sidebar: No real gaming content in this post. I’ve been wrapped up in a myriad of “real life” situations which have – unfortunately – precluded me from getting much gaming in. I have been remiss in not posting anything in such a long time – but could not come to any convergence on the “right” thing to post and still keep the content relevant. I’m not sure how relevant this post is – but at least I’ve got pen-to-paper (so to speak). TL;DR : Josh waxes on philosophical about making priority decisions in the day-to-day life of a human being.

So the situation which got me thinking about the subject of value and worth came right from my family life. I have a teenage son who has become enamored with “limited edition” basketball shoes (primarily produced by Nike). Supposedly these things can fetch large sums of money in the secondary market due to their rarity (and desirability). Each style has a story along with some crazy color schemes and occasional esoteric materials. Frankly it strikes me as marketing genius – but these kids (my son included) – find them extremely desirable and are willing to part with large sums of money to procure them.

This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why someone would save up hundreds of dollars to buy a pair of shoes that they are then too worried about wearing lest they get stained, scratched or even wet is beyond me. This opinion of mine flew completely perpendicular to that of my number-one-son; hence causing familial tension.

I had to swallow my (what I consider) well-developed common sense and allow him to spend some serious cash (money he had saved) for a pair of these wundershoes. Both his mom and I took a big step back – sucked it up – and “let” him spend his money on this endeavor. The shoes came and he coveted them as expected. In fact, he is wearing them today (after dutifully cleaning them and making sure they shone like the sunrise). I then got to thinking about “how crazy it is” that he spent hard-earned money on something so….frivolous.

Somehow I began equating this to the things in my life that I feel are “worth it” to spend that cash on; and realized – pretty quickly – that value is, without a doubt, in the eye of the beholder. I look at what I choose to spend my disposable income on and compare them to my wife’s choices, or my boys, and it quickly becomes apparent that we cannot expect to understand how someone places a value on a particular product, idea or concept any more than we can expect to understand any abstract, highly personal emotion. Explaining to Amy why I consider routinely spending double-digit sums for comic books is the mirror-image discussion to her explaining to me why she needs another shade of nail polish or lipstick when she “already has a billion of them” (my opinion mind you!).

Value is intangible; emotional; personal. It is decidedly not a simple math equation – which is where we often resort to in arguments. Justifying our “value” of something boils down to a personal opinion – and we should take it as such. “Dad, I want the shoes…because” is as valid an argument as any ( even more than the somewhat lame attempt at convincing me they are a good “investment” because they can be resold later).

Now – bringing this back to a somewhat relevant post regarding Fair Game- the term value can (and often is) applied to our store. In fact “valuing” our business is a concept done quite frequently – banks and investors do it all the time in order to determine if it is a good idea to loan money or invest in a business. The fact of the matter is, many (MANY) people we discussed the concept of Fair Game to before opening our doors did not see how we could make it work. “How do you compete with online sales? Big Box stores? How many people will you really attract?”

And my answer now – as it was 3 years ago – is simply “we don’t compete on price, we compete on service”; which given my realization above could be rewritten as “We at Fair Game do not compete on price, we compete on value.” Value – that intangible immeasurable term which loan officers, investors and accountants have a hard time grasping with because it cannot be quantified.

But we feel that we do offer value. In as many different ways as we have customers. That – in turn – makes Fair Game a success no matter how you measure.

Before concluding (and I apologize for the length of this – congrats if you have stay tuned for so long!) I wanted to kind of come forward and explain my lack of presence at the store as of late. I recently took a new position in my “real” job which has me doing some wildly different things than I had been doing for the last 15 years. It is very exciting – and something I went into willingly – however it has meant that I have been traveling a lot and getting familiar with my new position. Luckily Eric, Amy and Richard keep the store running smoothly; Amy keeps our family running at peak efficiency; and everyone involved seems to deal with my (OMG – AS_OWNER_I_NEED_TO____) panic attacks in a laissez-faire way.

