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 Easy E wrote:
I think the popularity of secondary games varies a lot by region.

Quite true, it is also how much effort you or your group of friends put the effort in to build support the other games. Gaming is a niche market to begin with and it is further divided by so much choice. the problem is most people don't know anything other than current GW games.

Aside from our group playing old world, MCP and classic battle tech pretty much every game we play is no longer supported.

In our group we have active players for-
.retro 40K 3rd-7th ed
.infinity mostly N2/3
.warmachine MKIII
.BFG
.victory at sea (mongoose version)
.Babylon 5 wars (and it's mods for star wars/star trek using attack wing & armada minis)
.castles in the sky
.MONPOC
.DUST 1947
.heavy gear
.epic 40k



Peripherally rare games i am aware of but are not actively played at my local game store-
.kingdom death
.flames of war
.team yankee
.beyond the gates of antares
.star wars legion
.malifaux
.warpath
.kings of war
.star wars shatter point
.dropzone/dropfleet commander
.gas land
.trench crusade

And that right there is the problem....26 different games for a small community to choose from while one is more promoted than any others and that one also has the highest buy in cost. so funds/time are constrained for most other games, especially for those who don't have the kind of time i do to play every weekend. they tend to have 1 game and nothing else. where people like me have an entire game(bed)room in my house full of totes of armies and terrain for a dozen different games systems.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Cyel wrote:


Why does it have to be stores, though? They are probably the worst place to play anyway. At homes, in gardens, in clubs, in gaming cafes, outdoors, libraries, local culture centres, schools or office spaces after hours. I've played in all of those places and every single one is better than a store.

Stores are where tournaments, leagues, events and game nights occur.

Are they? Most tournaments I ever organised or attended were in school halls. Best place to organise a narrative event/campaign is probably at home (wouldn't want random participants derail such an event that relies on engagement). All such events in my long wargaming career, including long megabattles and even longer campaigns have been home affairs. Leagues are also easier to organise without the constraints of a shop.
I also played tournaments in all the aforementioned places apart from office spaces after hours (only games with friends there). A memorable one was in the garden of a XIX century palace (which also serves as the local culture centre in the small town where it is located so in case of rain the event could be moved inside).

Cyel wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Cyel wrote:


Why does it have to be stores, though? They are probably the worst place to play anyway. At homes, in gardens, in clubs, in gaming cafes, outdoors, libraries, local culture centres, schools or office spaces after hours. I've played in all of those places and every single one is better than a store.

Stores are where tournaments, leagues, events and game nights occur.

Are they? Most tournaments I ever organised or attended were in school halls. Best place to organise a narrative event/campaign is probably at home (wouldn't want random participants derail such an event that relies on engagement). All such events in my long wargaming career, including long megabattles and even longer campaigns have been home affairs. Leagues are also easier to organise without the constraints of a shop.
I also played tournaments in all the aforementioned places apart from office spaces after hours (only games with friends there). A memorable one was in the garden of a XIX century palace (which also serves as the local culture centre in the small town where it is located so in case of rain the event could be moved inside).

I do think that Stores are where most tournaments and leagues occur, but it's likely that most game nights and campaigns happen outside of stores. There just aren't that many stores compared to the number of gamers.

My twice monthly gaming group has done 90%+ of our gaming in homes for the last decade or so. We occasionally game at a local game-themed restaurant and once in a great while we'll do a game night at a shop just for fun, but we have zero reliance on any commercial venue to sustain our group.

From personal experience, you won't have a store in an area unless you have a existing group of customers. Therefore, you need to create a community that has games and tournaments before. The store existing is an outcome of having a good community, the store won't start the community.

Cyel wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Cyel wrote:


Why does it have to be stores, though? They are probably the worst place to play anyway. At homes, in gardens, in clubs, in gaming cafes, outdoors, libraries, local culture centres, schools or office spaces after hours. I've played in all of those places and every single one is better than a store.

Stores are where tournaments, leagues, events and game nights occur.

Are they? Most tournaments I ever organised or attended were in school halls. Best place to organise a narrative event/campaign is probably at home (wouldn't want random participants derail such an event that relies on engagement). All such events in my long wargaming career, including long megabattles and even longer campaigns have been home affairs. Leagues are also easier to organise without the constraints of a shop.
I also played tournaments in all the aforementioned places apart from office spaces after hours (only games with friends there). A memorable one was in the garden of a XIX century palace (which also serves as the local culture centre in the small town where it is located so in case of rain the event could be moved inside).

we used to organize small leagues out of local spaces like my hoa poolhouse, local moose lodge, but insurance and event fees killed us. it would be like 150$ for insurance for the event.

Oh, that's indeed harsh!

We paid about that in £, however it covered our club for the year.