Confessions of a Game Store Clerk

[Griking]

Nothing we really didn't already know but it's still an interesting read.

Link (http://www.gamesradar.com/us/xbox360/game/features/article.jsp?releaseId=20060321132945404017&articleId=2007040314469812037&sectionId=1003)

[geneshifter]

Read it and nothing too surprising to me. I've seen a lot of this kind of behavior out of people while I've been in game stores. I feel bad for my local GS manager after reading this, though.

[Oobgarm]

Read and enjoyed.

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

"GamesRadar: Okay. So if you could say one thing to all of your future customers, what would it be?

#7: Become a regular. Patronize one location and come in once a week, or every other week, and get to know the guys behind the counter. It's the best way to get us to help you out."

Unreal. So I need to be on the 'ins' with the clerks to ensure that I don't get treated like an idiot and get decent service in their crappy corporate game store.

I was bored and weak-willed enough to go to EB to purchase a new game maybe twice in the past few years. Of course the game was 'the last one'- gutted, and they still insisted that it was new. I'm going to pay full price for an unwrapped game? :hmm: Sure.

I know this is a common experience, but I can't comprehend how gamers tolerate the insanity of some of the lame business practices that goes on in these stores. They're a blight on the hobby.

[geneshifter]

"GamesRadar: Okay. So if you could say one thing to all of your future customers, what would it be?

#7: Become a regular. Patronize one location and come in once a week, or every other week, and get to know the guys behind the counter. It's the best way to get us to help you out."

Unreal. So I need to be on the 'ins' with the clerks to ensure that I don't get treated like an idiot and get decent service in their crappy corporate game store.

I was bored and weak-willed enough to go to EB to purchase a new game maybe twice in the past few years. Of course the game was 'the last one'- gutted, and they still insisted that it was new. I'm going to pay full price for an unwrapped game? :hmm: Sure.

I know this is a common experience, but I can't comprehend how gamers tolerate the insanity of some of the lame business practices that goes on in these stores. They're a blight on the hobby.

I totally agree. I refuse to buy those opened copies. I did it one time and the stupid thing was faulty. After that, I started to realize that paying for an opened game at new prices was not right. I hear that GS employees are encouraged to do this, though, to fill up the displays with game boxes. The problem is the more they put out, the less truly sealed new games there are of that title. This is especially a problem for hard to find games like puzzle quest.

[Griking]

A couple of quotes that I found interesting

"We also hold systems that people want until an ad breaks. Every other week or so, we sit on about 40 Wiis but keep telling customers that we don't have any. They cannot be sold until the ads come out."

"We place overpriced merchandise behind boxes in the storage room until they drop significantly in price so that we can then purchase them with our employee discount."

Again, not really a surprise but it's nice to see it admitted

[Captain Wrong]

The only thing about that I didn't like was the self-righteous chest beating about how bad they all have it. I could say the same about every retail job I've ever had, and that's why I got out. (Yeah, I know they were asked to talk about it. Still, some of the interviewees seemed to have a better perspective than others.)

Acts of Gord is still the classic, but this is worthwhile reading. Someone remember this link so when the next "should I get a job at EB" topic is posted (and I think we're about due) you can point to this and lock it.

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

I hear that GS employees are encouraged to do this, though, to fill up the displays with game boxes. The problem is the more they put out, the less truly sealed new games there are of that title. This is especially a problem for hard to find games like puzzle quest.

Yeah, buying an unwrapped game as new is not right. The employees act like it's no big deal, like we should be ok with the fact that the 'new' game we're buying as 'new' is opened, and possibly even used.

After my experiences with Gamestop/EB type stores the past 5 or so years, I'm convinced that the policies are becoming more and more exploitative towards their customers. I don't think the game gutting is given the attention that it deserves- it's a fiasco. I don't see why we have to tolerate these stores. Gamers deserve a better place to buy games.

Here's another good one from that article:

"GamesRadar: What else do the customers have trouble understanding?

#3: The benefits to reserving games. It's not rocket science. You reserve the game you want... then you don't have to go looking for it when it comes out. The money you put down goes towards the game, so you're not putting anything extra down. People think it's a trick or something to get their money when really it's a great service for gamers."

Are you kidding me. I always thought reserving a game was a favor for the store, as it ensures that I am buying from them. I never felt good about reserving anything. I think the real benefit to reserving, if you frequent these places, is that you most likely will get a copy of the game from them that's not gutted. I don't know... for me reserving from EB and then going to pick it up when they call... it's like picking up a drug prescription or something. Screw all that mess.

I think places like EB have actually contributed to the decline of my interest in buying new games altogether. My choices in my area are either the endless wasteland of corporate EB/Gamestops, or Best Buy. It sucks.

My family run store went out of business a few years ago, I'm left with buying online at this point.

[agbulls]

The only thing about that I didn't like was the self-righteous chest beating about how bad they all have it. I could say the same about every retail job I've ever had, and that's why I got out. (Yeah, I know they were asked to talk about it. Still, some of the interviewees seemed to have a better perspective than others.)

Acts of Gord is still the classic, but this is worthwhile reading. Someone remember this link so when the next "should I get a job at EB" topic is posted (and I think we're about due) you can point to this and lock it.

You speak of the Gord! I haven't seen that site in ages. Is it even still around? As a former EB DM, let me tell you that everything said in the interview is pretty much true. But, none of it--NONE--should come as a suprise to an seasoned collector or gamer.

The recommendation to become a regular is a good one. If you do, they'll return anything you want, exchange anything you want or give you promo items (as long as its within policy of course). This is just common sense.

[Kid Ice]

The only thing about that I didn't like was the self-righteous chest beating about how bad they all have it. I could say the same about every retail job I've ever had, and that's why I got out.

I was thinking they same thing. For some reason people think the world owes them a paycheck.

[MegaDrive20XX]

I agree, I've been working in VG retail for over 8 years now. I got crazy stories similar to these guys. However, what I agree on, is no matter what form of retail you go into, you'll get the exact same results from customers, managers, corporate, etc.

[FantasiaWHT]

I was bored and weak-willed enough to go to EB to purchase a new game maybe twice in the past few years. Of course the game was 'the last one'- gutted, and they still insisted that it was new. I'm going to pay full price for an unwrapped game? :hmm: Sure.

I know this is a common experience, but I can't comprehend how gamers tolerate the insanity of some of the lame business practices that goes on in these stores. They're a blight on the hobby.

Yeah, I suppose you demand discounts when you buy clothes that have been hung out on racks because they've been handled and maybe even tried on? You'd rather buy from a place that places all the games behind glass and you can't look at them without asking an employee to take out each and every game you might be interested in?

I laughed at this:



The most appalling behavior came on the release day of GTA: Vice City. We were expecting to get the shipment at 8:30 AM and were going to open early for it. The shipment was late, so we placed a sign on the door apologizing and notifying the customers that we'd open as soon as we got the shipment. We had a mother walk in around 11:00 AM with a kid that couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old. She was livid and wanted to know why we hadn't opened on time. Said it was inexcusable and had the nerve to let us know that her son was late to school because he couldn't get his game on time.

