It's Getting Harder to Play Wargames in Stores 

6:45 - Main takeaway - break in to peoples houses until you find a new gaming buddy

The local war gaming club approached me to use my pubs function room in sussex over a decade ago. Still there, still going strong, super friendly and relaxed club.

I am a Blood Bowl player, the wargaming club I'm a part of is almost 100% WH40k. We have a weekly night at one of the local stores, I show up every week, and most weeks I'm stilling there with My stuff and no one to play against. But I've had people come up and ask questions while watching the 8 other tables of 40k, and I'm determined to KEEP SHOWING UP in the hopes that I can get more of them interested in BB so that We can on our MONTHLY saturdays have more than just 40k being played.

Also remember that your local gaming store lives off of sales and not these events. Don't go into your local gaming store for events, and then buy everything on-line because it's a few dollers cheaper. If you want to support to stores, and use their services - buy the goods!

My store used to have a 2000 sq' gaming space with miniature tables, board game tables, comfy office chairs, 2 65" TV's, video game systems, tons of hand painted terrain, the place was loaded. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop the "gaming community" from using the space to steal my store inventory. So we moved the space to another end of the store, isolated from the store inventory. So the " war gaming community" instead, stole and destroyed all the terrain, dice and accessories provided. When I closed that space, 90% of all the terrain provided was either stolen or completely destroyed. That is the reality of the War Gaming community.

The issue I run into around me is card games like magic are more popular, so if a set release occurs, forget it. The store lets it take over and now all the gaming space we had is now occupied.

In Russia we don't have a GW stores even before 2022, and the wargame clubs is very important to our hobby, because of 2 things: selling us boxes and give us a place to hang out with our miniatures. My favorite tabletop club-store in Moscow didn't survive after pandemic((( But the 2 new clubs was open in the last few years! The most important things to, that every club (in Moscow we have around 7 such places) got a local community of friends and local jokes around them

This vid is like therapy. I got into tabletop gaming with my son when he was 10. He soon amassed a crowd of friends and I was the dad that drove everyone around and made their gaming meet ups possible. Now that he’s all grown up and moving away I’m left without any gaming group at all. I’ve been trying to decide if I should just give up gaming and move on or start going to local hobby stores to try to find people to play with. It’s very hard in the US to find new people to play with.

I very awkwardly came up you to chat at adepticon and it was the highlight of my day. Thanks for doing what you do

6:05 - THAT sounds AWESOME!!! I WISH we could still do that! Have a "BATTLETECH WEEKEND", complete with the whole gang playing from morning to night, cookouts on the grill, atmospheric music, breaks for painting/building/customizing mechs, multiple tables for progression of a campaign..."sigh". We used to do something similar to that when we were younger and didn't have our own families and jobs that we had to work for hours-on-end... I think I've got something in my eye, excuse me...

The only reason it’s hard to play games in my local area is because all of the card game players have overrun them

I had this problem with D&D, we have games at the local library which were so fun, it was all ages and the kids would do crazy things. But as my core gamer friends grew up and moved away it was a huge lost to the fun freedom of true pen and paper gaming. This is not that because we can link up online in your area and pick a place or make a club. If there is a local library or coffee shop or comic shop(that doesn’t have wargaming) you can create awareness and help support a shop or space that didn’t realize it had other avenues to help bring peeps in.

Third places are becoming rarer in the US in general. Channels like Strong Towns, Not Just Bikes, Citynerd etc speak about this. This issue is a lot bigger than wargaming. It could help smaller games get a bigger slice of pie.

Games workshop stores in Australia no longer allows gaming or hobby in store. I used to play every weekend there its kind of sad how the community no longer feels as connected with very little chance to meet new people.

We run a gaming club out of the house. It started back in 2003 post university and everyone needing to chill. GWstores had chased us off. Everyone at the time like adult beverages. So it made sense to start it up. Today we can skip baby sitters or leaving the pets at home. The kitchen is big enough for two people to be in there cooking completely separate dishes. So it is kind of a strange communal hang out. But we actively send members to to gaming stores and events looking for potentail new members. We started with 6 back in 03 and have nearly 60 people today. That includes some people's kids now that they are 18, spouses. Yes kids under 18 can play. But we don't consider them active members until they can pay their dues. Mostly the dues go into a big slush fund for building new terrain or club armies. A good chunk of it went to building 4x4 tables for most of our members homes during the Lock downs.

