Hunting for Games

Hello friends and enemies! I haven’t written in nearly a month now due to the busy pace of life lately. Thankfully, part of that has been hunting down and buying new games (Not to mention, playing those games)! This activity will be the focus of this post, though it may be a bit unorthodox. I think that part of the fun in this hobby is tracking down games you want, and even uncovering a gem while sorting through a game shop’s inventory.

In the modern day and age, it is easier and generally cheaper to be purchasing your games online. I think the vast majority of folks, especially when first getting into the hobby, will be purchasing their games online whether it be from Amazon or a smaller retailer such as GameNerdz. I’m certainly no exception to this, having purchased a few games from online retailers myself. However, as someone who grew up playing games in their Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS), and who subsequently saw that store shutter its doors for good due to the pandemic, ensuring there is a healthy local ecosystem for the hobby is something I think is quite important. In order to do that, you’ve got to go shopping at those stores.

I want to first talk about the benefits of shopping at your local store and then recap the fun journeys I’ve had recently hunting down different games. To me, the greatest benefit to purchasing products at a local store is the fact that I know that money is going into maintaining a place that fosters community and puts money back into the local economy. Of course, if someone is not actually playing at the store this doesn’t directly benefit them – so I want to mention a few other benefits that may be more relevant to just about anyone.

One of the greatest self-serving benefits of shopping at a brick and mortar FLGS is that you get to walk away with your purchase immediately. Even 2 day Prime shipping can’t beat the immediate satisfaction of walking away with a shrink-wrapped box of the game that you just bought. On top of this, while you’re at the store, it’s very likely that you’re going to find other games that you’re interested in! Let’s say you’re searching for Ticket to Ride online. You’ll have no trouble locating a copy of most versions of the game, especially on a larger retailer like Amazon. However, unless there’s a sale going on, you’re unlikely to be presented with much else other than that. At the game store, you’ve got to physically find the game and notice everything else that is on display. Sure, this could be an issue if you’re somewhat like me and lack self control, but it also gives you a more organic way to discover new games you may have never had a chance to find if you relied on a search and an algorithm to do your work for you.

Related to my last reason for loving shopping at an FLGS is the fact that the employees there will often have a great deal of knowledge on the games being sold and may be able to offer recommendations to you based on your tastes. Occasionally, you will have an employee who has no idea how to play anything but Magic The Gathering, but I’ve found this to be such an exception to the rule that it is often not worth worrying about.

Finally, an FLGS may be able to beat some of the prices you find online! Whether this is due to them wanting to shift out older stock, or just a particularly generous business owner, I’ve found that many places will cut you a bit of a break on pricing, especially if you’re dropping a lot on a few games at a time. If they don’t do this, there’s oftentimes customer reward programs (Though in my experience, these tend to be more aimed at the folks hanging out and playing in the store who can then use the credit on a drink or snack).

And if you can’t find what you want? I have yet to go to an FLGS that didn’t at least try to find a copy of something I was looking for if I was willing to ask. On a similar note, most of these stores are more than happy to ship products to you! Some even have their own online storefronts these days, making the process much easier (Though don’t be afraid to call them or shoot an email – most of these places would love to talk to you!).

Now that I’m done gushing about how much I love the FLGS, I’ll talk a bit about my recent adventures. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went out so I can get my first dose of the COVID 19 vaccine. While we were out, we decided to make a day of it and grabbed lunch before heading to the nearest FLGS to us, Toys N Things. This is definitely one of the smaller stores I’ve been to so the selection wasn’t as grand as some of the later places I’ll mention, but it was the closest to me and the owner was great. He asked what I was looking for and helped to show me where it was all located and we had a good discussion about different games as well as the state of the business and hobby lately. Originally, I walked in looking for the Invaders from Afar expansion to Scythe (In fact, this expansion is the cause for all of the below adventures) as well as some additions to my Astra Militarum or Sisters of Battle in 40K. While I wasn’t able to locate the items I came in for, I did walk out with Tapestry (Published by Stonemaier games) under one arm and a bag of paints and brushes in my hand (I was lucky enough to come the day after they had just got in a new batch of paints, and I was looking for some fun colors to use).

The next weekend, we had to run some errands near Boston and we looked up a place we could go on the way back. We found that Battleground Games was perfectly located for us to stop by on the drive back up. This is a bit of a chain, as they do have three shops (one of which I visited once upon a time when I lived in a different part of the state). I have to say that this was probably the single most well organized game store I have been to in my life. It was obvious what part of the store you needed to go to for what you were searching for and more than half of their display space seemed to be dedicated to board games. Considering how often many FLGSes tend to deprioritize board games, this was a very welcome sight. We ended up dropping a frankly silly amount of money here, but that was because I was just so excited that they had a lot of the 40K stuff I was looking for. We picked up a copy of Mariposas, which had been on our list for quite some time, and I got.. Too many models.

Finally, we made a trip to an old favorite of mine that has recently moved locations. Formerly located in downtown Malden, the Hobby Bunker has moved North to Wakefield. This is a shop that was near my dad’s house and so it was near and dear to my heart as the second-most common FLGS for me to go to. While I am saddened that they had to move due to being priced out of Malden, in a selfish way, I am a little glad – as it means they’re closer to me now and I’m more likely to make the journey to them. This is also one of the shops that I tend to order from if I’m going to be having something mailed to me. I know from experience that if they don’t have something I ordered, they’re happy to reach out and ask if I want any substitutions or to remove an item or even wait for it to come back around.

We visited on their opening day at the new location and I have to say they did a great job at setting up after the move. While lacking the distinctive feel that it once had (it was an enormous shop set up in the basement of a commercial building), it still felt very friendly and had the absolutely massive array of different options that I was used to seeing from them. While we weren’t able to locate the Scythe expansion we wanted (I want to stress that this has been hard to find even online for us, so we don’t hold it against any of these stores in any way), we did end up walking out with an expansion to Seven Wonders Duel that we didn’t even know existed. I also grabbed some more paints for my 40K projects, with my wife helping to pick out the color scheme for my yet-to-be-completed Tempestus Scions.

We’ve finally decided that we want to go somewhere that we are reasonably certain will have the expansion we want in stock. We’ve found a shop not too far from us which lists online inventory and seems to have it in stock, so we’ve got a trip planned this weekend to yet another FLGS. While I’m hopeful that they’ll have what we’re seeking, I know we’re going to walk out with something either way.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this post or on how you shop for games! Do you tend to seek the greatest deals, looking across online retailers for the best cost? Or are you like me, and willing to pay a bit of a premium for the instant gratification? Is there an FLGS you’re particularly fond of, or perhaps one that’s no longer with us that you’d like to reminisce about? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!