Growing the Game(s)
We got to play a game of 'Ancients' last week at the 'friendly local gaming store' (or 'FLGS') in Kingsbridge, South Devon. It's called Taylored Games, and Adam and Rachel, who run it, manage to balance that perfect blend of passionate interest in the hobby with a freindly, welcoming atmosphere and an eagerness to help. 
This post isn't so much about them, though, as it is about something we should all do when we can (which also happens to be something they do rather well):
Getting New People Into The Hobby.
Obvious? - Maybe, but let's pick apart what it looked like in reality as we gamed there the other day...
Firstly, Adam was there teaching Pokemon to a dad with two young boys. To be more precise, Adam was teaching Pokemon to a dad who happened also to have his two young boys with him (the family were down on holiday, and it appears the boys had found the shop welcoming - funny, that!).
This is significant, because the dad had gone into Taylored Games specifically to learn how to play Pokemon specifically so that he could play it with his children. And the dad felt comfortable doing this, and the FLGS staff were happy to invest that time in showing him the ropes. To be clear, these were not likely potential return customers - they live half the country away; Adam was investing not in growing his own profits, but in growing the gaming community. This is what we need.
Almost as a complete aside, once they had finished their own game of Pokemon, the two boys wandered over to take an interest in what we were playing with our pretty toys, and so were rapidly co-opten into rolling our dice for us, which turned into yet another severe rout of Guy's poor, hapless Roman legions before the chaotic might of Chris' Gallic Celts.
So Dad got to engage more with his sons, the two boys got a first taster of tabletop wargaming, Adam had helped to nurture one more tendril of our marvellous hobby, and the Romans took a spanking again!
All-in-all, a very positive outcome...
...and that little bit more growth of our hobby!
2 comments
Your article brought back some memories form years gone by. When I first heard of Pokémon back on the 90s it was from a co- worker who learned the game for this exact same reason. Likewise as my own children grew I too often stepped into their world playing children games with them and in turn brought them into the hobby. Fatherhood is indeed a great blessing.
What a great sounding location. If only there were more people and places like this.