I don't even know where to start with how horrible of a mother that is ;)

[udisi]

well I agree with most of what I read except where the employee actually thought pre-orders were good for the customer. lol

Let me get this right ...let me give you $5 down on a game that you don't even have a hard release date on. Um yeah I can garentee a copy here huh. Well I can garentee I can walk into any other retail store around here on release day and buy it. 99% of the time the only thing that a pre-order does is 1) let the company gauge interest in a title(good for the company) and 2) let the company put your $5 with all the other suckers..whoops I mean customers...$5 and make 8 months of interest on it.(also good for the company). That is granted the release date doesn't get pushed a 6th time and you don't have to wait another 2 months.

Don't get me wrong, if I had a retail store, I'd want to do pre-orders too. You can garentee you're gonna sell X amount of copies, and you can so free loan money.

In todays video game market there's no reason at all to pre-order a disc game. IT WILL BE EVERYWHERE for a long time, and if you somehow happen to miss a psuedo-rare game that ends up going for $80 on ebay, I can garentee you're better off paying th $80 price tag once than paying for every piece of crap coming out that you think will dissapear quick because odds are it won't.

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

Yeah, I suppose you demand discounts when you buy clothes that have been hung out on racks because they've been handled and maybe even tried on? You'd rather buy from a place that places all the games behind glass and you can't look at them without asking an employee to take out each and every game you might be interested in?

:? I don't think the clothing store analogy applies here...

I never mentioned wanting the game for less money, I wanted the game to be new for full price. I wasn't interested in a discounted, gutted game.

I think I was pretty clear that yes, I would in fact rather buy from a place that has the games behind glass if that means what I'm paying full price for is a new, ungutted game.

Would it be too much for a major corporate gamestore chain to use display boxes that were not the cases of gutted new games? How many gamestop/EBs are out there, and they don't have enough ingenuity and/or clout to impose a system of displaying games without having to gut new ones? On principle alone, that kind of stupidity is enough to not shop there.

[Hep038]

A couple of quotes that I found interesting

"We also hold systems that people want until an ad breaks. Every other week or so, we sit on about 40 Wiis but keep telling customers that we don't have any. They cannot be sold until the ads come out."

"We place overpriced merchandise behind boxes in the storage room until they drop significantly in price so that we can then purchase them with our employee discount."

Again, not really a surprise but it's nice to see it admitted


You forgot to include

GamesRadar: What else do the customers have trouble understanding?

#8: That we ain't got Wiis!

[FantasiaWHT]

:? I don't think the clothing store analogy applies here...

I never mentioned wanting the game for less money, I wanted the game to be new for full price. I wasn't interested in a discounted, gutted game.

I think I was pretty clear that yes, I would in fact rather buy from a place that has the games behind glass if that means what I'm paying full price for is a new, ungutted game.

Would it be too much for a major corporate gamestore chain to use display boxes that were not the cases of gutted new games? How many gamestop/EBs are out there, and they don't have enough ingenuity and/or clout to impose a system of displaying games without having to gut new ones? On principle alone, that kind of stupidity is enough to not shop there.

Ok, then would you only buy clothing from a store where the clothes are kept out of reach of the customers? Now, I can completely understand if you are buying a game as a collector's item that you want to leave sealed, but if you are going to play the game anyway, what does it matter? How does it actually affect your use of the game? People trying on clothing might actually affect your use of the clothing- it might have been stretched or torn, or stained, or smelly.

Oh, and I focused on paying less because in my experience, that's usually what people wanted when they were upset about opened new games. They wanted the used price for the game. With the very low markup on new games, selling them at the used price would actually result in a loss for the store much of the time.

[DigitalSpace]

GamesRadar: And the dumbest fact ever uttered by a customer?

#7: That Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to be on the Wii. Oh, and that it's going to feature Mario wielding a key blade.

LOL Score one for EGM.

[bangtango]

Pretty predictable answers but an interesting read. I couldn't get the link for Part 3 of the article to load, though. I didn't really hear any talk about making fun of what customers actually purchase for games. I expected one of the people to mention that they like goofing on the games people buy. All I saw made fun was the various purchase plans, etc.

[mailman187666]

One thing that they didn't manage to talk about in that article were the employees that lie to you to try and sell your things, or the ones that treat you like shit if they can't sell you on any of the extra stuff. They tried to tell me if I didn't pre-order God of War 2, I wasn't going to find it anywhere, (even though Target had about 50 of them). I've had these experiences before and I like to be the guy that isn't the "ignorant/annoying gamestop customer."

[Push Upstairs]

#5: Me: "Hi, can I help you find something?" Her: "Yes, I'm looking for Mario Bros. for PlayStation." Me: "Oh. Well, they don't make it for PlayStation. We've got it for several Nintendo systems." Her: "They do too make it for PlayStation!" Me: "Trust me, they don't. Sony and Nintendo are in competition with one another, and Mario games are one of Nintendo's biggest sellers. They'd actually be helping their competition by making a Mario game for PlayStation, and they'd never do that." Her: "I saw it here last week!" Me: "... ... ...We're sold out." Her: "Oh, darn. Thanks anyway!"


I had a similar conversation with people on many occasions.

[Richter Belmount]

Lmao^

[agbulls]

I had a similar conversation with people on many occasions.

My all time #1 favorite request from a customer when I was a store manager:

"Hi, I'm looking for the Nintendo Playboy."

[slip81]

What I though was so funny was the ammount of employees who thought that playing games at work was okay, and then getting mad when the can't do it.

Um, you have a job buddy, no buisiness will pay you to goof off. I work at a book store, I'm not allowed to read when it's slow.

[Push Upstairs]

Lmao^


I wish I was joking.

When people on here get on their rant about how bad employees are I just sit back and remember all the stupid crap and dumb customers I had to deal with. For every bad employee there are at least 20-30 bad customers.


Out of all the stuff that happened in my brief tenure as a video game employee there is only one I feel bad about (and it wasn't anything I did)

This older guy (40's-early 50's) would come in with his adorable daughter (maybe 5-6) and she would ask him simple questions...nothing anywhere near annoying and he would act all short tempered with her and borderline scream at her. I saw him like 3-4 times and he was always like that to his daughter. Sad really.

This is also the guy who wanted me to show him every single kid game in our Playstation collection and was mad we didn't have them organized by rating instead of alphabetically. Oddly, he was never short tempered with me.

[Nature Boy]

The only thing about that I didn't like was the self-righteous chest beating about how bad they all have it. I could say the same about every retail job I've ever had, and that's why I got out. (Yeah, I know they were asked to talk about it. Still, some of the interviewees seemed to have a better perspective than others.)

Exactly what I was thinking. You know, I worked retail for 7 or so years until I got an office job after university, and while I felt the same way about customers some time (I worked in a hobby store for part of that 7 years so some of the 'babysitting' and other complaints are definitily familiar), it was still *way* better, in my opinion, than the restaurant business (which I had lasted all of 3 months in prior to that 7 years).

It's a job that you don't actually require a lot of skills to do, and it's better than others (as a matter of opinion). So I don't feel sorry for you in that respect one iota.

