Comunitatea si eu - sau cum pot sa pun eu umarul sa fie mai bine mai fun

[Niraco]

Domnilor si domnisoarelor,

In threadul de evenimente era gata sa inceapa o dezbatere despre deficientele magazinului. Eu cred ca am fost printre primii care a spus din ele in fata lui Bogdan mai mult sau mai putin vehement. Dar in o comunitate ca si in viata exista doar 2 optiuni: sa faci sau sa nu faci nimic sa iti fie tie mai bine. Fiecare om are interesele personale indiferent daca sunt profesionale sau in acest caz de distractie si satisfacere a unor nevoi de socializare si imaginatie.

Asa ca nu va voi vorbi despre ce nu e bine la magazin ci despre ce facem noi sa fie mai bine. Deoarece cu ajutorul nostru lucrurile vor merge mai bine mai repede.

Este un sfat sincer, ca sa putem spune aia nu e bine, haideti pe partea cealalta sa ajutam. Vreau oameni care sa organizeze evenimente regulate pe sisteme de joc care inca nu le joc sau stapanesc, vreau oameni care sa faca cum fac eu cand vin la 3 saptamani de la Ploiesti sa ma apuc sa duc la gunoi lucruri pe care altii seara nu au avut bunavointa sa fie curati, vreau oameni care sa discute hobby intre ei indiferent de discutie (da mai multa participare pe forum).

Dorim comunitate mai mare aduceti oameni. dar fiti cinstiti cu ei. Spuneti si lucruri bune si cele rele. Deoarece cele bune sunt peste cele rele, mai ales in ultimul timp.

Nimic nu se poate fara voi, dar eu sunt un om, Bogdan este un om. Timpul este limitat pentru fiecare.

Ajutati-ma! Ca sa va ajutati pe voi!

Razvan
0730.88.88.82 (dau numarul de telefon sa intelegeti ca imi face placere sa discut si de ce nu sa punem tara la cale cu oricare dintre voi. Numerul lui Bogdan este si el pe forum.)

PS Aceste thread il las deschis dar va fi heavily moderated. Asa ca behave! Am incredere in voi ca sunteti intelepti.

[laudarkul]

Ar trebui responsabilizat si Alex un pic mai mult (sa vedem o atitudine mai constructiva din partea lui; el fiind unul din responsabilii ghetto-izarii acestei comunitati in opinia mea ).
Si sa incercam sa pastram curatenia un pic mai mult fiecare din noi,cred...

[andrewbwm]

Eu mi-aş dori să ajut cu ce pot, dar nu ştiu exact cu ce. Dacă vă decideţi că ar fi nevoie ceva pe sistemul informatic, fiind chestiile de care mă ocup mai uşor.

Nu prea mă pricep la site-uri web, dar în afară de asta pot încerca măcar să vă ajut cu o soluţie.

Aş mai putea să încerc să fac chestii legate de mini-campanii, îmi plac foarte mult elementele de lore.

YM/email: thegryphonking7@yahoo.com
telefon: 0749 314 786

[Niraco]

Hint: incepeti prin a va declara disponibilitatea si datele de contact. fara comunicare serios nu se poate organiza nimic.

[Spackledgoat]

I’ve been reading on and off the many threads circulating these boards dealing with the current state of the gaming store in Bucharest, and with them the many suggestions that people have to make the place better. While it has been a struggle (as many of you know, my Romanian is terrible), it has also been something that has made me think a lot about our local gaming scene. I feel compelled to write my thoughts concerning the same issues, and hopefully it will fuel some discussion about how we can make the community a better place for gaming. I put this into the events forum, as this seems to be the place to discuss. I know it is long, but please bear with me and enjoy your read.
To start, I feel some background is important. Previous to moving to Bucharest, I have spent time gaming in Cluj-Napoca, Phoenix, and Minneapolis. Each area had a distinct gaming environment, with their own positives and negatives. From this I feel that I have gotten a good idea of what makes a successful group of gamers, and what sort of things poison gaming in an area. I have had the pleasure of being part of a several hundred-strong fee-based gaming club, seen the formation of a new set of gamers trying to scratch out a community, and witnessed the running of stores that have been open since disco was popular. From this, I feel I have the experience necessary to comment upon our own situation.

