Two armies of miniature figures are hidden behind plastic structures serving as buildings, giving them the needed cover from each other. The game being played is called Infinity, a new game from Spanish developers Corvus Belli, and hit the U.S. about six months ago. The game is like a more involved game of chess where players move their miniatures across a battlefield using rulers and try to kill their opponents’ miniatures to get kill points and V.P kills. Whoever has the most V.P. kills wins the round.
Jack Daniels, currently ranked 1st in the U.S. and 5th internationally in the Infinity Tournament finishes placing his figures and waits for his opponent, Timothy Cummings to make his first move. “That guy’s dying… first turn,” Jack says pointing at a figure across the miniature landscape. Timothy pulls his retracting ruler out only to let it slid back with a click, glances up at Jack and shrugs off the taunt with a chuckle. Luck has not been with Jack the first two rounds of this tournament. He is currently in 4th place, and this is the last battle of this tournament being held at Pandemonium.
Pandemonium is a hobby shop in Garden City, Mich. that specializes in two things: games and supplying a place to play them. Pandemonium opened on Middlebelt road in 1996 under the name Michigan Game Corp in an old post office. The location offered large amounts of space needed for tournaments for collectable card games and wargames like Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40,000, and Necromunda. In 2001, the store joined with the nationally known hobby shop and tournament center Neutral Ground and became Neutral Ground Detroit. After two years, the store was sold to store manager Brandon Petitpren who renamed the hobby shop Pandemonium. Inheriting a large amount of debt from the purchase, Brandon revaluated Pandemonium’s business model.
Brandon decided to stray from standard business models when he bought Pandemonium. Instead spending money in advertising to bring in new customers, he focused on the current customers and what they wanted. “We found ways to make the store more appealing for customers,” says Brandon with a nod. He allowed anyone to use the tournament space for non-tournament games at no charge. He also paid attention to what his customers were interested in.
According to Brandon, many hobby shops spread out their product base to include many games to draw new customers into the store. But, because of the big product base it becomes difficult to afford the later supplements that are released for those games. Customers interested in those games now have to go somewhere else.
Brandon’s business model is to find what his customers are interested in and carry everything for that game, “If we carry something, we carry the entire line,” says Brandon. This is evident because they still sell products for Warhammer 40,000 and Magic: the Gathering, over a decade after opening as Michigan Gaming Corp. Doing this keeps customers loyal, which is needed for hobby shops, says Brandon. “Most gamers always go to the same hobby shop,” says Jason Lucas, employee for Pandemonium since its opening as Michigan Gaming Corp in 1996. “[There is] No point in competing for customers who are all ready content,” added Jason.
This business model seems to be working for Pandemonium. “Every year has been better then the last,” says Jason Lucas, “even this last one.” The difficult economy of 2008 affected Pandemonium, but not as much as other businesses, says Brandon. By deciding to sell roleplaying games in 2000, Pandemonium became a prerelease location for the popular Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. Though Jason says, “The 4th edition prerelease was not as big as 3rd edition [Dungeons and Dragons],” which Pandemonium also had for prerelease.
Both Brandon and Jason want to keep Pandemonium in the direction it is going. “I enjoy seeing how games evolve,” says Brandon, “but also enjoy watching those with similar lifestyles.” And Jason enjoys the interaction with the large pool of freethinking people that frequent Pandemonium.
Currently, Pandemonium sells collectable card games Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and World of Warcraft; roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition, and Pathfinder; and wargames like Warhammer 40,000 and Infinity Miniatures. They also continue to hold tournaments, like the Infinity Tournament with Jack Daniels.
After his match with Timothy, the scores were calculated and Jack came in 4th place overall. The placing lowered his international ranking down to 8th place, and now he is tied for 1st place in the U.S. with Gierllmo Hernandez. “Oh well next time...but all in all a good fun torunie,” says Jack on the Infinity forum.
No comments:
Post a Comment