[exit]

A couple of quotes that I found interesting

"We also hold systems that people want until an ad breaks. Every other week or so, we sit on about 40 Wiis but keep telling customers that we don't have any. They cannot be sold until the ads come out."

That's the same for Wal-Mart as well. Last week we had about 30+ Wii's in stock, but we couldn't sell them until that Sunday. God forbid that you tell a customer that information, I've done it twice and each time I spent 20 minutes hearing them bitch. I guess I'm too honest for my own good sometimes.

[Push Upstairs]

We held PS2 systems (post launch) all the time back when I worked at Best Buy.

Nothing new about saying you are out when you actually have some in.

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

Ok, then would you only buy clothing from a store where the clothes are kept out of reach of the customers? People trying on clothing might actually affect your use of the clothing- it might have been stretched or torn, or stained, or smelly.

As much as you may want it to be, the clothing store analogy is just not applicable to this discussion. But to answer the question, I have no problem buying clothing off the rack in spite of the fact that other people may have touched it or tried it on, because when I get home I put newly bought clothes into a machine that washes them. And... clothing is not my hobby.


Now, I can completely understand if you are buying a game as a collector's item that you want to leave sealed, but if you are going to play the game anyway, what does it matter? How does it actually affect your use of the game?

Poofta! put it brilliantly in another thread:
"what pisses me off about conditions, is when people call it 'new' when its not. its opened? fuck you its not new. new means factory sealed. if you opened it, it aint new. i dont care if you ever played it or if everything is still there. its aint new! if the shrinkwrap fell off, its no longer new."

Is what I'm being sold at full retail price 'new'? If I'm buying a new game at a retail store, and that retail store is charging me full retail price for the 'new' game, it had better be factory wrapped, with no unwrapping or handling of the insides of the box/case.

And to answer the question of "how it affects my use of the game"... Ignoring the obvious possibility that the opened contents of the 'new' game are mishandled (see geneshifter's post above), I look at this as a question of principle: If you handle your business with integrity, and you care about how you spend your money, the point should never be reached where that question has any relevance.

If you accept gutted games as new, worst case scenario: you are getting taken. Best case: you are not being treated respectfully, as a patron of the store, and most definitely, as a gamer. This is not good.

I think it's important for a gamer to get his/her new game as 'NEW'. How many young gamers out there go into an Gamestop/EB excited to spend their money to experience the joys of going home and ripping open a brand new game, only to have to settle on a gutted 'new' game (because it's 'the last one' of course...), and getting home only to feel disappointed about the purchase? This is far, far beyond unacceptable. :shameful:

[Griking]

Concerning the Gamestop opened but new game arguement; I have two problems with this practice. One as has ben mentioned before is that I just don't agree that an opened product is new any more. the other problem that I have (that is different from the clothing example) is that Gamestop sells used games for less than they sell new copies of the same game. If the game has been opened then I expect to pay the used price. Clothing stores don't have two different prices for an item.

[TurboGenesis]

Quick take on the "new" games thing.

(not taking a side) A good analogy would be buying a new car. When you take delivery of your new car, it WILL have miles on it. Something in the neighborhood of 10-50 miles on the odometer. No way around it. It has to be driven off the end of the line, into the rail yard, onto the train, off the train, onto a convoy and finally into location at your dealership. It is likely that 5-10 people will have driven your brand new car when you sign the papers.

On the games front, they hate to do it, but they can (and should) take 10% off your game that has been opened. It will ring up as 'Open and/or Shopwo' on the receipt. I have had to do this a couple of times and if they won't do it, I roll eyes, sigh, walk right out the door with out saying another word. Let them cancel that transaction. I'll go to the next place.

On reserves (at GSEB)- WTF is the point!?! Just go and try to reserve The Red Star.

When the game finally comes out and you waltz on in there and they don't have any? WTF!
games clerk "should have resreved buddy!"
disgruntled customer "you wouldn't let me dumb nutz!"

[jcalder8]

Quick take on the "new" games thing.

(not taking a side) A good analogy would be buying a new car. When you take delivery of your new car, it WILL have miles on it. Something in the neighborhood of 10-50 miles on the odometer. No way around it. It has to be driven off the end of the line, into the rail yard, onto the train, off the train, onto a convoy and finally into location at your dealership. It is likely that 5-10 people will have driven your brand new car when you sign the papers.


I was going to post almost the same thing. All retail jobs have their pain in the ass customers. My wife works at Starbucks and there are some real anal people who come in there but for my time and stress level I'd much rather work at a video game store.

[RPG_Fanatic]

well I agree with most of what I read except where the employee actually thought pre-orders were good for the customer. lol

Let me get this right ...let me give you $5 down on a game that you don't even have a hard release date on. Um yeah I can garentee a copy here huh. Well I can garentee I can walk into any other retail store around here on release day and buy it. 99% of the time the only thing that a pre-order does is 1) let the company gauge interest in a title(good for the company) and 2) let the company put your $5 with all the other suckers..whoops I mean customers...$5 and make 8 months of interest on it.(also good for the company). That is granted the release date doesn't get pushed a 6th time and you don't have to wait another 2 months.

Don't get me wrong, if I had a retail store, I'd want to do pre-orders too. You can garentee you're gonna sell X amount of copies, and you can so free loan money.

In todays video game market there's no reason at all to pre-order a disc game. IT WILL BE EVERYWHERE for a long time, and if you somehow happen to miss a psuedo-rare game that ends up going for $80 on ebay, I can garentee you're better off paying th $80 price tag once than paying for every piece of crap coming out that you think will dissapear quick because odds are it won't.

I agree me and my friend went to EB's he wanted to buy guitar hero II for the 360 and they said "did you reserve it?" we said no and they said sorry you have to reserve it to get any game on the day it comes out so we went to best buy and they had a shit load of them.

[Trebuken]

Everything that theses employees are asked to do is being derived from research data. All retailers are using data collected by only a couple of organizations, and thus they often react in the same way. What the employees are asked to do always relates to increasing revenue, or improving customer service. The new kick is trying to make retail workers be more productive without any compensation to the employee. Gamestore employyes (WALMART) need to unionize...

Anyways, was anyone else offended by this part of the article:

#5: My least favorite type is what I call an "LC," which stands for "Lonely Collector." Usually this is a 30+ year-old single dude who asks you for the rarest game or whatever, which of course we never have, and then talks to you about it for ages. They sometimes ask if you were into whatever it was they collected, but your answer didn't matter. They talk to you about it anyway, for an embarrassingly long amount of time. It's so awkward having to say, "Well, I'd better get back to work..." when your job should be talking to them, had they not made it so creepy.

That hurts...

[JSN]

In addition to all that’s been said about GameStop’s reservation ‘scam’, I can add another huge reason the corporate folks like to push them; unclaimed reservations.

Back when they used hardcopy paper reservation slips, anything still unclaimed three months after a games release was to be turned over to the DM. Now I’m sure any customer wanting to re-claim that reserve could, but not many would or did.

I ran a ~$2M store, and every 6 months would turn in around $2000 in unclaimed reserves (I always tried to re-contact these people first). Being in a town with a huge college student population may have given my store an exceptionally higher rate of unclaimed reserves, but I wouldn’t count on it. Multiply that by every store GS has... that’s a lot of free money going right into their bank accounts.

