Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;662111https://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.

Ahahaha that is legend! But no, an excess of tattoos doesn't correlate with bad hygiene in my experience. It's probably another cultural thing, in these parts tattooed people are more likely to be peace loving hippies rather than ex-cons or bikers. Nothing against bikers either mind you, it costs a lot of money to maintain that lifestyle these days, half those guys are serious professionals in one field or another.

Quote from: The Traveller;662212Ahahaha that is legend! But no, an excess of tattoos doesn't correlate with bad hygiene in my experience. It's probably another cultural thing, in these parts tattooed people are more likely to be peace loving hippies rather than ex-cons or bikers. Nothing against bikers either mind you, it costs a lot of money to maintain that lifestyle these days, half those guys are serious professionals in one field or another.

Tattoos are becoming so common here that I don't think they are a good indication of what type of individual you are. Especially among younger people they are just accepted.

Quote from: Spinachcat;662116Maybe 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.

I know a lot of poor and working class people and all of them practice good hygeine and smell just fine. Working class people shower and wear deodorant just like anyone else. I used to work at a fish market and when I got off my shift, I stank to high heaven, but that wasn't a smell I was comfortable carrying around with me. I wouldn't go out and socialize until after I changed and had a shower. There are plenty of good reasons to stink (work, play, the gym, etc). But if you carry your BO proudly don't be surprised if people find it unpleasant.

Edit: just want to add, because you touched on it in your post, I understand some people may have conditions that produce body odor. Fungal infections and more serious illnesses, a propensity for sweat and skin bacteria, these can all make you a bit whiffy. I am not talking about folks who can't help it. I imagine it is rather tough for them. I am talking about the guy who clearly didn't shower or wash his clothes (dirty laundry has a distinct aroma). I am also not talking about shaming anyone or being mean. But I do think the better game stores communicate their expectations of hygeine and behavior to workers and regular customers who hang out in the store.

Same here, tattoos are very common, I don't think they really reflect on a person one way or another. I have no problem with how people choose to dress or decorate themselves, I only care how they behave, and wether or not I can smell them across the room.

In this retail market, how do stores run by fuck-ups even manage to say in business? I have a great local game store, the Sentry Box. The owner is a smart businessman and normal guy. He hires geeks, but functional, polite geeks. Maybe these terrible, smelly stores are in economically depressed areas, where rents and labor are extremely cheap and a retail business can survive on a couple grand a month in income?

My preferred term is "mouth-breather" to reflect those assholes too lazy to even blow their nose when there are allergens in the air.

I don't mind dealing with them, I'll just tell them to fuck off if they're being annoying and rude. And I'll be polite if they offer me the same. But what really grinds my gears is when they reflect on our hobby.

I was at a used bookstore, browsing their limited used RPG books and there were two other people there. Some mutant mouth-breather who could barely contain his annoyance that other people were also looking at the RPG books and a kid about 11 or 12. The kid was just being a kid, mumbling to himself, looking at the artwork on the cover of the books and generally just entertaining himself while his parents or whatever were browsing.

The mouthbreather sighed and mumbled and gave the kid the stink-eye until he finally got the hint and wandered off to be somewhere else. Then mouthbreather plants himself in front of the bookshelf indian style, loudly said "Thank gawd that kid left. He was SO annoying." Then started pulling shit off the shelf to hold in his lap. He failed to notice he was now in MY way of browsing the shelf.

And yes, he smelled bad.

Honestly, I should have said something. Here was a young kid with his interest potentially piqued. Left on his own, he might have sought out more about the hobby, maybe later when he got older. I dunno. But more than likely now he thinks of RPGs and remembers the stinky asshole who passively aggressively shooed him away.

Retelling the story kinda makes me angry again and regretful I didn't say something to the mouthbreather. Little good it would have done be damned.

Yeah, if the mutant mouth-breather was doing that an adult, then I would probably just mind my own business and let the adult handle how they saw fit.  However, seeing an adult doing that to a kid I would probably would have told MMB to fuck off hard.  That shit just pisses me off to no end too.

Quote from: taustin;662075(Several years later, I was in Game Castle, talking to a friend about him.

I have a fondness for the Game Castle next to Cal State Fullerton.  I was born and raised in Anaheim, so that was the one gaming store I went to.  It was a little small and cramped toward the back (especially where they had the back issues of Dragon magazine), but I really liked it.  I've been back one time in recent memory, but they didn't really have anything I needed.  

Regarding discussing penis size, that seems strange.  If he wants to be convincing, he might as well pull it out.  It's bluffing if you're not willing to show your cards.  But either way, not something I'd want to be a part of.

In my experience, while there are plenty of 'normal' people at gaming stores, there's a higher concentration of 'undesireables' compared to other random places you might go.  The thing is, Game Stores are pretty specialized.  If there are some people I don't want anything to do with at McDonalds or Walgreens, I can go to Burger King or CVS.  A book store tends to be larger than a large number of game stores, so even if you have one there, the creep factor tends to be lower.  

