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My FLGS owner told me to skip Spirit Island for my group, and he was dead wrong
Six weeks ago I walked into Games Plus in Mount Prospect with $80 and a group of four who mostly play light stuff like Catan and Ticket to Ride. The owner, Dale, pulled me aside and said Spirit Island would sit on my shelf forever because my crew could not handle the rules overhead, and he pushed me toward a $45 party game instead. I bought Spirit Island anyway, taught it over two Saturdays using the starter setup, and we have now logged 14 plays with three of the four players asking to bump up the difficulty. Dale has been running that shop for 20 years so I figured he knew my friends better than I did, but he was guessing based on the games I bought there, not the people I actually play with. I get why he hedges, nobody wants a return from a frustrated newbie, but the safe pick would have cost me the best co op experience my group has had. Has anyone else gotten steered away from a heavier game by a store employee who read your shelf instead of your table?
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theaj192d ago
Yes! I had almost the same thing happen with Gloomhaven, the guy at my local shop told me my group would bounce off it hard and I should grab something lighter. Turns out two of my friends had been secretly wanting a big campaign game for months and just never said it out loud, so we played weekly for a whole winter. Store folks see what you buy, not who shows up on game night, and that gap matters way more than they admit.
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