Hundreds and Hundreds of Games

I stopped in to my local game store, which I don’t often do anymore.

They have one of everything, literally. The owner makes it a point to keep one copy of every title that is available in the supply chain. And of course he has some titles that are no longer available that he hasn’t sold yet.

The result is that you have a zero curated collection, sorted in alphabetical order that results in no footing for any single title, for every single title. Want to play a battler game? They’re there . . . somewhere. As is every other kind of game.

Just turns into an empty experience as each box is covered in color and art designed to grab your attention, all competing for your eyeballs simultaneously. It’s so much information that you can’t parse it.

How do you curate 1000 products that all do the same thing?

I may be too old for this hobby. I may be forced to play golf soon.

Seems like an insanely unsuccessful way to keep a store but what do I know.

Yeah, the place is kinda cold because of it. Nothing naturally catches your eye.

I think people come in already knowing what they want. I saw one guy strike out with his request. The store only had the expansions for what he was looking for.

I could definitely see going in to see if I could find some hard to find stuff, so it sort of appeals to specifically me as an insanely hardcore gamer. Which, you know, doesn't really pay the bills.

I'd love to think about a lonely copy of SEAL Team Flix still sitting there waiting for a home.

Yeah, I stopped in the other day and I'm very confused by the way they've decided to organize their shop.

Obviously, they are doing good business, but it makes me appreciate Games and Stuffs layout that much more.

And their alphabetical sorting goes all the way down the row of shelves. Makes it hard to browse.

It's unbrowsable as far as I'm concerned. Virtually evey box is edge on to you, so you can't even see what they are.

What's the name of this strange place? It reminds me of the beginning of High Fidelity when Rob reorganizes his record collection in the order that he remembers buying each record. At a certain point, is that even useful to you?

If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing.

I need to stop in to Games & Stuff again.

The industry is so awash in product that nothing can stand out. My local is a metaphor for the state of the hobby.

On the other hand, the large, well-stocked comic book and game store near my home has a more consciously-arranged collection of games that is difficult to navigate for a new or casual gamer, or especially a non-gamer looking for a gift. There is an area for new games of any sort. There is the wall of role-playing games and supplements. There is the war game section, and a different war game section for war games that use table top minis. There is a eurogame section, an ameritrash section, a CCG section, and specific sections for games with a big product line, like Marvel Champions or Warhammer 40k. None of these sections are labelled, so even I sometimes have trouble figuring out where a game might be located.

Their large selection of comics is much easier to navigate, with three sections: new issues, back issues, and collected volumes. Each of those sections is alphabetical by title.

Virabhadra wrote: What's the name of this strange place?

Third Eye Games, which I guess a third eye would be necessary to successfully browse.

Looking at the stores website it looks very similar to a store near me, also a combo comics/game store. He has a SHIT TON of inventory, and none of it is online. Which means you have to go physically hunt shit down. He CAN tell you if he has something in stock if you call/ask, but finding it can be another story. He recently moved to a more remote/likely cheaper location as he moves into semi retirement. The good news is that if you are looking for OOP stuff you can sometimes find it there since being severed from the internet it doesn't get cherry picked by online shoppers. For instance a friend spotted a copy of the first print run of NEMESIS there when it was super hard to find and I raced over to pick it up for MSRP while prices on Ebay were nuts. More recently I got some OOP Imperial Assault stuff there .

I took Uba and Al to Games and Stuff and McGarvey’s in Annapolis on Monday. We didn’t buy any games at Games and Stuff. My daughter just bought some dice. But the experience looking around was enjoyable and entertaining. However, $1.00 oysters at was McGarvey’s was even more enjoyable.

I've closed McGarveys a couple of times.

I've never closed Games and Stuff.