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Gamescape is truly dying.
Jun. 26th, 2005 09:18 amI stopped by my FLGS a couple of days ago, and learned that they're shutting their doors in September (for my non-gaming readers, FLGS is gamer-speak for Friendly Local Gaming Store). I have very fond memories of Gamescape. It's been a haven for me for a decade. I became good friends with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
macdrauc because he was the manager when I started becoming a store regular. Gamescape gave monicat a job when she really needed one, which became the genesis of the Purple Dragon House that was so central to all our lives for so many years. Gamescape is the only neighborhood store I've ever been to where the employees knew my name and tastes, said personal hellos every time I walked in the door, and spontaneously saved a copy of a new product when it arrived just because they thought I might like it.
Gaming, as an industry, has always suffered problems. It's a fringe hobby. It's a niche hobby. The products are expensive to produce, and the people who buy them are a narrow audience that typically don't have much money. In recent years, the distribution system has been sorely broken, such that many game producers never get all the money they're owed for product sales. There have been spikes in the market -- the collectible card game craze of the 90s and the Dungeons and Dragons renaissance that happened when Wizards of the Coast published D&D 3rd edition -- and these have been good for the hobby, but clearly the industry is still hurting.
I was chatting with Gamescape's manager on Friday and he gave me the sad news. Gamescape's other two stores, in San Francisco and San Rafael, will remain open for now. The Palo Alto store is loosing money, and there's no relief in sight, and their lease is up in September, so the owner decided it was time to close the doors. The main problem, as the manager sees it, is that no cool, innovative products have come out in the last couple of years to capture the market's attention and imagination. Most of the products have focused on maintenance: endless D20 books so we can all have bazillions of prestige classes, feats, and spells; White Wolf relaunching their main games for the 27th time so they can reprint their core rules again and again and again; licensed products like Conan or Star Trek or Lord of the Rings games that only the fans care about. While there has been some amazing innovation (Green Ronin's Mutant's & Masterminds comes to mind) they've failed to appeal to an extremely broad market segment. With the industry stuck in maintenance mode, the customers are spending maintenance dollars. Maintenance dollars don't pay a Palo Alto rent, unfortunately.
This does solve one moral dilemma I've had recently. Since the distribution system has been so badly broken, many game publishers have been quietly lobbying their customers to buy directly from them, thus cutting out the middleman and greatly increasing their profit margin. I'd sorely like to do that for some companies, but always hesitated because every dollar I directly gave to a publisher was a dollar that didn't go to Gamescape, and I really wanted to support the store even though that ultimately helped prop up the distribution system. I won't be shopping at any other local stores, because there aren't any: Legends of Sports and Fantasy closed shop (did anyone else notice this, by the way?), and Gator Games -- though a fabulous store staffed by great people -- is a 30 minute drive away from me which is just too far outside my regular shopping bubble. I guess I'll start ordering directly from publishers from here on out whenever possible, and through Amazon when I can't buy direct.
I'll miss Gamescape terribly. I'll miss the people, I'll miss the safe harbor of gaming geekdom. I'll miss going down there just to look at the shelves and see what's come out recently. I'll always have memories of flirting with Monica over the counter, and of Dave rearranging the store every couple of weeks or telling me to go answer the phone for him because I was practically an employee.
And I'll spend every damn gaming dollar I can there until September.
macdrauc because he was the manager when I started becoming a store regular. Gamescape gave monicat a job when she really needed one, which became the genesis of the Purple Dragon House that was so central to all our lives for so many years. Gamescape is the only neighborhood store I've ever been to where the employees knew my name and tastes, said personal hellos every time I walked in the door, and spontaneously saved a copy of a new product when it arrived just because they thought I might like it.Gaming, as an industry, has always suffered problems. It's a fringe hobby. It's a niche hobby. The products are expensive to produce, and the people who buy them are a narrow audience that typically don't have much money. In recent years, the distribution system has been sorely broken, such that many game producers never get all the money they're owed for product sales. There have been spikes in the market -- the collectible card game craze of the 90s and the Dungeons and Dragons renaissance that happened when Wizards of the Coast published D&D 3rd edition -- and these have been good for the hobby, but clearly the industry is still hurting.
I was chatting with Gamescape's manager on Friday and he gave me the sad news. Gamescape's other two stores, in San Francisco and San Rafael, will remain open for now. The Palo Alto store is loosing money, and there's no relief in sight, and their lease is up in September, so the owner decided it was time to close the doors. The main problem, as the manager sees it, is that no cool, innovative products have come out in the last couple of years to capture the market's attention and imagination. Most of the products have focused on maintenance: endless D20 books so we can all have bazillions of prestige classes, feats, and spells; White Wolf relaunching their main games for the 27th time so they can reprint their core rules again and again and again; licensed products like Conan or Star Trek or Lord of the Rings games that only the fans care about. While there has been some amazing innovation (Green Ronin's Mutant's & Masterminds comes to mind) they've failed to appeal to an extremely broad market segment. With the industry stuck in maintenance mode, the customers are spending maintenance dollars. Maintenance dollars don't pay a Palo Alto rent, unfortunately.
This does solve one moral dilemma I've had recently. Since the distribution system has been so badly broken, many game publishers have been quietly lobbying their customers to buy directly from them, thus cutting out the middleman and greatly increasing their profit margin. I'd sorely like to do that for some companies, but always hesitated because every dollar I directly gave to a publisher was a dollar that didn't go to Gamescape, and I really wanted to support the store even though that ultimately helped prop up the distribution system. I won't be shopping at any other local stores, because there aren't any: Legends of Sports and Fantasy closed shop (did anyone else notice this, by the way?), and Gator Games -- though a fabulous store staffed by great people -- is a 30 minute drive away from me which is just too far outside my regular shopping bubble. I guess I'll start ordering directly from publishers from here on out whenever possible, and through Amazon when I can't buy direct.
I'll miss Gamescape terribly. I'll miss the people, I'll miss the safe harbor of gaming geekdom. I'll miss going down there just to look at the shelves and see what's come out recently. I'll always have memories of flirting with Monica over the counter, and of Dave rearranging the store every couple of weeks or telling me to go answer the phone for him because I was practically an employee.
And I'll spend every damn gaming dollar I can there until September.
