Feel free to point the nameless person to this thread. I feel like a bunch of it has been touched on already, but I'll list some things in an effort to clear stuff up if it's confusing people.
1) I'm not sure I believe the prevalence of Magic in Abington has much to do with the popularity of miniature gaming there. Maybe secondarily, at best.
2) As far as I know, and I could be wrong (but I'm probably not), Abington has between 4 and 6 tables set up for miniature gaming in excess of 95% of the time. I would imagine that if you saw card players playing on tables that normally have 4x6 footers on them that it was during a prerelease weekend or shortly after. If it was not during a prerelease weekend or shortly after, there was probably at least two tables set up for miniature gaming. If I were a betting man, I'd probably bet that having 2 tables set up for miniature gaming is probably more table space than is required on any given non-Thursday. (I don't imagine more than 1 table at a time is being used very often outside of Thursday. I'm sure it happens every week, but I do not believe it's common.)
3) It's certainly easier to play Magic than it is to play 40k, but I'm not sure that should really factor in to how much space is given over to a particular kind of game.
I'll level with you a bit: Both stores have more space than they need given over to table top miniature gaming in their default configuration. This is for several reasons. First, it's important to represent table top miniature games as an obvious thing we do. Second, miniature players (and all hobby gamers) LOVE to see cool tables and cool terrain set up for "their" game. There's certainly an attachment there (which seems to be the root of your post, Steve). Three, it decreases the amount of shuffling around the staff / community needs to do when the demand for table space spikes. Ex. Thursdays in both locations. Four, in Abington's case, there's almost always plenty of room for it.
In Plainville I'd absolutely LOVE to get rid of two 4x6' tables. The only night of the week where I need more than 4 tables set up is Thursday, and some Thursdays I don't need more than 4 (exception: miniature leagues of any kind). What I do need are more tables for board gamers and card players almost every non-Thursday night. Currently we have to move the store around in some fashion almost every day. Unfortunately, those six 4x6's represent like 80% of my storage. I need them!
Really, the amount of 4x6' tables each store has set up needs to be a balance between demand, ascetics, and practicality in general. It's EXTREMELY easy to look at one very uncommon occurrence and make mountains out of mole hills.
4) The amount of money a given player or player-base / community spends on their respective game doesn't directly factor into how many tables we set up "for" that game. Might strong Magic (or 40k) sales imply a large, active player-base? Sure. Might a large, active player-base imply lots of people showing up to play that game at a given time? Sure. Our job is to respond to that while still keeping ascetics and practicality in mind. Do we made mistakes / not go the extra mile after working 54 of 72 hours? Yup.
5) We will not show anyone any generalized information on their "purchase history" at Battleground.
6) The Abington employees ALWAYS have Magic related stuff they can / should be doing. That's the nature of the beast right now. Feel free to talk to Cale about how much stuff needs to get done with respect to Magic cards at any point. Because of all that work there's not a tremendous amount of time leftover for other projects, especially after normal store related things are done and handled. Still, Nick's primary responsibility for these last 10 or 11 weeks has been to handle the 40k league. That's wrapping up. If Nick is going to step up and be "the miniatures guy" or if you guys view him as "the miniatures guy" I would encourage him / you to communicate any ideas as far as what you'd like to see next so that we can make it happen.
If this matters... Cale owns 2 Commander decks and his most recent gaming related purchase was a Menoth army for Warmachine, which he's played a few times. Chad doesn't play Magic and used to own a ton of 40k stuff. Nick (as far as I know) doesn't really play Magic and definitely has / plays miniature games. Derek doesn't know the first freaking thing about Magic and has Necrons, Khador, and a very small amount of Empire. They all like some form of RP.
7) Are we really at this terrain thing again? Has Plainville taken terrain from Abington? Yes. Has Plainville taken a lot of terrain from Abington? Yes. Has Plainville taken terrain from Abington in 2013? Not that I remember. Does terrain get damaged in transit? Yes. Does terrain get damaged in use? Yes. Has Plainville returned anything recently? Not that I remember.
Here's the thing... Plainville is 3 years old, like literally to the day (Grand Opening was like October 4th 2010 or something). We had to take some terrain to outfit it originally, of course. Over the first year Plainville ran miniature tournaments that were literally 3 times the size of anything we'd ever done before. As this was happening an amazing, active community began to grow. [[Pro tip: It's a really good sign when new game stores have rapidly growing miniature communities.]] We needed more terrain on a frequent basis, so we took more / transported more. In year two Mike Salzman started making TONS of terrain for Plainville because the community, based around Thursday 40k! and the events, was still growing and sustaining. The complaints on these message boards shifted from "Why does Plainville take all of our terrain" to "Why does Plainville get all the cool new stuff." Still growing... Needed more stuff.... Got someone from the community to make more stuff..... This 3rd year, Battleground was given a bunch of tables an terrain by the Dark Star Wargaming Club, most of which is in Abington. Paul has made a ton of stuff, all of which is in Abington.
8 ) I don't care about any game or player-base more or less than any other. I like people that play games. I want to give players the type gaming experience they're looking for. If the Magic guys want a certain kind of event, I hope I know it. If the 40k guys want a certain kind of event, I hope I know it. If I know it, I'll do what I can to make it happen so long as it fits into the schedule / calendar.
I feel like it's a super common misconception that BG employees like and dislike one player-base over another. Personally, some people (that rarely or never see / talk to me) seem to think I favor the 40k community and straight-up don't care about WM/H. That's not accurate at all. I happen to like the fact that I can almost always order what I want from GW and dislike the fact that I often times can't order the Privateer Press stuff that I want, but that's where it ends.
9) I can promise that I won't be passing out hand jobs. Sorry to those of you who are disappointed by that. I can also promise that all of you can find someone that is willing to give you a handjob.
Anyways, people misconstrued all sorts of everything. Perception is the law and it's all that matters. If anyone is ever upset, unhappy, and/or confused by something they see or experience at either BG, PLEASE let me know about it and I'll try to clear it up or take care of it. A simple question can save us all a lot of time.
