Americans play at home.

I can(and have) fit a 20' long play area in my current living room. Our large games benefit from so many advantages not having to be held at a store.

Slipspace wrote:
Many GW stores are barely break-even in the UK, though I think the company strategy has shifted towards trying harder to make them profitable. GW has always seen them as partially about advertising rather than purely about retail. It works. There's a reason so many people know about GW, especially in the UK, even when they haven't ever seen a game or mini. If you live anywhere near a major city you'll have seen a GW store. That's why I was really confused when they rebranded them all to Warhammer stores. Seemed like a step backwards to me.

I am still baffled as to how not have people playing the games in the shops is a good move. Having people display your games and models for free was I thought a cunning sales tactic.

The_Real_Chris wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.

Fine. What about losing money. A shop is paying for staff, electricity, AC, wear and tear on furniture, presumably scenery and the like. If people coming to play aren't buying from them, and aren't paying for the overhead plus required profit margin (normally single figures) they will be gone soon. A board/card game shop opened near a friend recently thinking to let people come and play and on the back of that they will be able to sell them stuff. 3 months in they have started charging people £10 to sit and play because they were going down.

try setting up a club. Find a church hall or community building or library willing to let you store terrain and use the area. See their running costs and what you will need to pay them so they don't lose money.

I think most game stores fall apart the moment either side takes the stance that they are owed something. There's no surefire answer to running one successfully because you need to create a symbiosis. If the store isn't catering to its audience or the customers are supporting the store, it's just not going to work. Depending on what space in your area costs, it's possible that it's simply not going to work. Sometimes there just isn't a demand to be met.

There are definitely players that take advantage of a store but a store that treats players like weeds is killing any potential for growth. Like, sure. If your tables are full of paying customers then you simply don't have space for minis games and that's fine, but if you've got available space, it's not costing you anything to let people use it. Your breadwinners will fall out of favor eventually. Magic was hot, Board games were hot. DnD was hot. If you're not open to new people coming in to play, you're not adapting to the market.

I can't stress how much work it takes to run a successful store and how often people just don't want to do it. Yeah, distributors are a pain to work with, but that's literally what the job is all about. Far too many stores stock their shelves and just wait for customers to clear them. You have to have a finger on the pulse. You have to have sales to clear back stock to fund new product to refresh your shelves. You have to know what kind of demand is in your area and not wildly overstock. Ideally you order what you sell. You need to know your customers and what they play and provide for them.

If people are playing a game you don't sell; keep an eye on it. Honestly most games really only need you to stock starter boxes not the whole line. You're giving that group an opportunity to bring in new players to buy the game off the shelf and if you can get in new releases for them for the factions they play, great. Let the internet fill in the gaps. Far far too many stores overstock and resent players for not buying things they didn't want or need.

Like I said though, this only works if its a two way street. It's not even that players need to feel obligated to buy things. Players need to help build out a terrain collection and promote the game nights and be available to teach new players and run classes. All this stuff takes work but provides value to the store. Granted, players also need to be willing to buy paints, models, flock and the rest while they're there. It's a two way street, which is why they're so prone to failure.

 LunarSol wrote:

The_Real_Chris wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

2: game stores exist as oke of tge few third spaces left., a place to go, hang out with friends and play games. And they are more important, especially in the US, to have due to not many people owning a home.
So yes, I do think people should be allowed to be in a space, tgst they are not actively harming, without the expectation of spending or making money for a store.

Fine. What about losing money. A shop is paying for staff, electricity, AC, wear and tear on furniture, presumably scenery and the like. If people coming to play aren't buying from them, and aren't paying for the overhead plus required profit margin (normally single figures) they will be gone soon. A board/card game shop opened near a friend recently thinking to let people come and play and on the back of that they will be able to sell them stuff. 3 months in they have started charging people £10 to sit and play because they were going down.

try setting up a club. Find a church hall or community building or library willing to let you store terrain and use the area. See their running costs and what you will need to pay them so they don't lose money.

I think most game stores fall apart the moment either side takes the stance that they are owed something. There's no surefire answer to running one successfully because you need to create a symbiosis. If the store isn't catering to its audience or the customers are supporting the store, it's just not going to work. Depending on what space in your area costs, it's possible that it's simply not going to work. Sometimes there just isn't a demand to be met.

There are definitely players that take advantage of a store but a store that treats players like weeds is killing any potential for growth. Like, sure. If your tables are full of paying customers then you simply don't have space for minis games and that's fine, but if you've got available space, it's not costing you anything to let people use it. Your breadwinners will fall out of favor eventually. Magic was hot, Board games were hot. DnD was hot. If you're not open to new people coming in to play, you're not adapting to the market.

