Many (if not most) of you have seen some of the pictures I took at the FFG event center grand openning last weekend. You have also seen the write up from my sister. Now, I will give my take on the event and the center itself.
We arrived at FFG about 3:45, 15 minutes prior to openning. Only a couple cars had people waiting for the openning when we arrived, but several more arrived soon after us. I would estimate 20-30 people were waiting for the doors to open. The only complaint I had was the three guys outside swing around some sort of flail. Personally, I am not fond of the impression and stereotyping that this behavior perpetuates. I know my sister was not excited about entering when those were the only other people she saw there. The three gentlemen did put the flail away and I noticed no other behavior that I would consider inappropriate from anyone once the doors openned. Maybe I am just too uptight about this topic, but I keep hoping that we can break through a lot of the sterotypes and widden the audience for all types of games. Enough of the soap box, now on to the store.
The event center is both more and less than I expected. It is more to the extent it is well lit with a good number of windows along the front wall. Additionally, FFG carries a fairly extensive line of Games Worshop items including all three major game, 40k, Fantasy Battles and Lord of the Rings. The event Center is less in that there are only two private rooms that I saw. An upper level also has two more tables, but that area was roped off while we were at the center. FFG sells all of their games that are currently in print. These games are priced at full retail, which I would expect since FFg is the company that comes up with MSRP.
At first, no one was really playing any games, so I decided to borrow a copy of BSG and get a coulpe more players to start things moving. We quickly found two more players and played a fun game of BSG where the humans won with 1 fuel left! We wandered around and took the pictures of Horus Heresy below and some other pictures of coming expansions for Warhammer: Invasion and A Game of Thrones LCG. Then the "big announcement" about Battles of Westeros was made and I took the opportunity to photograph as much of the box as possible (pictures below).
FFG had one more contest going, Guess How Many Starcraft Bits are in the Jar. (see left). The prize was a one year membership to the event center. We did not enter and I have no idea who won since we left to get some food before the announcement was made. One other thing I wanted to mention: It was announced that FFG would allow any games to be played at the center regardless of the manufacturer. This move was smart on FFG's part since some peopel were complaining about limiting the center to FFG and their partners. Also, it is unlikely that most people will bring in random other games as they would likely feel out of place.
We left shortly after they announced who would be paying Horus Heresy and Battles of Westeros. All in all, it was a very fun night with a decent crowd of people. The event center looks great and I am sad that I live 4 hours away as I have a feeling I will be driving up for a lot of future events.
We arrived at FFG about 3:45, 15 minutes prior to openning. Only a couple cars had people waiting for the openning when we arrived, but several more arrived soon after us. I would estimate 20-30 people were waiting for the doors to open. The only complaint I had was the three guys outside swing around some sort of flail. Personally, I am not fond of the impression and stereotyping that this behavior perpetuates. I know my sister was not excited about entering when those were the only other people she saw there. The three gentlemen did put the flail away and I noticed no other behavior that I would consider inappropriate from anyone once the doors openned. Maybe I am just too uptight about this topic, but I keep hoping that we can break through a lot of the sterotypes and widden the audience for all types of games. Enough of the soap box, now on to the store.
The event center is both more and less than I expected. It is more to the extent it is well lit with a good number of windows along the front wall. Additionally, FFG carries a fairly extensive line of Games Worshop items including all three major game, 40k, Fantasy Battles and Lord of the Rings. The event Center is less in that there are only two private rooms that I saw. An upper level also has two more tables, but that area was roped off while we were at the center. FFG sells all of their games that are currently in print. These games are priced at full retail, which I would expect since FFg is the company that comes up with MSRP.
At first, no one was really playing any games, so I decided to borrow a copy of BSG and get a coulpe more players to start things moving. We quickly found two more players and played a fun game of BSG where the humans won with 1 fuel left! We wandered around and took the pictures of Horus Heresy below and some other pictures of coming expansions for Warhammer: Invasion and A Game of Thrones LCG. Then the "big announcement" about Battles of Westeros was made and I took the opportunity to photograph as much of the box as possible (pictures below).
After those pictures, I realized that there was some cool art on the ceiling (one example shown left), something my sister noticed about 2 minutes into the night. After making fun of me, we sat down and played a two player game of A Game of Thrones LCG. Her Targaryen beat my Stark (although I almost came back, curse only having wolves and not their owners). After the game, FFG gave away 20 bags (the same ones they have at conventions if you have seen them). These bags all seemed to have a board game in them. Neither of us won, but we did see someone win BSG and another person win Starcraft.
FFG had one more contest going, Guess How Many Starcraft Bits are in the Jar. (see left). The prize was a one year membership to the event center. We did not enter and I have no idea who won since we left to get some food before the announcement was made. One other thing I wanted to mention: It was announced that FFG would allow any games to be played at the center regardless of the manufacturer. This move was smart on FFG's part since some peopel were complaining about limiting the center to FFG and their partners. Also, it is unlikely that most people will bring in random other games as they would likely feel out of place.We left shortly after they announced who would be paying Horus Heresy and Battles of Westeros. All in all, it was a very fun night with a decent crowd of people. The event center looks great and I am sad that I live 4 hours away as I have a feeling I will be driving up for a lot of future events.
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