I’m looking forward to seeing where my new position takes me – as well as how Fair Game grows. We have some exciting stuff in the works for the store – including bringing in some new lines. It should be a great summer for all of us.

When things are a little less hectic I might even get to play a game or two!

–J

I just wanted to make a quick announcement: Fair Game will be hosting a rather auspicious event early this morning before opening our doors to the public.

Our twin boys turned 10 this past week and we are celebrating today. Happy birthday Sam and Wil!

Never mind the Elder Gods – having kids will do a great job of driving you insane

Love you guys!

Yowza! March 30th didn’t really sneak up on us, but nonetheless, I’m surprised to see it here.

Today is TableTop Day all around the world! In case you haven’t heard the incessant cries of gamers everywhere, what this means is today is “officially” dedicated to playing games. Fair Game will be hosting all sorts of #FGTableTop shenanigans starting at 11am and ending around 9pm. There will be lots of games to play, achievements to…achieve, and prizes to win.

Also – for you Easter bunny better-late-than-never shoppers, try out something a little less sugary for your Easter Basket and buy a small game or two for your little bunnies. Tomorrow (March 31, 2013), Fair Game will be closed for Easter (and to allow us some time to recoup from Spring Break and build some new Warmachine play surfaces!) so plan ahead!

What that is exactly remains to be seen. I imagine we will be playing a lot of TableTop featured games like Zombie Dice, Wits & Wagers, Tsuro and others. We might even break out Pandemic or Elder Signs for some nail-biting fun.

You do know about the Geek and Sundry show Table Top right? If you haven’t watched an episode yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. Wil Wheaton hosts a cadre of famous nerd-gamer actors and actresses playing a game each episode. It really is well done.

International Table Top Day is dedicated to gamers of all types. The idea is to just play games on that day – enjoy your fellow human. Interact. Socialize. Have fun! Felicia Day talks about it here.

Throughout the day we will be raffling off prizes including snacks, coupons and even free games. Most importantly, we will be playing games. Lots and lots of games. Stay tuned for more details!

(and yes, we realize the TableTopDay website does not list us as hosting an event; that isn’t our fault – honest! It appears that they are having issues with their event locator web-app. With any luck, they will get it fixed soon. But, in reality, do you really need to locate an event now? You know where to go! Fair Game for TableTop Day!)

See you soon!

–Josh

• In the mood for a ‘quick’ role-playing game?
• Do you have a hankering for something different?
• Want to see what modern role-playing games are all about?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions above – or feel like you want to observe (and maybe kibitz a bit) a bunch of gamers getting their nerd-groove on, come on down to Fair Game on Saturday February 23. Starting at 3pm, the Naperville Freaks, Geeks and Weirdos meetup group will be hosting a One-Shot RPG gathering right in our store. I think they even asked first!

“One Shot,” in this sense just means a single play session, rather than an episodic campaign – that way players can get a complete game done in one sitting. The NFGW Group has found a willing band of game masters to run players though a single play session of a variety of role-playing games. From science fiction, to espionage and – of course – fantasy, there is a setting and system for many interests.

If you just want to see what all the fuss is about, stop on by Fair Game after 3pm and just observe. All of our players are required to be friendly and respectful to all questions – lest they be sacrificed to the Elder Gods.

If you think you might want to play, I encourage you to register immediately as spots are filling fast. Below I will link to individual registration pages for the variety of games that will be run. Even if a system is full, feel free to get on the waiting list – you never know, someone might not show up.

Below are a list of the games currently scheduled to run on Saturday, February 25 at Fair Game starting at 3pm.

PARANOIA: ME AND MY SHADOW, MARK IV

Time speeds along at a breakneck pace. Fair Game has now been open for business for just over two years. Wow! We have learned a lot in the last 24 months; moved locations; hired some new people – and continue to marvel at how each new customer brings a new piece to our retail game. Still having fun too. Which – let’s face it – is kind of what we are all about anyway.

