So, with the exception of XWM, I haven't really played any table-top games since high-school and when I got into this game, I played most regularly in a bar that had a gaming night or at home with pals. My wife and I recently relocated back home, and my X-Wing playing has been substantially curtailed. I joined a local FB group and have gotten a few games in at two different gaming stores. One is a gaming cafe that is bright and roomy with the awesome smell of coffee but an almost negligible group of XWM players, the other is a more traditional game store that looks, feels and smells like Jabba's palace, but where there are more regular players to meet with. The people are nice, the staff are friendly, they seem to run a monthly tournament and casual mid-week night, and the selection of games are good - but it's dingy, there isn't any AC and when it gets warm in there (like last night, when there was a M:TG tournament) the place reeks like all the stereotypes associated with the hobby.

As there is much talk of LGS's on this board and with my limited experience, it got me wondering what the stores other people play in are like. What appeals to you about your LGS and draws you back time and again? What would you change if you could?

Nothing, it sells games and has some Netrunner and Magic tournaments. Buying mostly online now because there is a store based near me that actually does want to build an X-Wing community.

Nothing, it sells games and has some Netrunner and Magic tournaments. Buying mostly online now because there is a store based near me that actually does want to build an X-Wing community.

I don't follow, or did you mean "isn't a store"?

Its an online seller that rents a location near him to organize tournaments and he is based a short train ride north of me. His tournaments artract a great deal of people (up to 40 at times). Meanwhile my LGS organizes a store championship a year where there isn't even enough space for 8 people to play properly and doesn't give any craps about X-Wing any other time of the year. I kind of regret supporting them for as long as I have.

Our LGS has a plethora of problems. The smell and the attitude of a lot of the hangers on who spend their days there buying precious little but getting in the way of people who want to buy and abusing people who want to learn to play games being key amount them. The owner has a bad habit of falling out with the local clubs and cons then programming events against theirs. Stock is expensive too. Ironically while my usual on-line supplier has held prices in the face of the recent hike the LGS' prices jumped weeks before the official rise took effect. Most of us buy the odd thing from him as we want there to be a LGS, but if you garenteed that on that shop going out of business we'd get a decent FLGS we'd drop the place in a heartbeat.

I love my FLGS. It provides a fantastic service and is a hub of the community. However; the main gaming area is downstairs with no windows and is referred to as "The Bunker". The lighting is fine but the lack of air circulation makes it get very hot and smelly when there's a lot of people there. Frankly I just accept the downsides are part of the parcel and dealing with unwashed gamers is part of having a local resource like this. I also try to play upstairs where possible as it gets plenty of daylight and has real life air flow. All the locals are great people but it's inevitable that if you put 30 guys in a room with no air flow; it'll get stale eventually

The good things about my FLGS is that the staff are friendly, it provides somewhere for X-Wing players to meet up and have somewhere to play and it runs official and non-official tournaments.

The bad things about my FLGS is that other than the X-Wing players, a lot of the younger (I'm an old man of 43) card and RPG players are tough to be around, a lot of them smell pretty bad, they're very loud and excitable and are often 'socially awkward' shall we say.

Until something better comes up though it's what we've got and I'm just very grateful for somewhere to play and meet other local players.

My LGS can get pretty hot in the summer and/or when it's crowded but the tiny window in the back room and a couple fans work wonders. The regulars also tend to bathe regularly so the smell is rarely an issue. The best part about the place is that it's 10 minutes from my home, has a great staff, and has a well-stocked fridge with craft ales in the game room.

It's a clean, well-lighted place. There's lot of elbow room. Several tyes of games are being played at any given time. And even though Magic is the predominant game played and takes up most of the tournament time, even when there's a big Magic tournament on there's room for a bunch of X-wing games and other gamers.

The reason I like my FLGS is, quite frankly, the owner. There are closer shops to my house, and our local shop is a bit on the small side. (I prefer more of a separation between the shop/gaming areas.) However, the shop owner is a super-nice guy and really takes care of his customers. He keeps up-to-date on all the new releases, keeps monthly events going, and gives an excellent discount to club members.

My current favorite LGS has bar-height tables - enough for 4 games of xwing simultaneously. That's enough for the mid-week tournaments and he can configure his space for a 20 person tournament if need. It has a vaulted ceiling so airflow is pretty good and it doesn't get too stuffy. He has plenty of stock of x-wing even though it doesn't move as fast as it probably should. He's friendly and even though he doesn't play he comes over to ask us about our games.

