You know, it's kind of funny, but every time someone asks about gaming stores in the Bay Area on-line, I'll always volunteer Endgame and Black Diamond Games (BDG being my FLGS, at the time). It's because these are nicely run stores, that actively embrace being a community hub for players of all kinds (CCG, wargaming, RPG's, etc).

Invariably, I get people who ask why I never recommend two other local stores. Now one of the stores, I don't recommend because it's *mostly* a comic shop; it has one shelf of RPG stuff, and it's obviously not their prime product (I *do* recommend it, when people ask me where they can grab their comics from; it's a great comic shop). The other one, is my horror memory of a hole-in-the-wall shop of catpissmen. It was dark, cramped, and had three people in it that must have lived and slept in the store. I was not welcome from the moment I walked in, could not move around the store without having to ask someone to move their bulk repeatedly, and I have never returned since.

There's a reason, I only recommend *certain* places...

Quote from: Fiasco;662060Nothing wrong with hardcore punk, but expecting all your customers to like it? Thats social retard behavior.

I didn't see the part where he said he expected his customers to like it.

Stores can do very well and be very good for everyone around if they choose their audience.

Quote from: taustin;662075He was famous.

I believe the word you are looking for is infamous.

Quote from: taustin;662076The only time it was really bad was at local gaming cons, and that only the 2nd or 3rd day. Mostly, it was kids too broke (or cheap) to get a room, and too obsessed with the games to go home at night. They'd play for 24+ hours straight, then sleep in their car (or under a table in the open gaming room) for a few hours.

Or guys like my one buddy, who thought a 4-hour nap doesn't require a shower afterward. :huhsign:

Sometimes, I think Con's should post general rules of etiquette, and hygiene, throughout a Con.

Quote from: Ronin;662083I believe the word you are looking for is infamous.

"Dusty, Dusty, Dusty...infamous, is when you're MORE than famous. This man El Guapo is not just famous he's IN-famous!"

Quote from: Novastar;662078You know, it's kind of funny, but every time someone asks about gaming stores in the Bay Area on-line, I'll always volunteer Endgame and Black Diamond Games (BDG being my FLGS, at the time). It's because these are nicely run stores, that actively embrace being a community hub for players of all kinds (CCG, wargaming, RPG's, etc).

Invariably, I get people who ask why I never recommend two other local stores. Now one of the stores, I don't recommend because it's *mostly* a comic shop; it has one shelf of RPG stuff, and it's obviously not their prime product (I *do* recommend it, when people ask me where they can grab their comics from; it's a great comic shop). The other one, is my horror memory of a hole-in-the-wall shop of catpissmen. It was dark, cramped, and had three people in it that must have lived and slept in the store. I was not welcome from the moment I walked in, could not move around the store without having to ask someone to move their bulk repeatedly, and I have never returned since.

There's a reason, I only recommend *certain* places...

That place reminds me of a train store I used to go to.  They had a good amount of good quality N-gauge stuff for the time, so I tolerated them inside their basement hidey-hole.  (It literally was the basement of a 1940's era house.)  But they were all ancient and smelly, except for the lone "younger" guy, a Vietnam vet who would get all scary talking about how they didn't bomb those [insert racist invective] Vietnamese hard enough.  I was grateful they weren't a train and gun shop, because that one guy always felt like he was one wrong look away from going postal.

Quote from: Ronin;662083I believe the word you are looking for is infamous.

I will not dispute your correction. But mostly, he was just repulsive.

Quote from: Novastar;662084Sometimes, I think Con's should post general rules of etiquette, and hygiene, throughout a Con.

Short of baton weilding proctors, or firehoses at every door, good luck with that. When I was at GenCon, I was surprised there wasn't a prize for smelliest attendee.

Quote from: taustin;662101Short of baton weilding proctors, or firehoses at every door, good luck with that. When I was at GenCon, I was surprised there wasn't a prize for smelliest attendee.

The past few years when I went to GenCon it seemed that things were getting better.  Although I'll admit I'd only been there on Sundays, there was only one memorable person that I can recall, and to be honest her stench was the least of her problems.

I find cultivating tolerance is a good way to live one's life.  I do not always succeed, but even the odd folks often have some interesting or useful views of the world.

Quote from: Arkansan;661853Is it just me? Is there something in the water here? Or is this a common thing? Honestly I drive almost an hour now to go to the only FLGS that I like, simply because the owner is a cool guy but even then I still see a lot of smelly, greasy, weird fuckers.

Any horror stories, thoughts?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=370820096368800&set=pb.163379840446161.-2207520000.1371091849.&type=3&theater

The FLGSs I go to are each family-run.  Not run by 420 tattoo-covered types that share a bathroom with the porn lounge next door.