[megamaniaman]

Everything that theses employees are asked to do is being derived from research data. All retailers are using data collected by only a couple of organizations, and thus they often react in the same way. What the employees are asked to do always relates to increasing revenue, or improving customer service. The new kick is trying to make retail workers be more productive without any compensation to the employee. Gamestore employyes (WALMART) need to unionize...

Anyways, was anyone else offended by this part of the article:

#5: My least favorite type is what I call an "LC," which stands for "Lonely Collector." Usually this is a 30+ year-old single dude who asks you for the rarest game or whatever, which of course we never have, and then talks to you about it for ages. They sometimes ask if you were into whatever it was they collected, but your answer didn't matter. They talk to you about it anyway, for an embarrassingly long amount of time. It's so awkward having to say, "Well, I'd better get back to work..." when your job should be talking to them, had they not made it so creepy.

That hurts...


Yeah I am right there with you. What I got from this article was that most of these employees are smug bastards who look down at the customer and come to work to chat with their fellow employees and ignore the customer.

[kainemaxwell]

My FYE does the same gutting thing with games. I hate trying to explain to them that it is the last copy and we gut it for security reasons. Even when they complain I go out of my way to write on the receipt it was the last copy/gutted in case there is an issue with their title.

[Captain Wrong]

What I though was so funny was the ammount of employees who thought that playing games at work was okay, and then getting mad when the can't do it.

Um, you have a job buddy, no buisiness will pay you to goof off. I work at a book store, I'm not allowed to read when it's slow.

Yeah, that was the other thing that made me wanna do a Dr. Evil "boo frickin-hoo". I mean, did they really think they'd get paid to play games all day? Are there people that ignorant to not realize there are a lot of other things that go on at stores other than just helping customers?

And JSN confirmed a hunch I've always had about the reservations. Really, that's about the biggest scam they have going, IMHO. The one dude in the article may have drank the Kool-Aid, but reservations don't actually help the consumer in anyway. Helps the company a lot, though.

[djbeatmongrel]

i enjoyed the article alot.

Two things i will share my point of veiw on as a GS employee are reserves and gutted/opened new copies.

When it comes to reserves, known AAA sequels for reserve really aren't worth it most of the time if you plan on getting it on the day of release. Sometimes there are shortages upon initial release so it is a double edged sword. If you are sure you are going to frequent a location and get a game on release, the reserve doesnt hurt IMO.

I will say you should reserve niche titles when ever possible (2d fighters/arcade style games/quirky japanese titles). These are games you are going to want to stay on top of, most recent example being Chulip and the soon to be released Raiden III. Reserving games like this lets companies know there is more of a demand for titles like this and will demand a larger print run.

On the subject of opened new games. Stores that follow precedure mindfully should have safe unmarked product availible if you happen to get the gut copies. Given the volume of games we sell, the few employees staffed at any given time, and the high possibilty of theft; the gut process is probably the safest thing we can do to without having LP (loss prevention) issues. As a collector I know that virginal tearing of the factory shrink is a cherished feeling but you have to see corporate has to watch their ass from the few bad seeds.

[hezeuschrist]

Or, Gamestop could pony up a few pennies a week for display insert art like the major rental chains do. There's no need for them to gut anything, when i worked at Game Rush we had display inserts for EVERYTHING. You need to fill a shelf with display copies? Grab some empty amorays and stuff them with for-display-only inserts.

They're simply too cheap to do it. It's a positive business practice in the eyes of the customer and they simply don't give a shit to go that distance.

[FantasiaWHT]

I'm trying to think of another retail situation where the most valuable part of the product is taken out of its packaging, and the packaging is left accessible to the customer. Usually it's the other way around - opened/demo electronics is the first thing I think of.

I'll grant that there are mishandling issues, and if a disc is scratched up, then yes, the customer would deserve a discount. If it had been used as a demo (or used for any purpose) then it should be sold at the used price (it can't be actually sold as used, because that would result in a huge loss for the store - shrinking out a new game and adding a new one).

But a new game is one that hasn't been used, not one that hasn't been handled. When there's no use and no damage to the disc, what's the customer losing? The 1/2-cent worth of plastic?

Granted, it's going to tick some people off, but one of the maxims of retail is to put the product into the customers' hands. They are much more likely to buy something they've touched and observed themselves. New games aren't gutted to piss customers off, they're gutted because that allows the customer to see every game the store has up close. The gain from that is so much more than the loss from the rare customer who feels they have lost something of value if a game has been opened.

[Griking]

On the subject of opened new games. Stores that follow precedure mindfully should have safe unmarked product availible if you happen to get the gut copies. Given the volume of games we sell, the few employees staffed at any given time, and the high possibilty of theft; the gut process is probably the safest thing we can do to without having LP (loss prevention) issues. As a collector I know that virginal tearing of the factory shrink is a cherished feeling but you have to see corporate has to watch their ass from the few bad seeds.

So why can't game stores just make low-res copies of the front and back covers of the game and put these out on display instead of even opening a copy? I seem to remember a while back that EB used to do this.

[Steve W]

#6: The store burns you out. You become bitter towards everything; your days off are generally spent in solitude because you can no longer stand people; and you have no energy to look for another job, even though you're miserable where you're at.

GamesRadar: Does the industry offer much room for career growth?

#1: Honestly... no. There are really only two outcomes for a retail employee: they either rise through the ranks to eventually be assimilated into the hive-mind corporate miasma, or they simply plateau and stagnate, growing steadily more bitter at life in general.



Y'know, it scares me how closely this describes me. I try to spend as much time alone as I can because I've truly sunk to the level where I despise humanity and don't want to be around people, and have become intensely bitter. But then, I've never worked at a game store, just regular retail. And that whole 'LC' thing bugged me too, but I don't chat up the salespeople for an hour. The few times I go to a game store, I try not to talk to them too much. Most of those employees aren't all that pleasant, from my past experiences.

[FantasiaWHT]

So why can't game stores just make low-res copies of the front and back covers of the game and put these out on display instead of even opening a copy? I seem to remember a while back that EB used to do this.

They still do with specific marketing titles. Rather, they get inserts which are usually similar (if not identical) to the actual inserts that come with the game. That has some costs which outweigh the benefits though: 1) buying an extra case for every game the store gets, 2) paying for all the color printing, 3) the ton of extra work it would be to make sure that whenever the last copy of a game gets sold, the display box comes down and gets stored somewhere, 4) storage space for all the extra boxes & inserts - trust me, marketing takes up enough backroom space as it is!

However, none of those (maybe with the exception of the color printing) is all that burdensome, so it's not a bad idea. The only other downside I can think of is that SOME people (probably not that many, but from experience I would wager more than the number who won't buy an opened-new gam) like to look through manuals beforehand.

[djbeatmongrel]

So why can't game stores just make low-res copies of the front and back covers of the game and put these out on display instead of even opening a copy? I seem to remember a while back that EB used to do this.

just for new product it'd be literally 1,000 - 2,000 inserts. to keep track of these inserts making sure all of the correct ones are displayed when for each system about 1/3 of the games are probably our last copies to make sure everything is displayed properly on a given day. With a system like you are suggesting it'd make it almost necessary for every store to do a complete new game "Title on hand" for every system every day just to make sure everything is correctly represented.

