Quote from: The_Shadow;753257Of course the OP may be making the point that game stores are not simply not hugely relevant to health of the hobby or the strategy of the industry. It's certainly a moot point, but organised play seems still to continue, powered by the existence of local stores.

Bingo.  That is the point I was really making with my chock-full-of-hyperbole post.

Sure I miss having a great FLGS.  I wish they never went away.  And if you have a true blue FLGS near you, that's fantastic.

But the trend is to see the FLGS go away...

Quote from: gonster;753198This is just a post I am putting up to prove a point.  As far as RPGS are concerned, the FLGS died back in 2006.  This was the bust of the incredible boom cycle of d20, and the final saturation of the internet into the market place.

As far as the industry is concerned, the FLGS concept is over, and any mentioning of it is just a marketing ploy.

Discuss.

You're full of shit.

 TWO local gaming stores locally since 2003.

Both still going strong.


- Ed C.

Quote from: gonster;753261But the trend is to see the FLGS go away...

Is it though?

I know it's common wisdom but I'm thinking back and 10 years ago and 20 years ago I'm coming up with the same rough number of game stores in my area. At least as far as my memory holds.

Sure some have closed, but others have opened and it seems a bit of a wash.

Pueblo has always had one, Colorado Springs has always had 2 or 3, Aurora had 1 and now has 2, etc...

Quote from: Piestrio;753263Is it though?

I know it's common wisdom but I'm thinking back and 10 years ago and 20 years ago I'm coming up with the same rough number of game stores in my area. At least as far as my memory holds.

Sure some have closed, but others have opened and it seems a bit of a wash.

Pueblo has always had one, Colorado Springs has always had 2 or 3, Aurora had 1 and now has 2, etc...

As I said KC metro with Olathe and Overland Park KS (right across the border and considered the metro) jumps the number of major full service FLGS to 6-7 on the conservative side. Basically all within an hour's drive.

Sure I could be wrong -- then I learned something today.

Koltar, I am speaking about RPGs here when I talk about a gaming store.  The board is called The RPG Site.  I just thought it was assumed.  (If I was wrong in this assumption I apologize.)  What % of your sales are rpg sales.  I am figuring they have dropped off 2014 vs. 2004?

I have no doubt a game store selling board games and trading card games could still exist -- there is one store that I go to that is doing great.

I am talking about stores that sell it ALL and run organized play for WotC and Pathfinder and have most games you can imagine in their library to run whatever other odd game like 1e/White Wolf/Space 1889....card games/Settlers of Catan/Warhammer.... pick it. Only places I personally know are even better are San Francisco, Portland OR, Seattle and Olympia WA. If you want ICE and used stuff Tacoma WA is your goldmine.

Now ask yourself why? Because all of them have either a strong university or military population many times both.

Quote from: gonster;753271What % of your sales are rpg sales.  I am figuring they have dropped off 2014 vs. 2004?

I absolutely believe that RPGs make up a tiny part of most stores sales but that's been the case as long as I've been gaming. If it's less now I doubt it really matters to most stores in the long run because it's chump change.

I know for a fact that at my FLGS RPGs fall somewhere below "dice" and "card sleeves" in the revenue department but the owner says it's fairly cheap to keep stocked and makes a lot of his customers happy (and thus returning and buying).

An inflamatory OP that is basically correct. The FLGS in my area (LA) is alive and well, and makes 100% of its money off of board games, miniatures and other things that serve as an obvious 'pivot' from the old business base of table-top roleplaying.

The store I REALLY miss is the original Pegasus in Madison, WI. I'm sure there were a bunch of stores like this, but it is hard to think of a better time and place than the late 70's in the upper mid-west to find first-generation gaming vibe. A bunch of cool SCA geeks who got their hands on a red brick hole in the wall near the main drag down town, and filled it to overflowing with crazy games that were hot off the presses.

Olympia Cards and Comics (in Lacey, WA a superb of Olympia, WA - South Puget Sound) has nearly every Kickstarter and Indie game I can think of, plus plenty of the main-stream, 2nd-stream and one-offs. They also do comics, board games, card games, miniatures, collectibles...

The RPG section includes a huge "used" section with varying discounts via color-coded stickers. It's a seriously fun place to shop!!

Manhattan has pretty much withered down to the old standby Compleat Strategist. The loss of Neutral Ground was very unfortunate.

I'm not sure I understand the premise of the OP. I can't ever remember going to a FLGS that sold only RPGs. It has always been a mix of hobbies (trains, planes, etc), comics, board games, toys and so on mixed with rpgs.

