The Future of Gaming

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

So this weekend I was in Amherst and noticed a new gaming store called Worlds Apart. I was asking my friend Emily about it and she mentioned that it's basically a co-operative gaming store. And really, it's about what I'd expect from Western MA.

But it got me to thinking. Running a game store is real tough. Lots of really nice places have closed down in the past couple of years...as well as some not-so-great-places and a couple of odd mergers. But running a viable game store is a tough proposition.

It occurs to me that Worlds Apart is an interesting alternative, but I'm not sure it goes far enough. If you're a gamer, I feel like your biggest problem is finding a place to play, followed by finding people to play against. Having a common social space where gamers can show up and play different things (and not just table after table of magic/Warhammer/Flames of War) would be really great.

Hence, I propose that a future model for a "gaming store" would be "social club". A non-profit sets up a nice space (including private rooms so you don't have to listen to Space Ork yelling when you're trying to have an intense RPG scene). Well lit, clean, decent chairs, configurable tables, a snack selection that's more than soda/candy/chips and so on. Entrance is by membership only (or you can be a guest and get charged a nominal door fee). Membership runs on a sliding scale that includes extra perks as you go up -- a big perk being storage space for your games/minis/terrain/etc. The club has a small library of its own games -- a selection of basic classics plus a number of "big box" games that are complex/rarely played/important (I'm thinking Die Macher or ASL or Empires in Arms kinda deals where the price to repeat playing ratio is too low for a single person to consider). The club gets a retailer discount and passes the savings along to members, but isn't really in the business of selling games.

I think having a nice, well-located gaming space to go to, and especially having a place to store stuff would certainly be worth the membership fees. It remains to be seen if enough other people would be into that, but I think it's well worth considering.

later
Tom

[ETA: Further perusal shows that World's Apart seems to be incorporating a lot of my ideas. So I hope it proves successful for them and it becomes a more widely adopted model.]

Comments

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Membership runs on a sliding scale that includes extra perks as you go up

So in your GAMING store, you want a model where you can "level up"?

Um. Well. Your internal consistency is, at least, internally consistent!

[ultimatepsi.livejournal.com]

bronzite and I were discussing this as well. We found two major problems: 1)Rent is expensive. 2) Most adult gamers would prefer playing with their own friends to hanging out at community space. However, farther investigation may be warranted.

[bluegargantua]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there would probably be "rules of conduct" for members and the membership fee would probably exclude the under-18 set. Which might really make point 2 go away.

later
Tom

[bryant]

I am going to say that I don't know if I agree with point 2. A year ago I would have; after steeping myself in the RPGA for a year... there are a /lot/ of people playing in public. It's just a completely different group of players.

All those people who got into roleplaying via WoD LARPs are pretty used to roleplaying in public as well.

[ultimatepsi.livejournal.com]

We might have just had a bad sample set of the people we asked.

[bryant]

Check out Historic Haven down here in Maryland. They're a bit far away from me so I haven't checked them out yet, but the model is exactly the social club idea you've described. I hear they also serve as a social hangout for SCA people. I don't know if it's profitable or not; rumor is the founder(s) made dot-com millions.

I came across an Oklahoma club doing similar things the other month but can't find it again. They had a cheap store front rented.

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

I somehow feel like you're envisioning our generation's version of the Elks Lodge or somesuch.

[bluegargantua]

Yeah, I didn't want to mention the secret handshakes, the initiation rites and the funny go-karts.

later
Tom

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the jaunty caps!

[gentlesamurai.livejournal.com]

There is or was a group that formed near Providence, RI when the local gaming stores closed up. I think they are still active. They had a similar model of dues, people being on to monitor the place, snacks, rooms, cleaning, etc.

I hope that gaming continues in general ;)

[invader-haywire.livejournal.com]

There is a group in Fall River that does this. Fees pay the rent and new members are given a initiation period. If they pass, they get a set of keys allowing 24 hr access

[agthorr.livejournal.com]

Meetup.com is also a good place for finding public games. The one here in Dallas meets at a Fuddruckers twice a month.

The chess world has been doing something like what you describe for decades (centuries?). There's a door fee to come in and play in a chess tournament for the evening (and a more casual side room to play games or chat between rounds if you finish early). The door fee is reduced if you purchase a membership.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Take a look at the philosophies and practices behind co-working spaces and hackerspaces for models of community building. You are proposing "gamerspaces" I think.