If you haven't worked at a GS (now EBs to) a TOH is a daily procedure where you have to scan a certain category of product (used ps2, new wii, etc) to make sure a copy of every game in that category is correctly represented on the floor in comparison to your stores inventory. This insert system would require way too many more man hours IMO to keep the stores in order and thats something the higher ups frown upon. being a strip store i see this proposed idea being way to high of maintenance and knowing how the highest traffic mall stores are, this would be uterly attrocious leaving most mall store looking crappier than normal knowing the types of hours they give for staffing alone.

Maybe i'm not so bothered by it. maybe taking pride in how my store looks (granted i am only a shift manager, when i am on duty it is my store) and knowing how things are just juggling constant tidying up after customers, tending to customers and making sure the days agendas finished lets me see this task as a added problem. I know my store takes the utmost care in making sure the opened games are cared for. We also offer to help customers get factory sealed copies if needed since theres a bunch of gamestops nearby. I really dont know how the store you guys go to are ran but i know mine is ran within the parameters of gamestop and pretty much everyone that works at my store understand the collector mind set a bit more than other store i know.

fuck i am on an Anthony1 rant. and i lost my train of thought. so if you skipped to the end i'll break it down like this: Knowing how most gamestops, especially my district operate, a system of printed out inserts is more time consuming than it should need to be plus the space needed is for all the supplies is more than most stores can afford to use.

[Push Upstairs]

I always thought the games were taken out of the cases to avoid theft.



Yeah I am right there with you. What I got from this article was that most of these employees are smug bastards who look down at the customer and come to work to chat with their fellow employees and ignore the customer.


There is absolutely no way to take most customers seriously in a retail job. With the amount of shit most customers pull, there is no way to stay sane not looking down upon the dumb and rude things customers do.

You can't respect someone who wipes mud off their feet IN HE MIDDLE OF THE STORE and I can't respect the slob who feels the need to take a shit on the floor in the bathroom and neglect to inform anyone they "missed".

And no matter what anyone says employees, customers are ALWAYS worse.

[walrusmonger]

Game store retail isn't like much of the retail out there, which is why it is worse. I spent 4 years in game store retail and I wish I could have those years back.

1. honestly, besides music, what other popular media has both new and used items for sale? this makes people nitpicky, lets them want to return used things because "they don't work anymore." It opens up the option for a ton of customer lies.

2. games are sooo universal now it's not even funny. what other "hobby" can children, teenagers, adults, poor, rich, smart, stupid and old people enjoy? this brings the weirdest bunch of people, and makes sure that you can spend the entire day with snot nosed kids or "cool" teenagers, but then get 3 angry soccer moms who didn't know that grand theft auto was a bad game for their 4 year old.

3. prices- holy crap- "give me a discount" "give me your discount" "get me no tax" "best you can do?" best buy has prices, a check out counter and doesn't mix the two. at a game store you have a personal interaction with the people who help you and ring you up. you get cheap asses asking for all sorts of discounts, which annoyed the LIVING FUCKING SHIT OUT OF ME. holy bill cosby, jesus christ! why on earth, why the fucking bastard sex little big league would i give some jerk ass motherfucker my god damned 10% measly discount on a game when i have to work my fat ass off at the shitty store to get that tiny insignificant discount. WHY? did he give me a blow job, polish my shoes and paint my house? NO. oh my god.

4. retail turns the most charismatic person into a robot. game stores turn them into robots who are forced to cram worthless crap down people's throats. eb edge? gamecrazy mvp? if the customer wants one, they will ask. if you have to ask, and they say no, they mean no. but no, that's not good enough, keep asking. and asking. and asking. and asking.

sure, i hated it when i kept asking the same couple to get a card when they would have actually saved $100's since they came back week after week, but when you see how stupid they are, just give up.

pre orders... i hated when people would say "i'll just get it when it comes out" then come back and tell me to sell them one of the 100 pre ordered san andreas, when we had 100 pre orders and 100 copies (just example with numbers). obviously not everyone would pick up their game on release, but they just didn't get it.


5. kids are stupid, but parents of stupid kids are even stupider. when you see some drooling, smelly, uncoordinated waste of life in your store, and you turn them down to buying an M rated game, you know you're in for big dog with his rude attitude to come back with him and insult you. HOW DARE SOME MINIMUM WAGE MAKING ASSHOLE TELL MY KID WHAT HE CAN OR CAN NOT PLAY?


people suck. honestly, i was soooo awesome when I worked- i am virtually unbiased (until now when the wii came out. i hate the wii with a passion), was 100% up to date with the info, and was nice. not fake nice, but genuine nice. i had outbursts, but they were few and far between. but what made me quit? not the customers or the hours, but the shitty ass pay I was making after being in the company for so long.

ok. i'm done. that feels sooo much better

[Borman]

A solution to the open box problem would be to do what Toys r Us did back during the SNES days. Have one slip out for a game for each copy they have. That way, people dont need to ask if its in stock, or anything else. Granted, someone could missplace is, but there is a better chance of knowing whether they have it, or dont.

My problem with the open box thing isnt the fact that its open. Its that there are about 3 or more stickers on it shitting up my DVD case. If you are going to give me an open copy, give me an official PS/Xbox/Wii case to go with it, that is new, without being raped by stickers. I buy the game to play first, sure, but when im done, I want it to look decent on my shelf, without a "BRAND NEW" or "Gamestop 49.99" and a barcode sticker on it.

[Sniderman]

The recommendation to become a regular is a good one. If you do, they'll return anything you want, exchange anything you want or give you promo items (as long as its within policy of course). This is just common sense.

QFT. It's like going into a bar so often that the bartender knows you by name, remembers your favorite drink, and has one waiting for you before your ass even hits the seat. I go to all the local game store at least once every other week. Even if I'm not planning on buying anything. I'll talk up the counterhelp (if they're not busy or otherwise preoccupied) and ask their recommendations for games, or we'll discuss CGE or other VG cons, or comics, or whatever. At this point, most of them knows what my interests are, what systems I have, what I'm looking for, etc. So NOW when I walk in, I hear "Hey, we had someone come in with Sega Genesis stuff. We don't take it, but I got her number here for you and said you'd call." or "You were asking about a used GAME X a week ago. Well we have one right here."

So getting to know the counterhelp is not trying to "be on the 'ins' with the clerks to ensure that I don't get treated like an idiot and get decent service in their crappy corporate game store." It's being less of a jackass to the point where they'd WANT to help you out rather than treating you, well, like a jackass.

[Darth Sensei]

Meanwhile the employees of said store are mocking Sniderman as a LC after he leaves. ROFL

[Sniderman]

Meanwhile the employees of said store are mocking Sniderman as a LC after he leaves. ROFLYou know me too well. :D

[Hep038]

Game store retail isn't like much of the retail out there, which is why it is worse. I spent 4 years in game store retail and I wish I could have those years back.