But there is one north of ATL doing it very right: http://www.giga-bitescafe.com/index.php

This place is packed with war game tables, side tables for card games, and a back room for RPGs.

Best: some genius decided to put a cafe in there that serves GOOD food. We'd go there just to eat, seriously good sandwiches, paninis, and breakfast rolls.

I'm not sure if the FLGS is dead or the smart ones are just figuring out how to cater to customers. And I say despite knowing of another game/ comic store that has been going strong 25 years with bad customer service, maybe luck too.

Quote from: trechriron;753292Olympia Cards and Comics (in Lacey, WA a superb of Olympia, WA - South Puget Sound) has nearly every Kickstarter and Indie game I can think of, plus plenty of the main-stream, 2nd-stream and one-offs. They also do comics, board games, card games, miniatures, collectibles...

The RPG section includes a huge "used" section with varying discounts via color-coded stickers. It's a seriously fun place to shop!!

That's the one! I knew Gabby when her and Patrick worked in the South Sound Mall at Olympic Comics. She is the best!!!!! I spent whole days in there and spent hundreds of dollars a month at that Nirvana.

I was one of many that said to her "You stock it and we'll stop going to Seattle and Tacoma to buy it".

Quote from: gonster;753213They only store I know in the area that I would even call a FLGS -- ALL THINGS FUN in Berlin NJ -- basically told me that they would simply order in the new D&D for those customers that ordered it.  None would take up shelf space.

(yawn)  I think I've lost count of the "OMG the FLGS is DOOOOOOMED!!" threads I've seen over the years.  I saw them in APAs in the late-80s.  Most of their creators have based their POV on their favorite local outlet closing shop, and the rest base their POV on their FLGS undergoing one or more of the following trends which -- in their sole and exclusive opinion -- disqualifies the FLGS from being a "G":

* Those Damned Kids And Their Card Games;

* The clientele is devoid of people younger (or older) than the OP likes ... too many (or not enough) piercings, tats or black clothing? Lowlifes or fuddy-duddys, the lot of them; or

* It doesn't stock a high enough percentage of the Right Games: too many of those stupid small-press games that waste space (if the OP doesn't play those), too much of that "corporate" swill (= any game that gamers outside of Internet forums have heard of, if the OP doesn't play those). None of that Warhammer crap (if the OP doesn't like the 40K crowd) ... etc etc. Nothing too old (if the OP only wants the Latest Edition of Everything) ... or with lots of bins of dusty - and heavily discounted - antiques (if the OP is a treasure hunter).

I'll throw an anecdotal back atcha: of the five FLGSes in Metro Boston in 1978, each and every one is still in business.  Have they changed over the years?  Well, for one thing, they weren't 100% tabletop RPG outlets in 1978 either.  The Games People Play in Cambridge was principally a traditional "game" store, then as now: fancy chess sets, cribbage, backgammon, card games, puzzles.  Strategy and Fantasy World in Boston (the current Compleat Strategist) was heavily into board wargames: SPI and Avalon Hill games, that sort of thing.  Hobby Bunker in Malden was (then as now) heavily invested in miniature wargaming.  And so on.  There are a fair number more now, as well.

And those stores went out of business in the 70s, and in the 80s, and in the 90s as well.  The RPGs/bookstore I first bought Fantasy Trip?  Pretty well known place locally, as to that, was out of business by 1982.  The FLGS in the town I went to college in 1982?  Out of business two years later.  Its replacement?  Gone by 1989.  The two FLGSs I first patronized when I moved to Massachusetts' large western city in the late 80s?  One was out of business by 1990, the other was out of business by '95.  This has always been a volatile business.

Y'know, I've never known a time where I've seen a store that was a tabletop RPG outlet and nothing but.  They've always had some other serious focus: SF/fantasy books, hobby modeling, wargames, miniatures, Eurogames, board games, computer games, CCGs, something.

Quote from: trechriron;753292Olympia Cards and Comics (in Lacey, WA a superb of Olympia, WA - South Puget Sound) has nearly every Kickstarter and Indie game I can think of, plus plenty of the main-stream, 2nd-stream and one-offs. They also do comics, board games, card games, miniatures, collectibles...

The RPG section includes a huge "used" section with varying discounts via color-coded stickers. It's a seriously fun place to shop!!

That's the one! I knew Gabby when her and Patrick worked in the South Sound Mall at Olympic Comics. She is the best!!!!!

Hell, a new game store just opened in Athens, GA and while I'm pretty sure their money maker is Magic (what game store isn't), and they are still working up stock so their RPG selection isn't that great yet, when I went in last Saturday there were like, 3 tables of people playing RPGs.