Growth
Tabletop gaming is not a hobby that is well established in Romania. New players are hard to come by, if not by lack of expose or popularity, then by a lack of disposable income by the population that most likely would be interested in the games we play. Potential dedicated gamers are hard to come by and without a strong, accepting community, they will never be found and given the opportunity to find themselves addicted to toy soldiers like we are. Unfortunately, a strong, accepting community is not what we have. I recall my first time walking into the store. My wife and I walked in after walking the entire length of Basarab street from Unirii and were met with the uncomfortable experience of being ignored by everyone in the store. There were no welcomes, no interest in our having walked in the store, and no attentive storekeeper trying to sell his goods. Even after we had gotten the attention of Bogdan, he seemed distracted and unwilling to answer my questions. Everyone reads horror stories of overeager employees at GW stores driving away customers, but even that would have been better than the cold and unwelcoming experience we had. If we were people interested in finding out about the miniature hobby, I know we never would have returned. In fact, it was only through meeting several Bucharest gamers at a tournament months later would I consider returning to the store. If my experience was in any way normal, I can see why the gaming community has not expanded much within the last year and a half since that day. We need to become a more accepting community, one that very much is concerned with growth and making sure every gamer knows he or she has a place within the Bucharest gaming community. We must welcome with open arms every individual interested in our extremely niche community, and we cannot do that until our existing members feel there is a community at all.

Community
I have never felt that the group of Bucharest gamers as a whole has ever collectively been interested in the good of the group. I don’t excuse myself in any way from this generalization, as I too have been guilty of being a selfish gamer. This behavior cannot continue if there is any hope for the group here to in any way become a community in any sense. To be cliché, a gamer gets from his experience only he is willing to put into his gaming experience. We can continue to play on half built terrain in an ill-equipped environment and pretend that it’s the fault of anyone but us, or we can band together and put a little bit of effort into our gaming environment. We pour tons of money and time to play with our little toy soldiers. Why is it so difficult to realize that our precious time could be more fruitful if we would just work together to make things better. We don’t seem to be able to organize characterful campaigns, run innovative and appealing tournaments nor in any way raise the excitement of the gaming group through the organization of events. How can we bring new players into our community if we remain a sullen and stagnated group of gamers. We cannot advertise events, products, or even something as simple as our favorite games unless the members of the group are excited and participating in what is going on in their gaming community. One thing I have observed time and again in Romania is people’s lack of participation in civil organizations, clubs or other groups. This cultural attribute is not something that will work, while still having a hope for a healthy gaming group in Bucharest. We need to participate, organize and put our collective efforts towards the good of the group. We are currently a number of individuals that love to game and thus hang around the one place to do so in town, but by becoming a community, we can bring our gaming to a whole new level. New members will come around, sales at the store will increase, and our gaming will rise in quality and quantity.

[Spackledgoat]