I have like, four FLGS that all do a great job.

I used to try and buy through Amazon because it was super convenient and a few bucks cheaper. Now I feel compelled to buy through my FLGS because they do so much work, how can I not give them my dough? My only problem is that with a pile of good FLGSs, it's hard to support them all at once.

There are two that I frequent. Both have plenty of tables open, and don't charge for anyone to use (though, they have a large collection of wargaming terrain that they may charge for, which is fine by me). One is smaller, but has an awesome discount on games for a small annual fee, and the other is twice the size, though it's always priced at MSRP, and even its sales have higher prices than the other store's regular prices.

I buy games from the smaller one with my discount, and I buy supplies like card sleeves, dial upgrade kits, colored bases/pegs, etc from the larger one.

Both stores each HAD a designated, weekly X-Wing game night, but my local community is having a hard time scheduling even a single organized night since the summer, so that fizzled out and I'm now playing at home or meeting specific people at prearranged times.

Theres 2 LGS in my area. One has had a bad rep for things vanishing, salty attitudes from the employees, and kicking you off the tables for Magic games (no posts saying reserved or dont play these hours). So by default the other wins for us non-magic people. To be fair that rep seems to have vanished from what i hear, but its also on the other side of town. Nope!

Thats not the only reason i love them though. Theyre actually great people and are excellent, fair, and sturdy owners. They dont take likely to unsportsmanlike attitudes or bickering and if theres a reason to need tables for something the tables ALWAYS have papers on them saying "Dont use me!" - also not afraid to point out you're a jackass if you act like one. I admire people that dont contour to the "we might offend someone!" bullcrap these days.

They host a fair bit of events and dont ask any unfair requirements to use the tables. I usually buy everything there, with the exception of REALLY expensive things i got a big discount on (huge ships) or things they dont have (40k Forgeworld). They also make an effort to actually know their customers, its pretty common they'll advertise a group that goes there to a new person even if that group is hiding in the back corner upstairs (that we often forget exists lol)

I live in the South and AC is a must. You can't survive without it.

I LOVE my local game store! It's called Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne (or PBKW). It's half comic shop and half game shop. I think the best game shops need the comics to support them. We have had game shops come and go in the last 9 years since I've been in town, but this is the only one that's been around the whole time (and seems to be thriving). Half the shop is dedicated to selling comics and all sorts of games. We have board games, card games, and everything. The other half the the store is dedicated to playing games. They have a lot of tables that can fold out and a large number of chairs. They have hosted large Warhammer tournaments, card tournaments, and X-wing tournaments. There are 4x4 boards that have been air brushed to look like outer space and taped off 3x3 so that those without mats can still play on cool tables. The play space is really big! I found a picture online and it almost seems smaller in this photo:

You can't even see the couple of sofas and vending machines at the front. Did I mention it's pretty big?

They have a lot of terrain for use for mini gamers in the back. They have a lot of table tops with different terrain for 6x4 tables. It's awesome for mini gaming.

X-wing is on Thursday night, and it's also Board Game Night. So, we have a lot of people of different ages all in playing different games. The store owner wheels out a big mobile shelf with many (50 at least) board games that are free to use. About half the non-X-wingers and non-MTG people are actually female, which is nice to see. Everyone gets along with everyone else and I crack up other gamers with my "pew pew" sound machine. Also, it's great to draw in new players as people walk around to see all the different games that they can join in on. They see all the Star Wars stuff and get stuck in. It's great.

The owner is really nice and personable, too. The store staff is always great. They have a discount program. For every $10 you spend, you get a stamp on your card. When you have spent $100, you get $15 credit. It comes out to be about the same discount as online prices, but I support my local store.

The last part that I love is also a down side. I love it because it's on my side of town. I live in Charlotte, NC and most people live on the south side of town. This is in a township just north of Charlotte. I live on the north side of town. So, I'm really happy that the best game store in town is on my side. The sad news is that the highway to get there is really horrible. It's notoriously backed up. It takes twice as long to travel that route as it would on a normal road. So...many gamers won't make the treck up to the best game store in town due to the traffic. It's too bad.

Lately, we have had a number of other game stores open in the general area. So far none seem to really step on each other's toes. We have enough game stores that every week night is a dedicated X-wing night at one of these stores or another.

