Games & Gizmos

Love this place. Love the staff. Come here as often as I can for Friday night magic.

A little more selection in games. The customer service isn’t that great, considering I had an employee mock me, but other than that, the store is decent, and it’s got a great location right next to the movie theater.

This store has everything. Should you need any advice, ask an employee. I really felt welcome. Good playing space.

Visited with my 11 year old son as we were looking for some new games to play. Very knowledgeable staff member welcomed us and provided some great info on Warhammer and Warmachine games. My son wanted to try Warmachine and the staff member brought out a gaming table and spent an hour teaching and playing the game with my son. Excellent customer service experience, and needless to say we bought the game and will be returning to assemble and paint the figures and, of course, play more games. Highly recommend.

As has been noted, they’ve been under new ownership for the past … year or so, and it’s a markedly better place in that time. They’re fast, responsive, have a great community going (often filling the store), and have very good prices. (This is one of the two stores in town that seems to reliably sell at MSRP as opposed to gouging you.)
The one half-​downside is that sometimes they are indeed keeping themselves busy painting figures or whatnot so you might need to get their attention to check out… but at the same time the store has got so many interesting things that it’s kind of nice to be able to dawdle momentarily and check out the interesting stuff behind the counter. They’re quick to respond when you let them know you want to check out.

These guys are NOT Uncle’s Games by a long shot.
While they have lots of board games and lots of events, they are not super friendly. I’ve had to wait at the counter for way to long for someone who would rather paint pewter statues than let me spend my moneys.
This place is geek elitism at its finest, sad because they have so much table space.

They were one of the only two stores listed on the North West Pathfinder Society. Now I live in Olympia and the groups that meet up here only meet every two weeks and I had some free time and really felt like playing, so I called Games and Gizmos to verify that Pathfinder was still on for that night, they tell me «It should be, let me check *30 seconds or so later* Yeah it’s still on tonight, we’re having a magic pre-​release which is why I had to verify». I explain that I’m going to be driving up from Olympia so I didn’t want to waste my time. They said «Yup it’s still on for tonight» So I drive all the way up from Olympia to Games and Gizmos, I walk inside and it’s pretty chaotic it is a magic pre-​release after all, so I walk up to the front counter and stand there while the clerk sits and chats with his buddy this went on for 10 minutes at least, all the while he knows I’m there. Eventually I lose patience and interrupt their conversation and ask «Which area does the Pathfinder group usually meet up at?» he says «Oh it’s cancelled tonight for the Magic pre-​release» I’m like «What? I called earlier today to verify that it was still on for today» I get a rude look and «Who said that?» I say the name and he goes «Oh, sorry» then I reply «Yeah it sucks considering I drove all the way from Olympia» and he said «Yeah that does suck.» and goes back to bullshitting with his friend. Rude customer service, store was pretty bare, they sell miniatures and paints, but their selection was very depressing. If I ever go north again to game, I’ll just drive to Green Lake Games instead of this poor excuse of a store.

New management cares and it shows. In depth knowledge of the stuff he sells, and can recommend similar games. So far he has been spot on not only the hardcore hobby stuff (warmachine /​warhammer) but also on the family friendly board games. Staff has been helpful in either ordering a game for you or pointing out local game stores that might be carrying some obscure item.
There is a pretty healthy D&D /​Pathfinder /​Warmachine /​Magic crowd at the store. Also a good place to sit down and paint minis, as lots of talented hobbyists hangout here.

Under new ownership. The new management has really opened up the place and is putting more emphasis on board games, although there is still plenty of Games Workshop and Privateer Press stuff, too. Customer service has greatly improved. I enjoy buying and gaming here now.
If you haven’t been here in a while, it’s time to try them again.

[update: I was contacted personally by Games and Gizmos to help resolve this issue. All cleared up — now a fan]
I wanted to bring my business here but I was not welcome. Before I had babies, I used to come here with my spouse and we would buy gaming books.
Today, the person in charge of events at Games and Gizmos told me that he would not allow breastfeeding of babies inside his store because «it makes people uncomfortable».
I informed him that its totally legal to breastfeed an infant in public. He didn’t care and didn’t want that in his store.
I’m appalled. Really really appalled. If I wanted to shop here and my babies were hungry, I’d have to go outside in the rain or maybe they would suggest the toilet. I’m really upset. I work in the gaming industry and I’m shocked that such a sexist outdated viewpoint is in my local gaming store.
This is illegal and discriminatory. All you gamers who have children or who have wives who are breastfeeding your children — note that they are not welcome here and you should not give these people your money.

