How many of us utilize the gaming spaces at a local gaming store versus those of us who do not? I pretty much have very little to do with my local gaming stores. Nothing personal. I have friends/relatives that like playing this game too and so I don't have to rely on the organized efforts of the LGS to play this game on a regular basis.

The latest policy change by Asmodee has me thinking that I'm in the minority. Am I?

There is not a lot of hard data for x-wing, but Wizards of The Coast has found that a good 90+% of their player base never play in a store and only on the "kitchen table."

I would not be surprised with a comparable stat for X-wing.

I dunno, I'm sure I sound like a broken record but... I recently started an X-Wing Club in a pretty new shop and it's been a success. Only one day is given over to the mighty X-WIng, but even when there is 15+ people there for DnD drop-in there is still a fully loaded X-Wing table. In fact, on any given day of the week there is probably an X-Wing game going. It's spawned a saying amoung us hardcores: "That's the power of X-Wing", which is pretty fitting.

Right now I'm walking 10k a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, for X-Wing, so...

... That's the power of X-Wing!

Not sure how informative this is, but if we're counting heads, I guess I'll count myself counted! Plus the like 20 something other X-Wing nuts... I'd say there are about 25 of us now. I can't say whether or not they play at the shop more than at home though. Mind you... it's X-Wing, so they probably play a lot at home too!

The latest policy change by Asmodee has me thinking that I'm in the minority.

What change is that?

The changes they are making regarding online sales to try to push more support onto the local game stores.

I just about exclusively play at my FLGS. They run regular, two round events twice a week in the evenings, and usually have a monthly tournament. I occasionally have a game at home if my brothers are visiting from interstate, but for the most part it is in store. In fact, the fact that the store had regular events and a good number of regular players was a big part that convinced me to get into the game.

My local store is tiny, so there isn't much gaming going on. We do however have a regular bi-weekly general tabletop meeting at another place. An increasing amount of X-Wing is getting played there.

I've only ever played at my local game cafe. Our group plays there regularly every week and irregularly some other times. But that's at least in part because one of the higher-up members of staff plays x-wing...

I play 90% of my games on Vassal and mostly use the LGS to socialize or play cards. If they want to make an incentive for people to use the local LGS more often, they sure as hell aren't going to do that with higher prices and no discounts.

The changes they are making regarding online sales to try to push more support onto the local game stores.

Do you have a link or something with more details?

I have NEVER played at a local games store. I used to be in the industry and most of the game store guys locally are friends, former clients or customers or fomer players for older games I have run. I prefer to buy locally but I only play X-Wing with my play group. That being said I do not live in America or Europe and fo not belong to the demographic the announcement affects.

I never play at my LGS and would be very reluctant to do so. We have a tabletop (mostly X-Wing) spin off of our local RPG club and an excellent war games club that has a lot of X-Wing players. They offer a much more pleasant play environment than the cliquy and, let's not mince words here, smelly environment of the LGS.

I never play at my LGS and would be very reluctant to do so. We have a tabletop (mostly X-Wing) spin off of our local RPG club and an excellent war games club that has a lot of X-Wing players. They offer a much more pleasant play environment than the cliquy and, let's not mince words here, smelly environment of the LGS.

This.

I'd rather play with my friends in a private space, phrasing unintentional. Makes for a much better game experience.

I can see why they made that business decision. I can also see that people that made that idea either need to stop doing drugs or get tested for brain cancer. Why would I want to pay more for the same product? Which suddenly isn't being delivered to my door anymore, but I have to spend fuel and time in order to get it. Will paying more for the same thing encourage me to buy more expansions, or get more people into the game? You know, Marv, this TIE used to cost ten bucks. You could even get like two from the core set for 14.95. Remember that tournament you wanted to do in Bob's mancave? Yeah, they have altered the deal. If you still want to do it, we'll need to do it at the store. Sure it's an hour away and the parking ain't free, but at least you'll get to see a lot of fictional characters come to life. The Dude, the Penguin, the three guys from X Files any Jay and Silent Bob are all real people who go there on a regular basis.

There's no store local to me so I play at home or at friends.

local store is more "Magic" oriented. non-local stores are cool. kind of hard to grow the player base if one ratholes ones self in their home. however that said it sucks more when you drive to your local LGS move tables around, clean tables, set stuff up and nobody shows..but yeah the stats would be interesting to know. I bet its totally dependent on how the store treats and accommodates those players.AND age/status of players. some folks dont have the space or want strangers in their home..

As a guy in his mid 40s if I didn't play at the LGS then I would most likely only be playing solo games except for the rare occasions when my son is home from college or I can talk other family members into playing. I still have hope that my 9 y/o will become an X-wing addict though.

It may have to do with the length and style of the game, but I find RPG games (and WOTC stats) much more conducive to the beer and pretzels at my house style of play than table top miniature war gaming. The majority of the talk on this forum is about the meta, what the tournament scene is like, and what so and so did at Regionals, Worlds, etc. Among RPG nuts none of that ever comes up. Maybe because we're too busy digging through multiple tomes looking for an answer.

In any case, everyone's play style, play experience, and most important play expectations will be different.

I only play at game stores; that's where the players and tournaments are. Luckily we have several stores and a healthy player base in our area, and a couple of the owners of Magic-focused stores really like X-wing and support events.

I play X-wing weekly. I have not had an opportunity to play in an LGS since regionals.

My LGS runs weekly league nights on every Friday. Which is a very fiendly, non competitive, come out and have fun atmosphere. And then they let me run one tournment a month. This is still friendly and come out and have fun but it's time to get competitive. We get the same people from both formats but league night has brought more people into the game store because of spirit of the league. Some people just don't like the word tournament and don't want to bother with it.

When a wave of X-Wing is released the stockpile of ships that sit behind the store counter from pre-sells or subscription is staggering. The amount of ships on hold does not even come close to the player base we get. So I think there are many many more at home players/collectors.

I don't mind the policy change, I rather pay slightly more and support the places that provide organized x wing then save a few bucks and help a store that does nothing to promote the game

Of the... *counts on fingers* twelve FLG Stores within easy driving distance here in the greater Seattle area, I play at at least one every week. Ideally more!

I think this Asmodee thing has people worked up because GW tried the same thing not too long ago, citing the same reason. Only when GW did it they cut down on what B&M stores could carry, and even rolled back distribution in favour of their own self contained outlets. They did this in an effort to appear as though they were trying to support local shops, but in reality they were funneling all their consumers into their own webstore exclusive trap. The backlash was that some online retailers said screw it, and continued to sell as they had before, and others changed their format and continued on unabated. It also didn't help that GW had been gouging their playerbase for years and continued to do so.

Now I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a 40k player who actually likes GW. There certainly aren't any Warhammer The Game of Fantasy Battle fans out there with anything good to say...

Yeah GW's draconian sales contract did spring to mind, most of the fgs i've been to lately have dropped GW stuff and are selling off what little stock remains as it's not worth the hassle.

Closest store to me is 1 hour away. I would love a local shop where I could play and my wife would appreciate having the dining room table cleared more often.

There is not a lot of hard data for x-wing, but Wizards of The Coast has found that a good 90+% of their player base never play in a store and only on the "kitchen table."

I would not be surprised with a comparable stat for X-wing.

Would that be DnD or Magic?