I help run a tabletop club at my university and we just play warhammer (and board games like twilight imperium) in public using tables in university spaces. Its actually a really rewarding way to do gaming because you get passers by interested in the games and thus the club, weve gotten new regulars through the strategy. Of course, its not something that can last forever, but whille we are in university we might as well use the resources we have.

The difference between US & UK might’ve linked to average house size.

I've thought a few times that local stores have a hard time making ends meet. So what would happen if instead, we had a place that wasn't a dedicated hobby store, but had a selection of supplies. And the location they were in allowed some empty retail space to be used for these sort of public games. (preferably, encouraged it too.) I moved over seas 5 years ago, and I have rarely seen any indication of a local gaming presence. People here just aren't into it very much at this time. So no local store to play at.

One of the unfortunate things I have run across: There are a large enough number of gaming stores that don't really want you there. If it's not a CCG, they don't have time for it. Sure, they *might* like it if one comes in to drop some cash on miniatures in their store (this is not actually a guarantee, as crazy as that sounds), but they don't have time or space for a group of gamers to come in and "take up their tables for their silly plastic soldier game". Yes, those words have been used at me. Trying to find a free table on the weekends is a nightmare. Nearly every weekend there is some tournament, some event, something that is for CCGs. If one can even find a table, a LOT (not all!) of stores want to change a few gamers with their miniatures by the hour to use a table. Note, they aren't charging the CCG players for a table-- they charge them by the tournament buy-in, instead. I've even run into situations where I have reserved a table and paid their over-the-top fee (it's like they *really* did not want anything but CCGs in the store) and after the person I'm playing with finally start to set up our armies we get told that "we don't have space for you today". Why? CCG tournament in two hours and they "need the table". A lot of people also just do not want to share the space. Me, I am happy to share the space with CCG players, even if I want nothing to do with their games. We're all there to have fun, right? Lets enjoy the atmosphere. They rarely return the favor, and I'm not even talking about the kids that could do with a snack and a lie-down because they woke up cranky (though that can be an issue, too). I've had adult CCG players try to muscle my "stupid game" off tables and the store owners just "la-la-la, what, ohhhh, no that couldn't possibly ever happen" when it's brought up-- frankly, I think they were the ones who put the adult CCG player up to it on at least one occasion. At least one occasion? Yeah, it's happened more than twice. Cards. It's *all* about the cardstock. A lot of those businesses are built entirely around CCGs as their main form of revenue and anything which so much as squeaks a whispered cough out that is "other" is shunned. I've even had it happen with TTRPGs. I tried to rent a table at a small games store in the area, paid up front, on a calendar, the works. On the second session, we were chased out of the store by the owner because "I have to close, I have something I have to do today that I forgot about" when we only play once a month. He was open later that day for a CCG tournament. And, no, I do not use foul language in public. I am clean and well-spoken and respectful. It *really* isn't me; I stressed about that a LOT back then.

the problem with the shops where I live (Italy, Parma) is that they are not interested in creating gaming groups, they are only interested in selling and often don't have what you need

I am absolutely blessed that Pittsburgh, PA has a ton of local stores that all ensure to take time for us. We have no less than 3 stores working 30 minutes of each other that are all great gaming spaces. Exceptional shoutout to “Griffon’s Lair Pittsburgh” for their amazing support of the local wargaming community. It’s a clean, spacious environment to play and purchase wargaming stuff with no pressure and knowledgeable staff. It is always a pleasure to go there, and my whole friend group has grown to love the place.

I’m thankful that down in Racine (right in your backyard) we have a newer shop that is ramping up their support for tabletop wargaming. Painting nights, gaming, etc. you do have to pay $5 but it is given back to you on a gift card to spend in the store. It’s called The Sanctum 🙂

It surprises me that there aren't more 'UK-Style' gaming clubs in the US - especially with some businesses struggling as much as they are. I would think a local library would jump at the chance to host a small club - they gain revenue, popularity, free advertisement and offer resources for gamers to do research all in one! A small cafe or diner could benefit hugely. I used to attend a club that was above a Mexican-style Cantina and we (the gamers and attendees) spent so much money on food during club hours that the owners eventually stopped charging us 'rent' because it tended to be their most successful days! 😂

Personally I wouldn't mind game stores going away and going back to gaming clubs that didn't try to dictate what you can play based on if they sell the product or not. It's just a shame that in the US most gaming still revolves around the local game store, to where the store decides what is or isn't allowed to be played. I've seen a lot of stores that are treated more or less like gangs with turf, including rivalries with other stores for "stealing their customers" by daring to say they have events too.

