Have you found a FLGS?

lucek · January 2011

Today's comic (and in part the last 2) has reminded me of one of the most important parts of the hobby. The Friendly Local Gaming Store. So I made this post to allow you (and by extension me) the ability to give a shout out to the best and decry the worst.

The place I'll give a mention to is not quite local but just a quick train ride away. Pandemonium in central square Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. It's a smallish store but about half of it is dedicated to tables for people to play on. Only real problem is that the place can get too busy from time to time and I've had to call more than one game early due to the noise level. That said if you are looking for a place to game or looking for people to game with you could do much worse.

RiemannLives · January 2011

I generally go to Greenlake Games in Seattle. It's on Aurora just north of 75th. Has a great game night (open to anyone) every wednesday starting around 6. The store has literally hundreds of board games available for anyone to play with for free (the owner knows a lot of people in the industry, Fantasy Flight sends him 1 of every single game they make for the demo closet).

The Ender · January 2011

FLGSs are, like, the thing of myth in Alberta. You can find them - but in your quest to do so, men will decry you as descending into insanity.

They're always tucked into some building's attic or basement, and passers by will give you that grim glance as you begin crossing the threshold. 'That's the last we'll see of that one. Whomever goes in there, only animated mannequins of their likeness come out.'

If you're in Red Deer, there's DJ's Collectibles on 48th Street & 'Stinky Dave's' on Gaetz (aka 'Dave's Fun & Games', but you'll agree with the first title if you ever walk in the place. Best deals in town, though, if you can stand the smell). In Edmonton, there's just nothing. Absolutely nothing. In Calgary, there's Pheonix Comics (2 locations, one in the north end on 16th Ave and one on the south end on 17th ave (the south location is much more a model kit shop than a gaming store, though).

susan · January 2011

Think we ought petition for a sticky of all the FLGS our collective knowledge can come up with? It's kinda something we could all use.

Rainfall · January 2011

The Ender wrote: »

FLGSs are, like, the thing of myth in Alberta. You can find them - but in your quest to do so, men will decry you as descending into insanity.

They're always tucked into some building's attic or basement, and passers by will give you that grim glance as you begin crossing the threshold. 'That's the last we'll see of that one. Whomever goes in there, only animated mannequins of their likeness come out.'

If you're in Red Deer, there's DJ's Collectibles on 48th Street & 'Stinky Dave's' on Gaetz (aka 'Dave's Fun & Games', but you'll agree with the first title if you ever walk in the place. Best deals in town, though, if you can stand the smell). In Edmonton, there's just nothing. Absolutely nothing. In Calgary, there's Pheonix Comics (2 locations, one in the north end on 16th Ave and one on the south end on 17th ave (the south location is much more a model kit shop than a gaming store, though).

As far as Edmonton goes, Warp 1 is starting to pick up. Sort of. Kinda. Their gaming manager is a decent guy, but their prices are barely acceptable, and there's not enough table space thanks to their massive Magic crowd. Which is, incidentally, the same crowd that has choked out every single gaming store that's offered table space in the entire city. Fuckin' Magic.

But since Chaos Gaming on the north side closed down, there's a fresh shortage of non-Warp places to go. So very, very annoying!

PolloDiablo · January 2011

There used to be Renaissance Games in Fallston, MD. It was great, with a ton of table space. Closed up recently, though. I'll really miss that place.

Dr. Phibbs McAthey · January 2011

I'm fortunate enough to live within reasonable driving distance of two, both with their own areas of expertise and levels of customer service.

The best is the Griffon, which is this awesome old building in downtown South Bend that's all gaming upstairs, and a 2nd hand bookstore downstairs. They focus mostly on board games and rpg products, with a modest smattering of miniatures here and there. The proprietor and his partner (woe befall you if you call her his wife!) are really nice, and the overall feel of the store is like the goods are their collection and they're letting you pick over it and take home what you like (for a price of course). They also frequently run a deal where you get to pick a selection of dice and roll them, and that's your discount off of your purchase.

