How much would you pay for a "membership" to a different kind of FLGS?

[gadren]

(I wasn't sure if it was more appropriate to post this here or in the Friendly Banter forum. If this is the wrong place, feel free to move it.)

Since the start of this century, I've watched more and more FLGSs (Friendly Local Gaming Stores) close up shop, unable to compete with the low prices that people can buy their gaming materials at from the internet (especially Amazon). The is a real shame, because a good FLGS isn't just a place to buy stuff, it is a place for our niche of gamers to socialize, try out new games, and play the tabletop RPGs, CCGs, Strategy Games, and boardgames that we love. Some of us can just host games at home, but many can't for a variety of reasons.

This has had me wondering for a while about the viability of an FLGS that focused less on selling material goods, and more on selling a place to game. Kind of like a gym membership for gamers. Such a place would have a smaller stock of books and games and dice and such to sell, and most of its space devoted to gaming. Instead of just cheap folding tables and chairs set up, there could be different types of comfortable chairs (maybe with cupholders to keep drinks off the gaming tables), and a variety of tables designed specifically for gaming (for example, some tables with projectors or large flat-screen tv's under plexglass as a tabletop. These could plug into a GM's laptop computer via HDMI cable, allowing him to premake dungeon maps in photoshop, cover the whole thing with an opaque layer, then erase that layer as PCs explored. He wouldn't have to waste time drawing anything in the middle of a game because it would be projected right there on the table.) The place might rent certain materials, have books for lend to members, perhaps provide some sort of food service, and maybe even have staff available to sit in as missing players, DM's, DM's assistants, etc. These are just some suggestions. There are a lot of different directions to take this, I think, partly depending on how much membership fees were.

The question is, would you be willing to pay a membership to a place like this? If so, what are the different prices per month you'd be willing to pay, and what would you expect to be getting for those prices?

I understand that there are people living in places or circumstances where this is not palatable. Obviously, if you are currently living near a FLGS that provides a good gaming atmosphere for free, there wouldn't be any appeal to this. However, I do request that any posts made in this thread are respectful, even if you don't like this idea.

[Crow]

Purchase your building. If you can knock out having to pay rent or a lease, your biggest source of overhead disappears, and your FLGS will have a much greater chance of survival. Also, just let people put their drinks on the table. It's a lot easier to clean off a gaming table that it is to clean off furniture, because drinks will be spilled. You may want some sort of policy in place for when someone inevitably ruins a book by accident.

Personally, I wouldn't pay a membership for something like this. I *would* pay for food and snacks that were available on-site. I don't know that I would rent gaming materials. If you could set up something I couldn't do from home like multiple consoles connected to 80-inch televisions with an awesome sound system that people can game together on...that might be something.

I like the idea of big-ass flatscreens to be used as gaming tables. Something like that connected to a digital sketch pad would be rad. i might pay to use one of those.

[gadren]

Purchase your building. If you can knock out having to pay rent or a lease, your biggest source of overhead disappears, and your FLGS will have a much greater chance of survival.

This was something I thought about, but wasn't really the point of the thread. It's not a solve-all. Instead of paying rent, the owner would have to a mortage and property tax on a piece of property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hell, when I thought about doing this for real and looked at commercial real estate for sale at the size I wanted to do it here in southern CA, the properties were all worth between $1 and $2 million.

I guess that is kind of the catch 22 of the idea, though. I feel like the most possible customers willing to pay a membership fee would be those that live in places where property costs so much that most people don't have enough space in their home to comfortably host gamenights. But because the property costs are so high, that means the FLGS would also be paying obscene rates for the property.

[Crow]

This was something I thought about, but wasn't really the point of the thread. It's not a solve-all. Instead of paying rent, the owner would have to a mortage and property tax on a piece of property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When I say buy, I mean outright.

Premanufactured steel buildings, or converted warehouse space. Most commercial property is inflated in price on the assumption that you will be leasing it out. It's a waste. If you're willing to be a little unconventional, you can get your space much cheaper, and even if you can't purchase it outright, your payment is likely to be far lower than any rent or lease you're going to find in socal. Even with a payment, instead of pissing away your money, you are actually contributing towards an asset. That becomes extremely important if your business doesn't pan out.

The other concern is how you're going to finance this place to begin with. I am not a fan of starting out by taking on debt. Unless you can do so and come out ahead of what you would have through other options. For example a friend wanted to start a gym and had an investor. His investor wanted to take a portion of the income which would have been far greater over a long time than he would have just paid to a bank with a personal loan for the amount the investor fronted.

[gadren]

When I say buy, I mean outright.

