Goodman Games

Thought I would mention that Pandemonium in Garden City listed earlier in this thread is just gigantic. The store is the old Garden City post office completely remodeled to host a fine store and enormous gaming space. Inside this store they have hosted Magic Pro-Tour Qualifiers and still had some room leftover for tables of D&D. RPGA tournament conventions are also held inside this store with plenty of room. If you live in Michigan you should stop by and check it out. During the golden 3rd edition era I regularly traveled there several times a month to play D&D. I live close to the border of Michigan and Ohio and I still drive up there on occasion. This game store is open seven days a week to boot and most days from Noon to Midnight. It is open earlier on Saturdays I believe.

Good Gaming!
-Allaric.

Games Plus
101 W. Prospect Ave.
Mt. Prospect, IL
847-577-9656
http://www.games-plus.com/

I vote for Games Plus

They have great gaming space and are customer friendlyI do wish they carried more historical stuf BUT they have a ton of Warhammer stuff that my kids LOVE
lots of good advise on paints and supplies
they are always fast with ordering stuff for me

they twice yearly auctions are NOT to be missed

Quarterstaff Games
152 Church Street
Burlington, Vermont 05401
802-863-3666
http://www.quarterstaffgames.com

Product Selection: Quarterstaff Games seems to have shelves with enchantments not unlike bags of holding. Despite their relatively small size, one can almost always find exactly what they're looking for and will certainly find at least a dozen things you didn't know about beforehand. From hugely popular to insanely obscure, Quarterstaff will carry it.

Stock Levels: The Q has never failed me in either carrying enough of what I was looking for or being able to special order it for me.

Events and Community Support: The staff is friendly, knowledgeable and have an obvious passion for their work. This can be seen in the weekly events from M:tg to Pirates!, and they host everything from card game tournaments to giant miniature wargame battles just commonly enough.

Play Space: Excellent. Great terrain, plenty of tables and chairs, a painting/modelling table on Games Workshop days, and even a good view of beautiful Church Street.

Gamer Outreach: Be they the greenest newbie or the most hardened hobby veteran, they will feel welcome at The Q. As explained above, events are don just commonly enough to be kept intriguing without people losing interest.

Other: Great community, great location, there's really nothing that I can say about Quarterstaff that could be negative in the least.

Dragon’s Lair Austin
6111 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 454-2399
http://www.dlair.net

Their selection is immense, especially in miniatures, indie games, accessories, hundreds and hundreds of board games, etc. Which can be said for many stores.

The thing that sets them apart for me is: They host a Monday game day for home schoolers. These events typically draw 20-30 people, and the kids play hand held games, board games, card games and rpgs (I am currently running 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for ten year olds myself).

Their big game room in the back is large enough to not be intimidating to visitors when they walk in to see people gaming. It's not cramped, you don't feel intrusive.

They keep a wish list running, I have games on my list that have been on there for six months because they haven't come out yet. When they do, the guys pull it and hold it for me, calling and/or emailing to let me know that the thing I asked for half a year ago is there.

You also couldn't ask for a nicer or more professional crew. They have nice Dragon's Lair button-down shirts, so that they are easy to identify, and a diverse breadth of knowledge about everything they sale. One of them is invariably an expert on the card game, board game, roleplaying game, etc. that you are asking about.

If I order and indie game through them, and tell whoever is helping me about it, when mine comes in there are usually 4-6 more to stick on the shelf. Which helps me immensely, because when I tell my players about it (like I did with Wild Talents Essential Edition), they all go in to the store and buy those 4-6 copies.

I always get a few things on Free RPG day from them.

They also have a GIANT white board showing ALL of the monthly events that happen at Dragon's Lair. Every day is filled with something!

Miniatures gaming is huge there, and they have half a dozen+ tables on table-toppers designed just for that, and DOZENS of crates of terrain.

I owned a popular game store in Huntsville Alabama many years ago, and my vision is fulfilled when I'm in Dragon's Lair. I couldn't be happier or better taken care of.

Terry Whisenant!
Austin, TX

So, who won?

It's really a shame that there's only one winner: if this message board alone is any indication, Games Plus already has a lock on it. I've visited Games Plus a few times before and even sat in on a D&D session once there: it's an awesome game store- especially for finding really esoteric mini stuff and having dedicated game tables (plus the separate D&D game room with its own door to keep noise down.)

At the same time, despite the concentration of gamers in the Mid-West, I really wanted to give kudos to Game Empire Pasadena. It's hard to understate how rare a really good game store is out here in Southern California, where we are segregated by freeways and a cavalcade of competing entertainment options. And it doesn't have the crazy-cat-lady-garage look that a lot of game stores I can recall have: clean, well-lit, and well-organized (that means no funky gamer smells, and no moldering, unsalable product stacked god-knows-where.)

Aren't there some sort of booby prizes for the runners-up? At least bragging rights as an "America's Favorite Game Store Nominee?"

-Colin

We have a winner! Look for the announcement this coming week.

very effective way to limit voting your site would not accept my activation and you did not review your pending activations for 1 month as such i was unable to place a vote for the game matrix. not a good way to recommend your customer service
Gary

Gary, sorry that happened. In our ongoing battle against spam, it looks like some people didn't get activated right away. I can't say why yours was one of those. It had nothing to do with "limiting our voting."
I've taken over those responsibilities, and I spent three hours today going over all 300+ pages of unactivated accounts - all on a volunteer basis. There are now no unactivated accounts. Hopefully we'll be more on top of that in the future.
Regardless, welcome to the boards. We're friendly, if a little non-tech-savvy.

Congrats to YottaQuest! This place has seriously been like a second home for the past couple of years from me. I can't think of a nicer person than Matthew Fay to receive this award.

If any of you get a chance to visit Cincinnati, please stop by the store, you definitely won't be disappointed.

Wait, what? Has a winner been announced? -shuffles through list of nominees looking for store- Hmm... well, congrats.

Will there be any release of poll results, or vote ranking?

-C

garygriess wrote:very effective way to limit voting your site would not accept my activation and you did not review your pending activations for 1 month as such i was unable to place a vote for the game matrix. not a good way to recommend your customer service
Gary

You didn't need to register to vote...

The winner was posted on our front page yesterday:

YOTTAQUEST!

Thanks to everyone who voted, thanks to the many fine stores who were nominated, but especially thanks to Yottaquest for setting such a high standard to encourage everyone to vote for them!

Congrats to YottaQuest. I have been to many a game store in my life and YottaQuest tops the list of the best. Everyone from Matt the owner, his family and staff, to the customers in the store are incredible. Matt goes out of his way to help anybody and is committed to growing the gaming community and all small businesses in Mount Healthy.

It was with great pains that I moved from Cincinnati to Cleveland because I would be leaving YottaQuest behind. My wife's family? meh. YottaQuest? very tough indeed.

And thanks to Goodman Games for highlighting such a great store! And many other great gaming stores. I now have a list of addresses for other stores to check out when I travel.

Alveric wrote: Will there be any release of poll results, or vote ranking?

I too would be interested in seeing results.

Alveric wrote:if this message board alone is any indication, Games Plus already has a lock on it.

That's what I thought, but YottaQuest must be one heck of a store. (Or have more loyal voters.)