The other, Fantasy Games, I will spoiler for the long:

It's on the extreme north end of town, I started off liking quite a bit when I first discovered the place. They have loads of Reaper miniatures, Warhammer, Warmachine, Malifaux, WotC Star Wars and D&D minis, as well as Vallejo and Games Workshop paints. When I found the place I happened to be learning to paint minis, so this was like some kind of El Dorado of miniatures gaming. They hold frequent tournaments for all kinds of games, including Magic, Warhammer, Heroclix, etc.

I started going there more frequently, almost always purchasing at least $30 worth of minis or paint, or whatever. And I started noticing that most of the guys running the shop are total douches. Frequently I was 'greeted' as if I was an intruder or something. Their 'Can I help you?' always had a palpable air of 'Buy your shit and GTFO'. Always confused/frustrated the hell out of me, here I was, a paying customer supporting my FLGS when I could just as easily get my goods for $15 cheaper at thewarstore.com, and I get treated like I just shit on the carpet.

Turns out, according to numerous regulars, that basically the workers are there to spend all of their money on Magic cards, and if you're not buying Magic cards, they could give two shits about you.
The owner, when he is there, is absolutely fantastic by comparison and always seems like he's thrilled you're there just for stepping in the door. At the very least, he knows you're putting food on his table, keeping the business going, and treats you as such.
I'm not saying treat me like a damn king or anything, just a basic level of decency will do. I worked retail for 5 years and their treatment of paying customers would have gotten me written up or worse.

I've kind of stopped giving the place my business in general, unless there's something from WotC I've got to have early, as they're a WotC Premier store. I really tried to give it a shot but I just can't stand the abysmal customer service.

Edit: tl;dr - Half of my FLGS experience is exactly as depicted in the PA comic, except instead of being run by a Bro, it's run by a bunch of sweaty M:tG obsessed douchenozzles.

NailbunnyPD · January 2011

Having just entered modern board games, I have been looking around my area for stores that have board gaming events so that I can check out some games in action and maybe meet some people to play with. So far I've found 2. The Days of Knights is in Newark, DE and they host board games on Tuesdays after 5pm. The Games Keep is in West Chester, PA and they host Board Games on Friday evenings.

I was in The Days of Knights and the store felt very cramped, but they had a lot to offer and there was a back section closed off. I assume that back section might be where they play games. The staff was very helpful and were engaged with customers in the store, so it was clear they shared a passion for the hobbies.

antherem · January 2011

They tend to be run by people who love games, and not by businessmen. This is good in the short-term but not good for long-term survival. In the "gets seized by the state for non-payment of taxes" sense. Which has happened more than once around here.

Draeven · January 2011

In centeral IA , there is Mayhem with a sister store in Des moines . the owner and staff are always top notch and very friendly. They have a ton of stuff, magic , board games, all the major table top games Gw, PP, and flames of war. Though they will order what ever you like. They also have a seperate gaming room with tables that if your playing later then store hours, they lock the main store down hand you a key and say lock up the side door on yoru way out. They have a drop box for the key when your done.

Also i know there are prolly another 10 stores in iowa easily , though I haven't been to any of them other then Mayhem.

brain operator · January 2011

The Spelfanaat (in Mechelen and Leuven, in Belgium) is where I get my stuff. I'd like to see some more RPG stuff in there, but the RPG scene in Belgium doesn't make that worth their while (and I can order anything they don't have anyway). Weekly game nights for boardgames and CCGs, Saturdays for CCGs and wargames, knowledgeable and friendly staff - they even let me borrow games for my own game nights if I want to check them out before buying.

Edith Upwards · January 2011

SECRETS OF THE FLGS

Problem:A GW store is fucking up the community by letting kids buy shit with their parent's money and oh god there are more than seven of them and you fucking hate kids.(This has actually happened.)

SOLUTION:Rat them out to [strike]The Inner Party[/strike] GWHQ for being a git and harming the hobby.

This is a thing that you can actually do, I have done it.

