Fantasy Books & Games — Local services in O'Fallon

Before the pandemic, I would have rated it a 5. It had the look, feel, and spirit of your local game store. The employees were friendly and always willing to help. It was great.

Fast forward to after the pandemic, and the vibe has changed. IMO it's lost that local game store feel and is now more of a 'corporate' feel. In order to play there, you have to pay $5. You get that back in store credit, but I dislike the policy. Let me play and I'll buy something if I want to. not because I don't want my store credit to go to waste. Also, you can't eat while playing games!!! Whoever heard of a board game day without munchies. While I'm on the topic of the game room, there is a teller stationed there which also gives it that corporate feel. Like they're always watching....1984 Game store version.

In the main store, you had a few tellers who pretty much stayed behind the counter. Chit chatted with the customers and were always ready to help if needed. Gone are those days. It's all bizzness and now we have roving patrols always willing to help. "Can I help you find anything"....."Do you want to know more about...." "Have you seen.... etc. Leave me alone and quit watching to see if I pause by a game so that you can rush over and 'help' me. "Let me doooo it"

I will say the refurb looks very nice and they still have a nice assortment of merchandise.

If there is a game day or my group want to play there, I'm willing to go, but I won't vote to go there to hang out anymore. It's a shame, I really enjoyed going there and play some games, look around, throw some coin their way every now and again in a relaxed local game store setting. I imagine that all the changes have been good for business, otherwise why do it. It's still a shame though, but I wish them nothing but the best!!

IMO, I would ditch the roving patrols, remove the game room warden, allow eating (You can hire a cleaning person from the money saved by the removal of the sharks circling around looking for victims), and overall ditch the corporate vibe and return to local game store vibe. If I want a sanitized and sterile vibe, I'll go to MM. Which, if I'm being honest, doesn't feel as sterile as Fantasy is now.

This is just my opinion, and I'm probably in the minority, so take this with a grain of salt. Like I said earlier, best of luck, I wish you guys all the best and hope the facelift works for you.

EDIT: I'm not sure how to respond to owner reply, so I apologize if this isn't the way you're supposed to do it.

I changed the review to a 4 with the change in eating policy.

As for the DM fee, it applies to everyone not just D&D players. I don't play D&D (Anymore at least). However, I do agree that volunteer DMs deserve some...

Editing my review after multiple unpleasant experiences shopping at this store. Most recently I Tried to buy a $50 card but was treated like a moron when I asked that it be put in a top loader. Pretty poor customer service when you refuse to provide a .10 cent top loader. Even bad ebay sellers put your expensive card in a top loader. Lately this place has gone down hill. The previous version of my review was written a couple years ago. I will now shop at other local Card Shops and Game stores. Stinks I use to love this place.

The staff is super friendly, knowledgeable, and passionate. Great inventory selection but unfortunately the prices leave a little to be desired. I understand trying to compete with online prices is next to impossible given the cost to maintain such an impressive store front. If price wasn't a concern for me I'd shop there for everything. After a multitude of additional visits I find it necessary to edit my review. The prices are far more competitive than I initially thought. While its still true that they are a tad bit shy of true competition with online prices, the store itself far makes up for that. The store seems to always have, in stock, the items that I need but aren't I stock anywhere online. Overall an...

I've tried to like this store, I really tried. I think the store's presentation is nice, it's a great looking store front. A lot of times I've tried to support them, I've gotten flubbed. If you want something that's not Games Workshop or Magic the gathering it's a crapshot.

Don't try to order something from them if they don't have it on the shelf. it quickly becomes a confusing mess and a series of condescending comments about whatever it is you want. I tried to get a miniature and was told I "Missed my window" to order it. The whole ordeal took 20 minutes. After trying to give them money to get me a figure, it took about 30 seconds to order said miniature online.

An addendum: apparently pull lists are about as reliable. If it's not right there in the store as you see it, asking for it still will not help. Still a cool storefront, but I just wasted a 40 minute trip just to get told they didn't save my pull list which was just one trade paperback that came out several days ago. The trade "hadn't come in yet" but no eta or explanation. Seeing other new dark horse trades on the new book rack kinda sealed the deal and I'm assuming they just never...