I was on holiday (well, still am, since I’m flying back to KL in several days) in Melbourne, and asides from sampling the city’s awesome food and sights, I actually stumbled upon several games stores.

One of them was a Games Workshop store, right in the heart of the city’s central business district, in Little Collins Street.

Talking to one of the store’s staff members seemed to enlighten me greatly on how the process of inculcating gamers comes about.

Well, it’s no rocket science really: these guys actively give timed sessions of gaming demos as well as painting lessons, to anyone who’s keen to learn.

So if you have thirty minutes, you could find yourself having a real quick go at the Warhammer minis game. If you have more time, you could even paint your first mini!

I’ve always believed that the Malaysian gaming scene can never grow without some good old fashioned retail “support” a la the Games Workshop model. This will entail a shift in how game stores are operated – less of being store fronts, and more of being personable and very demo-friendly places, staffed by people passionate about their games of choice.

To be fair, I have seen improvements over the past months, as more shops now actually have people who play their games, and are more than willing to break out a demo for the inquisitive. But we’ve got some way to go naturally. The longtime question is, when will we really improve?

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