Also, don't shop at a store unless they have, at the very least a corkboard/register with goddamn phone numbers. AT LEAST SOME GODDAMN PHONE NUMBERS.

A friend, on another board... yeah it was 4chan wrote:

This. There have been four local game stores in my town over the past fifteen years. One was a hobby store with an RPG shelf full of OLD stuff (if you needed Rifts and first edition L5R, you knew where to look), but it got me into the hobby with its extensive back stock of Star Wars RPG books. They eventually got rid of the RPG stuff entirely and just concentrated on model kits, railways, miniature horses, and other stuff I don't get into.

Next was a comic shop that use to have a decent selection of RPGs and halfway-decent community, but limited discounts (mainly on older stuff). Nonetheless, I still made an effort to patronize them rather than go the Amazon route... they got me really into White Wolf, GURPS, 7th Sea, Hero System, and lots of little nichey games. Then a couple of years ago it moved to a new location with higher traffic but no gaming space and way less shelf space. Comics sell better than RPGs, so they cut back their acquisitions and with the arrival of the board game store (see below) left the market entirely. Hilariously, the last game to go was Shadowrun because the store owner knew the local Shadowrun community was being underserved by the board game store's nonsensical acquisition. That the owner managed to perfectly predict how many copies of each Shadowrun 4e supplement would sell within one month was a testament to how important RPG knowledge and local market knowledge can be.

Around the same time, a dedicated 24-hour game store opened with terrible selection (pretty much every old White Wolf and 3e Glut supplement you could imagine), no discounts, and an unwelcoming atmosphere full of catpissmen and store clerks who just wanted to sell Magic and 40K. It folded pretty quickly.

Now there's a new board game store which I am sure must be a tax dodge... it's got a huge space next to the mall, with good lighting, hardwood laminate floors, big glass windows, and charges (I am not making this up) Amazon prices on everything. The board game selection is phenomenal, and their Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh and 40K and (for no discernable reason) Flames of War selections are pretty impressive, and they'll special order anything I ask. I go through them instead of Amazon for just about everything. Nonetheless, their selection is nothing other than A HUGE RACK OF 4E, the Pathfinder cores, some Dark Heresy/Deathwatch, and some old White Wolf and 3e Glut supplements that bear a disturbing similarity to the 24-hour game store's old selection. They have some random supplements for other games, but usually lack the core book for said games. Every time some new RPG.net darling comes out, they stock a few copies which fly off the shelves but then they never get any more. It's like someone's begging them to be a good RPG store, since they have everything going for them except a buyer who knows anything about RPGs.

The manager keeps putting the one copy of DC Adventures that he has over in the clearance bin (without a clearance price) as if he's just trying to keep it from selling. They've sold, like, FIVE copies of Traveller Pocket Rulebook, and yet won't stock a sixth because it "doesn't sell like 4e does". I and other people have offered some advice, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. And now three copies of every 4e supplement ever printed are sitting there gathering dust on the shelf, taunting the roleplayers in the town with the possibility of what could have been.

One of the things I don't get about game store managers is why they stock so many copies (often two or three at a time) of niche D&D supplements while refusing to stock obvious low-cost impulse buy items like the Traveller Pocket Rulebook and the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition, and mid-cost impulse buys like the the nWoD core and the Vampire core. Those things clearly sell after the first month. Stuff like Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons or Seekers Of The Ashen Crown or Adventurer's Vault 2 or Orcs of Stonefang Pass or Unlikely Settings: Guide To The City Of Brass of whatever, meanwhile, seem to be sunk costs after about three weeks.

