Saturday, April 21, 2012

Wheaton's Law: Don't be a dick / Alert the monopolies commission

My Roleplay group are on a recruitment drive at the moment, so I've 'designed' some amateurish flyers advertising our club.
The aim is to ask local gaming shops to put them up on boards, in windows and maybe have a pile on their counters.

The key point is to ask, and to understand that the shops are under no obligation to help out.

However, I am ... Disappointed by the reaction of the first shop I went into.
Their answer was a definite 'no'.
Their reason: we would be in direct competition with them, because they'd recently started a game night of their own. On a different night.

We play on a Tuesday night.
They play on a Wednesday night.
We play 8pm to 11pm.
They play 6pm to 9pm.
We have a room that will seat 30, for free, in a licenced pub.
They have a room that will seat 20, at a surcharge, in non-licenced premises that does have a 'tuck shop'.

I'm not convinced that we pose a legitimate business competition, being a non-profit, loosely organised group that does not trade in goods or services.

So, my personal opinion is that this guy is being a dick.

2 comments:

  1. There could be other considerations impacting the decision. A couple that come to mind are (1) the store's "house DM" may not be so awesome, and the store is having problems keeping players - so a flyer like yours would empty his game room - or (2) the owner is making sales to the folks that play at his store, and he wouldn't want to promote another group because of the loss of traffic, or (3) both (1) and (2).

    Or (4) he could just be a jerk.

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  2. That's the thing, isn't it? You're giving it away for free!

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