The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

Ok, I don't know wether to believe it or not, but it definatly sounds like the EB/Gamestop I know of:

[GSL]

I agree on the bullshit factor. I used to work at a Gamestop, and it used to be that you would just make a 'gut' of a game on display, but give out the sealed copies to customers first. The only problems where when a customer bought the last copy of a game, or a title that had been checked out by an employee. The employee checkouts were always in good condition, as were the last 'gut' copies, but we still had customers complain that their games were opened, and while I often had to placate them with promises that the game was still new, I could sympathize. If my game isn't sealed, then it's used, and they better give me the used price for it. There's a reason these things are shrinkwrapped.

[Szczepaniak]

It's standard policy in the UK. I've never bought a game in a UK shop that's been sealed. Only online have I found them sealed. We Brits lead such a hard life. Do you know that a pint of beer costs $5.50, and a cheap bottle of whiskey costs around $24? And gas? Gas over here is three to four times the price!

[Lestrade]

Perhaps, John, but there, Marmite is plentiful! Which sort of cancels everything out in my mind.

[DonMarco]

Well look at it this way, even though the employees and register mokeys have no say it this, they will be glared at and held in contept for something they have no control over! Wee! Thank you, corporate policy committee!

Besides, five years ago all PS2 games had secruity seals along with their factory seals. You only see those nowadays on EA or Sony games. Xbox 360 still does them, and you see them on newer xbox games more often than newer PS2/GC games.

It's also one step closer to making a used game that much more reasonable. For that reason alone, I support it.
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Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?

[friedchicken]

[Wilkes]

[ryan]

Amazon gets sexier and sexier all the time. I think I do most of my shopping for everything outside of food from there now.

[David JS]

[DonMarco]

[GSL]

[Tablesaw]

[David JS]

[Szczepaniak]

[Shapermc]

I guess I should point out that te worst thing about all this is that I know how EB/GS works. The put the case out and pay no attention to it. I have had to purchase a box that was ripped and torn and crushed for a GBA game as "new" because both a) Parents don't tell their kids to "stop that shit" and b) people don't give a fuck in this country 9/10 times. The very few occasions I have bought a game in the terrible condition that EB/GS games come in mostly as "new." This is the practice that is total bullshit.

"But no one has played them! They are new."

[dark steve]

[dhex]

half.com is usually my first stop as well. never had a problem (yet).
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[dessgeega]

yeah, i buy from half.com when i can.

(which is to say when something isn't rare or obscure.)
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[Shapermc]

What the hell is Marmite? Because after reading one of the Amazon reviews I am scared:

"1 teaspoon in a mug of hot water in which you dunk thick slices of buttered bread."

EDIT: More frightened: "Not everyone reacts to it the same way. Some imagine it looks too much like axle grease. Others complain that it smells too much like beer left overnight to go bad."
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[friedchicken]

Marmite definitely isn't for everyone, let me just say that. I love it, my wife hates it.

Imagine a very thick brown spread that is extremely salty but also extremely yeasty in flavor (I think this is the beer connection). I eat it on crackers mostly, but a little bit goes a long way.

You might want to check it out Shaper. You can find it and its slightly more famous relative Vegemite (which isn't quite the same thing) at natural food stores and fancier grocery stores. They sell it in little glass pots.

[Dracko]

I'm totally hardcore with my Marmite.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[GSL]

DON'T DO IT SHAPER!!

Marmite and Vegemite are the most horrible inventions mankind could ever possibly dream up, and a good argument towards the nonexistance of God; "He so loved the world" and all that jazz, and yet He let man come up with this?

It's basically as friedchicken described it--thick brown salty goop that tastes strongly of yeast. Which it should, as it's made out of yeast extract, apparently some sort of byproduct of beermaking.

You take your life into your own hands by eating this.

[Ketch]

[Szczepaniak]

I love it.

But remember: a little dab will do you.

Toast, soft melted butter, and just a light smidgen of Marmite smeared across the hot melted butter.

[friedchicken]

After becming inexplicably enamoured of the stuff, I remember finding a web site where a lot of people's recipes or favorite uses were listed. Man, was there some crazy shit. Like I said, straight up on some flatbread or crackers, maybe toast, that's it. Like natto, you'll either love it or hate it.

PS: I love natto too.

[Szczepaniak]

I love natto too! (hmmm, beans suspended in snot)
But then again, I also love FMV games... so go figure.