I'd been talking about this on my main blog on and off. The stores need to change their business model from a retail front to being a paid membership clubhouse and event space (like in Europe). It's the only way, long term, that these businesses can stay open as retail recedes from realspace in favor of the far superior convenience of online retail.

Efter seeing things like this I am always reminded of how blessed I am here in Sweden in this hobby. We often have local (boardgame) clubs etc which are in part funded by taxpayed organisations so even clubs in small towns such as 20k people have a location dedicated to playing Boardgames. No need for stores or rening spaces etc.

I know you stressed the difference between "Third Place" and "Third Space" but I think it's important to go into the distinction. A Third Space *is not a private commercial* space, and that's what an (F)LGS is. It's a retail business first and foremost, not a social space. And I'm just not comfortable "hanging out" in a shop with (very expensive) retail stock surrounding me.

I am sure it is different for everybody, but I just wanted to mention my local Warhammer store not only has tables for people to play on that are frequently used, but the guy that runs that store was more encouraging to us (my bf and I) as new players to bring in whichever miniatures we have in whatever state they are in and come in and play. He even offered to teach us new games we wanted to learn with the store minis or to coach us for one of the games we are trying to learn. Told us to phone ahead and he will even get a table set up and ready to go. Now, don’t get me wrong, we still love shopping at our friendly local game store too and they have been very nice and have great deals. Just wanted to say not every official GW store is like you described and funnily enough while we do most our shopping at the FLGS, we prefer the official Warhammer store as our “third place” to play because despite being smaller the atmosphere is more welcoming and beginner friendly. For us, at least.

Hello from the UK! Why are gaming clubs not a thing in the US? It's an amazing way of sharing resources- tables, terrain, knowledge etc etc.

I had an owner tell me he didn't want anyone playing miniature games in his store, even though they sold them and had tables, card tables. For every pair (2) of people playing miniature games in store, he could sit 8 or 6 people playing card games, so he just flat didn't want miniature gamers in the store anymore.

There was a Wargaming club in one of my previous towns, I paid my dues, but they closed after I moved away due to a transient population issue.

The Midwest is _WILD_ compared to the south for card and table top games stores. I live in Springfield and we have: - The 2nd largest Warhammer store in america - 5+ local game stores - some relevant chains (Barnes and Noble for example) Back in Birmingham I knew of _two_ LGSs in the entire Birmingham metro area (like 2 full counties) plus your major chains that sell some relevant items (books a million, for example). For D&D or Pathfinder I play online, for Warhammer 40K I play at the GW store, and for MTG there’s 2 LGSs that I go to.

There is a hobby store in my area that nearly shut down because of the pandemic but didn't because the town was really supportive and helped them a lot. :)

Here in the MA/NH area, we've *gained* stores since the Pandemic. There's been some closures, but overall, we're still up.

We’ve got more tabletop gaming stores in Melbourne, Australia than ever before. I was in America last year and amazed how few gaming stores were available and things were crazy expensive.

The closest on to me now is over an hour away and I rarely get a chance to play due to my work being rota-based and my friends just working 9-5 jobs. But the my locals ones didn't close down because of the pandemic (or at least to my knowledge); - One closed because the guy who owned it (it was above a corner shop, independent convenience store) wanted to renovate and use the upstairs stock for storage. - Another closed because the two that ran it were wargamers first, and gullible second as their shop was built from drug dealer money as a front to launder money. It was obvious something was up when the store had a leather interior, film studio grade diorama battle boards and a bloodbowl board with a fully build stadium, led screens with lights and ambient soundtrack playing out of it. - Third closed down because it was just a gaming space full of Warhammer Fantasy players (54 of us) and when GW killed the game, the group just disbanded and went to play other games. They stayed open for a year but without all those fantasy players they couldn't make rent without diving into their own pockets entirely.

Huzzah! Hard Knox Games, Elizabethtown KY. Is an awesomely amazing Hobby store. I'm Grateful for it and those that work there.