Speaking of fun – if you haven’t had a chance to sit down and play some of the new games we have on our demo shelves, do yourself a favor and stop in. We continually add new games – which sometimes may get lost among the plethora of other demos we have packed on the shelves. One game in particular has really taken us by storm – Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures. This gem combines fast Lucas-inspired “aerial” combat with wonderfully detailed miniatures and typical Fantasy Flight flair. A game can take from 20 minutes to over an hour depending on the number of ships in play. Players can field a variety of Star Wars favorites including the X-Wing, Y-Wing, Tie fighter and Tie Fighter Advanced. More ships are on the horizon too – with the Millennium Falcon, Slave One, A-Wingand the Tie Interceptor predicted to arrive any week now.

For those of you already familiar with X-Wing Miniatures (or anyone else ready to jump on board), Fair Game will begin a league event starting Tuesday, Jan 15th at 6pm. The event, titled “The X-Wing Map League of Universal Domination!” will run over a period of four weeks. During the event, participants may play in battles against opposing factions, contesting regions throughout the known Star Wars Universe. Certain regions will gain the controller bonuses for as long as that region remains in their hands.

Although the event officially kicks off on a Tuesday, players can meet at Fair Game any time we are open to play officially sanctioned leagues games – reporting their results as soon as they are done. With any luck, I will have a web page showing the results in <sort of> real time.

If you would like more information, please send us an email or stop on in.

May the Force be with you!

–J

Just a quick note letting you all know that for the month of December, Fair Game will be open on Mondays from 11am to 7pm and Saturdays from 9am to 9pm.

Steeped in mystery, the Black Sale Seance is held each year to determine which products will achieve “sale status”. In all honesty, I cannot recall what occurs during these events since our minds are erased after each one. I’m sure it involves incense and eggnog however.

In any event, I have prepared a gift guide for those of you who have a gamer to buy for. This is just a itsy-bitsy tiny sampling of the games we carry and recommend, so if you still can’t think of something after perusing it, come on in and ask. We love to talk about giving games as gifts!

You can access the 2012 Gift Guide right here.

–josh

Every year Extra Life hosts a 24 hour event to increase awareness of their cause and encourage gamers and their friends to donate to a great cause.

For the last four years, thousands of gamers have joined together annually to play for 24 hours for Extra Life – a gaming marathon in support of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals®. Gamers rally friends and family members to sponsor their play. The funds they raise go to help save and improve the lives of kids at the CMN Hospital in their community.

This year, a local group of gamer-friends decided to form their own team, and asked us if we would host the event. Naturally, we agreed immediately – and now the time is upon us.

If you would like to participate, come in and play any time between 10am Saturday October 20 until 10am Sunday, October 21. We will close the store at 10am Sunday, but will be open again at noon as usual. We are encouraging (but not forcing!) gamers to donate during the 24 hour marathon – we can take donations through the register. As an added bonus, numerous Downers Grove merchants have generously donated prizes to be raffled away during the event. Thanks to Emmet’s, The Spice Merchants and Caribou Coffee!

If you can’t make it out and still would like to contribute, why not go right to our part of the team page and give a little by pressing that big blue “Support Me!” button. Every bit counts!

Both Eric and I look forward to seeing the hilarity ensue as die-hard gamers and over-tired shopkeepers try to keep their sanity.

Play Games, Heal Kids

We moved the store – literally across the street – last Wednesday. Our customers and friends (often times one-and-the-same) were instrumental in making the the move quick and painless.

Thanks everyone!

Our new address is 5147 Main St. in Downers Grove. If you happen to head to the old store by mistake, just turn right around and look across Main Street – there we are!

We will be living in a bit of chaos as we get things unpacked and shelved over the next few days – but don’t let that stop you from coming by and checking out the new digs. I think you will really like our new location and more open floor plan.

I know I certainly do.