Great article Otter. I would LOVE to see the gamer community escape this stigma. I believe that the majority of gamers are well adjusted.
Unfortunately, the majority of gamers who are well-adjusted don\'t play at game stores (or don\'t for very long). I\'ve started games at stores, but after 1 or 2 sessions someone always says \"let\'s meet at my house\". It\'s so much easier, nicer, and more convenient.
I\'m not anyones mother, I don\'t have time to teach people the manners/social graces that their parents didn\'t. Not that my groups are all peachy-keen, but at least we have a modicum of respect for each other.
I have no reason to play a game at a smelly game store around a bunch of loud mouth jerks. I feel for the employees, it\'s tough to keep a store clean when you have people in and out leaving messes all day. I feel for them because they can\'t tell the loud mouth jerks to quiet down or find a table in another section because \"they\'ve been coming here for 12 years and that\'s where they always play\" (yes, actual quote, despite the fact we were there first and there were plenty of open tables, they set up around us, even moving one guys minis off a table and putting them on another, empty, table so they could use THAT table).
I looked into starting my own gaming store (and I have 6 stores in my area already), but quite honestly my money is better invested somewhere else (or at least not in a \"typical\" game store). If a store owner actually stood up to these \"gamer funk\" types, they may actually make MORE money from those people the \"gamer funk\" scares away. I actually saw a post from someone (I know, a link would be nice, but I can\'t remember where) who took over a game store and cancelled EVERYONES discounts, turned out that the biggest complainers had the biggest discounts and also BOUGHT VERY LITTLE. They were also the people who were hanging out the most, when they took their \"business\" elsewhere it turned out to be the best move he made.
Originally posted by paleotaur
I\'m not gonna be the one to start it, but I feel for you Languin, for all the flames you are about to recieve.

Don\'t cry for him. Reread his posts, he\'s been trollin\' in all of them on this thread. Nice that he calls us intolerant and then spews his own intolerance.