Over the last month or so I’ve been looking for local gamers that play Warhammer 40,000. I’ve been in & out of a couple Games Workshop stores to check schedules. I’ve also looked for independent shops that provide gaming space, but had very little luck.

Local miniature gaming has died. Most of the independent shops have closed. Game Wizard, Games & Gizmos, Wonderworld are all gone. Fire & Sword looks like it is about to die as well. Wizards of the Coast Game Centers have been gone for a couple years now. There was one at nearly every mall in the greater Seattle area. And Gary’s Games has always looked like it is about to die, focusing mostly on the RPG & general hobby interests, with very little in the way of miniature war-gaming support.

In part, I blame Games Workshop as they can’t handle competition. There are a number of pretty good miniature war-games ranges out now, Warmachine, Confrontation and AT-43 being the most notable. They have really great miniatures with simple, streamlined, yet detailed rules to game with. As a result, GW has pulled support from independent shops, or made it so cost prohibitive to get in as a direct retailer that it forces miniature gaming-centric shops to drop GW lines all together.

I think one of the reasons all the game shop closures was the almost total collapse of the collectable tradable card game market around the year 2000-01. That market kept most of the game and comic shops afloat after the comic book market collapsed in the middle nineties. Now you can find Magic the Gathering at Target stores and Barnes & Nobles.

Another reason for all the local store closures is the Internet. There are a number of fairly large online retailers that offer substantial discounts in price for just about anything gaming related. That, and not to mention ebay. You can find just about anything there. The other aspect of the internet that helped to kill local gaming shops is the fact most gamers have transitioned over to Massive Multiplayer Online Games. Why organize a paper & pencil RPG when you can simple go online and find people from all over the world, and never leave your own home.

The loss of local game shops is fragmenting this hobby, while destroying the true social aspect of I find so interesting. Interacting with live, real people is important. It is something that words on a display cannot make up for.

The net result is that I am having just as hard a time now in finding someone to play 40K against, as I did in High-school. Where I went to high-school, I was one of only three who collected miniatures. Where they had maybe a dozen between them, I had over a hundred. I was the anomaly, the outcast, the misfit. Always fascinated by these little metal soldiers in armor.

Anyway, now I’m listed on Opponent Search. If you live in the Seattle area and are looking for a game, give me a shout.