I try to support a local Game store when I can, mostly through the purchase of board games and the occasional pot of paint. However, as host for Chicago Skirmish Wargames, gaming at a local store becomes a tough sell when... - you own a critical mass of often-large terrain. -the FLGS carries none of the games or miniatures you want to buy. -compared to the ease of playing at home. -other effective avenues for recruitment exist. We recently brought our regular attendance back up by adding 2 regular members via Discord and meeting at TMX. All this to say the more established, independent and older one (and one's group) becomes, the less the FLGS has to offer.

One thing my group is finding is we are playing free rules, like OPR and using 3d printed models or models that are out of date GW models, so we don't really want to waste space in a store on games they don't/can't sell.

I am glad we are experiencing a growth here where I live. The main two stores town have expanding in gaming space and both are doing it their own way. One does both in store and second hand selling, while the other is holding tournaments and demos on a daily basis with large groups.

There’s a local shop here that wants to charge $20/hr on the weekends for a space the size of a card table. My other shop is booked up with events all weekend and you can’t get a free table on Saturday or Sunday. I just go to Barnes and Noble and play in the cafe.

3:07 Exciting for our UK club, 2d6 Lodge, to be the one you chose to show the details of! The Admins here actively put efforts to express the third place concept and provide a safe space for people to play, express themselves, and be a place where we encourage players how to play well with others, no matter how a game turns out! Great stuff :)

I am glad the algorithm recommended your channel. Even when I disagree with you, your calm, level-headed and logical demeanor is very refreshing to watch.

I spoke to a game store owner yesterday and was honestly surprised to hear he had such a positive opinion on games workshop. At least from a realtailer game store perspective, they are very chill and easy to work with when compared to lets say Wizards of the Coast. They apparently have always been supportive of local game stores. And that makes sense when you think that game stores are some of the only places with tables big enough to play these games.

My local shop has tables, or at the very least table toppers. But these local stores' bread & butter sales come from card games. They take up less space, don't need huge 4'x6' dimension tables, and can hook people with cheaper prices than plastic crack. Between that and just everyone basically butting shoulders to have space to play has made my regular shop a near nightmare to organize in. A dedicated space like the clubs in the UK would be amazing.

I do belong to a club here in the US, the HAWKs, based in Aberdeen, Maryland. We have been at this for thirty years (since 1994), and have meetings in a church hall twice a month. When we put on our local convention, Barrage, other clubs within a 1-2 hour drive show up to stage games, so there are more of them out there. We don’t have dedicated storage for terrain, so the gamemasters bring/arrange for whatever is needed for a Friday night game, but the club does own a number of folding banquet tables. I’m not in charge of that, but I believe we let the church use them for large events when needed in return for storing them there. The club was originally started by a gamer who wanted more opponents and decided to train them himself by running a “Learn to Play” class at the local community college. Most of the people who showed up were other gamers looking for opponents, so the club formed after the class. We try to keep organization down to a minimum, so the two significant offices are the treasurer (so we can hold the money the convention makes and pay the church), and the keymaster, who carries the authorized key to let us into the space.

Kansas City is absolutely blessed in this regard, we have a pretty solid number of dedicated game stores with tables, and even attached bar and grill for food. Tabletop, The Geekery, Level One Gamestore, Game Cafe, Brute Squad, Reroll Taver, Mission Board Game. And that's just in the immediate KC area. AND we have the Warhammer store over in Independence. (apologies if I missed any of them)

I work at a store in NJ, not only do we welcome people playing in our space, but recently expanded to allow for triple the gaming space. I can't speak for other stores, but we have several solid groups of regulars, across multiple games, that regularly come in for gaming sessions every week.

I used to play at a local store, but the community is completely toxic. An individual stole from me, broke my models, cheated, and talked an inordinate amount of shit. Then, when I had a problem, stood up for myself, etc, they pointed at the 9 millimeter pistol they wear, and said “are you threatening me???” Texas has legalized open carry. Also, it’s a stand your ground state. The store owner sides with that guy. So I don’t go to that store and that’s the face of the wargame community, to me. I’ll just stick to painting a few models and selling them on eBay. No point getting shot.

Where I live Australia there are quite a few gaming clubs that hire a community hall for a night or afternoon . The club normally has a small membership fee and players pay a fee when they go (non members pay a higher fee). People can go there and play whatever games are played locally. Some of the local store still have instoee gaming but not as much as they used to.

