Sorry Chris.....hopefully as things calm down for me over this next week, I'll try to start making it back out there more often.
For JC here....well, there's a simple reason why your websites at work are easier than the DCI website....The DCI site doesn't have government funding.
They probably only pay for the cheapest form of web design they can come up with. Heck, my wife can build better websites than the DCI site, and she just does it for fun in her spare time.
I have no idea with the TO software is either, lol. I'd write a message to DCI or WOTC's customer service and complain about it I guess. I think there used to be a way to request a CD with the software as well. I know the biggest thing for our group at ACME right now is that we need to download an upgraded version for the software, so we can have the 'Casual Play' option if we want to use that.
Otherwise....word of mouth is one of the ways we seem to bring in a lot of our newer players. It's either that, or random happenstance that somebody comes into the store during the time we're there playing, which has happened on a few different occasions. The last thing that really makes a big difference for our groups, especially at YottaQuest, is that the store owner is really on board with what we do. He's not a big Star Wars fan or anything, he doesn't play the game, and I'm not even sure if he plays the SW RPG either. But he's genuinely interested in the support that we bring to the store.
The trick with a lot of stores is that they don't make any money off of people coming and using their tables. With the economy the way it is right now, most of us are buying our cases online to save every penny we can. The brick & mortar stores are losing sales because of that. So, we've found that a large part of keeping the store owner happy, and helping him
want to support our gaming group, is making sure that people are buying at least some product in the store. It's why we do a $5 buy in for games every week, and then we take that money and buy boosters with it. If you have 6 people, that's $30 for 2 boosters (both stores work with us so we don't have to pay the full price + tax I guess, so we don't actually need $32 or whatever). It moves some product at the store every single week.
Then, some of it comes down to simply choosing to support the store even when it isn't in your best interest. For example, I can typically get the newest RPG books for 35-40% off through Barnes&Noble or Amazon or something when I find coupons and such for them. But there's been once or twice when I've just gone ahead and bought it at the LGS instead. It was only a $10-$15 difference usually. That's 1-2 meals at McDonald's, and most of us can afford to skip that once or twice.
Anyways, I guess I'm saying that from my perspective, a large part about earning the respect and commitment from your LGS owner/employees is to show them that same respect. Don't just use their space in the store. Show your appreciation that the store has space to play by purchasing product there. I'm not saying you have to buy ALL your SWMs stuff there. Though there are some people in the online community who I know would espouse that ideal, I realize it's just not financially feasible for all of us (myself included!). But do what you can to make sure the LGS owner knows that you realize the gift he's giving you with offering tables and a place to hang out.