Surely, none of them will generate the same profit as more shelf space dedicated to Catan or 40K, but as long as they're determined to offer a small selection of RPG stuff for the purpose of luring in roleplayers they might as well be doing it right. Just as there's a core list of twenty board games that every board game store will always have in stock no matter what, I feel like there's a core list of twenty or so books that every RPG store always needs to have a copy of in stock... I impulse-bought most of them when the comic store had them, and I assume other people did, as well (hence why they kept coming in and out of stock). Yet, barring the PHB, DMG, and MM, I rarely see more than three of them in any given game store I visit. I mean, regardless of how many more people play D&D, I can't imagine that stocking a single copy of Call of Cthulhu 6th Edition or Spirit of the Century (both of them prior impulse buys on my part) is that big of a risk for a store already dedicated to always having three copies of Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead. I know for a fact that a lot of times I go in there looking for something to buy (I don't really care what) and leave empty-handed. That should never, ever happen.

Matev · January 2011

Honestly, while I like the LGS' in my vicinity, I do not have an FLGS. Either they lack the selection of models I'm looking for (And thus deny an impulse buy) or they're out of the way to prevent regular visits, or the atmosphere lacks at certain times, etc.

At certain times I'll favor certain stores over others, but honestly, none of them quite meet my standards.

GrimDog420 · January 2011

Cleveland is rich in game stores. There are 7 in the area that I can think of.

lucek · January 2011

An honorable mention New England Comics is a small chain of comic book stores that (7 stores) stocks some WOTC (mostly 4E, Essentials and star wars) But they have occasional 30% sales and you don't have to buy $25 to get free shipping. However some of the people who work there can be dicks and don't expect to play in store. In short don't expect more out of them then you would a toaster. I usually only shop there when I'm not willing to spend $3.40 to get to pandemonium, in other words when I don't have an active game.

The Ender · January 2011

As far as Edmonton goes, Warp 1 is starting to pick up. Sort of. Kinda. Their gaming manager is a decent guy, but their prices are barely acceptable, and there's not enough table space thanks to their massive Magic crowd. Which is, incidentally, the same crowd that has choked out every single gaming store that's offered table space in the entire city. Fuckin' Magic.

Warp 1 is a nice place and it's well run, but let's be honest here - it's not an FLGS. It's an M:tG card shop. There are other things you can buy there (I bought my D&D 3.5 set there), but the gaming space (as you said) is more or less boycotted by Magic players (or was the last time I was a semi-regular customer there), and the selection of non-Magic stuff is pretty laughable. I'm sure they can order things in for you, but man, I don't like doing that!

I want to walk in, drop some bills and walk out with shiny new things.

Matev · January 2011

The Ender wrote: »

I'm sure they can order things in for you, but man, I don't like doing that!

I want to walk in, drop some bills and walk out with shiny new things.

Exactement, if I wanted to order things, I would order online as it would take the same amount of time to get there and likely be a bit cheaper. I'm paying for the convenience of getting something in my grubby hands immediately. You're also more likely to have me come back and buy more things this way.

NotoriusBEN · January 2011

Olympic Cards and Comics in Lacey, WA.

This is my go-to place whenever I have spare time from work.
The store is practically divided in half with one side being all rpgs/games and the other half is comics/japanimanga stuff.

They host regular scrimmages of things from 40k to dnd to magic and I *like* that if your not playing what's premiered that night, you pick up and move to a small corner. It allows a good flux of different stuff compared to those magic legions higher up the thread.

Another cool thing. They have a Club Card. *ANYTHING* you buy, you get a 10% credit to the card. Then you can use that 10% on the next purchase you make. It's nice to be able to walk into the store and buy a book for free with built up credit.

Edith_Bagot-Dix · January 2011

The Ender wrote: »

FLGSs are, like, the thing of myth in Alberta. You can find them - but in your quest to do so, men will decry you as descending into insanity.

I'm not super familiar with Alberta, and I realize it's not exactly a short drive, but doesn't Alberta technically contain The Sentry Box in Calgary?

Anyway, Halifax has two FLGS - Monster Gaming Lounge and Quantum Frontier. Both also have the usual mix of cards, comics, collectibles and Warhammer, but the guys who run them are great, the stores are bright and clean, and they seem to be well positioned to stay afloat. We also have Strange Adventures, which is an awesome, atmospheric shop, but has really scaled back on the gaming side of things, at least with regard to RPGs. Gone and not missed is Odyssey 2000 and its awful owner.