The Store

A lot of the discussion on gaming in Bucharest has centered upon the store. This place is our location to game, our location to meet, where we can buy our toys. It is the center of our community and without it, we would have no chance. However, it is not perfect. There are things that can be done, both by the community as a whole and those who operate the store that can make it a better place to game and a better business to operate. While I am in no way an expert in the running of a store, I do have some observations I feel should be shared.
Things that must be changed:
- The store is dirty. Miniatures lie all around. Terrain is never stored. The floors are never vacuumed and swept. I am not sure the bathroom has ever been cleaned. I know we are gamers and therefore have a reputation for poor hygiene and a lack of general cleanliness, but enough is enough. Bogdan and Alex, you need to take 15 minutes every day that you open and clean. Acquire a vacuum and do the floors at opening. Do the bathroom once a week. I know its menial and gross, but it’s terrible to walk into that store and see how dirty it is.
- Stop letting people leave their armies out. Put some lockers or shelves in the back kitchen and let people store them there. It seems that every time I come to play, I have to push some lazy slobs miniatures off the table and into a box. It isn’t healthy for their miniatures and it isn’t something that a person wanting to play on an unoccupied table should have to do. Bogdan and Alex, take control. Stop being lax and letting people leave their stuff around. For the most part, the gamers in Bucharest are not children, so don’t treat them like such. Make them clean up their toys. Of all my points, this would be the one that I know I would appreciate most. It is bad enough to have terrain everywhere, but no one should have to deal with people leaving their crap around. People, just clean up your stuff. It is that simple. Stop being children and pick up after yourself.
- I am tired of playing on half done tables with half painted or assembled terrain. We pour tons of time and money into our armies but we can’t pitch in and at least paint the terrain that we collectively use? How hard is it to spend an afternoon working on terrain in lieu of playing a game? I have repeatedly offered to donate the texturing material I have used, and the excess paint I have after building my own table. I have offered to paint, and each time I have been met with zero response. Some solid effort to paint the terrain, to fix the damage, and make everything look nice would make our games look nicer, be more attractive for those who might want to learn to play (the visual aspect is important) and better match our painted miniatures (look at the next point)
o For those who advocate spending a ton of money on some fantastic table, that idea is ridiculous. We don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a table, it can be done well and cheaply with the proper application of group effort. I should know. When I decided that the problems of the store made it a less than fantastic place to play, I built a full sized gaming table in my apartment. It is fully textured, flocked and I have built enough terrain to cover the entire 6X4 feet. Yes, it took time and effort, but in terms of money, it was completely affordable. I maybe have spent 200 dollars on the entire table, including all the trees and hills that were bought commercially. In terms of the draw of a professional table, that too is a misuse of resources. Merely taking the steps I have outlined above would create a bigger draw for potential gamers than some pretty table. Additionally, for a store that plays scales from 15 to 28 mm, a single table would never work. In my mind, this idea is like building the parliamentary palace. Tons of money for something fantastic that you can brag about, but in the end useless and having done nothing for the area around it. A terrible idea.
- Paint your god damned armies. People, you are spending tons of money on your toys. Paint them. The Bucharest gaming communities favorite theme seems to be the grey on grey rebellion fighting the silver and grey federation. If you think you are bad at painting, there are people who can teach you. You will never learn if you don’t try. It should shame you to bring to a tournament or game an unpainted army. The visual aspect of table top gaming is exceptionally important. If you want to play with unpainted, shit looking models, please go to Red Goblin and play tabletop games. Otherwise, paint your shit. A well done set of armies battling over beautiful terrain is the BEST way to get someone interested in the game.
- Help each other out. If you know someone who sucks at painting and you are pumping out Golden Daemon models, help the poor bastard. Help paint terrain at the store. Help organize events. Make this a community. Stop being selfish and build something good here. You can only make your gaming better, while making everyone else’s a joy. You will get more from your time, the more you put into it.
- Put up some external signs. I know signage is expensive and you have to deal with terrible building administrators, but you can’t even tell if a store exists from the street. The curtains make it look closed all the time. A large, colorful sign would allow people to know there is something there, while once again, the visuals of our games on the sign could bring in some foot traffic.
- Advertise online. Not only paid, but at least put a thread in each major forum for our games. When I first moved to Romania, I searched for a store and could not find anything. If someone searches Romania or Bucharest in any forum, a thread advertising the store should show up. Every forums “finding gamers” should have a thread in there about the gaming group. Do the work. Laziness will not grow the gaming here.
- Carry some stock. I know it’s expensive, but at least get enough basic stock to make it look like you aren’t going out of business. Find out what people buy and stock it. We don’t need the rulebooks for ten random games, when a person can’t buy the most popular stuff for the most popular games. Also, carry the hobby basics. Paints, brushes and glue. Stock what people use. We don’t need artillery devices, bone dice or measuring tapes. Stock the paints, carry a supply of picatura, and cheaper measuring tapes. Tailor what you have to the Romanian buyer. If there is a cheaper replacement, carry it. Yes, I know you don’t make a ton of money on that, but having that stuff will being people into the store to buy the basics. At least then they will have a chance to buy the bigger margin stuff.
- Figure out a way to make orders come faster. Guys, its been a year. Figure that shit out. Whatever it takes, figure it out. For all my talk of helping the store, I admit I buy almost 100% from online retailers. Why? I never got all my stuff from a large order I made. I ordered other stuff, and it never came. If I can get something in a week online with a discount, not even my dedication to my local store will make me wait 6 months for something priced above retail. I can understand the price, as that is what is needed to keep a store open. I have no issue with that, but god damn it, I shouldn’t have to wait that long to get my stuff.
- Give out more prizes at tournaments. There’s a great debate between fun and competitive but there doesn’t need to be. If there were prizes for best painting, sportsman, lowest VP, best army and general, it wouldn’t matter what your level of play or painting, you could be competing for something. Those people who play to crush armies (Me) can crush armies, while the painters can show off their work and those of you who work for days on amazing conversions can receive your due. Make tournaments competitive for everyone, and everyone will enjoy playing. Yes it costs more, but it will bring people in to play. People who come to play, end up buying stuff and enhancing the community.
- Be friendly. Jesus guys, be helpful, nice and really fantastic to new people. Invite them to watch, ask questions and be part of the community. Teach them games. Show your excitement.
- Quit with the memes, the trolling, and other stupid stuff at the store. I really hope people are more intelligent than their discussions at the store show. Be respectful, be positive and realize that this is a public place. I know this can’t be enforced, but guys, aren’t we all better than this?
I know this is long but I hope everyone will at least think about what I have to say. I want Bucharest to be a gaming Mecca with a gaming community that is envied and known. It will not happen overnight and it will not happen until people can work together to make it better. The store managers need to do more work, the players need to do more work, but in the end we will no longer have to wish for a great place to play, for the tournaments, events and experiences we only read about online. We have enough people that love our games, and that want a great experience to make this happen. I want to leave Romanian knowing that I left a gaming community better than when I came, and I hope that you guys also want a better gaming experience. We need to stop complaining and do what is needed. Thank you for reading, and I can’t wait to hear what everyone has to say.

