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So what's wrong with EA?
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dhex wrote:
a dude runs a restaurant across the street from your house. it's your favorite joint ever. best food, etc. one day the dude retires (or is retired by nature's god) and the place is bought by some kinda fucking guy who does some shit - or is some kinda shit - you just can't fucking stand. so you say to yourself, "shit, i don't care if this is the best [favorite food] i ever tasted in my goddamn life. i can't give my business to this guy cause [shit you just can't stand]."


The part of my argument that everyone seem to ignore is that the dude who you really liked did the exact same shit that you can't stand as the new dude, it's just that the new dude happened to get caught first and had that shit you can't stand publicized louder. So why, in this situation, is everyone so pissed at the new guy and totally keen on the old guy?

-Wes
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The Great Unwashed
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

J.Goodwin wrote:
If I were taking a position here, I'd be extolling the virtues of sloppy seconds right at this moment.

FACT.


By which, I assume, you refer to the fact that the Warhammer Online license has been picked up and dropped more times than a particularly effeminate shemale hooker? You're right of course, but I can't say it bothers me as it looks like somebody is finally going to do something worthwhile with the IP that I love.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
In 50-100 years, in a book about the history of videogames, in the small section about the first decade of 2000, you and I and swimmy will be lumped up as people who "enjoyed; Madden, GTA, and Final Fantasy X."


I have some problems with this. Whoever writes this book is not going to say that playing those games is representative of the whole population, but would use it instead to comment on a general trend (supported by fact). Anyone who reads this and is stupid enough to think that it speaks for every gamer is not worthy of knowing anything about 'our' personal videogame tastes. Secondly, the statement itself is highly hypocritical because it makes the same kind of unfair generalization about one-hundred years in the future that such a book as you describe would make about one-hundred years in the past. I doubt that art and culture and literature (a three-headed umbrella that I actually feel comfortable placing the term 'video game' in) would ever have evolved in any interesting ways if histories of art and culture and literature generally focused on what was the most popular at the time. You'll get your due, Shaper, don't worry. Finally, I am appalled not to have been included in your club.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
So why, in this situation, is everyone so pissed at the new guy and totally keen on the old guy?


because the people with torches and pitchforks need someone to burn.

and because equivocation isn't always a rhetorical slam dunk.

Quote:
Anyone who reads this and is stupid enough to think that it speaks for every gamer is not worthy of knowing anything about 'our' personal videogame tastes.


one day our tastes will only be worthy of scholars writing histories for other scholars, and we shall all be dead.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:
People don't buy Medal of Honor because it's EA, they buy it because they like Army games. They don't buy Need for Speed Underground because they see the obnoxious EA Medal on the box, they buy it because they're into import car tuning. The same goes for Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Marvel Nemesis, Def Jam, and most every other big game they produce. These games aren't selling big because they're selling to gamers - they're selling big because they're selling to people. It's really not a bad thing! It's certainly no less noble to buy Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King because you want to live out the movie than it is to buy Deep Labyrinth because it's published by Atlus.

Or am I totally off on this?

-Wes


I kinda disagree with the first part of this but I think the second part is spot on (about selling to people). In my experience the type of people EA are aiming at in Britain, lets really generalise and say the 'chav youths', buy these games because they are the ones they have heard of. The EA games are the ones that are advertised on tv and in lads mags. They are endorsed by footballers and the sort of musicians they listen to. Movie liscences also. They wouldn't have a clue what the wii was if you asked them now but they are sure as hell know when the next fifa is coming out. And like you say, nothing wrong with that at all.
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GSL
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:
Unless of course you're a furry or something (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

OH YES THERE IS!
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DaleNixon
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Funny thing about EA. There's a Mom and Pop store in the Mall of Louisiana here in Baton Rouge. It's called "Gameware". I"ve been a loyal shopper there since '98. I asked Steven, one of my buddies who works there, what makes them the most profits. I assumed it was used game sales. His reply was shocking: EA game sales.