Love my FLGS. Fantastic community, super hospitable to new players, monthly events--all the usual goodies. Just organized a benefit tournament when one of our regulars passed away, and raised $1600 for his family.

Man Over Board (MOB) Games in Lake Stevens, WA. Accept no substitute.

I live in the greater Baltimore area, and I'm spoiled for game stores. I go to 2 or 3 stores, primarily, but there are probably 7 or 8 solid stores within an hour drive of my house.

Store 1:

Pros: Big store, well lit, clean, keeps great stock, awesome customer service. Events are really well attended. This is my go-to store for pretty much all my gaming needs.

Cons: X-wing community in particular (in my experience) is really cutthroat. Hard to get casual pickup games there. I'm not a tournament player yet, and sometimes just want to play spaceships, and I usually get paired up against a top-level list and get shredded. I can take it in stride, but I worry about newer and inexperienced players getting turned off by that attitude.

Store 2:

Pros: Can always get table space, has hobby tables, willing to run any kind of event you want.

Cons: Doesn't keep a ton of stock on the shelves, it's very out of the way (in the back of an industrial park), sometimes staff can be difficult to work with.

Store 3:

Pros: chock full of nerds of all stripes- if you play any game that's ever come out, someone there knows about it. Very responsive to customers requests, holds events regularly, staff can be abrasive at times but they're generally good guys.

Cons: Very little space to play (It's primarily a comic book shop, and they're actively working on getting more space), some events aren't well attended, if at all. Don't always keep the newest stock on the shelves.

I love mine, they get me everywhere.

Edit: Sorry, misread the title.

I live in northern Colorado, and there's three here that I know of.

Haunted Game Cafe is awesome! They have a Monday night X-Wing time that's super friendly. I've been going almost every week for 2 years. I really like that the store is wide open with huge windows and lots of natural light. They're doing a huge expansion now, more than doubling their space. I'm really looking forward to it!

Grand Slam Games and Comics is further from where I live, but the guys who run it are super nice. I try to do all my shopping there, because they always have good quantity when other stores are sold out of the new waves. They have fun tournaments too!

Gryphon Games is great for comics, and they have really good coffee. The X-Wing community there is a little insular, and there's not a lot of natural light,so I don't play X-Wing there much. I do buy a lot of comics there though!

I love mine, they get me everywhere.

Edit: Sorry, misread the title.

I read it the same way until I had clicked the link!

I didn't have a LGS until I moved it down to LA. Now I'm a huge fan of Aero Hobbies.

Start with: the folks who run it are awesome. Nice. Friendly. Enthusiastic. Also they're so clearly in love that it's adorable.

They have created a truly welcoming environment. I know this, because I have seen more than a few people who _don't_ fit the "straight white dude" stereotype. It's important to me that the people I game with are. A reflection of the broader population.

(This was accomplished by ejecting a couple goober haters a couple times. Not putting up with hate filled nonsense is how you allow fun times to flourish.)

Oh, and Arya Stark once ran the store for a bit. That was fun.

If I could fix anything? Maybe a few more fans? The location needs to push air a bit better. It doesn't get smelly, just stale.

I'm from the north side of Indianapolis, Indiana. There are two game stores in my area that I go to on a regular basis, and there's one store I stopped going to.

My favorite game store I mainly go to is Family Time Games. Shane, the owner/operator is one awesome guy. There is plenty of room in the store to play multiple game types. There are large custom (hand-made) tables to play games like X-wing, and regular long tables for smaller games like card games. If you're ever in Indianapolis, look up Family Time Games. You will be amazed at the space available for gaming. Shane will take time to teach you any of the games, and will play in an event, if he wants to or asked to, to make things even -- no bye in the first round.

The other store I go to, mainly if there's a (X-wing) tournament held there, is Game Time -- Castleton. The store is big enough for a medium-sized X-wing tournament using three or four long tables. There is an "annex" -- a space they use for larger events two doors down from the main store. The annex is large enough to use up to 12 long tables, possibly more, for X-wing. The staff of Game Time is friendly and knowledgeable.

The Game Preserve at Fashion Mall Commons is the "flagship" game shop in the Indianapolis area. They've been around for as long as I can remember. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable of all games. The reason why I'm not a fan is the space they have available for gaming is, compared to the others, extremely small. For a X-wing tournament, the maximum players that can comfortably play is at around 12 - 14, or 16 - 18 (shoulder to shoulder). That is one of four locations in Indiana. I have not been to any of the other locations to add any comment.