1. honestly, besides music, what other popular media has both new and used items for sale? this makes people nitpicky, lets them want to return used things because "they don't work anymore." It opens up the option for a ton of customer lies.

2. games are sooo universal now it's not even funny. what other "hobby" can children, teenagers, adults, poor, rich, smart, stupid and old people enjoy? this brings the weirdest bunch of people, and makes sure that you can spend the entire day with snot nosed kids or "cool" teenagers, but then get 3 angry soccer moms who didn't know that grand theft auto was a bad game for their 4 year old.

3. prices- holy crap- "give me a discount" "give me your discount" "get me no tax" "best you can do?" best buy has prices, a check out counter and doesn't mix the two. at a game store you have a personal interaction with the people who help you and ring you up. you get cheap asses asking for all sorts of discounts, which annoyed the LIVING FUCKING SHIT OUT OF ME. holy bill cosby, jesus christ! why on earth, why the fucking bastard sex little big league would i give some jerk ass motherfucker my god damned 10% measly discount on a game when i have to work my fat ass off at the shitty store to get that tiny insignificant discount. WHY? did he give me a blow job, polish my shoes and paint my house? NO. oh my god.

4. retail turns the most charismatic person into a robot. game stores turn them into robots who are forced to cram worthless crap down people's throats. eb edge? gamecrazy mvp? if the customer wants one, they will ask. if you have to ask, and they say no, they mean no. but no, that's not good enough, keep asking. and asking. and asking. and asking.

sure, i hated it when i kept asking the same couple to get a card when they would have actually saved $100's since they came back week after week, but when you see how stupid they are, just give up.

pre orders... i hated when people would say "i'll just get it when it comes out" then come back and tell me to sell them one of the 100 pre ordered san andreas, when we had 100 pre orders and 100 copies (just example with numbers). obviously not everyone would pick up their game on release, but they just didn't get it.


5. kids are stupid, but parents of stupid kids are even stupider. when you see some drooling, smelly, uncoordinated waste of life in your store, and you turn them down to buying an M rated game, you know you're in for big dog with his rude attitude to come back with him and insult you. HOW DARE SOME MINIMUM WAGE MAKING ASSHOLE TELL MY KID WHAT HE CAN OR CAN NOT PLAY?


people suck. honestly, i was soooo awesome when I worked- i am virtually unbiased (until now when the wii came out. i hate the wii with a passion), was 100% up to date with the info, and was nice. not fake nice, but genuine nice. i had outbursts, but they were few and far between. but what made me quit? not the customers or the hours, but the shitty ass pay I was making after being in the company for so long.

ok. i'm done. that feels sooo much better


Were you #5 or #8?

[Captain Wrong]

Ok, one more thing about this article that kind of made me snicker. The idea that working at Gamestop is having a job in the gaming industry. Umm...technically, maybe. But you're really working retail.

I gotta admit, I kind of snickered at the part where these people are dissapointed that the only move up is management. What did you expect? Miyamoto is going to call up some schlub register jockey from Gamestop #784 in Osh-Kosh to help him design the next Zelda? Get real!

I have a friend who I love to death, but I always wince a little when she talks about how she had a job in the music industry. No, you managed a Coconuts. Not quite the same thing. I see a parallel here.

[walrusmonger]

I wish I could have given my two cents in a web-published thing like that :(


The problem with game stores and moving up is that there are so few things you can move up to it stinks, the growth is shit. With other retail outlets there are more positions to get to- with a game store there is grunt, lead grunt, ass-man, manager, dm, rm. bleh

[RCM]

Ok, one more thing about this article that kind of made me snicker. The idea that working at Gamestop is having a job in the gaming industry. Umm...technically, maybe. But you're really working retail.

I gotta admit, I kind of snickered at the part where these people are dissapointed that the only move up is management. What did you expect? Miyamoto is going to call up some schlub register jockey from Gamestop #784 in Osh-Kosh to help him design the next Zelda? Get real!

I have a friend who I love to death, but I always wince a little when she talks about how she had a job in the music industry. No, you managed a Coconuts. Not quite the same thing. I see a parallel here.

I always had a huge problem with the old version of E3. They claimed you could only attend if you were part of the industry. Working at Gamestop does mean you're a part of the industry in any way. If that's the case gents who work at video rental establishments are "in film".

As for the interview, I'm not shocked. I have friends who work in Gamestops and one of three knows their shit. Most of the clerks I've encountered over the years are pretty fucking clueless but is it any surprise? They're sales associates, not game experts no matter what they think.

That goes for indie shops too.

[Diatribal Deity]

A long while back I worked with someone who was able to secure a position as an artist with a very well known game developer purely through his sales associate position for one of these chains. He merely showed an executive who worked at Looking Glass a portfolio of his artwork (never had held a degree or had any formal training or experience). This executive frequented the store quite often. So while you may not have direct access to other positions within the industry there definately is opportunity within certain locales. I personally encountered an offering from this company as well to be a game tester (purely a result of the environment I was in) and also had opportunities as vendor reps which did in some cases lead to other opportunities as well. So while opportunities may be limited, remember they are there and you never know who your customer may be...

[dethink]

If these places did away with gutted games, I'd actually shop there.

Or, I'll meet you halfway - If you could keep your gutted copies "like new", meaning it looks like it would after I take the shrink wrap off, meaning no scratched discs, folded manuals, and proprietary cases that look like they've been through sticker WWIII, I'd have no problem buying them. I understand your policy, and your need to have them on the sales floor. I'm not going to begrudge you doing business. However, when the games I'm trading in to you are CLEARLY in better condition than the "new" game I'm buying, there's a problem...compounded when your clerks comment on "how nice" I keep my stuff, and then act shocked when I don't want the tattered village bicycle copy.

Here's how to solve the problem - LEARN HOW TO HANDLE OPTICAL MEDIA. I DJ at night, and half my material is on CD-R. I handle these while drunk, and in the worst environments possible, and I've never had one suffer from scratch related failure, or any kind of severe wear. I find it hard to believe the mere act of removing a game from it's case, and putting it in a sleeve causes MORE wear and tear than my less-than-nurturing treatment. If you're too cheap to put out expendable amarays with printed copies of the sleeve (they act like they can't REUSE the case when the game is gone/sold out/etc.), then use your shrink wrap machine of deception to RE-WRAP the case of the game you gutted. Then put the stickers ON THAT. Either of these solutions will cost you a couple cents to MAYBE $0.50 for amarays/printouts. I get them for $0.35 a piece in bulk, a printout on my color copier costs 0.07, and my company is nowhere NEAR the size of GS/EB.

I buy a lot of games. I used to buy a lot at specialty game stores, but if this is the treatment I'm going to get product-wise, and you're unwilling to spend a couple cents to sell a $50-60 game (those plastic security boxes Best Buy/etc. use to lock every game in are WAY more expensive), forget it.

Oh, and to those clerks: quitcherbitchen. ALL retail jobs are like this. They're supposed to be JOBS for high school/college kids, not careers. I managed a Barnes & Noble in college, and the shit (literally) we had to put up with was just as ridiculous, if not worse. People's behavior in public is appalling. Deal with it.