[Note that they’ve moved to a new location. It’s very close to the old one]
It’s a pretty typical games store, with the requisite D&D, Munchkin, miniatures, and all the other nerdly accouterments. They don’t seem to have the biggest selection ever, but they had the basics. The new location is a lot smaller than the old one, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. The old space wasn’t being utilized all that well anyway, and they did away with the network gaming, which is probably better for them and the customers.
Unlike say, a certain game store in Woodinville, the staff seemed friendly and actually acknowledged my existence when I walked in. No pressure, just a «Hi how ya doing, can I help you find anything?» which is perfect. I wandered around for a bit, and found a couple good things.
One thing I liked, and I wished other places would do more, is their clearance area. So many of these types of stores will just let things sit on the shelf for literally years collecting dust rather than marking them down and making room for new stuff. I grabbed an Xactika game for $ 3, marked down from $ 16, although it initially rang up at full price and I had to correct it.
They looked to have a ton of open games to try out and designated board game nights, so they’re probably a pretty good place to drop in and play a few games if you’re looking for some game time.

PROS: they have a decent selection of games here, which is good because it’s one of the main reasons i go into a games store versus buying online. and it’s nice that they have opened versions of some games for you to try if you’re still deciding whether or not to buy. if you’re into gaming at the store, there seems to be organized magic or some other games going on here on different days.
CONS: i haven’t found the sales people to be very helpful which is another big reasons i go into a store. when i go and am looking for someone to help find a game, i often can’t tell who they are because they seem engrossed in a game and i feel like i’m disturbing them. the games sell at label prices which means you can get them for cheaper if you order from the online retailers.
another bonus is that they’re right next to sushiland, so if there’s a wait for dinner, i like walking into the games store and taking a look around!

I’m not a local, but have been here about 2 years. So far this is the best place to find GW stuff if you don’t want to buy from a local GW run store. They have some Confrontation metals here too which are getting harder and harder to find locally since Rackham’s botched attempts at 4^th edition. Lots of other things like Gale Force 9 hobby accessories, Armory Primer, Vallejo paints, etc.
Friendly enough staff. Place smells faintly of the sushi joint next door.
–1 star for not offering the GW 20% off retail discount. Back in the midwest nearly all the stores in the Metro Detroit offer it in some form or another. If they offered this, I’d make the trek across the bridge more often when I’m in need of something. Instead I just ring my LGS back in Michigan and have them send me out what I need which is nice since I don’t have to pay the sales tax since it’s shipped here.

Like most modern independent game stores, this location has a broad selection of Eurogames, Games Workshop minis, card games, some puzzles, and some RPGs. There’s also some networked PCs for gaming (i’m not sure how they charge for that); they most seem to be taken up with people playing WoW. I can’t imagine doing that in public.
There are also a few tables for gaming, and they’ll let you paint, prime, etc there, which is great for dealing with Spouse Acceptance Factor, or limited apartment space. They apparently also sell snacks and drinks.
Even though the place is very convenient to my house and I like their policies and items, I have to dock them a star for not carrying very many traditional war games, and for the staff. The people who work here are pretty much traditional game-​store staff… surly, quiet, and sketchy.

Great selection — best selection of role-​playing books in town, loads of miniatures, many different games available. Definitely the gamer’s game store. Events held almost every night of the week, including Friday Night Magic.
Recommended if you already know what you’re looking for.

Gaming shops come in a variety of flavors. This one is buttered pecan.
They seem to have a huge focus on like board and card games. Which is cool. They do have a large selection of the book-​y type games. Which are my flavors. But they don’t seem to get an equal representation.
Once upon a time, they used to run tabletop games on a weekly (almost daily basis) timeslot. I knew the people that ran a lot of the games. They ran good games. Then they kept cutting the time slot, or changing it without notice. They would boot the TT gamers in favor of the warhammer and miniature nerds.
Why?
Because they would tend to buy more figures. Never mind that most sessions a guy or two would buy one of their way expensive books. And they always bought their heavily marked up soda and candy rather then walking across the parking lot to the QFC.
I hate that.

Board games is one of my latest addictions and there’s no better place to get all the latest coolest games then at this little shop. It’s amazing what a well-​thought out board game can do for a dull boring get-​together.
Msg me if you’re into all the cool strategy games out there. I just recently got Carcossone, Settlers, the expansions, and Betrayal at House on the Hill.