He told me that EA is one of the few publishers that ships direct. They also ship on time. Most publishers and distributors dick around these mom and pop places and they get their games days or even weeks later than the EB's and Gamestops. Not only that, but EA sells their games at cost for less. Take Madden for example. Madden for the PS2 costs something in the neighborhood of 42 USD per unit they buy (I could be way off on this). That game is guaranteed to sell out at 50 bucks. For these little stores, selling Madden is a good way to help keep your business afloat. All they usually need to do is put a small discrete sign up somewhere that says "Yes, we have "that madden" for "that playstation"" No preorder pressure or employees forced to be excited over a game they care nothing about.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Greatsaintlouis wrote:
SuperWes wrote:
Unless of course you're a furry or something (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

OH YES THERE IS!

It's kind of funny how many things people can say that will make us go crazy-up-in-arms here, but this is perfectly acceptable. In any case, we have at least one furry on board at TGQ that we like, so be polite.
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Swimmy wrote:
Greatsaintlouis wrote:
SuperWes wrote:
Unless of course you're a furry or something (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

OH YES THERE IS!

It's kind of funny how many things people can say that will make us go crazy-up-in-arms here, but this is perfectly acceptable. In any case, we have at least one furry on board at TGQ that we like, so be polite.

/me refrains from putting up pictures of Swimmy in fish outfits.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dhex wrote:
Quote:
So why, in this situation, is everyone so pissed at the new guy and totally keen on the old guy?


because the people with torches and pitchforks need someone to burn.

and because equivocation isn't always a rhetorical slam dunk.


Well if we can agree that EA is playing the scapegoat for the relatively harmless sins of the entire industry it's all good.

Interesting story from Dale Nixon. I knew that one of EA's biggest innovations was that they were the first company to start doing distribution within the company in order to cut down on the number of middle men. It's awesome that this actually helps out the smaller retailers because Gamestop is getting too fucking big. If anyone deserves to be boycotted it's them.

-Wes
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OtakupunkX
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:
It's awesome that this actually helps out the smaller retailers because Gamestop is getting too fucking big. If anyone deserves to be boycotted it's them.


No joke. If the local mom and pop store in my hometown had more newer games in addition to all the older stuff (I'm apparently one of the only customers who buys the older stuff though) I'd never go to GameStop.

Coincidently, though, I just applied for a job at a Gamestop a couple of towns over, which I guess would make a me a hypocrite. I really just want to get a knowledge of how the videogame retail industry works though (as in I'd probably keep working that pizza job too).
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GSL
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OtakupunkX wrote:
Coincidently, though, I just applied for a job at a Gamestop a couple of towns over, which I guess would make a me a hypocrite. I really just want to get a knowledge of how the videogame retail industry works though (as in I'd probably keep working that pizza job too).

Imagine Clerks without the masturbating dead guy in the bathroom, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like. The sad truth is that the videogame retail industry is almost exactly like any other retail industry, except your co-workers don't mind talking about how stoked they are for the new Madden or for the PS3 because the graphics look so awesome! And while you go into the job thinking you'll get to interact with customers with the same refined gaming tastes as yourself, the horrible truth is that the vast majority of them are the worst sort of genetically repressed mouth-breathers. You'll understand what I mean the third time you get a clueless mother walk up to you with a copy of GTA: San Andreas and ask why the game is rated M while her ten-year old son whines at her elbow that it's 'not that bad'.

I'm not saying you shouldn't apply or won't have fun, but I just hope you don't go in with the impression--as I did--that your co-workers will be anything more than mechanized corporate drones and the customers will be savvy consumers of the gaming lifestyle. It is a retail chain store, after all.

In my opinion though, nobody should feel like a 'hypocrite' for daring to--GASP!--look for employment, with the usual provision about not compromising your core beliefs and values. I doubt many of us would respond off the cuff, "Boycotting EA/Gamestop!" if somebody stopped us on the street and asked us what we truly believed in. There's a certain amount of respect demanded for someone who takes a job to support him/herself, and doubly so if that job entails frequent interaction with The Great Unwashed (no, not ours here, the other one.)

Swimmy wrote:
It's kind of funny how many things people can say that will make us go crazy-up-in-arms here, but this is perfectly acceptable. In any case, we have at least one furry on board at TGQ that we like, so be polite.