Thank you for another very interesting topic. I co run a local gaming club. We have weekly meetings at store who is extremely friendly and supportive. The genuine downside is that we have very limited space to play even skirmish level games in a space that lives and dies by TCGs and CCGs.

Great video! Very true, I have a large group that meets at my house but we are now meeting every other week at a store.

And now I feel blessed again for my local club. We got rooms in a community center with our own locks to store terrain and play mats, we also got six rooms for our own use (3 of them are gaming rooms with a total of 8 permanent, sturdy tables (6 full-size, 2 48x48 for skirmish games), we can organize tournaments with 30 tables at the same venue, and we get a very cheap rate on the room rent from the city because we are engaged in youth work (as our club also has a RPG as well as a LARP section). Last time I personally played in the local store was probably 15 years ago.

If you want to have a wargaming club, you know you can just set one up right? All we do in the uk is find a community or sports centre, a church hall, or a university that rents out their hall. You then use the internet and posters to spread the word, and once you have enough players to cover the costs you rent the space and play there. I find it hard to believe America doesn't have at least some of those facilities. Maybe people are more spread out, so would have to travel further, but if you're willing to travel to a shop you can travel to a club. Start with just the gear you own, then once it gets going the club can invest in terrain etc. It's a bit of work to run, but I've been involved in several rpg clubs and one wargames one over the years, and the committee doesn't have that much to do except when you need to change venue for whatever reason. Mostly its just a bit of work to keep the wheels spinning and promote the club so new people keep finding it. With your network and RU-vid presence that should be easier than normal! So go for it, it's great fun and really grows the community like few things else.

I met some really great friends because I happened to walk into a game/comic store near work here in Texas one random afternoon in 2007 just to look around, and they actively invited me to sit down and play with them. 17 years later, five of us are still great friends who get together regularly in our homes to play board games, tabletop war games, paint, and the like. We don’t go to the store to play anymore (and haven’t for years) because the group we made fits our needs and our comfort level. But that store we met at, as well as other newer ones, have kept or EXPANDED their in-store gaming areas and by all appearances are still going strong. I’d like to imagine that other people found long-term friends there too, much in the same way I did. Just a nod to the importance of these places as third places-I owe the majority of my non-work-related social structure (and consequently my emotional health) to one.

I moved a couple years ago, and was fortunate to move into a town with a gaming store. It was like 5 minutes from my house, but they recently moved across town to a larger space. We have a regular age of Sigmar group on Sundays, and 40K happens frequently. There are also monthly tournaments for each. A new store opened about half an hour away that also has monthly tournaments for each.

A lot of the shops around me have turned into card shops, or new shops are just going with cards. War gaming requires a lot of space and that costs more money(rent). The shops that I used to game at now are just full of people sitting at tables sorting their card collections. I used to hang out and play war games but no longer. Cards aren't my thing so I don' go to them any more and its just easier buy my stuff online.

Here I N.Ireland we have no hobby stores but lots of clubs

Very helpful and thought provoking video. I've sent this along to my buddy who owns and operates a local gaming store, and we are presently working to build the wargaming culture and participation further with the local community. Thanks! :)

I am really lucky to have not one but 2 shops near me that promote tabletop gaming and card games. One shop thats actually the OG shop even moved into the city from their old location so now they are even closer.

As someone who ran a store for a few years, and spent great amounts of my time with stores as my 3rd place, I think they're vital. Beyond the games themselves, which I think are essential on their own, community is something desperately needed for gaming communities.

When I moved to Appleton WI one of the first things I did was find a local gaming store that I wanted to play at. We are spoiled for choice with the amount we have, but aside from the one I frequent, none run leagues or really do any events for tabletop games, large scale or otherwise. So it feels like the the owners don't see the effort needed to run events and leagues as worth it. No judgement its a lot of work but for bringing in people and making friends especially after the pandemic and in a new city was really helpful to me. My local game store really is the place I frequent the most and its because we have built a community of friendly players.

I was told my area had a gaming club almost 30 years ago. The family in charge/owners (?) of the club building started renting it out for events. In just a year or two, they closed the club and went full time into an event hall and that was that.

