Atomic Empire — Attraction in Durham

Amazing! I have been in many stores, in many towns, in many diffetent states; Atomic Empire looks & feels like that mystical local store that you hear and read about in far away places... but it is right here, in your own backyard! I'm new in town, and I stopped by with my kids just to browse and hope that they knew what 40k and D&D was. Ohhh, was I surprised! First, the store is HUGE. Rather than the usually cramped, dark and/or smelly retail space, you are greated with a spacious, clean and bright area. They have lots of board games, books, miniatures, paints & supply on stock... the diverse selection may overwhelm noobs, but will satisfy the vets. Enter the next point... the Staff. I was welcomed by two staff members, but they had no interest in any pressure sales. They waited for me to approach with questions, and help me get oriented... how refreshing! As common in places of high caliber, we started talking about what I was interested, and what they had to offer. While the stock is not absolute (I don't blame them... who wants to have shelves full of slow moving inventory) they can take special orders for speedy delivery.

The Staff is composed of friendly hardcore geeks (Ha, a triple oximoron!) They not only know about the games, but have experience and pride about their hobby. They were running two major events that Saturday and they invited me to mingle and ask around. Which leads me to my third point... the playing area.

Sweet Baby Emperor! The area is three times bigger than retail... there was 30 players in the 40k tourney (that is amazing all by itself), 20 players in the Star Wars Armada tourney and like 30 other people playing Magic and few board games. The space is so big, it felt like I was back on the floor of GW's Games Day. Most of the gaming tables were definitely decent game-quality (some simple mats with few terrain pieces), few were still on early stages (pink foam world, anyone?)... but considering that they were running 25 tables... to quote Lord Vader, "Most impressive!"

I'm fairly sure they have some rooms for role-playing groups (I could not check them out myself). They have a snack bar (emphasis on bar) where they serve local brews. While I didn't sampled anything, lots of people were gathering drinks and obviously having a good time.

The Staff seemed welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful. The community of gamers is well supported and enormous. I will be checking out they calendar of events and hopefully join them. My advice to you? Stop by the store and check it out. Your first thought will be one of amazement regarding the size, soon to be replaced by a burning desire to make Atomic Empire your new...

The staff were helpful, welcoming to my presence in this store. They asked me if I'm looking for something or anything else. I came by on a Tuesday and my gosh. This store is so much larger in person than the picture looks. The collections were nice that's filled with boardgames and many other collectibles. I've never seen a store with a very dedicated or large group of players that's into Warhammer.

Unfortunately, I came for Magic the Gathering. Grabbed a few drinks (alcohol included yum 😋) met a few people and play some tabletop boardgames.

Now here's the problem: I've spent three figures in the singles for MTG that I'm interested in. The search for the cards didn't take them very long and seem to be very organized which is nice, but the singles I got are listed as Near Mint and priced at near mint. The cards I got are curled up pretty bad and looks like they haven't even been in a card sleeve which isn't very nice. Thats not near mint. Matter of fact. Thats even considered damaged in TCGplayer grading. The promo Lotus cobra I bought for almost $40 is in that condition. The light white dusty smearing on it is probably due to age and expose to its surrounding for not being in a card protector. I've bought all the singles after looking through them without making a scene and out of courtesy that the staff were kind and taken their time getting my singles.

Second problem:

While on the Table and organizing all the cards I just bought and fixing my decks / collection. One of the staff member told me straight off that I need to clear up my belongings and get off the table cause on Tuesdays they need all the tables for the Warhammer players. He didnt apologize or anything and made it seems like that I'm in the way of an upcoming event. I respected his input and started gathering my stuff up and go back home to finish organizing my collection and decks with the singles I just bought from here. In the end I didn't get to play the card game I wanted to play. I felt like that the store has failed to provide me the right as a customer, a table or a spot for me to stay for "NOT" playing a certain type of game that isn't part of an event. I felt really left out just cause I don't play Warhammer. 😕

*Perhaps I just came at the wrong time? (Cause I only have a certain days off my work schedule to enjoy my hobbies).

Overall review: I might come back to buy sealed products instead and not buy anymore singles. I recommend to newcomers that to respect this store event calendar and know when to show up. I didn't know this as a newcomer, but now I know. Just overall it didn't feel...

I've had mixed experiences here, to be honest. I would leave it at a 3.5 if possible. I've been coming to this store since they were called "Sci-Fi Genre" and were up the road from their current location in the ditch by Old Chapel Hill Road. It's great to see how they've expanded and brought life to the shopping center. So here's the pros and cons: Pros: -Huge and amazing selection of almost any nerdy/geeky ambition you can imagine: board games, wargames, tabletops, card games, stuffed animals/plushies, models and modeling equipment(paints, glues, magnets, etc), comics and various other gaming paraphernalia. -If by chance they don't have it, they can easily order it for you and have a great email relay to contact you. -Various weekly activities and events. Employees are generally very good and helpful -Huge, air conditioned space and lots of room for playing games. Seriously a plus and if you remember their previous store, a godsend! There was little to no elbow room at their old store.

Now the cons, which sadly are the "second side" of everything I previously mentioned: -While they do have lots of activities, the store heavily caters to Magic: the Gathering players. Can be difficult to start a meet-up or a group for a new game there since they really cater to MTG mostly(personal experience from trying to be a TO for a game a few years back). -I've had a run-in with a group of employees when I asked about relatively new game. They essentially laughed at me, told me that game sucks and that I should play something else. I haven't gone back for almost a year and only recently have started coming back to Atomic cause of that experience. Possibly the most unprofessional experience I've ever had in a store; I understand disliking a game system, but it's unprofessional and bad taste to shoo customers away with your nerd rage over a game system. -Wifi is terrible. -Their variety is a bit of a double edged sword as asking for help in the store can be tricky: sometimes the employee won't have a clue about the comic or board game you're looking for(especially goes back to my previous statement about this heavily catering to the MTG crowd). I think the issues I mentioned are things that most gaming stores have issues with, so you always have to be careful when visiting these kind of stores. Atomic is just one of the many stores that cater to the geek scene here in...