I can't stress how much work it takes to run a successful store and how often people just don't want to do it. Yeah, distributors are a pain to work with, but that's literally what the job is all about. Far too many stores stock their shelves and just wait for customers to clear them. You have to have a finger on the pulse. You have to have sales to clear back stock to fund new product to refresh your shelves. You have to know what kind of demand is in your area and not wildly overstock. Ideally you order what you sell. You need to know your customers and what they play and provide for them.

If people are playing a game you don't sell; keep an eye on it. Honestly most games really only need you to stock starter boxes not the whole line. You're giving that group an opportunity to bring in new players to buy the game off the shelf and if you can get in new releases for them for the factions they play, great. Let the internet fill in the gaps. Far far too many stores overstock and resent players for not buying things they didn't want or need.

Like I said though, this only works if its a two way street. It's not even that players need to feel obligated to buy things. Players need to help build out a terrain collection and promote the game nights and be available to teach new players and run classes. All this stuff takes work but provides value to the store. Granted, players also need to be willing to buy paints, models, flock and the rest while they're there. It's a two way street, which is why they're so prone to failure.

Im honestly surprised people took what i said as saying stores should just let people do whatever and play whatever whenever in a store. but you are right. My store doesnt carry trench crusade. like obviously. but quite often on mondays it is 40k night for a league. now its march and was a slow month for the league so we had open tables. Why not let my buddies play trench crusade there for fun? the tables are open ,they buy pots of paints and snacks and such.
and guess what the trench crusade people are also 40kers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
American houses, if you have one, tend to be on the bigger side than EU and UK ones, so I'd expect more Americans play at home.

I can(and have) fit a 20' long play area in my current living room. Our large games benefit from so many advantages not having to be held at a store.

i find that, more often then not, people, especially if they have family, dont want to have people over to game

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
American houses, if you have one, tend to be on the bigger side than EU and UK ones, so I'd expect more Americans play at home.

I can(and have) fit a 20' long play area in my current living room. Our large games benefit from so many advantages not having to be held at a store.

i find that, more often then not, people, especially if they have family, dont want to have people over to game

I have a family. They're fine with it.

I find that it's about having space and communicating.

I've also found that there's a huge number of Americans that would rather play at home than stores.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Im honestly surprised people took what i said as saying stores should just let people do whatever and play whatever whenever in a store. but you are right. My store doesnt carry trench crusade. like obviously. but quite often on mondays it is 40k night for a league. now its march and was a slow month for the league so we had open tables. Why not let my buddies play trench crusade there for fun? the tables are open ,they buy pots of paints and snacks and such.
and guess what the trench crusade people are also 40kers.

I've heard owners complain about minis games in their empty shops and "why shouldn't they just hold another card night with more players that all buy packs" which I used to see as a valid argument but now I'm asking "well, why aren't you then?".

 LunarSol wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Im honestly surprised people took what i said as saying stores should just let people do whatever and play whatever whenever in a store. but you are right. My store doesnt carry trench crusade. like obviously. but quite often on mondays it is 40k night for a league. now its march and was a slow month for the league so we had open tables. Why not let my buddies play trench crusade there for fun? the tables are open ,they buy pots of paints and snacks and such.
and guess what the trench crusade people are also 40kers.

I've heard owners complain about minis games in their empty shops and "why shouldn't they just hold another card night with more players that all buy packs" which I used to see as a valid argument but now I'm asking "well, why aren't you then?".

i have heard my local store, say that people that come to hang out with their friends are stealing his AC.
im sorry, but i work past league start, should i not be allowed to come in and be with people i enjoy? sorry my existing is a burdon.

The_Real_Chris wrote:

Slipspace wrote:
Many GW stores are barely break-even in the UK, though I think the company strategy has shifted towards trying harder to make them profitable. GW has always seen them as partially about advertising rather than purely about retail. It works. There's a reason so many people know about GW, especially in the UK, even when they haven't ever seen a game or mini. If you live anywhere near a major city you'll have seen a GW store. That's why I was really confused when they rebranded them all to Warhammer stores. Seemed like a step backwards to me.

I am still baffled as to how not have people playing the games in the shops is a good move. Having people display your games and models for free was I thought a cunning sales tactic.

The flip side of GW having a presence on most high streets/city centres, is that they can't - or won't - pay the rent for a large shop in those locations because it's expensive. So you can't really have gaming space in any real sense. Most have just a single table, maybe two, for intro games and it's usually about 4'x4' at the absolute most. The staff do intro games and are usually really good at it. There's also usually space for painting, which helps advertise the models.