This will be the final post in the adventure to purchase 6d10 dice from Epic Gaming, a gaming store I located through Yelp because I didn't want to travel 28 miles round trip. There'll also be an epilogue about ordering pizza, although that's not really game related. But anyway.
After driving somewhere around 4 miles from Dutch Bros. to Epic Gaming, I sat in my car briefly pondering if I should take in my half finished espresso boosted coffee drink so that I could have something in my hands to keep them busy in the off chance that they didn't have dice or more specifically, individual d10 dice. Then the etiquette part of my brain said that I shouldn't bring in a drink to a store.
The store itself was pretty empty once I made my way in. And by "empty," I mean empty in two ways. The first being that there was a lot of space in the store and not a lot of it was taken up by actual gaming materials. I later noticed that most/all of the gaming materials were up against the walls while the middle was left open for the activity of gaming itself. The second "empty" was that there was only myself, one guy behind the counter and four others playing Magic at one of about six large collapsible tables in the middle of the room.
This brings up another thing that will get to me. For some reason, people playing Magic intimidate me. Always have. If there's a group of people sitting at a table (or multiple tables) playing any iteration of Magic, I will avoid that area. Most of it is because I never got into Magic and have no real idea what is going on. I "understand" that each player has a deck with a certain number of cards and those cards do things or can undo things. There's something called "tapping" in regards to cards being in/out of play. And if you have enough money, you can build yourself a near unstoppable deck. Is there even such a thing? I don't know. I've also heard (as in physically heard in person) shit-talking in regards to people's decks that to me just isn't cool for gaming.
Back to to the store. I noticed the people playing Magic, and my brain immediately transitioned from "search mode" to "just buy the fucking dice already." Once at the counter, I stumbled out the question about individual dice because in the display case, all that I could see were prepackaged Chessex dice. It turned out, like another games store I frequented in Sacramento, the dice were behind the counter in a gumball-type plastic hand-grab container. I quickly picked out 6d10 of different colors, but still colors that I thought people would actually want to use for Munchkin, made my purchase and then, was able to calm down.
I then walked over to where it looked like there were some miniatures and as it turned out, some of the expansion decks for Munchkin. By this point I had already used the $5 I had in cash for the dice (they were 75¢ each) and didn't want to break out my credit card having already made my purchase. I had also read on Yelp that Epic Gaming also sold video games, which I would have liked to check out, but again, being the odd person that I am, felt that I needed to leave the store having already made my only intended purchase. Again, I know it's odd behavior/line of reasoning, but that's just how my brain functions.
Then I left the store and drove back home. That's the whole story. Yes, I lead a very exciting life.
Epilogue
I don't know how long this has been around, but Pizza Hut allows you to place orders online. Without having to talk to anyone! I'm able to pick out what type of pizza(s) I want, toppings, side orders and such. Then pay with a credit card and have my pizza delivered. The only talking is upon greeting the delivery person, and that's only to tip the driver and sign the receipt. I love not having to talk to a person on the phone and explain what I want, turn down hearing about specials or be put on hold for a couple of minutes. In a similar vain, it's like going into Little Caesar's Pizza, ordering two large pepperoni pizzas and walking out with them less than two minutes later using only a minimum of the known English language. Yes, it's all fast food pizza, but it's perfect for what it is, cheap semi-tasty pizza. Except that Little Caesar's Pizza is actually really good.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Everything Remains As It Never Was
Dude, I totally know what you mean about Magic. Or at least, I sort of do. I did play a bunch of Magic, and worked really hard to get a good deck and all that jazz. But back then, whenever I would see people playing in public, I was totally intimidated. Like if I decided to hover over the game for even a second I would be greeted with a scowl and asked what the fuck I want. It reminds me of people playing pool in bars. I just stay the hell out of the way, so I won't have to commit seppuku when I accidentally bump into one of their cue-sticks and ruin a shot.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of crazy, because the whole 'nerd-culture' thing is supposed to be an escape from that, and in some ways it is. But in other ways it's just a microcosm of the same old bullshit. Like those motherfuckers who would dump like 20 bucks into an arcade game and completely dominate the thing for god knows how long. Actually, my friends Mike and Steve would do that, before I knew them.
geez, I like to post long comments. I'm not even done on this topic. I think I may have to start doing response-posts as a regular thing.
Wait, I said playing Magic in public, but that's not specific enough. More like playing at a comic store, and me not knowing who they are. It's kind of like when you go to play basketball and the court is already taken, and you realize your going to have to deal with these people, whoever they are, if you want to have any chance of shooting hoops. So then you just give up and go home, or hang out on the jungle gym, but you're afraid they already saw the basketball in your hand, so they know how awkward you are, but that isn't going to make it any easier.
DeleteI had the strangest experience once, where I actually, led by brave friends, mind you, actually played basketball with some random people. It was nuts. I think I temporarily lost my mind, because I remember not having a clue what i was doing, but just lunging for the ball whenever it was near me. I guess I never have known the finer points of basketball. Ball in Hoop. Done.