[TurboGenesis]

#6: The store burns you out. You become bitter towards everything; your days off are generally spent in solitude because you can no longer stand people; and you have no energy to look for another job, even though you're miserable where you're at.

GamesRadar: Does the industry offer much room for career growth?

#1: Honestly... no. There are really only two outcomes for a retail employee: they either rise through the ranks to eventually be assimilated into the hive-mind corporate miasma, or they simply plateau and stagnate, growing steadily more bitter at life in general.


gee this sounds like my job. I work in automotive manufacturing (shipping). My plant burns me out. I become bitter toward everything; I have no enegry to look for another job even though I am miserable where I am at.

Lots of jobs are the suck. Can I sympathize with the retail clerk? Only if they can sympathize with me. Game dude deals with customers? I deal with rail road and truck drivers. They are paid by loads, always in a rush. People want to stereotype truckers, rail road workers, I deal with them face to face on the everyday.

Work sucks. Its Good Friday and I am at home yay.

[/end rant]

[dethink]

Work sucks. Its Good Friday and I am at home yay.

[/end rant]

Same here.

The more I read that #6 comment, the more pissed off I get.

It's that defeatist/entitled mentality that will ensure he does nothing but work retail forever.

There's only 2 options? Stagnate or assimilate?

What about option 3? FUCKING QUIT and get A NEW JOB. If you thought you were going to make m4d m0n3yz y0!!1 working at a goddamn game store, and get to sit around and play games...

I have no college degree, no formal post-secondary training, and I've built the art department for one of the largest custom design/printing firms in the country.

Has it, and does it continue to be a lot of hard work? Hell yes.

Is it frustrating as hell sometimes dealing with unrealistic management expectations and the generally rude public! Yes!

Am I bitter? Sometimes!

Do I roll over, admit defeat, and hide in my house miserable? Hell no!

Do I ever stop to think I'm merely entitled to slag off all day and get a paycheck merely because I walked in the door? No!

Grow a spine or grab your sack, and deal with it. If you don't like it, quit. If he's really EB/GS's bitch, puts up with it, and continues to work there, then he has no one to blame but himself. Despite all the obstacles in your way nowadays, you still are very much in control of your own success in this country.

[nebrazca78]

I'm trying to think of another retail situation where the most valuable part of the product is taken out of its packaging, and the packaging is left accessible to the customer. Usually it's the other way around - opened/demo electronics is the first thing I think of.

But a new game is one that hasn't been used, not one that hasn't been handled. When there's no use and no damage to the disc, what's the customer losing? The 1/2-cent worth of plastic?

Wow, you are really stuck to this "selling opened games as new is Ok" thing. Clothes, cars and tons of other things are different than video games. There's nothing to "test" about a video game. If you want to look at the manual, too bad in my opinion. Look at it after you buy it. What, you want to look at the disc art? Screw that.

Did you know some people buy games and NEVER OPEN THEM?

As far as I'm concerned my human hands MUST be the first to touch the insides of a game that's brand new. Or a CD, or a DVD, anything where thousands of brand-new copies are available. I don't want anyone else's fingerprints on my brand new game let alone price stickers and crap like that. In fact, that's why they're called copies, because they're all the same. Within a given model there are tons of variations in cars. Even more so with clothes.

I actually got in a verbal fight with the bitch at Gamestop here in Mundelein. I went in to buy Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii. I had never bought a new game from Gamestop before and I wasn't really paying attention when she went and grabbed what I consider a used/demo copy from the rack. I must've been totally spaced. I actually even left the store with it. I was waiting for my girlfriend to finish shopping so I was going to open the game in the car and check out the manual and disc to pass the time. Well guess what, no shrinkwrap and stickers(s) on the front. I was enraged.

I went back in to the Gamestop to return the game and read her the riot act. If she wasn't being such a snot I'd have taken a "sorry about that" and called it a day. But anyway I ended up going on a minute long rant about how much I hate them. At the end she told me I didn't have to shop there.

Which was fine because there is a Target next door which has actual sealed new copies.




You can't respect someone who wipes mud off their feet IN HE MIDDLE OF THE STORE and I can't respect the slob who feels the need to take a shit on the floor in the bathroom and neglect to inform anyone they "missed".

And no matter what anyone says employees, customers are ALWAYS worse.

That's crazy! Shitting on the floor must be the thing to do these days. A friend of mine who worked at Michael's crafts has the same horror story. I hope you didn't have to clean it up. I certainly would have quit if asked to do that.

[TurboGenesis]

Did you know some people buy games and NEVER OPEN THEM?


Really!?! Whats the point? Who buys movies and never watchers them? Who buys music and never listens to them.

Oops! Another topic for another time. Sorry for yet another thread kill.




Within a given model there are tons of variations in cars. Even more so with clothes.

What difference does it make with different variations in cars? You are paying ALOT of money for something that is said to be "new" where the exact same vehicle, same model year, same color, same options, that is marked used is literally THOUSANDS of dollars less.

Your game was touched by several people in the factory. The guy that pressed it the guy that packed it, and maybe even the quality tech. Lets hope that plant didn't have an issue where the wrong media made it out to a customer. That means there is an extra 300% check usually done by temporary workers from a cheap quality check company.

But as you stated, best bet is to just go somewhere else.
I would rather buy a game used (for used price) rather than new anyways. I bought VF5 not even a week after it came out. With discount card it was a better value. Why pay extra $15 for plastic wrap anyways.

[/rant done]

[Felixthegamer]

A game is only new if it is sealed and never opened. If it is opened, it should only be sold as used. I won't change my mind on that. If I want a new game, I go to best buy or target or wal mart, but not gamestop. If somebody doesn't mind if the game is open or whatever, I am fine with that. It's their choice, but my personal choice is different.

Anyway, I found the employees to have a chip on their shoulder and a high and mighty attitude. What's funny, is in all the chain game stores I have ever been in, the register jockeys know almost nothing about the games they are selling or the systems. Mostly they are rude and assholes, but that is what I have come to expect from most retail stores, game and otherwise

[nebrazca78]

Really!?! Whats the point? Who buys movies and never watchers them? Who buys music and never listens to them.

Oops! Another topic for another time. Sorry for yet another thread kill.


Well for example I have several CDs I've purchased that I already have WAV rips of on my computer from friends. So the CDs go into my collection brand new and unopened. If I need to take a CD in the car I burn it.

And don't ask why I would buy a CD I already have a perfect rip of. When a band is good enough to make it into my collection I try to buy every CD they've ever made. In the same way I have every Sega CD game burned but I will acquire a factory copy of each in time. And if they're factory sealed I don't open them.





What difference does it make with different variations in cars? You are paying ALOT of money for something that is said to be "new" where the exact same vehicle, same model year, same color, same options, that is marked used is literally THOUSANDS of dollars less.


But the fact remains that the vehicle has been driven by someone for a length of time. It is never exactly the same as it was when driven off the lot. 1 mile is different from 1000 miles which is different from 10,000 miles. THOUSANDS less, yes. But percentage-wise not that much different than a video game.