[Niraco]

I am trying to do my part. While everything you said has a part of truth in it i want you to become involved in change.

This is my single oppinion

Now as a moderator i`ll merge this into my thread. BEHAVE! NO DEBATES!

[Vannya]

1.This idea is awesome :::::Put up some external signs. I know signage is expensive and you have to deal with terrible building administrators, but you can’t even tell if a store exists from the street. The curtains make it look closed all the time. A large, colorful sign would allow people to know there is something there, while once again, the visuals of our games on the sign could bring in some foot traffic::::::

First time I came I've spend a lot of time trying to find the store and it was right in front of me.Very nice...put the sign so the people know was is going on

2.The orders:::::Niraco I've seen that you are trying to help the store and look out after the shipments BUT 2 months(not to say 6months--- to 1 year--- to never coming it's not uncommon) for a order...still too long-the internet brings it too me in 2-3 weeks at most.Even the club members(who should be the first buyers) buy their stuff from internet :::::::

[usa_supersonic]

Randul meu..o s aincerc si in engleza sau mai o pun pe Laura as scrie daca nu intelegiti ce am zis

The order for 20 december??? I've paid 500ron in advance and you said that if it does not come till 20 December I can have a full refund.
I needed that order to make some gifts and now waht do I do with it??!!
Not to say my angels army that I orderd about 8 months vanished.