Squatter: "Hey man I love your Skaven paint scheme, is that Clan Skyre?" Me: "Yep! I do like Green and white but ultimately decided on the drab green and deep red, for that classic look." Squatter: "Well I'm not leaving anytime soon, why don't you cook us some pizza and let's play! I brought Bretonnians."

I was not expecting this channel to post a video talking about Third Spaces, but I really like it. I had this on while washing dishes and thought I was in Urbanist RU-vid(where I first heard of the concept). My FLGS has a membership program that I pay for even if I don't go to the store that often because I'd rather the store remain open than see it wither away.

We've started to play more at home too. One approach that helped make the transition from FLGS 4x6 to dining and kitchen table is moving to squares instead of rulers/tape measures. We now play our games on a grid of 4" squares measuring 9 squares x 12 squares. The battlefield feels as vast as a 4x6 with move and weapon ranges rescaled. Many popular 28mm games use 6" increments for weapons ranges which is 8 increments deep x 12 increments wide on a 4x6. So our grid is actually 1 increment deeper. 👍

I live in southeastern Kentucky, which is a wasteland for tabletop gaming. There was a 40K community in the area, which I was a part of for a very short time many years ago, but it became toxic and seems to have all but disappeared. There are two "gaming stores" local, one of which does only CCG games with a very heavy emphasis on M:TG, while the other is new but also appears to be focused on CCG and some video games. The only comic shop in town has recently closed, where I had been working with one of the managers to get some more gaming going, and currently my only option to get in a game of Battletech (my wargame of choice since the 80s) is to travel an hour and a half away.

My LGS (Lazarus Games in Harrisburg PA) Has just gone through a store remodel and have dedicated tables for card games and also an area to table top games .. its great

Great video as usual! Also agree with the content 100%. I have found myself going to a game store a bus ride away to play games with my friend as I no longer have the space to host at home. Free tables, so we always try to buy at least something in there to help support,

My store near me is mainly card tournaments, me and my buddy stared warhammer in the end of 9th and started to encourage players in the store discord to come play more, now the store has a thriving 40k and aos environment, they even started histing events, only down sude is the store is have the warhammer minitures at higher prices then gw sometimes, makes it hard to keep supporting then due to it feeling like theyre taking advantage of this growing hobby

Such a classy channel. You've got such a soothing way to present. If you are not a teacher in your professional life, you are missing your calling haha! Thanks for all you do.

I'm seeing the opposite in my area. A new (tcg only) gaming store opened nearby during covid, and another in a town 400km away. The tcg store is doing well it seems, they just moved to a bigger space. And the main big store in the area is doing really well (I would know, I work there) and our events are well attended. There's someone playing warhammer in our gaming room most days.

My local Kill Team group started at our Cigar and Pipe shop, moved to one member's house due to competition for space with TTRPG groups (not a complaint) and as we've swelled to 10 regulars we've actually relocated to a local store. We've all started to place our pre-orders and buy all of our hobby supplies from them to show our support. So far it's been great!

Hey that’s me! Preparing for Tanks, as Vince goes over rules. Always fun to see yourself in a RU-vid video.

Great video, good topic to cover. My take is that the Pandemic really threw a wrench in social groups, many of the people around me (me included actually) reconsidered their career choices and moved to other towns. Moving in LGS as a stranger was a REAL mixed bag for me. I could usually find very low amounts of people to "connect with" as I arrive surrounded by already pretty tight "cliques" of people that all have their own personal reasons to like/dislike people around them. Something so trivial as taking a seat with a person others don't like can sort of "brand" you as "one of those guys" and it took me a while to even understand that social dynamic as, quite frankly, I did not care about the "people" but rather the game itself. In the end, another thing to be said for rural area, people ofter play on a budget and have very specific rules they play to as the game designers are often trying to "milk" their franchises... it as the side effect that less fortunate people just sorta lose interests in the more "official" side of things. on my end, I say LGS are dead in my book. I had for more success with meeting people at work where we line up a bit more in our temperaments and bigger convention where its expected to not really get personal all that much. LGS in this day and age are often just the shadow of what they used to be, they are smaller, have fewer players and are often plagued with their own sub-culture and sometimes even animosity for outsiders that may or may not play at different store (which is crazy to me)

Here in the ATL metro we have a bunch of stores that regularly have open gaming tables

We very much attend our local store here in Fredericksburg, VA. We used to alternate between our respective houses but after the pandemic, we opted for the store both to show support and to just be "in the mix".