The Ender · January 2011

I'm not super familiar with Alberta, and I realize it's not exactly a short drive, but doesn't Alberta technically contain The Sentry Box in Calgary

Yes - but the Senty Box is, essentially, just a war miniatures store - not really an FLGS.

-Loki- · January 2011

A good FLGS was a hole in my hobby life ever since the one I went to in my youth closed. I recently found another one which is absolutely awesome, though I don't think anyone else here is from south western Sydney.

It's run by an ex-GW manager who actually still likes GW games, but branched out into, well, everything. I went in expecting some Warmahordes and GW stuff, but found practically everything. Boardgames, Malifaux, FoW, GW, Warmahordes, galeforce 9 hobby stuff, Microartstudio/Iron Halo/etc resin bases in stock, etc. But no CCGs (awesome). They even stock fucking sodapop miniatures.

There was even a dedicacated boardgame table as well as 5 - 6 huge tabletop tables with great terrain. One was a fully scuplted medievil city with canals and everything. And they'd only used 1/3 of their store (waiting on council approval to expand into the other 2/3).

The only benefit GW has is it's closer. By about 5 minutes of driving. Since I'm moving, probably on the other side of the FLGS, it'll probably become my goto store.

Houn · January 2011

I rather liked the Uncle's Games in the Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla, WA (south of Seattle), but now that I live in Shoreline it's pretty far out of the way.

I've yet to find anything good up here; I keep meaning to check out the aforementioned Green Lake Games, but I'm not sure where there is, if any, parking.

Matev · January 2011

Houn wrote: »

I rather liked the Uncle's Games in the Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla, WA (south of Seattle), but now that I live in Shoreline it's pretty far out of the way.

I've yet to find anything good up here; I keep meaning to check out the aforementioned Green Lake Games, but I'm not sure where there is, if any, parking.

Uncle's in Southcenter is one I hit up once in awhile. The staff is for the most part pretty nice, as is the player base, just a couple small instances and lack of selection in the models I'm hunting stop me from consistently coming back.

Houn · January 2011

Matev wrote: »

Houn wrote: »

I rather liked the Uncle's Games in the Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla, WA (south of Seattle), but now that I live in Shoreline it's pretty far out of the way.

I've yet to find anything good up here; I keep meaning to check out the aforementioned Green Lake Games, but I'm not sure where there is, if any, parking.

Uncle's in Southcenter is one I hit up once in awhile. The staff is for the most part pretty nice, as is the player base, just a couple small instances and lack of selection in the models I'm hunting stop me from consistently coming back.

I never found a better option on the south end; the biggest problem with Uncle's is that, well, it's in a mall, and all the baggage that comes with it.

Matev · January 2011

Houn wrote: »

I never found a better option on the south end; the biggest problem with Uncle's is that, well, it's in a mall, and all the baggage that comes with it.

That too. But I grew up visiting Southcenter so it's actually homey in a twisted way. Only other place I've been to that comes close to being so comfortable is Dragon's Lair up in Bellevue

Morskittar · January 2011

RiemannLives wrote: »

I generally go to Greenlake Games in Seattle. It's on Aurora just north of 75th. Has a great game night (open to anyone) every wednesday starting around 6. The store has literally hundreds of board games available for anyone to play with for free (the owner knows a lot of people in the industry, Fantasy Flight sends him 1 of every single game they make for the demo closet).

I was gonna hit this up and mention Greenlake Games as well.

As GLG doesn't do wargaming stuff, I also frequent (at least for buying) the Holman Road Games Workshop. All the usual baggage of a GW corp store, but the manager is awesome.

NotoriusBEN · January 2011

Matev wrote: »

Houn wrote: »

I never found a better option on the south end; the biggest problem with Uncle's is that, well, it's in a mall, and all the baggage that comes with it.