When you said 8 weeks or full refund I thought it was like a promise,and I am dissapointed .I know it's not Niraco,Bogdan,the store's fault BUT how do the other guys manage to do it?
I am buying from the store to keep it alive-I want the store-I pay my taxes but I need my army-The angels one-and with these terminators I don't really need them now,we'll see.But I try to be loyal to the store and buy from here and it blows in my face,again

So for the members* please fix the time for the orders-it will be great* OR have a decent stock

[Etherdrinker]

I recall my first time walking into the store. My wife and I walked in after walking the entire length of Basarab street from Unirii and were met with the uncomfortable experience of being ignored by everyone in the store. There were no welcomes, no interest in our having walked in the store, and no attentive storekeeper trying to sell his goods. Even after we had gotten the attention of Bogdan, he seemed distracted and unwilling to answer my questions. Everyone reads horror stories of overeager employees at GW stores driving away customers, but even that would have been better than the cold and unwelcoming experience we had.

- Precisely, alas.

Nu ca si o comparatie ci mai degraba ca o experienta recenta pe care am avut-o. Acum vreo doua saptamani am trecut pe la un alt magazin, pe care nu il frecventez de obicei, sa imi cumpar niste boostere si niste life-size miniatures pentru cadouri. Nu ii dau numele magazinul, oricum il banuiti. Am stins tigarea, mi-am bagat-o pe cea electronica in coltu' guri, am intrat in magazin, salutare salutare, ce fac baieti, cum mai e treaba, benee. Bai, io de colo, m-ar interesa si pe mine niste treburi, niste pack-uri, uite vad ca aveti aici si boosterele astea, hai ca facem treaba. Gata, moshule, vine raspunsul. Cumpar eu ce cumpar acolo, shaking hands, dau sa plec cand il aud pe unul din dreapta mea. Vere, el de colo, nu ai mah timp 20 minute? De ce tati?, eu. Pai hai sa facem un mic joc, m-am prins ca esti incepator dupa cum te uitai la rafturile cu boostere si m-am gandit ca te-ar interesa sa vezi cum se joaca treaba asta. Hai, nu dureaza mai mult de 20 minute sa te invat.

Baieti, am ramas masca. Major hard-on. Parca eram in Rai. Era exact ce asteptam din totdeauna de la un magazin de hobby, jocuri, etc. Cineva care sa se ofere voluntar sa te introduca in materie. Normal ca am acceptat invitatia - omul nu avea niciun interes, nu ma cunostea, nu stia cine sunt, nimic, doar un nea Caisa care a intrat la ei in magazin sa cumpere stuff. Si totusi, omul s-a gandit sa ma ajute, share the experience, share his wonderful shit with me. Friendly, opened, dispus sa ofere 20 de minute din timpul lui pentru a invata un papagal ca mine.

Concluzia? In urmatoarele saptamani am mai trecut de vreo 10 ori pe acolo, sa imi cumpar o tona de lucruri. Cele 20 de minute jucate au fost sufieciente pentru a ma convinge ca o sa am cu CINE sa joc treburile pe care le-am cumparat.

Think about it. Daca la magazin ar fi cineva mereu disponibil sa acorde 20-30 de minute fiecarui noob, vizitator, whatever care intra in magazin, ar avea numai de castigat. Atat de pe termen lung cat si scurt. Este cea mai usoara si mai putin costisitoare metoda prin care sa claditi / mariti o comunitate.

Dap, exact, nu va sfiiti sa trageti de mana pe cei care va viziteaza magazinul. Nu aveti ce pierde.

Acestea fiind zise, eu unul sunt convins ca Bogdan a luat de la fiecare lucurile si opiniile lor bune. Si mai sunt convins ca 2011 o sa fie un an bestial pentru magazin si comunitate.