I'll drop it the subject--actually, I never meant to go any further than that one-liner, which is to say, a joke--if we both agree that you were joking as well. Because I could have sworn you were telling me to take that sort of thing seriously. But anyways, it's 'poltiely' dropped.


Last edited by GSL on Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
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DaleNixon
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Someone here is a furry? :beardscratch:
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

oh great, arbitrary furry hate.

i guess the gamer's quarter has finally caught up with the rest of the internet! hooray.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DaleNixon wrote:
Someone here is a furry? :beardscratch:

Do you not read the magazine? (Shut up Matt)

-Wes
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DaleNixon
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A beardscratch does not imply furryhate. Wes, I've read most of the articles but not all of them.
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Legal Step
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can't hate furries, they've revolutionized the internets.
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm gonna come right out and say that I have no idea what a furry is. Somebody please help me.
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Greatsaintlouis wrote:
The sad truth is that the videogame retail industry is almost exactly like any other retail industry, except your co-workers don't mind talking about how stoked they are for the new Madden or for the PS3 because the graphics look so awesome! And while you go into the job thinking you'll get to interact with customers with the same refined gaming tastes as yourself, the horrible truth is that the vast majority of them are the worst sort of genetically repressed mouth-breathers. You'll understand what I mean the third time you get a clueless mother walk up to you with a copy of GTA: San Andreas and ask why the game is rated M while her ten-year old son whines at her elbow that it's 'not that bad'.

I should chime in and say that working film retail/rental (I have worked at Suncoast Video[sales], Blockbuster[rental], and a theatre[umm]) falls into this as well. BUT! Even though I had to deal with people who didn't know Nick Cage from Tom Cruise, I still liked it better than working at retail I had no interest in. Hell, I liked it better than most part-time jobs I have had.

helicopterp wrote:
I'm gonna come right out and say that I have no idea what a furry is. Somebody please help me.

Wikipedia to the rescue.

Also, I don't think we have degraded to the rest of the internet. I was just having a little fun at Swimmys expense, sorry.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. Okay.
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GSL
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
I should chime in and say that working film retail/rental (I have worked at Suncoast Video[sales], Blockbuster[rental], and a theatre[umm]) falls into this as well. BUT! Even though I had to deal with people who didn't know Nick Cage from Tom Cruise, I still liked it better than working at retail I had no interest in. Hell, I liked it better than most part-time jobs I have had.

This is true; working retail you enjoy is much better than working retail you have no clue about. Conversely, I'd rather be a customer of a retail store with semi-knowledgeable employees than complete idiots. I tried not to fault the majority of my co-workers at Gamestop for not knowing what a TurboGrafx was or for subscribing to the typical western "Saturn sucked because there was no 3D or FFVII lolz" attitude, but I have little tolerance for times like when the gal at the counter at EB Games actually started looking up--at a customer's request--the release date for Halo on PS2 and then told him she didn't have the date yet but it was coming soon. Of course, I was also a bit bitter towards her, as she was hired away from The Gap to fill a place there, while I was obviously not selected.

But yes, working retail--especially for something you enjoy--can be fun and rewarding, just be prepared for a large amount of idiots.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vf10a wrote:
They are endorsed by footballers and the sort of musicians they listen to. Movie liscences also. They wouldn't have a clue what the wii was if you asked them now but they are sure as hell know when the next fifa is coming out. And like you say, nothing wrong with that at all.
Does FIFA actually outsell Pro Evolution in Europe? I find that hard to believe.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
/me refrains from putting up pictures of Swimmy in fish outfits.
Dammit, now I shall forever think of Swimmy as one of those fish creatures from Slayers.

