When was the last time a board game shop won a business award that had nothing to do with board games? Matthew Micetic, who owns Red Castle Games in Portland, Oregon, has just been named Oregon Small Business Person of the Year by the US Small Business Administration. It is a rare bit of mainstream recognition for the kind of shop most of us think of as a second living room.
Got a regular group? Create a private community, poll for the best date, vote on games, and let your friends RSVP in one place.
Set up your group for freeMicetic opened Red Castle in 2010, and the pitch has never really been about shelves of shrink-wrapped boxes. The store runs organised play for Magic, Pokemon and D&D, youth gaming camps over the school holidays, miniatures painting nights and an on-site cafe, all built around the simple idea that people come back for the people. As he put it, "the future isn't just about selling products, it's about creating reasons for people to keep coming back."
That resilience has been tested hard. Red Castle weathered ten break-ins over roughly twenty months and more than $250,000 (about £185,000) in losses and damage, much of it sealed trading card stock. The shop kept its doors open anyway, largely because the community it had spent more than fifteen years building rallied round it.
Run game nights? Backseat Gamer handles RSVPs, waitlists, date polling, and game voting so you can focus on playing.
Start organising for freeThere is a lesson here for anyone who runs a game night, whether you are behind a till or just herding your mates to the pub back room every Thursday. The thing that keeps a group coming back is not the newest hotness on the table, it is the sense that this is their table. If you are trying to build something like that, find or start a community on Backseat Gamer and give people a reason to keep turning up.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Red Castle Games