Your game was touched by several people in the factory.
[/rant done]

Not likely. And anyone who did touch it didn't touch the inside except in rare cases. Just like no one probably touched your Coke can before you drank it (assuming a 12 pack or case). I don't think there is a person who's job it is to put manuals in games, it's done by machine.

[Push Upstairs]

That's crazy! Shitting on the floor must be the thing to do these days. A friend of mine who worked at Michael's crafts has the same horror story. I hope you didn't have to clean it up. I certainly would have quit if asked to do that.


Thankfully I didn't have to clean it up. I did, however, forget the other part of the story that makes it slightly more humorous.

Someone did take a dump on the floor in the bathroom and did neglect to inform anyone of their sphincter malfunction. The part I forgot was that they tried to hide the fact with some toilet paper and THEIR OWN UNDERWEAR.

I really, really hope that was a kid.

[TurboGenesis]

Well for example I have several CDs I've purchased that I already have WAV rips of on my computer from friends. So the CDs go into my collection brand new and unopened. If I need to take a CD in the car I burn it.

And don't ask why I would buy a CD I already have a perfect rip of. When a band is good enough to make it into my collection I try to buy every CD they've ever made. In the same way I have every Sega CD game burned but I will acquire a factory copy of each in time. And if they're factory sealed I don't open them.





But the fact remains that the vehicle has been driven by someone for a length of time. It is never exactly the same as it was when driven off the lot. 1 mile is different from 1000 miles which is different from 10,000 miles. THOUSANDS less, yes. But percentage-wise not that much different than a video game.



Not likely. And anyone who did touch it didn't touch the inside except in rare cases. Just like no one probably touched your Coke can before you drank it (assuming a 12 pack or case). I don't think there is a person who's job it is to put manuals in games, it's done by machine.


as you do.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Your game was touched by several people in the factory. The guy that pressed it the guy that packed it, and maybe even the quality tech. Lets hope that plant didn't have an issue where the wrong media made it out to a customer. That means there is an extra 300% check usually done by temporary workers from a cheap quality check company.



[/rant done]

haven't you ever seen a cd/game made people never touch them it's all ran by computerized robots. the only time there touched by people is putting the sealed cd/game into the shipping boxes.

[Trebuken]

5. kids are stupid, but parents of stupid kids are even stupider. when you see some drooling, smelly, uncoordinated waste of life in your store, and you turn them down to buying an M rated game, you know you're in for big dog with his rude attitude to come back with him and insult you. HOW DARE SOME MINIMUM WAGE MAKING ASSHOLE TELL MY KID WHAT HE CAN OR CAN NOT PLAY?

Have you watched 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader?'?

The show sheds light on this.

[TurboGenesis]

haven't you ever seen a cd/game made people never touch them it's all ran by computerized robots. the only time there touched by people is putting the sealed cd/game into the shipping boxes.

Well no I have not. I am in automotive manufacturing so I have seen vehicles made. What happens when the machines go down. Are those disc's scrapped. How does the rework process go. Like I said I've not been involved with disc manufacturing :( Just implying my knowledge of a certain manufacturing process that I know of. My bad. Not all things run the same.

[kainemaxwell]

fuck i am on an Anthony1 rant. and i lost my train of thought. so if you skipped to the end i'll break it down like this: Knowing how most gamestops, especially my district operate, a system of printed out inserts is more time consuming than it should need to be plus the space needed is for all the supplies is more than most stores can afford to use.

Nice to see another collector working in retail too. For the record, I'm probably the only one in my FYE who takes gutting video games seriously, making sure when I take the disks out I don't leave prints, checking what's in my hand with inventory, etc, and my co-workers know it and appericate me for it.

[Daria]

What's with all the idiots assuming that a gamestore is about playing games all day? Is there anyone who actually believes that crap?

[Push Upstairs]

When I worked at a game store we didn't get to play games all day long.......







we only played games a quarter of the time!


This was also an indie place, none of that EB shizzz.

[200609]

I actually went into a Gamestop today, first time in a couple years actually. There was a 40 something guy in there, looked like he hadn't touched a razor in weeks or combed his hair for a few days. He asked the clerk: "Do you have any WWII games? 'Cause I like WWII games"
Clerk: "Uhh, I dunno, we have Medal of Honor, I'm not really sure if that's a WWII game, but it's like it."
Customer: "Have you played it?"
Clerk: "No"
Customer: "So how do you know?" etc etc

Then there was a soccer mom in there whose kid didn't like the game he got. So she explains that she tried returning it to Circuit City or wherever she got it AFTER the kid opened it and played it. Well a), if it was opened and played, it certainly isn't new by CC standards (by GS standards yes). B) Circuit City doesn't do used games, so no, you obviously can't return it. So then the clerk went into this long spiel about the process of turning in games.

There were also a couple middle/high schoolers in there, one of which was bragging about how he had a Genesis hooked up at home. And he was bragging about it, not just stating a fact. Honestly, who cares? Sure, Sega is the shit, but bragging about a Genesis? That's like saying, "w00t, I own a 92 Corolla!" (which by teh way r teh shit)

In any case, I don't feel the urge to go to GS again anytime soon. I'm a customer, and even the other customers irritate me: "Hur hur, hur hur, let me stick my face in this strategy guide and sniff it, even though I'm not gonna buy it, hur hur, hur hur." Yeah, a kid did that while I was there, obviously though, those weren't his words.

[Poofta!]

read and enjoyed. i think 90% of the employees at those places are pieces of shit and dont deserve to be treated as any better.

[FantasiaWHT]

Wow, you are really stuck to this "selling opened games as new is Ok" thing. Clothes, cars and tons of other things are different than video games. There's nothing to "test" about a video game. If you want to look at the manual, too bad in my opinion. Look at it after you buy it. What, you want to look at the disc art? Screw that.

Did you know some people buy games and NEVER OPEN THEM?


Actually, yes, I do know that, and if you had read my earlier posts, you would have noticed that I addressed that and granted that exception.

Otherwise, I stand by my point - new means unused. If your gutted-new game is damaged somehow (scratched disc, bent manual) then you are deserving of a discount. Otherwise, no.

[64Bits]

"GamesRadar: Okay. So if you could say one thing to all of your future customers, what would it be?

#7: Become a regular. Patronize one location and come in once a week, or every other week, and get to know the guys behind the counter. It's the best way to get us to help you out."

Unreal. So I need to be on the 'ins' with the clerks to ensure that I don't get treated like an idiot and get decent service in their crappy corporate game store.

I was bored and weak-willed enough to go to EB to purchase a new game maybe twice in the past few years. Of course the game was 'the last one'- gutted, and they still insisted that it was new. I'm going to pay full price for an unwrapped game? :hmm: Sure.

I know this is a common experience, but I can't comprehend how gamers tolerate the insanity of some of the lame business practices that goes on in these stores. They're a blight on the hobby.

What a joke.....

[Nate Nanjo]

Hmm, If you pre-order a game, you'll end up getting a new copy of the game (yes, being sealed and all). Although everyone is against pre-ordering also. Well, that is the case around here anyways. I wouldn't see why a reserved copy would be gutted.

Then again my area consist of like 4 people who are picky about gutted games. Me being one of them, although I work at the EB(now gamestop) by my house.