Sunday, August 18, 2013

Evolution of the Club

After five years of existing as a gaming club, Snake Eyes has made a decision to open up our own gaming space in Altoona, PA.  We have been about the community for the past 5 years and will continue to be about the community going forward.  Some of you have asked us why we are changing from a club to an actual business.  Well the answer is rather simple, we enjoy being a club and doing what we do, but we wanted to make it a more formal organization and we see an opportunity to better serve the community by going this direction.

In order to facilitate this, we are in the process of setting up a 1600sq ft gaming space located in Altoona, PA.  A number of you have already been there as we work on the space to play some games.  We invite any of you that would like to come out and play while we continue to set up to do so.  We are typically there Friday nights and either Saturday or Sunday currently.  If you see one of us or would like to know when we are going to be there, contact us via e-mail and we will let you know.  Sometime in October, we will be moving to designated hours.  Keeping in mind, all of us have other jobs that we work through the week, the store hours will be as follows:

Fridays:  6pm - Midnight
Saturday:  2pm - 10pm
Sunday:  Noon to 5pm

As the business progresses, it is possible we will be adding other defined hours, but to start, this is when one of us will be on site.  Why do we say that?  As stated earlier, we are here for the community.  Our Business Plan is slightly different than your traditional store model.  We have decide to not carry a lot of stock, but to provide gaming space to play the games all of us love.  After all, that is what having the space is about.  That doesn't mean we won't have some items on hand such as Refreshments (Soda/Water), Dice, Magic Cards, Clix, Deck Protectors, etc, but we will not be carrying full game systems to start.  So why come to us for your gaming needs?  We will be offering you incentive to make your purchases through us.  You can come and play at our Gaming Space and pay nothing, again we are just trying to get people to play.  However, you can choose to become a member as well.  

Membership has its benefits.  Membership will cost $20/month if paid monthly, $15/month if paid semi-annually and $12.50/month annually if paid up front.  To become a member, it will require signing something very similar to a Gym Membership Contract.  At this point, you are probably asking why become a member if I can come to the store and play for free?  Well, we are going to give you 20% off everything you order through us.  Everything.  Many of us spend a considerable amount on our hobbies a month.  Therefore, if you spend more than $60/month on your hobby, a membership would benefit you as that is your break even amount on an annual membership agreement with us.  On top of the discount, there will be a hobby area open to members that will contain paints for use, bitz, access to our lending library of books and demo games on site.

What will we be supporting?  You name it, we play it.  We will be doing games that you want to play.  Currently, our list is Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Magic the Gathering, Heroclix,  Flames of War, Warmachine, X-Wing, Infinity, Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons and Malifaux.   We will be having tournaments on a monthly basis.  Some of you that have been following us on Facebook have had many great recommendations and we will be implementing many of them such as Hobby Nights and Demo Game Nights.  

Did we mentioned we have a separate room just for Pathfinder / Dungeons and Dragons / Fantasy Flight RPG games.  Not only will we support miniatures and card games, we will be supporting role playing as well.  We have a room separate from the main room that will be used for role playing.  We will be putting out a sign up schedule for routine role playing nights so that the room can be scheduled accordingly for different gaming groups.

Lastly, come out and see us at Blood Citry Brawl this upcoming weekend and talk to us about your thoughts and ideas.  Follow us on Facebook and keep an eye open for more updates throughout the next month as we move forward to having our official opening of the store.

Gary