> The staff was nice but they looked unkempt and dirty and usually did not
> have that "feel free to
> approach me and ask questions" demeanor that you will find in stores like
> The Disney Store.
>
Holy sweet high Hannah on a pogo stick. This has to be, hands down, one of
the oddest, most bizarre comparisons that I have ever heard in my life. You
want game stores to look and feel like *the DISNEY store*?! As one who, in
a moment of sheer fiscal panic, once tried to get a job at the Disney store,
lemme tell you something: behind that sweet demeanor is an iron gauntlet
filled with buckshot. They tell you what to where, when to wear it and how
big to frickin' smile when they're beating you with it. Disney is about
IMAGE, IMAGE, IMAGE. The Disney machine stays up late at night thinking of
new and Machiavellian ways to improve it's IMAGE. [wow - this is a rant] If
I have ever met a class of people who really don't give a crap what their
image is, it's fanboys (and grrlz). You know what? I LIKE that about them.
The day we take gaming store to the level of the Harley Davidson Cafe and
sell our souls for the almighty Sorority Sister dollar, we may as well just
all chuck our severed heads into the belly of the corporate beast, because
one of the last vestiges of tried-and-true individualism in this country
will be deceased.
Granted, I'm not saying that there isn't room for improvement, but you're
making it sound like game stores are biker bars. Having worked for a small
and battered comic book store (now deceased, even though it *was* brightly
lit), one of the main impediments to that luscious decor that you're looking
for is CASH. When you're just barely covering the essentials, like rent and
maybe even getting paid, heaven forbid, there just isn't enough in the petty
cash drawer for fluted columns and rococo design work. All those dark,
frightening posters are of game material and coming attractions, which you
use to cover over the crap-ass wall that the mall managers won't let your
artistic friends do a mural on.
> I have been in one used bookstore because I was desparate for an old
> sci-fi series that only they had. Usually, I avoid them and opt for
> places like Barnes & Noble because I feel better in clean, organized
> places.
>
Am I noticing a trend here? "Why can't this small, independently owned and
operated small businessman give me the same shopping experience as Barnes &
Noble, one of the largest book retailers on the planet?" What? What?
Hello?
> Additionally, a used bookstore does not share the same social stigma that
> a comic store does. When I think of the word "used bookstore" I
> immediately get the image of a sweet old man in glasses and charming
> wooden shelves. When I think of the word "comic store" I think of bongs,
> a smelly guy reading a comic book, and kids in black t-shirts stealing
> dice.
>
*shakes his head* I'm just boggled. How in the heck is ANYONE supposed to
deal with ingrained paranoia like that? If you're in Barnes & Noble, and a
group of loud teenagers comes in, are you going to duck out because they're
disrupting your sterile, well-lit experience? And bongs? BONGS? I have,
in 20 years of gaming, boy and man, never, and I mean NEVER (and we're not
even going to talk about #s of states and #s of stores) NEVER have I seen a
BONG on sale at a game store. I'm not quite sure what game store you're
going to, but just because they have a copy of Vampire on the back shelf of
Stikky Fingers next to the PVC boots and under the shelf with the pasties
does NOT make it a game store.
> I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying that these are the thoughts that
> color my desire to travel to and spend money in a place.
>
Right doesn't even figure into it. These are your well-cherished beliefs,
and I'd be hard pressed to find a shopping experience that would accomodate
them without a wrinkle here and there. Luckily for you, you live in an age
where if you live in the right zip codes, you could live in a hermetically
sealed bubble without having to stray outside for as much as a pack of gum
for the right price. The web, in all it's glory, is your salvation. No
dark nooks. No greasy hair. No worries about bad-smelling rapists. Just
go to Dragonscroll (oops - small operator, better go with Amazon) or any
other of the wonderful purveyors of games. As they used to say in the 7-UP
commercials: crisp and clean with no caffeine.
Of course, you'll miss out on all of the little quirks of game life, like
having someone come up to you cold when you're standing in front of the
White Wolf rack and ask "What clan are YOU?" [true story] You'll miss out
on the out of prints, the small presses, the local stuff. You'll miss out
on the buy-a-box specials of old CCGs because the owner speculated and
tanked. But hey, no bongs at least, right?
Kuma
> >
> > Your comment about "rough-looking people gathered to paint
> > miniatures" is an odd thing for a gamer to say. I would call gamers
> > "unkempt" and "disheveled," but "rough-looking" makes them sound
> > like
> > street toughs. Where are you shopping?
>
> Well, they might be just "unkempt" to you but to some people "unkempt"
> and "rough-looking" go hand in hand. People have different levels of
> tollerance. Again I am not condoning the judgement of people and places
> based on their looks, but it happens, and if we want to sell to people
> who wouldn't normally go into a comic store we are going to have to learn
> and accept the reason why. "Looks" were the subconscious reason in my
> life, and I suggest to you all that it is probably the reason in others.
>
>
> Maggie
> -------------
> For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