That too. But I grew up visiting Southcenter so it's actually homey in a twisted way. Only other place I've been to that comes close to being so comfortable is Dragon's Lair up in Bellevue

So Dragon's Lair is actually worth visiting then? I've always past it when I've had the odd inspection job in the Bellevue area. Now if I can just get over the pretentiousness vibe that all the 6-digit income bellevue'ers have. :P

Farangu · January 2011

Props to whoever mentioned Mayhem - Very friendly place. Wasted a fair amount of my college time there.

I'm no more than 10 minutes away from the Chicago GW bunker. It's just right for me; Since I am making so little money that I probably shouldn't be in the hobby anyway, I don't care about ordering miniatures online, and everyone there is very friendly. The only problem is the kids, but that we can't dodge anyway since the bunker's right next to a god-damn laser-tag venue, so there isn't any dodging it. I can take some solace in the fact that everyone in the bunker shares my pain when kids run out of the arena and start playing around with the Space Marine statue out front.

mugginns · January 2011

I have an awesome FLGS not far from where I live. They do everything right.

http://www.thegamerssanctuary.com

I have an awesome FLGS near where I work.

http://evolutionexperience.com/

RiemannLives · January 2011

Houn wrote: »

I rather liked the Uncle's Games in the Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla, WA (south of Seattle), but now that I live in Shoreline it's pretty far out of the way.

I've yet to find anything good up here; I keep meaning to check out the aforementioned Green Lake Games, but I'm not sure where there is, if any, parking.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=75th+and+aurora+seattle&aq=&sll=37.160317,-95.712891&sspn=49.670708,113.818359&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Aurora+Ave+N+%26+N+75th+St,+Seattle,+King,+Washington+98103&ll=47.68404,-122.344217&spn=0.0026,0.006947&t=h&z=18

If you are coming from the north, get over onto Linden as opposed to heading south on Aurora. People usually park on the street on 76th or 77th between Linden and Aurora.

kuhlmeye · January 2011

Draeven wrote: »

In centeral IA , there is Mayhem with a sister store in Des moines . the owner and staff are always top notch and very friendly. They have a ton of stuff, magic , board games, all the major table top games Gw, PP, and flames of war. Though they will order what ever you like. They also have a seperate gaming room with tables that if your playing later then store hours, they lock the main store down hand you a key and say lock up the side door on yoru way out. They have a drop box for the key when your done.

Also i know there are prolly another 10 stores in iowa easily , though I haven't been to any of them other then Mayhem.

Yes! Mayhem in Ames was the place to go growing up. I started going there for W40K minis, and still try to stop by when I visit my parents.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good one in Omaha. Anyone here from Omaha have any suggestions?

Matev · January 2011

NotoriusBEN wrote: »

So Dragon's Lair is actually worth visiting then? I've always past it when I've had the odd inspection job in the Bellevue area. Now if I can just get over the pretentiousness vibe that all the 6-digit income bellevue'ers have. :P

Bah, it's in Overlake, not Bellevue proper, the so pretentiousness you normally get has degraded down a few half lifes.

Dragon's Lair is alright, their staff is pretty knowledgeable about their product, but they take a little to open up, and I don't know if that's just individual attitudes or stereotypical geek nature coming into play. ("Outsiders, shun!") The selection is decent (More variety on your Warmachine minis for the love of Menoth!), and it's a combo comic shop with sacrificing too much game space.

Bigity · August 2011

I've moved (well, moving) to Lubbock, TX here recently.

The city I was in (Midland), has no RPG presence to speak of, just a store that sells card games, and mostly the kid stuff at that.

Lubbock, with Texas Tech and some other universities, I thought would be much better but not really. There is a decent store with a very good selection, and while they sell at full retail price they do pay all the sales tax for you (meaning if a book says 39.95, you pay 39.95), there is hardly any space and from my hour or two in there browsing the massive amount of material, needs to enforce a personal hygiene policy.

The other place is wall to wall manga stuff, with a handful of games.

The last game store just pushes their own CCG, universal fighting system or some such crap.

