PREMIUM!

• Posted on 13 October 2020
• By Anne
• Posted in Anne, Dungeons & Dragons, Goblin Games, Magic: the Gathering
• 0

What's all this Premium nonsense about?

Hello! Anne here, with another little announcement.

In March of 2019, Joey and I attended the annual Game Manufacturers Association trade show (GAMA Expo). If you’ve ever been to a work conference, you know how hectic they can be. It’s a wear-comfortable-shoes-and-hydrate kind of event - 4 days of nonstop networking, powerpoint sessions, Q&A’s, exhibit halls, and game demonstrations. The schedule is tight enough you have to divide and conquer to catch not-quite-all of the meetings, regrouping periodically to compare notes before running to the next session, from the early morning to late at night. It’s exhausting but also thrilling! There are so many exciting products revealed and excellent resources shared at GAMA; Today, however, I mention it for one reason - it was at GAMA Expo 2019 that Wizards of the Coast, manufacturer of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, announced they were shaking up the system. A fundamental change to the way their company calculates business.

Prior to this change, WOTC assigned levels to game stores based on the number of people playing in their events and distributed products according to those tiers. It worked, but it encouraged growth only in numbers - how uninspiring! Players are people, not just a number to cultivate. Game stores don’t merely sell games, we live and breathe them. We learn your name when you come in the door and remember the stories you tell us. We hope to make new stories with you. When every game store builds itself around their unique community, how can you measure their success only in numbers? A store might be able to seat 200 people, but that’s meaningless if they aren’t listening to their customers suggestions or, perish the thought, cleaning their bathrooms. To really grow the industry, the focus has to be on creating positive memories that our customers can cherish and pass on. Good local game stores have been doing this for years. That dedication to quality has finally been added to the supply chain equation, with WOTC’s new system and the introduction of the “Premium” designation.

There are over 6,000 stores in the Wizards Play Network, and with the new system, only around 220 have been awarded “Premium” status. That’s less than 5% of game stores in the world. Premium means a store holds themselves to the highest standards; they aim to keep the store clean and inviting, provide service above what is necessary, and organize fun events for small groups up to huge tournaments. 

Most importantly, Premium is a promise. It is a shop’s promise to always put the customer experience first and to foster an environment where both casual and competitive gaming can flourish as the community grows. 

Besides the honor and commitment that Premium represents, there are tangible perks-- exclusive products, exclusive promotional materials, and eventually--someday--exclusive tournaments. The program is still young, so these perks will evolve as time goes on. For example, when the Magic product Commander Collection Green releases on December 4th, all Wizards Play Network stores will sell the regular printing, but Premium stores will also get to sell an entirely foil version. On the wacky promotional front, some Premium stores will be sent, likely in early 2021, a life-size statue of Chandra, a planeswalking pyromancer and fiery character from Magic lore. The potential is limitless!

Shortly after Wizards of the Coast’s announcement, we were encouraged by our Wizards’ representative to apply for Premium-- we already met the metrics requirements (numbers are still part of the equation, just not the whole picture) and our community’s inspiring response to Wildcat Creek flooding was fairly well known within the industry. It certainly makes sense from a PR standpoint. However, at that time, we were set up in Manhattan Town Center and in the middle of renovating our current location with a very small budget in relation to the size of the space. Our focus was purely on function while we recovered, and we had our hands full.
We opened our doors in Westloop Shopping Center in May 2019 and worked to make small improvements as time and money permitted.
Eventually, we felt comfortable enough to pursue Premium. The process is a time commitment and, like any group project, can be frustrating - especially for small business owners, who as a whole tend to dislike being told what to do. Usually the changes are for the better, although if we’re honest, sometimes they seem silly or lower on our list of priorities. In any case, we reached a point where the only thing between us and Premium was the state of our flooring, a mixture of old and new, cleaned but otherwise mostly unchanged from when our building was a restaurant. We decided to bite the bullet and replace the whole thing in the summer, when business slows a little and Manhattan’s college population goes back to their homes elsewhere. Then… there was a pandemic. We pushed our floor project ahead of schedule, to coincide with shutdown.

We’re open again now, with very cool epoxy floors, but the heart of our business sits in storage. There’s still a pandemic, and while so much time has passed, and we’re tired of waiting, nothing has changed about the way the virus moves. We know masks are crucial to slowing the spread, but even with a mask, risk increases the longer you spend in close contact with someone. In-store events are no less dangerous today than they were in March. All it takes is one unknowingly contagious player to endanger the lives of our families and friends. We cannot willingly facilitate that danger. So, our furniture is in storage and our playspace is empty, waiting. But we’re preparing for the day we can play again - if you’ve been in the shop recently, you might have noticed the tables we’re building in the back. The next time you play a card game in Goblin Games, it will be on those. We hope they elevate your play experience.

You might even call the experience… Premium.

In all seriousness, I've spent the last week stressing over how best to share this news. I wanted our statement to be perfect--to convey how wonderful it feels to be recognized for the work we do, and how that work exists entirely only because the gaming community here is so ridiculously welcoming and supportive. 

I'm sure the right words are out there somewhere, but we're going into week two since we were notified without an announcement and I still haven't found the right words.

Premium status makes up less than 5% of game stores in the world and we are immensely proud to be the first store in the state of Kansas to receive this distinction.

So, this post may not have been premium…      but we are! 


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