Trying to find an article by a former Gamestop employee

[Jorpho]

I came across this rather trenchant article the other day written by someone who worked at Gamestop during last holiday season, in which he observed that informed gamers (i.e. the sorts of people who read message board posts) make up a very small proportion of people who buy games, who may indeed be interested solely in Madden and Call of Duty and who may be unaware that the Wii U is not merely an add-on for the Wii. I think it was on a fairly major site like Kotaku or GameInformer, but I can no longer find it.

Does anyone here know what I am referring to?

[Tupin]

How is that surprising? The people who talk about things online will always be a much smaller group than people who just consume something and then go on with their lives.

[Gameguy]

I came across this rather trenchant article the other day written by someone who worked at Gamestop during last holiday season, in which he observed that informed gamers (i.e. the sorts of people who read message board posts) make up a very small proportion of people who buy games at Gamestop.

Fixed it for you. Informed gamers don't shop at Gamestop unless they have no alternative, that's what I would expect from personal experience and all of the "Gamestop sucks" posts that show up all the time. Or did back when this was a more popular forum.

[Flashback2012]

I came across this rather trenchant article the other day written by someone who worked at Gamestop during last holiday season, in which he observed that informed gamers (i.e. the sorts of people who read message board posts) make up a very small proportion of people who buy games, who may indeed be interested solely in Madden and Call of Duty and who may be unaware that the Wii U is not merely an add-on for the Wii. I think it was on a fairly major site like Kotaku or GameInformer, but I can no longer find it.

Does anyone here know what I am referring to?

I'm a former employee; I worked there for 10 years and at Funcoland for 2 years prior to that (long before they became one company). I can vouch for everything you mentioned and then some.

Fixed it for you. Informed gamers don't shop at Gamestop unless they have no alternative, that's what I would expect from personal experience and all of the "Gamestop sucks" posts that show up all the time. Or did back when this was a more popular forum.

I'd like to think I consider myself somewhat informed and I shop there all the time. I have plenty of shopping options available to me but I enjoy finding decently priced current and last gen games there for good prices. I try to find the deals wherever I can.

That said, while I will shop there, I'll NEVER trade in there. All of the nonsense about them giving you nothing for your stuff is all too true. I think the only place that's a bit more harsh on what they give is Half Price Books but I digress. Anyway, one memory that's forever burned in my mind is the day a kid brought in Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast. He traded in other stuff with it and I don't remember what but I do remember the Sonic game because we only offered him $1 for it and he accepted the trade-in value because the DC was well on its way out by then. The reason I remember this transaction so well is I sold that very copy to someone else later that same day for the low, low price of $19.99.

[Gameguy]

I'd like to think I consider myself somewhat informed and I shop there all the time. I have plenty of shopping options available to me but I enjoy finding decently priced current and last gen games there for good prices. I try to find the deals wherever I can.

There are going to be exceptions, I just meant in general. And I remember there being plenty of great employees there when I used to shop there regularly, for a long time the main reason I would keep going to the local stores often was just to visit the employees there as I got to know them. Plenty of lousy ones too but I'm not going to say everyone is terrible like most people do. It might vary by location and region, but there's really no last gen stuff there anymore so I don't bother to go anymore. No PS2, Gamecube, or Xbox stuff. Well, there's some new PS2 games available but I don't feel like paying $30-$60 for PS2 games that never get reduced.

I would never bother with trade ins again. I did luck out with one PC game, I got around $0.50 trade in and the store selling price was $0.00. They changed it manually to $1.99 or so, I doubt it would sell easily. It's still a waste of time to trade things in. Not just with games but any type of used store. I remember we went to Once-Upon-A-Child to trade in bags of old kids clothes, after waiting well over an hour for them to get around to sorting through it all(there was a line in front), and spending another 10-20 minutes while they looked through everything, they only found a couple things "suitable" and we ended up with just enough to almost pay for a cup of coffee. Our time is worth more to us than that.

[Daria]

I don't mind shopping at Gamestop. I don't go there for the conversation; I browse the shelves, buy a game if the price and condition are right, and get the fuck out.

[JSoup]

I don't mind shopping at Gamestop. I don't go there for the conversation; I browse the shelves, buy a game if the price and condition are right, and get the fuck out.

This.
Even then, there are few surprises in this day and age. It's rare that I step into a GameStop not already knowing what I'm looking for.

[SAV2880]

I'm a former employee; I worked there for 10 years and at Funcoland for 2 years prior to that (long before they became one company). I can vouch for everything you mentioned and then some.




I'd like to think I consider myself somewhat informed and I shop there all the time. I have plenty of shopping options available to me but I enjoy finding decently priced current and last gen games there for good prices. I try to find the deals wherever I can.

That said, while I will shop there, I'll NEVER trade in there. All of the nonsense about them giving you nothing for your stuff is all too true. I think the only place that's a bit more harsh on what they give is Half Price Books but I digress. Anyway, one memory that's forever burned in my mind is the day a kid brought in Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast. He traded in other stuff with it and I don't remember what but I do remember the Sonic game because we only offered him $1 for it and he accepted the trade-in value because the DC was well on its way out by then. The reason I remember this transaction so well is I sold that very copy to someone else later that same day for the low, low price of $19.99.

Which store did you work at? I worked at a couple of them for about 2-3 years total, the stories we could probably share from Cincinnati stores.

[otaku]

I've had some good conversations at gamestops and a buddy found his awesome girlfriend there but I find I am more at home in indie shops when I can find them