INeedNoSalt · August 2011

Last time I visited my FLGS, I accidentally elbowed one of my fellow nerd-players in the face. There was blood.

GoodOmens · August 2011

Unfortunately, I can only get to FGS. My closest stores (2 of them) of any note are in a town about a 45 minute drive from me. One, The Time Machine, has a really good selection and is just an incredible place anyway; it's not just games, but all variety of hobby and craft stuff. The other, The Grid, has a tiny selection but open gaming on Thursday nights.

sirboxalot · August 2011

Southern California (Inland Empire) FLGS:

GMI Games and Collectibles in the sticks outside Riverside: This place, to put it lightly, rocks. Huge FNMs, tons of table space for miniatures gaming, great selection and I'd say about average prices. The guy that owns it is very Magic-oriented and has an original DCI number that's in the low four digits. It's the only game in Riverside since the Adventurers Guild shut down.

We're in the process of getting sanctioned again at Comic Quest in downtown Redlands - FNM 3 weeks a month, and it's sponsored but not sanctioned (so the matches don't count on your rating, essentially). Comic Quest is mostly a comics store, nothing for miniatures, and they do sell Magic (but not singles). Basically we're trying to build a tournament scene in town and it's going really well so far. Smaller FNMs than GMI, slightly more friendly crowd and casual atmosphere.

There's also the Monstore in Rancho Cucamonga, haven't made the trek out there yet.

summeryclept · August 2011

In Savannah, there's Morningstar Games, which is great because I'm friends with the owner and he gives me discounts. But also it's just a rad place to hang out with genuinely cool people.

There used to be The Comic Box, but they went out of business because they were all cold and awkward and no one spoke to you and they were terribly unfriendly. The owner named his son Bruce Wayne (whatever their last name is) and I went to school with him, he was a dick.

Mike Danger · August 2011

awwwww yeaaaah represent

It's definitely more of a comics/video games/DVD store than a games store (if you don't like 4E, Pathfinder, board games, or Magic, good luck), but I love going here, even when I don't feel like spending money.

The whole staff is super nice (one guy, when he didn't know the first collection of the Batman run I was looking to buy, actually called up "the Batman guy" at the other store and got the name for me), they always seem to have interesting new stuff coming in, and it always seems to have plenty of people browsing around (especially families, which I always take as a good sign).

I am hoping and praying I can get down there for the MA tax-free day sale this weekend once I get my long to-do list done.

LockedOnTarget · August 2011

The Ender wrote:

FLGSs are, like, the thing of myth in Alberta. You can find them - but in your quest to do so, men will decry you as descending into insanity.

They're always tucked into some building's attic or basement, and passers by will give you that grim glance as you begin crossing the threshold. 'That's the last we'll see of that one. Whomever goes in there, only animated mannequins of their likeness come out.'

If you're in Red Deer, there's DJ's Collectibles on 48th Street & 'Stinky Dave's' on Gaetz (aka 'Dave's Fun & Games', but you'll agree with the first title if you ever walk in the place. Best deals in town, though, if you can stand the smell). In Edmonton, there's just nothing. Absolutely nothing. In Calgary, there's Pheonix Comics (2 locations, one in the north end on 16th Ave and one on the south end on 17th ave (the south location is much more a model kit shop than a gaming store, though).

It's weird how Alberta has it so bad. Here in Regina, Saskatchewan we have three gaming/comic stores, and one additional comic store. Of the three LGS, one of them is the result of another doing so well that they opened up another location! So we have a selection of shops, and at least two or three are pretty successful. And ALL FOUR of them charge American prices on everything, too! It's pretty awesome.

Tofystedeth · August 2011

I found out this weekend that a place opened in April about 2 blocks from my apartment. That was pretty rad.

Capfalcon · August 2011

I think I found the best FLGS that I've ever been to. It's spacious, clean, and organized. It's stuck in the back of a strip mall, where it looks like deliveries should go, but other than that, it's perfect. And I think it's the only one in the New Orleans area.

Penny Arcade

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