The Quest!

When you're apparently really good at being unemployed without even trying, you have to make little projects here and there to keep yourself occupied.  So I have given myself a quest: to find as many locally owned gaming stores as possible in the area.

I've already been to GamePlus in Mount Prospect, and that place is pretty good.  I usually go there when I'm going on a dice binge and they've been somewhat sympathetic to my addiction.  It's what a gaming store should be and sticks to the classic model pretty well.  The classic model also includes a bunch of male staff.  And a lot of them are older than me too.  To me they are still approachable and probably even more approachable than some of the staff I've seen at other hobby/gaming stores.  And the staff has always been willing to help and hasn't had a problem with my gender like I've heard that a few girl gamers have dealt with before.  

The point is every time I've been to Games Plus it's been fun and I'm always willing to go back and give them more of my money.  The staff are knowledgeable and almost every time I walk in there is a great nerdy conversation going on that's fun to listen to.  And it's classic, it's your neighborhood hobby store.  It's just reeks of the memories of when you first picked up a D&D book and you were forever hooked.

But I want to see if there is more out there.  Who else is indulging in my hobbies?  Well there are a couple stores I hope to write about here soon when I get the chance to travel.  

Black Sun Games and Chicagoland Games are the only two I've been able to find in the area, so I'm going to check both of them out.  Right now it looks like Chicagoland Games is winning point for me, both in accessibility (Taking the el straight is a lot easier than taking bus, then el, then bus) and in web page layout.  

I'm also thinking of starting my investigation of girl gamers there.  I'm wondering how unkosher it is to start asking opinions of women gaming and stuff to the people who run the stores and such.  Who knows?  All I can do it just see what happens.  

This Quest, however, may have to wait until its closer to the end of the month.  By then I will be less busy and have some income from some random sources.  So that's the plan as of now.

I'm going to have a better game plan for my investigation later, which I'll post here.  If for some reason you get a lead or an idea for that project, feel free to drop me a line.  I'd like to thank EastwoodDC for trying to help me out earlier.  Any helpful gesture is definitely appreciated.