Competitive pricing? Unusual/obscure stock? Staff disposition/expertise/abundance? Creative decorations? Convenient ways of organization? A variety of ttrpg players to learn and share from? A secondary attraction for folks who don't play ttrpg's?

The Village Geek, located in Manhattan KS, and McPherson KS.

Every Friday is board game night, where people come in and play whatever board game they want (either they bring it themselves or there is an extensive game library). 

Saturdays there are warhammer/magic/Legion/some other game tournaments during the day.  Maybe you'll be able to catch the mini painting workshop. 

If you like 5e, we have scheduled games with up to 3 DM's run adventures.  Your character's level is based on the number of times you have attended.  I myself get to run these games occasionally. 

Wednsdays we have "Wednesday warriors where a pickup RPG is played.  Last week it was Mutant Year Zero, the week before: D6 Star Wars, before that: Star Trek 2d20...

Event announcements are made on Discord.  You can also use the Discord to coordinate your own events with friends, or find a group.

We have a large collection of minis, a huge collection of boardgames, but only a small collection of rpg's sadly.  I'm working on that last part.

Post-covid the number of rpg/games shops near me dropped by at least 50%.

I went looking earlier this week for some specialty dice, only to find that another store had closed. This left me the option of 2 stores in the CBD.
One of them is more focussed on trading card games, so that leaves one.

What will make you return to it, its existence! They're a disappearing breed near me.

I don't have a favorite, because they all suck around here. But I can tell you why you wouldn't come back:

Disorganization
Lack of product diversity
Filth

But the topper is: The reek of unwashed nerds.

Seriously, how did smelling like total shit become a hallmark of gamer culture? I've spent gobs of time at Rainbow Gatherings with tens of thousands of hardcore hippies, and those were a boquet of petunias compared to my local game store.

Quote from: Zalman on August 25, 2023, 07:41:39 AM
I don't have a favorite, because they all suck around here. But I can tell you why you wouldn't come back:

Disorganization
Lack of product diversity
Filth

But the topper is: The reek of unwashed nerds.

Seriously, how did smelling like total shit become a hallmark of gamer culture? I've spent gobs of time at Rainbow Gatherings with tens of thousands of hardcore hippies, and those were a boquet of petunias compared to my local game store.

That reminds me of a time back about 15 years ago at Origins, where I think it was a game company or vendor was on day three of the con was handing out "personal hygiene kits" to people as soon as they were coming off the escalator. It was a zip lock bag with a small bar of soap and travel size shampoo.

While I've long believed that gaming stores should have showers, I'm afraid mine never did.

My favorite would be The Sentry Box in Calgary Alberta Canada.  It's huge and stocks lots of strange and obscure games.

Quote from: David Johansen on August 25, 2023, 09:00:29 AM
While I've long believed that gaming stores should have showers, I'm afraid mine never did.

Funny enough, a game store I used to go to (I dont anymore because I have all the games I need (though they are mostly 5e which I don't buy anymore) and I have a place to play does have a shower.

It's called Gamer's Heaven and if a player comes in stinky they are directed to the shower or they can leave.   I saw the shower and asked a staff member about it and that is what I was told.

My fav GS's closed many years ago.  Nothing like them exist today.  Which is why I don't go to physical "game stores" anymore.

Quote from: GhostNinja on August 25, 2023, 09:49:16 AM
It's called Gamer's Heaven and if a player comes in stinky they are directed to the shower or they can leave.

Nice! And telling that it's needed ...

And also probably ineffectual unless they also have a change of clean clothes to put on afterwards. But I like the attitude!

Quote from: Zalman on August 25, 2023, 01:56:59 PM

Nice! And telling that it's needed ...

And also probably ineffectual unless they also have a change of clean clothes to put on afterwards. But I like the attitude!

Yep.  Didnt run into smelly people the times I went there.

Quote from: Scooter on August 25, 2023, 10:37:01 AM
My fav GS's closed many years ago.  Nothing like them exist today.  Which is why I don't go to physical "game stores" anymore.

I'll still go into game stores to run games and pick up last minute stuff.

Most of my gaming purchases are done online because I know where to look on Amazon, eBay, or publisher storefronts to get exactly what I want.

Quote from: GiantToenail on August 24, 2023, 07:07:27 PM
Competitive pricing? Unusual/obscure stock? Staff disposition/expertise/abundance? Creative decorations? Convenient ways of organization? A variety of ttrpg players to learn and share from? A secondary attraction for folks who don't play ttrpg's?

Maybe the available table space.  Nothing else.