Premanufactured steel buildings, or converted warehouse space. Most commercial property is inflated in price on the assumption that you will be leasing it out. It's a waste. If you're willing to be a little unconventional, you can get your space much cheaper, and even if you can't purchase it outright, your payment is likely to be far lower than any rent or lease you're going to find in socal. Even with a payment, instead of pissing away your money, you are actually contributing towards an asset. That becomes extremely important if your business doesn't pan out.

The other concern is how you're going to finance this place to begin with. I am not a fan of starting out by taking on debt. Unless you can do so and come out ahead of what you would have through other options. For example a friend wanted to start a gym and had an investor. His investor wanted to take a portion of the income which would have been far greater over a long time than he would have just paid to a bank with a personal loan for the amount the investor fronted.

I think I need to start a different, simpler, thread. I am more interested in just seeing how people feel about a membership deluxe gaming space than in discussing the details of financing it right now.

[Crow]

I think I need to start a different, simpler, thread. I am more interested in just seeing how people feel about a membership deluxe gaming space than in discussing the details of financing it right now.

Sure thing, my apologies.

[Fri]

the flgs nearby rent place for gaming, the target is for groups who are hard in finding place to gather (and obviously can't simply gather in one of their place for one reason or another). It's mainly for boardgame rather than rpg though.

It either rent table for a large group hourly with flat rate (the longer you rent the cheaper the cost), or rent table hourly for personal (like, if there's only 2 or 3 people in your group, rather than renting a large table hourly, you can rent a smaller table with everyone paying individual rate. More expensive than if there's a large group renting a big table, but cheaper if you have small group).

Also they lend you board games (I think it's included in the price), and you can also have food and/or free flow ice tea.

Every once in a while (monthly?) they have board game day where you can pay a certain price and game there for the whole day and get a sammich and freeflow drink.

And yes, their staff will help you explain the rules, or gm, or whatnot.

The situation might be different in other countries/places, but so far they're the most long-running flgs/board game cafe here. Dunno if it will stand though.

[GungHo]

I wouldn't pay anything for this because I already have my house set up with the tech and I have a place to game (hell, I even keep all my worlds in a SQL DB and use QGIS for maps). That being said, I'll play along and pretend I don't have that.

I wouldn't pay an ongoing membership. I would pay a moderate amount ahead of time for a reserved table that well-maintained (i.e. the tech needs to work and there shouldn't be Dorito dust coating the chairs). I'd pay less for an on-demand service, and I probably wouldn't show up more than a few times if the on-demand queue was substantial, as there's multiple people waiting and ain't nobody got time for that. I would expect an app/web portal that would allow me to do the booking without showing up to see whether or not something is available.

I might be willing to pay more for certain perks. TVs with things like ClickShare, PixelSense, etc obviously have a maintenance cost as do private rooms. I don't think I would bother using concession booths unless the price is equivalent to a 7-11. I think the minis market is missing a big market in the whole Disney Infinity idea and I think if you found a way to integrate it without skirting patents (via something like PixelSense), you'd be on the cusp of making a buttload of money.

[Fri]

My group's problem is more about finding place to game. If you already have a place, it won't be attractive, I think. None of our living place are suitable for gaming, and we used to play in food courts, but we sometimes got kicked out of food courts for gaming :smalltongue:

[danzibr]

Iiiiinteresting. To answer the question, I would pay $0/month. This is because I have a wife, 2 children, no extra money, and no time to go to a FLGS.

HOWEVER, at a different point in my life, I'd be willing to pay for membership, the amount commensurate with my income of course. How much I'm not certain of.

[Chen]

I wouldn't pay anything for this as a monthly fee. Me and my gaming friends have plenty of house options to play in. Back when we were in school, there was a mix of appartments and rooms at the school (common rooms, club rooms etc) that we never had an issue finding a place to play our games, so even back that I wouldn't likely have paid for this.

There are a couple of bars in town that are board game bars. They have huge selections of games and the serve bar food + alcohol. There's a nominal fee ($8) for each person going there but that's for the entire stay. They're fairly new and I'm not sure how successful they are or if they're going to stay in business, but it's an interesting idea.

[Knaight]

Absolutely nothing. Buying actual food on site is one thing, but unless a FLGS has something that particularly draws attention (e.g. a huge shelf of board games you can play if you buy food there), it is just a place to buy things.

[gadren]

My group's problem is more about finding place to game. If you already have a place, it won't be attractive, I think. None of our living place are suitable for gaming, and we used to play in food courts, but we sometimes got kicked out of food courts for gaming :smalltongue:

Sounds like the target demographic. How much would you pay for a place to game?

[Fri]

The problem is, I live in a south east asian country, where obviously the currency is much weaker, and the board gaming situation is different. But just as comparison, the flgs I mentioned earlier in this thread, I think it cost about 30~ bucks to rent a table for a group for the whole day.