===

I will occasionally shop at Gamestop. However, I won't shop at EBGames (and yeah, I know they're the same company).
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dhex
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

arbitrary boycotts are indeed a pitfall of selling anything.

i was in a gamestop today but i just bought the 8th season of south park.

that is all.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is there really a lot of hate for Gamestop? I mean, I work at one, does that make me the enemy?
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dhex
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well, you are now.

do they make you wear those stupid shirts too? they look like a bad generic ref's outfit, like you're calling ball for the european football league (american). i think they should consider dress casual and/or employee cosplaying. (perhaps as us presidents.)

people treat me nicely in game stores. but i am also an "adult" and therefore an "outlier."

i did watch a dude dump two ps2 systems and maybe 45 ps2 games on a gamestop counter a few weeks back. from a duffle bag. but he didn't look fucked or anything, perhaps a bit too gussied to go to a gamestop though. maybe he was starting life anew?
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No more so than the other two (or one) major retail chains.

So a little, yeah.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dark steve wrote:
No more so than the other two (or one) major retail chains.

So a little, yeah.


Who would that be? I thought Gamestop bought them all?

And no. You're no more an enemy for working at Gamestop than you would be for working at EA. Actually, if you were working at EA it would be pretty cool. It's easier to make things better from within than from outside.

-Wes
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Gunshinji
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nah, we don't have to wear those stupid shirts, anything with a collar will do!

We get people bringing in duffle bags every other day, so that's common, most likely people who ripped off other people... oh that's happened before.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ok, so to recap wes is heterocrushing on ea with some kinda weird romeo and juliet vibe and hell i am going to forecast something daring: ea will eventually be forced to spin off properties it has acquired due in part to shitty management. however, this will take 20 years as the number of people willing to do shit work in the games industry skyrockets.

value, unlike religious miracles, cannot be faked for too long.
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gunshinji wrote:
Is there really a lot of hate for Gamestop? I mean, I work at one, does that make me the enemy?


Think of it this way: While to some eyes Gamestop may be the enemy (along with EB, EA, and anything else you'd care to name) you're the more tangible face of the company: the guy working the floor, dealing with the customers, and essentially earning the company its money, all in your struggle to get by. To me, that's really nothing to be ashamed of. Hell, I was in those trenches once; it's a pretty alienating feeling to know the suits in corporate couldn't care less about you as a person and then have people try and make you feel bad for your choice of job on top of it. It's not like being a retail servant at Gamestop is the same thing as the willful overlord of a third-world sweatshop or anything.
This is precisely why I'm extremely hesitant to 'boycott' companies in the gaming industry--or almost anywhere in the real world, actually, because I remember that behind every evil corporation and soulless CEO, there are tons of hardworking little people like you or me that are just trying to get by. So don't be ashamed!
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simplicio
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No hatred for the employees! Just sympathy, in the extreme.

Really, I think it'd be worse to work there if you did know anything about games. I can't remember the last time I've been in a Gamestop without hearing at least one absurd question (and generally a whole string of them, or even worse a whole string of the same question submitted 25 times) from some kid's mom. If I had to work in one, I think I'd rather not care about games at all so I could detach myself completely and think of games (and warranties, and strategy guides) as pure product/profit.

Condolences, Gunshinji.
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Gunshinji
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many thanks for the condolences!

The questions aren't really the problem, it's the people who bitch about how little they get for their trades. They act like the value they get back is a personal insult to them and in some cases I can agree with it, but mostly they just bring in crap, then throw a shit fit about it. That's around the time you want to put a gun to your head and end it.

I guess the "fanboys" rank up with the biggest-pains-in-the-ass as well. Personally, I think they send these kids up to the store to recruit people to their side and they are not afraid make you want to shoot them too.

At least the benefit plan is good and the 25% off shit isn't too bad either.
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GSL
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Holy hell, it's up to 25%? Those bastards were only giving us 15%!
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

To be more specific, I go into the Gamestop that has very slow service and a crapload of used games (they're near two EBgames shops, so probably their used games are stolen, they are typically in pristine condition).

I do not go into the Gamestop where one guy continuously pestered me into getting preorders, then when I finally gave in and preordered a couple games ... LOST my preorder and had no way to deal with that.

That annoyed me In The Extreme! To the MAX!
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I returned to EBGames a used copy of Half-Life for ps2 that was giving me disc read errors, the guy behind the counter bitched at me not for returning the game but for playing it on anything other than the PC Sad
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:
dark steve wrote:
No more so than the other two (or one) major retail chains.

So a little, yeah.