I was very interested to see what your take was in this video - and I find that it does make a lot of sense. We used to go weekly to our LGS and play tabletop (and I would sit and paint and chat with folks); but after the pandemic this store has changed hands a few times and no longer hosts tabletop nights. They went strictly to cards, and while the still carry stock of a handful of tabletop games it hasn't been worth the drive (about and hour and a half one way) just to shop, as even the old tabletop crew has disbanded and went their separate ways. It is really interesting how the dynamic has shifted from being a public function to more of a private one. Hopefully in time it will begin to revert back a bit to open up more options.

In terms of chains, when I was a teen we had Gamers Paradise, a mall located hobby store that we in the Century Mall and the HIP. They've been gone for a while. And man, what a flashback in terms of ordering with mail or with the phone. Some people may not realize it but 'back in the day', if you called a place that wasn't local, it was a long distance call and in and of itself could be expensive so you were usually better off using mail order but then if something happened or was moving slow, you had to decide if you were going to pay and call or send a follow up letter.

My FLGS has a play area bigger than the main store. You can reserve a table if you’re a member of their patreon/club. Saturdays are open game days where anyone can try it on. I don’t play, but I bring my boys to the paint nights on Thursdays.

In my local area in germany there are essentially no local stores in reachable distance, that was already so before the pandemic. The closest GW Store and 3 third party stores are more than an hour away , with no good commuting support. Only one MGT Place have gaming place - and thats TradingCard only. But we have a Tabletop gaming club close with nice parking lots so you can easily transport your minis. And as a club we have fixed dates where we have access to the rooms and coordinate matches beforehand as we play alot of different systems. So over here you are essentially better of if you find a club in the surrounding. but there are also organized groups that allow you play at homes as well, even if the player don't really know each other.

Ive found in my area it works like this , theres a warhammer store for books exclusives and mini of the month. If youre not buying minis/ supplies online its through a hobbytown or similar. Then there is a local store with tables to play but they dont really have much for sale

I think one important thing to have that ensures that your local scene and place stays afloat is to have a method of communication available to players and the store. My region has it's own discord for trades, commissions, discussions and match arrangement but also the gamestore I play at set up their own discord in order to not only allow players to arrange their own games at the store specifically any time they want, but also for the store owner to communicate with the players and organize events easier. It's also a much easier way to get people's foot in the door with a simple "If you're interested we have a discord"

I'm in the Louisville, KY area and we thankfully have multiple stores booming with players. It's been great to be able to get out for a game and chat with everyone around.

I live a capital city in Australia and I know of 3 game stores that shut down because of the COVID pandemic. These were all places that I went for buying supplies or met friends for games. All that is left for gaming are GW stores which cost 20% more and also don't allow non-GW models/games. There is one popular store for supplies but it's an hour round trip to go there.

My local GW used to always be packed on weekends and on weeknights there would be several of us there painting in the back waiting for pick up games. Since Covid, they’ve removed the large painting table, replaced it with a front table that was smaller and only for employees to use while watching people come in, and removed the gaming boards. We now have to request ahead of time to play, it’s killed the sense of community and I now only go there if there’s a box I can’t find elsewhere

I'm in the USA and I've been to several game stores in 3 states and I can say the stores are normally the problem. Places that used to have healthy game groups even after the pandemic have been cutting back the space they use to play. I've seen table space shrink my at least half in most of the stores I've gone to replaced with merchandise. T-shirts, toys, posters, figures, other collectables. What concerns me even more is that trend has been pushing out the variety of games as well. Several stores I've gone to used to have several large bookshelves full of board games, card games, RPG books, minis, all kinds of stuff. The Merc area has started encroaching on these areas as well. The last store I went to had the merch section, a tiny play area, the Warhammer shelves, the checkout/display area where they sold mostly magic cards, and one tiny shelf of board games and RPG books and minis. Even their 40k shelves was half paint and the other half mostly Space Marine/Custodes box sets. Very few books or other factions. Even if I could afford to get into 40k (which I can't) how am I supposed to play without the rules? Store hours have also been a problem. A local store that used to be the store to play in, cut back their hours drastically. Closing at 9pm on Friday. This nukes all but the smallest of magic tournaments. By the time most people get off work, get home, change cloths, and get to the game store, there is only maybe 2 hours of play time left. Saturday they still close at 9pm. This same stores used to stay open until 2am and would let games go until 3am while they closed everything down. Now 8:30 they want everyone to start wrapping up and getting out. If it were just one store I would pass it off but I've been to 5 in recent years and noticed the same trend. I get that Magic and Warhammer are the big money makers and if you can make your store "the store" for magic and Warhammer you can make money hand over fist. But there are only so many stores that can do that in a given area and when you make Barnes and Noble have the largest game selection and have no interest in hosting anything expect 40k with $50+ USD entry fees and Magic with its restrictions and fees.... One "game" store wanted to charge us $5.00 per person to play Dungeons and Dragons in the store. Covid nuked the gamers out of the business and now the suits are running the show... they are following the "Game Stop" model of removing all the games and replacing it with merch. Its not working for gamestop and I don't think it will work for these places either.