Quote from: Arkansan;661894My other favorite was a place that shut down a year or two ago where the owner said anyone who played 2nd edition was a queer and somehow the conversation ended in him challenging me to a wrestling match, no joke.

Stores near a nicer university seem to attract the better players also, rather than the degenerates who roam the streets named after presidents.

I discuss the size of my penis with weirdo nerds in game stores all the time

Family run doesn't mean shit in terms of quality. Most family run businesses are a bunch of fuck ups with codependent mental issues who could only be hired by their own parents.

And what is wrong with all of your wives? Did you mail order them from the Victorian era? The Downton Abbey Bride Catalog for Gamers? A dork talking to another dork about his dick is comedy gold.

And what's this panic about body odor? Is it a white collar thing? The human body is a stank factory, especially for some fatties in warm weather. I worked with a stinker years ago and he swore that he showered daily and I believed him because he never reeked in the morning and rarely in winter.

Back in the 80s, there were some stinkers at the conventions, but they are so incredibly few in the past two decades. "The March of the Catpissmen" is a RPG forum bogeyman. Ask yourself how many non-stinkers were at that infamous convention where you smelled one stinker?

I scrounge record shops and used book stores for fun and they have plenty of weirdos too (especially as employees) and the rare stinker, no more and no less than any game store I have been to in California (north, south and central).

Those guys who barely had enough social skills to play RPGs are now happily staying home playing consoles and WoW marinating in their own ass juice. We lost that segment of the hobby years ago (for beter or worse, they do have cash).

As for music in stores, I don't know. There is nothing that will please everyone and I agree that a store with a certain aesthetic visually and musically can aim for a certain clientele. But in the age of the iPod, doesn't everyone travel about with their own soundtrack of their choice? I haven't cared about store music since the Walkman was invented. In my world, all stores play Iron Maiden.

Maybe the fear of the "weirdo" is a middle class suburban thing. Go to a city and ride the bus or the subway. Meet the working class and the poor. Those guys and gals make lots of strange sounds and smells.

Quote from: Spinachcat;662116Family run doesn't mean shit in terms of quality. Most family run businesses are a bunch of fuck ups with codependent mental issues who could only be hired by their own parents.

And what is wrong with all of your wives? Did you mail order them from the Victorian era? The Downton Abbey Bride Catalog for Gamers? A dork talking to another dork about his dick is comedy gold.

And what's this panic about body odor? Is it a white collar thing? The human body is a stank factory, especially for some fatties in warm weather. I worked with a stinker years ago and he swore that he showered daily and I believed him because he never reeked in the morning and rarely in winter.

Back in the 80s, there were some stinkers at the conventions, but they are so incredibly few in the past two decades. "The March of the Catpissmen" is a RPG forum bogeyman. Ask yourself how many non-stinkers were at that infamous convention where you smelled one stinker?

I scrounge record shops and used book stores for fun and they have plenty of weirdos too (especially as employees) and the rare stinker, no more and no less than any game store I have been to in California (north, south and central).

Those guys who barely had enough social skills to play RPGs are now happily staying home playing consoles and WoW marinating in their own ass juice. We lost that segment of the hobby years ago (for beter or worse, they do have cash).

As for music in stores, I don't know. There is nothing that will please everyone and I agree that a store with a certain aesthetic visually and musically can aim for a certain clientele. But in the age of the iPod, doesn't everyone travel about with their own soundtrack of their choice? I haven't cared about store music since the Walkman was invented. In my world, all stores play Iron Maiden.

Maybe the fear of the "weirdo" is a middle class suburban thing. Go to a city and ride the bus or the subway. Meet the working class and the poor. Those guys and gals make lots of strange sounds and smells.

In other words, Spinachcat is the CPM in the room.

I don't think it is anything other than an expectation of basic social etiquette. I am not asking people to be perfect just not fucking obnoxious. I don't think it is a middle class suburban thing, I grew up piss poor in shitty neighborhoods and since I am broke and in school I am still there essentially, does not have a bearing on a basic sense of how to behave or take care of ones hygiene.

Quote from: Arkansan;662132I don't think it is anything other than an expectation of basic social etiquette. I am not asking people to be perfect just not fucking obnoxious. I don't think it is a middle class suburban thing, I grew up piss poor in shitty neighborhoods and since I am broke and in school I am still there essentially, does not have a bearing on a basic sense of how to behave or take care of ones hygiene.

I agree. Don't think any customer expects to listen to employees at a store discuss their penis sizes. Talking about that stuff in front of customers ought to get you fired (because your store will lose business over that behavior). And I also don't think women expecting to go into a store without being hounded or stared at in a creepy manner is all that unusual (or Victorian). My wife is perfectly fine and can tolerate bad behavior with a smile but like most women she doesn't like guys acting creepy around her. We are polite about. And we get that some don't realize what they are doing. But it still makes her uncomfortable. It isn't something you see at at every game store though.