Who would that be? I thought Gamestop bought them all?
Do they own GameCrazy?
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ryan
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dale, I'm not saying that I'll meet up with thatbox and go give them a good what-for, I'm just saying that someone will be getting their comeuppance if we get more information!

I just go through Amazon now. When I trade stuff in, which I generally do because ebay is more a pain than anything else, I just go with whatever is offered. Every now and then I'm surprised with the offer, like $25 for something like Stunt GP, but most of the time it's on par with what I'd get on ebay, plus I save time and worry. I avoid the local GameStop due to the employees coming across as not actually playing games, plus the EB folk, especially for being in the shitty mall, are more amiable.

I guess the moral of the story is 'Thank you, Internet.'

-

Hollywood Video owns GameCrazy, which I believe is now owned by the Movie Gallery people.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dark steve wrote:
SuperWes wrote:
dark steve wrote:
No more so than the other two (or one) major retail chains.

So a little, yeah.


Who would that be? I thought Gamestop bought them all?
Do they own GameCrazy?


GameCrazy is so small it's nowhere near the same level as Gamestop.

-Wes
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DonMarco
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 10:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

J.Goodwin wrote:
I do not go into the Gamestop where one guy continuously pestered me into getting preorders, then when I finally gave in and preordered a couple games ... LOST my preorder and had no way to deal with that.

He probably misspelled your name or phone number. What does it say on your receipt?
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xvs07
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd just like to thank each one of you who contributed to this thread. Perhaps it's because I'm loopy and sleep-deprived on account of a late night at PAX (the video game pianist was simply beyond words, by the way), but early on it began to take on tones of an Epic Struggle between the Forces of Good and Evil, and I spent an hour and read through the whole damned thing.

Wes: Thank you for playing such a flawless Enemy/Antagonist. You illustrate better than most I've met exactly how the soulcrushing banality of beige evil becomes rationalized into something we have no alternative but to accept. I was the only kid I knew to own a Sega Master System as a kid, and while I wouldn't have traded it for any number of NESes, and appreciated my isolation a bit, I probably also would've appreciated an EA-style marketing campaign for the thing so that people today wouldn't glaze over when I wax poetic about Wonderboy III.

J. Goodman: Bravo. You have expressed purity of self in your awareness of and refusal to mindlessly comply with the dynamics at work in the belly of the beast. You beat back every beige quarrel flawlessly, with a line of counterargument to which everyone, even Wes, can relate. Perhaps evil is the cost of turning profit, perhaps none of this shall matter in fifty years (or even ten), but the struggle to hold morally-sustainable ideals and be individually true to them will be relevant as long as there are individuals.

dhex: Your role here, in this post and throughout the forum, is often to provide a too-dichotomous thread with a little direction and a lot of perspective. I don't often see you take a harsh, firm side, and it means that I don't have to adjust for bias very much. Very real, very stabilizing. Very useful, especially within the emotionally-charged climate of a "tiny can-do labor of love".


Anyway, I think an edited version of this discussion appearing in a mag would be pretty cool. Granted, that assumes that there are people who buy the mag that don't read the forum.. .... And yes, in hindsight, this post is looking pretty damned loopy. Better submit before I think better of it.
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SuperWes
Updated the banners, but not his title
Updated the banners, but not his title


Joined: 07 Dec 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

xvs07 wrote:
Wes: Thank you for playing such a flawless Enemy/Antagonist.


Any time!

It just pisses me off when I think of all of the hours of unpaid overtime that went into games like Metal Gear Solid 3, Killer 7, Half Life 2, and (to go along with the Master System comment) Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I'm so mad at Konami for having the exclusive publishing rights of the Metal Gear Solid series when clearly everybody should be free to make a Metal Gear Solid game. I'm so bitter about the fact that Squaresoft is only making the Limited Edition Final Fantasy XII available at Gamestop. It's so upsetting that people who like things like Sports and Cars are skewing the sales data by buying the most videogames in the US when it should really be people who dedicate themselves to Anime, Fantasy, and videogames that make up the majority of the sales data.

The world is so unfair sometimes and we have such an evil hobby I don't know how any of us can live with ourselves.

