Friday, 19 April 2013

Local Loyalties

It always happens that i have all these great idea for posts and churn them out in quick succession and then i either forget the blog or things peter off to a slow release.
I haven't forgotten the blog, i just got busy.

Today though seems to make sense to make an entry as it is out games night, and also our local games stores 'International Tabletop Day' 1.5 as their special order arrived after the actual event back in March,

So our local games stores they deserve a shout out because they are the primary suppliers of our addiction.

For years, and years there was only the one, and it supported our 'Magic the Gathering' habit 15 years ago.  They knew our names and faces back then we were in so often.  Today we don't play that one but they are our second port of call (our first until earlier this year) for games, card, board and dice.
Area 52
Their official website has announcements and such it isn't terribly interesting to me, I find their facebook page serves my purposes better of keeping informed, keeping communications open which they are very good at responding to messages.  They have a wide range and friendly customer service, if they don't have what you want they'll do their best to source it for you.  They also have quite a lovely loyalty rewards system that we as a family take full advantage of.  They even have a book store downstairs!  i have been known to pay a little extra for books i want in order to get them from there because i support their business  the customer service is wonderful and there's nothing better than knowing you're welcome in a store when ever you enter it.
There are tables upstairs and some out the back used for tabletop war gaming, and many resources for the miniature hobbyists as well (paints, brushes, etc)
But every store has it's cons.
They run a little more expensive than our new alternative.  I usually put that down to the cost of excellent customer service.
The games store is upstairs.  Now while if you know what you want they'd bring it down for you to look at should you be unable to climb the stairs, that's not a lot of help if you just want to browse.  The building is old, probably heritage listed, not a lot they can do about this really.
No online store.  This makes me sad as i'm a serial online shopper.  But the facilities are not available for it here.  They will let you know if they have stock in, and put it aside for you if you communicate with them through facebook which is lovely but they have stated they do not have the resources for an e-store.
As our (until recently) only game store they have been wonderful to us and we will continue to show our loyalty to them, by shopping there and by attending their events such as today's 'International Tabletop Day 1.5'

Our newest addition to the gaming world here in Hobart  The Mad Lounge.
The sell games, but also they have a library for people to go in and make use of.  With tables, nibbles and games, what could be better...well alcohol but understandably he's not licensed.  Go in, pay the fee and play the games.  The fee is reasonable the atmosphere nice and he often runs specials for people to take advantage of.  Membership makes the purchase of games and table time a little bit cheaper and he supports all sorts of games also even having special tables for tabletop war games.
Mad Lounge facbook page is all he has but again very good at using it to communicate with people.
He's new, but it's well worth checking out the property, taking advantage of his facility as he provides something else for people to do in a decidedly uneventful town.  He's usually open late, sometimes insanely so!

These stores are more or less the sole suppliers for our addiction in this house, and as such deserve a shout out.
yes i buy some things online
ad it's well worth noting that that happens only when the cost of a game is considerably lower that way than it would be on the shelf.  Given the weight of many of these games postage will usually double the cost of a game itself and therefore this doesn't happen terribly often.  One notable exception being fantasy flight games can be if you time it correctly acquired on book depository.  free postage means you're only paying for the game itself and as such a game that would be about $100 on the shelf can come in at about $50-$60.  Only Fantasy Flight games though.

So that's my shout out for today, I plan on putting out a 'all ages' game adaptation of 'Ticket to Ride' soon, allowing an 8+ game to be played form 3 years and up, with a couple of different levels to account for growing comprehension.
Stay tuned.

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