I own two game stores and have a huge game room in one of them. It was really sad for a couple years after Covid seeing the room sit almost entirely empty. The past six months or so has seen people coming back and the gaming areas are packed most nights. Thanks for your support.

I entered the hobby only a few months ago and fortunatelly I can still play in my local Harhammer store. But here in Spain some independent stores are changing, some of them are store+gaming club. If you pay a monthly or yearly fee you join the club and can play there until 3 AM on weekends. Besides that, included in your fee you can have access to a locker fot your armies en codexes, so pretty convenient, and seems that the idea works

My local store has a licenced bar and cafe and even stocks a good range of low alcohol stuff for drivers. It's usually pretty busy with a range of games being played 5 tables of Necromunda last week! And some historical stuff too not just 40k

In my area (Birmingham, UK), I live near a large city but dont have a good place to play any more. Rents are high in the city center and im either paying through the nose on table cover at a board gaming cafe where we dont feel 100% welcome or travelling quite far out of the city to get to rare stores that still offer table space. I'm fortunate enough to be able to host at my place but sometimes the third place unfortunately isnt an option.

Somehow my town had 3 game stores, in many ways I'd be the ideal customer for any of them but don't currently know other locals to play. The staff at each just looked confused when I talked to them about this, if they could have just organised some events, a bring+battal night or even justbse up a fb group for intrested players I'm sure they would be thriving, but two shut down and one pivoted to other businesses.

A friend of mine and I play at a local store. We love it. We enjoy the people there and are very grateful to have found the store on more or less a whim.

The reason Complete Strategist in Falls Church Virginia closed was due to Amazon buying the building the store occupied. The old building has been demolished and a really large multiuse building has been constructed in its place. I was personal friends with a few of the folks who managed the store, the people from the New York store were never going to close the Falls Church Store, even though it operated with a slim margin. However they had no choice when the property was sold to Amazon. The new building will now have an Amazon Fresh as well as apartments and a large parking garage. Amazon also purchased two other properties that were adjacent to the old building the Complete Strategist occupied, there had been an Applebee's as well as another Office Building, which have also been demolished.

Come to Tucson AZ, 5 gaming stores, 3 are chain stores of Tucson Games and Gadgets

Living in the UK, I have about half a dozen stores within 30 miles hosting events, weekly game nights. There are also a few wargaming clubs in village halls nearby that are run by a local community, I used to go to one every week until I moved house, now I generally swap between 2 local stores within a few miles of my place, so I get in a game of 40k each week (sometimes even more).... I used to play Star Wars games like X-wing & Legion but it wasn't always easy to get games, since the local community is 99% 40K so I decided to shift to 40k and its been so easy to get a game basically whenever, due to so many different locations to play at.

We play regularly in a FLGS. 2 of the 4 of us come from towns 1/2 hour away and the game store is centrally located. There are 2 game stores in the area and we try and support both of them. They are both very supportive of local gamers and have allocated space in their shops for us to play. We try and reciprocate by buying locally first. Good video! Good thing to think about! thank you.

Good tips, thanks for sharing.

Comic Lair (Trenton, NJ) has an active War/card/role-playing game environment. I've been going for over 25 years.

Where I live near Davenport, IA, we have more game stores now than ever before. I can count 5, and that doesn't count the comic shops that sell games. Before Covid, we had 2. People here have suggested that the new stores won't survive, because our area doesn't have enough business to support them all, but all of the stores seem to be thriving, and are full of gamers most nights of the week.