I’d have thought it would be geared towards general gaming.
Guns
This. Maybe some bumper stickers and pinback buttons with RPG related slogans. I’ve never seen video games sold in a store that sells RPG/wargaming supplies. And “armory” is exactly the sort of word that roleplayers/wargamers would use.
There used to be a gamer’s store called “Hero’s Workshop”. It had all of the above except for the video games, specifically a wonderful selection of new and used SF/fantasy books.
I’d expect pencil & paper roleplaying stuff, miniatures, maybe some more strategy-based board games (Risk, Axis & Allies type stuff) and maybe a few video games restricted to the fantasy MMORPG genre just because customers would likely play WoW, EQ/2, LoTRO, etc. If not the actual boxed games, I wouldn’t be surprised to see subscription time cards by the register.
I’d expect it to sell exactly what you found, but I haven’t seen a store like that since the 80s (I haven’t looked for a store like that since the 80s). But if I walked into the wrong store, I would just leave, I wouldn’t pretend to shop.
Me, too. Armory just implies clothing and props to me.
For some reason, I’d also assume the word would be spelled Armoury for it to have anything to do with gamers. I always seem to associate tabletop gaming with faux British spellings.
I would probably have thought that it was a gun store owned by a person named “Gamer.”
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the role-playing and war-gaming stuff. After all, those things are also under the vast umbrella of ‘gaming’
In fact, I would be pleasantly surprised.
You know, I’m sure they’d have been happy to show you how to play, if you wanted to ask them about it. The card games and table top games can be expensive, but D&D only needs a small set of dice and a couple of rules books. If you’re open to the idea, you might find you enjoy socializing there.
I voted “fool” but I think that’s a little harsh - If I had run across that name in a store before I hit college, I wouldn’t have expected tabletop gaming either. (I *would *have expected SCA/LARPing gear instead of video games, however, but that’s because I was a strange highschooler.)
For me, the Armory part of the name is the tell. It’s a physical word, invoking wars and battles, and I first jump to LARPs, then discard that because it is too tight an audience to survive as a store.
My second jump is then immediately over to miniatures and wargaming thingies (I don’t play warhammer myself) and since wargaming is such a small subset of tabletop games, I would therefore expect to see all the other general RP paraphernalia, as well as box games like Risk or Pandemic, and a few standees for MMORPG cards and flyers. Every RP store I’ve seen has got location-challenged gamer groups hanging out and using the premises for their get-togethers, so that’s normal to me as well.
Around here, we don’t have enough of a gamer culture to really support a single-focus gaming store, so I would also expect to see a good deal of comics, manga, and anime, but that’s only if I saw the name here where I live.
I would be ecstatic to see a store named Gamer’s Armory which WAS a LARPing store. That would be amazing, and I would go in there all the time. I love the smell of leather and woochie ears!
First things I thought of were RPGs, collectible card games, and the thick stench of body odor. “Armory” should have been a dead giveaway.
Hey, that’s not fair. Some of them don’t sell CCGs.
I can’t be the only one to wonder why the poll wasn’t multiple choice?
I don’t think you were a fool in this situation, but I wouldn’t call the store name “misleading”, either. I certainly don’t think you had any cause to be embarrassed. If you really wanted an excuse to leave the store immediately, why didn’t you just a fake an urgent incoming call on your cell? The people in the store (presumably) don’t know that you have no friends :D.
“Armory” connotates supplies. That would not make a lot of sense for video games, but plenty of sense for RPG gear.
Tabletop gaming was my first impression. But I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out it was a LARP outfitter.
The description in the OP is exactly what I’d expect from that name. Especially that’s what I would want to find. I don’t really use the term “gamer” in a video context.
That would be the Playa’s Armory.
Tabletop gaming. Heavy on miniatures. Dice. Boxes of other types of board games. Magic: The Gathering Cards and other cards.
Probably space to play - and perhaps snack food and soda to provide sustenance.
Less likely to include books, comic books, art related to gaming, video games.
I am distinctly uncomfortable in stores like this, despite owning a dice bag. So I’m not surprised you bolted. They sort of give out an aura of “you must be our type - we eat posers (after rolling to hit).”
And God help you if you’re female.
For a while a game store I frequented “restocked” by cutting open the top of a box from a distributor and leaving it against a wall for customers to rummage through. If you didn’t already know what you were looking for, it was impossible to find anything.
I love stores like this. But I’ve been going to them since I was 12 … .