Paradise Games and Gifts — Attraction in Fairfax

I have been to this place many times over the past few months for their Tuesday night D&D games. They are very friendly to newcomers and have a large value space for their nerdy events/activities. The bathroom is always clean. The pricing on their minis is also really good and they have pretty good deals on used games. Also, the staff is great! The guy who is at the desk every Tuesday night is very friendly and helpful.

[EDIT 4-2-19]: I have been informed by some of my D&D friends that it is not at all the fault of Comic shop that the DnD books are double the price but because of some bullcrap deal that Amazon has with the D&D license owners. Yes, D&D books are half priced on Amazon, but this is in no way because of this particular shop. The DnD spells cards are priced the same as Amazon though.

[EDIT 4-2-19]: I have been to a couple more games outside this shop and I think perhaps I was too quick to judge on DnD culture. My first few games outside the shop were unusually diverse. I have since had [what I now recognize as] a much more typical experience of mainly playing with white male guys. However this shop definitely adopts a laissez-faire attitude to game nights that I’m not a fan of and some of my previous comments still stand (see below). However, unlike what I said before, I would actually encourage more girls to come play. Though it may be uncomfortable for the first couple weeks, exposure to a diverse environment is what changes attitudes and eventually, culture.

When you go to these game nights, it is a metaphorical ocean of males. As a girl, it’s pretty intimidating. To be clear, I can only say this for D&D— I’m not sure about MTG. It took a good couple of weeks before the awkward comments went away.

[EDIT 5-29-19]: Sorry one last edit. Starting this month I am not going so much anymore b/c of a new job and want to give a parting note. In last couple months, I have seen a vast change in the culture at this shop. It’s really amazing. At my last game the population of the room was nearing 1/4~1/3 women. The shop management didn’t do anything to change that— I think it’s just the game culture itself changing—but it’s definitely nice. I would feel comfortable recommending this place to any new friends now.

Changed my rating to 5/5 from the original 3/5 and edited 4/5. Thanks for all the wonderful memories! Hope to come...

The store has a QR code to check their inventory and prices. Found a pokemon card that I didn't see in the case and asked if they had it. Was told they did and that it was in the cards behind the register. Condition was listed as HP. I then asked to see the card, as I was going to buy it. Employee then told me that I couldn't see the card and that all listed conditions followed TCG. I said I wanted to see it before buying, and was told that was against policy. I could buy it but wasn't allowed to see what I was buying. What kind of store does that? Especially since the online inventory they have is just a stock image of the cards, not photos of the actual card you are getting. So this place expects you to buy blind and trust that they have condition correct. I've never seen anything so stupid in my life. Who buys cards for a collection without being able to see what you are buying? Along with this, both staff members were incrediblyy rude and acted like I was inconvenienceing them by asking to see a card. Will never go back here. Would recommend any serious collector stay away from this place, much better stores in the area. Including gaming giant right...

The staff here has always been polite the few times I've gone and the shop has reasonable prices. However, when I moved here, I wanted a regular shop to play Magic at and was horribly disappointed. The person running the FNM event apparently didn't actually work at the shop and forgot to input my information after I registererd. So, despite showing up over an hour early, I was forced to sit around for another hour during a Bye while some people who decided to sign up AFTER sign ups were supposed to be closed got matched up and I was basically told it was my problem.

Additionally, the crowd who plays during FNMs here is one of the most toxic, rude, and obnoxious crowd I've ever played. Aside from the constant trash talking about how much better there decks are, I watched multiple people go up to some people playing casual decks outside of the FNM event and lecture them on how bad the cards they were using are, despite those people not even playing at the Standard event we were there for.

Overall, shop is decent, but the crowd that plays there for Magic events is not inviting at all and...