-Wes
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

whatever, captain sarcasm.
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J.Goodwin
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DonMarco wrote:
J.Goodwin wrote:
I do not go into the Gamestop where one guy continuously pestered me into getting preorders, then when I finally gave in and preordered a couple games ... LOST my preorder and had no way to deal with that.
He probably misspelled your name or phone number. What does it say on your receipt?
This was after they implemented the computer controlled preorder system. I was informed that my receipt was meaningless, since the official preorder was the one at the store or in the computer. And that therefore, I was fucked.

My spider senses tell me that he misspelled my name and phone number with his own.
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Gunshinji
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Joined: 15 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Speaking of shopping internet style, has anyone ever heard of eStarland.com?
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DaleNixon
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bought Trapt at ebgames yesterday and the guy asked me if I wanted to preorder anything. I should have said "oh hell yea" and plunked down enough money to preorder everything you can possibly preorder.

J.Goodwin: I forget where I read it, but I did read something from somewhere along the lines of an ebgames manager telling his employee "pre-orders are great... they give us five dollars, we give them nothing"

Also 'sup DonMarco.
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dark steve
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gunshinji wrote:
Speaking of shopping internet style, has anyone ever heard of eStarland.com?
Not very reputable.
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vf10a
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Joined: 02 Jun 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

J.Goodwin wrote:
vf10a wrote:
They are endorsed by footballers and the sort of musicians they listen to. Movie liscences also. They wouldn't have a clue what the wii was if you asked them now but they are sure as hell know when the next fifa is coming out. And like you say, nothing wrong with that at all.
Does FIFA actually outsell Pro Evolution in Europe? I find that hard to believe.


I would predict that fifa does generally outsell pro evo despite the latter being by far the superior game. This could have changed with the last outing as pro evo is starting to become more and more popular with the 'casual' crowd and was backed with a decent advertising campaign last time out.
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Shapermc
Hot Sake!
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Joined: 14 Oct 2004
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gunshinji wrote:
The questions aren't really the problem, it's the people who bitch about how little they get for their trades. They act like the value they get back is a personal insult to them and in some cases I can agree with it, but mostly they just bring in crap, then throw a shit fit about it. That's around the time you want to put a gun to your head and end it.


You know, I have had this conversation before, but there are sever problems with EB/GS trade in policies. If someone brings you a used copy of Game X (which was released about 6 months prior) in perfect condition they will get $20 and sell it for $40. If person B brings in Game X with just the CD and it is really scratched up they get $20 and sell it for $40.

I am pretty big on the quality of my games. Many times I buy a used title because it is either A) Hard to get new, or B) a very good deal and hard to find at all. Occasionally I will grab something I had been meaning to for a while and when it is like $5 used I pick it up on a whim. Anyways, most of the time I don’t buy them to play that afternoon, and many times if the game is longer than ten hours I won’t finish it even if I do start it shortly after getting it. So it is hard for me to find out if the game is going to actually work within the return period of time. If the game is not in very good condition, with the box and manual, I don’t even bother with it anymore. I get a lot of really confused looks from sales people for this. Once I even had a guy near-yell at me for making him pull out the bin of CDs-in-baggies and find the game just for me to refuse it.

Also, these stores piss me off for opening games and selling them new. But that’s a whole different thing.

xvs07 wrote:
Granted, that assumes that there are people who buy the mag that don't read the forum.


Most of our readers don’t check the forums, not even when we direct them here in the magazine. Well, based on our number of readers and our number of fourm members, I have to assume this anyways.

DaleNixon wrote:
I bought Trapt at ebgames yesterday and the guy asked me if I wanted to preorder anything. I should have said "oh hell yea" and plunked down enough money to preorder everything you can possibly preorder.


I thought about doing this once and pre-ordering like a dozen games then at the last second telling them I can’t really afford them and just getting the game.
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dhex
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I do not go into the Gamestop where one guy continuously pestered me into getting preorders, then when I finally gave in and preordered a couple games ... LOST my preorder and had no way to deal with that.


1) that's sort of funny.
2) why'd you give in?
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