As for whether it's a white suburban thing, I don't think so.  I've ridden plenty of public transportation, so I've had to deal with some uncomfortable crowding situations with some generally unpleasant people.  Given a choice, I would choose to avoid them.  In regards to visiting gaming stores, I do have a choice.

The best place to go with SO's and family in Berlin is Gamer's HQ, a wargame/minis store with only some RPGs. I like to think it is the reason why it is good.

Clean, educated bunch of people. My SO especially appreciated the clean rest rooms that had all necessary perks for all genders.

The rpg-mainly stores are all hives of scum and villainy.

When visiting the US, I noticed that the lowest rung of the ladder are the comic book stores. Cesspools 90% of the time! [full disclosure: I tried VA, CA, RI, MASS; ymmv ofc].

All the game stores in my area are centered largely around MtG and other CCGs, everything else is sort of an aside, with the exception of one store that focuses on Games Workshop stuff.

As to wether the quality of customer and employee has to do with the economics of the area I don't know. The offending game store in my area is in a upper scale shopping district, and I know the rent on their space ain't cheap. It just seems to have a large number of mouth breathers, incompetent employees and owners that are oblivious at best. The store I prefer is in a much older area and while having a few weirdos of its own the owner is a great guy so I don't mind as much, plus he hasn't fucked up my orders three times in a row like the other place.

Over the years I've known people offline who were privately into niche hobbies which attract weirdos (ie. catpissmen, mouth breathers, etc ...), but who also absolutely refuse to go and/or shop at offline places/events which cater to such niche hobbies.  (ie. Places like gaming stores, comic stores, music stores, niche bookstores, etc ... and niche hobby conventions of any kind).

The only time they ever buy anything related to their niche hobbies, is largely online or at a large bigbox store (ie. amazon, walmart, etc ...).

In some niches, it is possible to engage in the hobby without ever having to meet and/or interact with anybody else who is also into the same niche hobby.  (ie. Single player video games, Star Trek, Star Wars, occult literature, metal/punk music, science fiction, Forgotten Realms novels, etc ...).

Quote from: Haffrung;662221In this retail market, how do stores run by fuck-ups even manage to say in business?

Generally speaking, they don't, past when the owner's credit cards are maxed out.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;662231I have a fondness for the Game Castle next to Cal State Fullerton.  I was born and raised in Anaheim, so that was the one gaming store I went to.  It was a little small and cramped toward the back (especially where they had the back issues of Dragon magazine), but I really liked it.  I've been back one time in recent memory, but they didn't really have anything I needed.  

They've moved, couple of miles south on State College. Much bigger location (and I think they have a gaming area now).

Quote from: deadDMwalking;662231Regarding discussing penis size, that seems strange.  If he wants to be convincing, he might as well pull it out.  It's bluffing if you're not willing to show your cards.  But either way, not something I'd want to be a part of.

It's entirely possible he didn't whip it out because he had before.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;662231In my experience, while there are plenty of 'normal' people at gaming stores,

Note that Game Castle carried a lot of more mainstream stuff. Compare it to, say, The War House in Long Beach, and you see more what people here are talking about (though I've never run across the mouth breating mutants there, but I've only been there a few times). But it's small, cramped, packed to the ceiling with stuff. It's hard to walk through the place, but man, they have everything.

Quote from: Arkansan;662245All the game stores in my area are centered largely around MtG and other CCGs, everything else is sort of an aside, with the exception of one store that focuses on Games Workshop stuff.

As to wether the quality of customer and employee has to do with the economics of the area I don't know. The offending game store in my area is in a upper scale shopping district, and I know the rent on their space ain't cheap. It just seems to have a large number of mouth breathers, incompetent employees and owners that are oblivious at best. The store I prefer is in a much older area and while having a few weirdos of its own the owner is a great guy so I don't mind as much, plus he hasn't fucked up my orders three times in a row like the other place.

Gaming tends to attact kids, and kinds in richer areas tend to have less of an idea what money or manners are worth. So you get more idiot customers, and it's a lot harder for them to hire good employees.

And I didn't mean that Game Castle was the only game store I've been to EVER, just when I was a kid.

Subsequently, a Critical Hit games opened up in Anaheim Hills.  I started playing Warhammer there, but they eventually closed.  That was the second location for the owners.  I liked him, and I think it was a good environment.  They had another store in Bakersfield, so hopefully that's still doing well for them.

In Iowa City there was a gaming store called Iguana's.  Started out really good.  It had comics/Beanie babies downstairs, Gaming stuff upstairs.  Not much in the way of gaming space (they had some - but it was dominated by CCGs).  Definitely no Warhammer play space.  

It sort of went downhill after some point.  Some good people left and they changed locations.  They ended up with less gaming product and more 'random college crap'.  

Then there was another store in Coralville, IA, that was pretty good.  Plenty of play space, but it wasn't particularly fun to hang out at.  An ex-co-worker who was fired (and bitter) hung out there ALL THE TIME.

Now I live in Knoxville, and I've been to several game stores, but I'm pretty sure they're all gone (it's been a while) except the one in the Old City.  Not of much interest to me, anymore.  I'm not really buying anything new in RPGs, so I get most everything at a used bookstore (McCay's).