Mon, 26 June 2006 As I have previously mentioned in this space, the subject of our loss of good game stores in the This is a topic of endless debate online but the very real event of losing my FLGS plus the loss of two other excellent ones in recent days inspired me to seek out some former and current game store owners from the So, I am calling this series, "The Demise and Rise of the FLGS" - meaning, the Friendly Local Game Store, as we often call them online. I am hoping it will be of interest to any listeners that have also been musing on the subject in recent days. There should be at least three in the series, although I have offers out to a few additional parties to see if they are interested in adding their two cents. The interview on this show is with Larry Boyd, the former owner of the magnificent store All-Star Games. The store closed about ten months ago and Larry shares his perspective on the FLGS business in general. Next up: A new session review with Castle Merchants, Mykerinos, Times Square and No Thanks (Geschenkt). Show Notes Games Mentioned: Shogun (later called Samurai Swords) Pokemon (the card game - apparently they do a video game, too...) World of Warcraft: The Boardgame Other links: SoCal Gamers (one of many discussion groups in the LA area) Built to Spill (Carry the Zero is six minutes of pure bliss on their monumental album, Keep It Like A Secret) John Lennon (Instant Karma!) Oingo Boingo (not a favorite for me, but a fun band) IKEA (I'm too old to buy furniture there, but I do love Lingonberry juice) Johnny Carino's (which has such big portions, my wife had a full meal on my leftovers - try the lasagna) Gameology (my new FLGS, come see me demo some Z-man games there on 6/29 at 6:30 PM) Strategicon (run by another longtime SoCal Game Store company, The Last Grenadier) The Game Zone (which is still a store I check out since I work a few miles from it) Brookhurst Hobbies (Legendary SoCal retailer and distributor) Frank and Sons Collectible Show Thoughthammer (my online retailer of choice) Fairplay Games (also a fine online retailer) Rio Grande (and the incomparable Jay Tummelson - a man much responsible for designer gaming in the Jeremy Young (and Uberplay) Z-Man Games (the excellent Zev Shlasinger, also bringing us cool games) "Way Rad" - Also spelled 'wehrad', apparently - argh, the copy editor just developed nervous tic) Boardgame Cafes (one example) World of Warcrack...er...Warcraft! Minot, N.D. (to which I apologize) Minnesota (which isn't bad at all, except for the Jesse Ventura thing. I mean - California did the same dumb thing but at least he's an A-lister) Wisconsin (hey, we're Southern Californians - everywhere sounds worse from here. Plus there's that cheese rivalry thing. Let's not get into that...) GenCon (and Gen Con SoCal) Not Water (hmm...Larry didn't have a specific recipe, but Christina is thinking one up. Post your recipe in the comments section!) Comments[9] |
Fri, 23 June 2006  Just a reminder that I will indeed be at the store Gameology in If you can't make it to the store (because, say, you don't live anywhere near Los Angeles and those plane tickets have gotten outrageous), well, no problem - both No Thanks and Castle Merchants will be in the next session review show. But that show won't come out until I release the first in the Demise and Rise of the FLGS series. It has been edited and it should be posted this weekend, once I've given my guest on the show a chance to preview it. Whew, does this mean I might actually release more than one volume of BGB in a month? Heck, there might be three. Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon. Category: Blog Update -- posted at: 9:41 AM Comments[0] |
Wed, 14 June 2006  Well, this show was supposed to appear right after the Power Grid show but then the second half of May hit. Work was crazy and, more significantly, my wife Christina had some emergency surgery. She's doing fine now but it has meant double-dad-duty for a while so I haven't had much (read: any) time to edit the show. The good news is: I already have the next two shows recorded, including another session review and the first in a new series I am calling "The Demise and Rise of the FLGS" (Friendly Local Game Store). This series will include a string of interviews with former and current game store owners from the Also, I'll actually be doing demos for Z-Man Games at my new FLGS, Gameology, in lovely Claremont, California on June 29th. I should be there at 6:30 PM to show off Castle Merchants and No Thanks! (yes, Geschenkt). They will both be featured in the next Session Review show as well. Gameology is owned by a sharp new owner, Dave Holt, who has some very intriguing and clever ideas for making the game store business work in the modern era. He's also going to be featured later this Summer in an interview as part of the Demise and Rise of the FLGS series. I should also note that in this show, I neglected to talk much about Tom Wham, a pre-euro designer famous for his co-design of the classic Kings and Things, the fantasy crayon rail Iron Dragon, the goofy Awful Green Things From Outer Space and some lesser 80's items like Mertwig's Maze and The Great Khan Game - light, fun little items that - like Planet Busters - are a little dated but might be ripe for a revision. I also gloss over mention of the amazing Doris and Frank, but any fan of designer games knows their solid designs like Ursuppe (Primordial Soup) and Frank's Zoo (featuring Next up: The Demise and Rise of the FLGS, Part 1: Interview with Larry Boyd, former owner of All Star Games - one of the finest stores the Show Notes Games Mentioned: Daihimi (which is also marketed by Richard Garfield as "The Great Dalmuti")
Other links: Strategicon (Orccon is the February) Goth (which, amusingly enough, comes up before the real Goths) Patricia Morrison (I used to wear mirror shades because of Andrew Eldritch, not William Gibson) Pablo Picasso (some say the real quote is "Bad artists copy, great artists steal" or they attribute it to Dali or a variant to Lionel Trilling but who can know for sure?) Casino (one nasty movie about running a casino) Mr. Crokinole (the great board Mike and Nikki own is from him) Comments[2] |
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