[TOLLMASTER]

My old favorite videogame store (which my pseudo-uncle owned at the time before moving into the exciting world of insurance and real life problems more in the vein of "my child has a high fever and isn't drinking enough" and not "damn I forgot to tape TNG") had a big screen television hooked up to it, and you could play games before you bought them. Usually they would use a rental copy if they could, but sometimes they'd have an opened retail copy. It wasn't an issue most of the time, because these guys who worked there really loved games, and weren't going to bend and fold the Final Fantasy 3 manual, but it was weird playing a "used" game. Not that we even called games "used" back then, but it did cause it to lose some of the magic.

I kind of wish more game stores were run like that one; you'd always want to pop in and check what games they had in stock, even if their stock was usually smaller than the larger chains, just to see what was going on. There is nothing quite like looking for Blaster Master for the GBC and suddenly finding yourself in a Bomberman tournament. The guys working at most EBs aren't huge corporate assholes; one of the guys who works at my local EB has his back seat of his car filled with lightsaber replicas and other science fiction toys. You could draw people in with the promise of free action, but they've never taken advantage of this.

[Shapermc]

Ok, so I was at EBgames getting an intercooler for the 360. I happen to see that they had Everblue 2 as a "new" game. So I grab the box because I know it is in a plastic bag behind the counter. When he got it out he kept telling me it was "new" and I kept telling him the game probably wouldn't even work. The game literally looked like someone had rubbed it around on sandpaper. I asked how much the game would be as a used game, he said that he couldn't sell it to me used. I persisted and he finally said "if you don't buy it new someone else will." Everblue 2?! Who else is going to buy that?

So, yea, fuck this policy. I also looked at Otogi 2, but there was a really deep scratch: "Well if the scratch effects the game you can bring it back with-in 7 days and get an exchange for it."
"I can't test it until I get back to St. Louis in a week."
"Oh! Well then you should buy our wareente on it. Then you have 90 days to test it and bring it back to anystore and get an exchange."

...

WHAT? Ok, so first off, you want to sell me "damaged goods," then you want me to pay more incase your product doesn't work? No thanks.

The most offensive thing was when this lady was buying a used game that was in decent condition and the guy was putting the game and manual in the case: "I don't need that."
"You want me to throw it out?"
"Yea."
... then he just threw the manual in the trash. I don't know what is wrong with the world anymore.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[B coma]

by the end of shaper's post I was envisioning him dressed as a native american and shedding a single tear.

[Shapermc]

[SuperWes]

I pretty much stopped using GameStop as my primary game source years ago. I kind of miss it though, precisely because of moments like this. As much as it irks me, I love seeing how idiotic employees and customers of game stores can be.

Actually, we should make a movie about it. We can film it in Black and White, talk about sex the whole time, submit it to indie film fests, then after we've made millions of dollars we can ruin its memory a few years later when we make a color version of it about Best Buy.

Now that that lame joke is over, I would like to talk about a story I had involving a game store last weekend.

Over July 4th weekend I met up with a few friends who were moving south and had bought a used DS with a huge scratch on the screen from GameCrazy for $100 on the way. I thought they were crazy for buying a used, scratched system for almost the price of a new system, so I offered to trade them my Girlfriend's good-condition system for theirs with the reciept so that I could bring it back and get a DS lite. They thought it was a good idea, so the trade took place and last weekend I took the system in to swap it up.

"I'm sorry, all used sales are final," is what the employee said to me when I entered the store. "We'll give you $50 for it on trade in."

I argued with her for a few minutes about how the system was no more used than it had been a week ago, and how GameStop's policy would have let me return it. "We're not Gamestop, sir," she said.

So I grabbed my system and left the store fuming. A few hours later I had calmed down a bit and I called another GameCrazy. I explained my story to the manager here and he said he couldn't do anything. I tried appealing to the "but the competitor would do it," side, the "I work for a magazine" side, and the, "customer is always right" side. It was only when I attacked the, "you realize that this isn't worth losing a guy who buys like $200 worth of games a week as a customer" side and he thought for a minute.

"What's your phone number?"

I gave him my phone number and he shuffled around on the computer for a bit. "Ok, I'll do it. When you come in, make sure you talk to one of our guys about becoming a member."

I'm glad I got my way, but really I shouldn't have had to fight so hard for something that would have stuck out in my mind as being good customer service. Game stores need to quit treating customers like meat with money and more like... well, customers.

-Wes
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[dhex]

to be fair, you were committing fraud.

such is the nature of the kali yuga.
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[SuperWes]

[GSL]

[Tablesaw]

[Szczepaniak]

[friedchicken]

[dhex]

[helicopterp]

[Shapermc]

[DonMarco]

[SuperWes]

[dhex]

[SuperWes]

[Shapermc]

Or you could sell the game on ebay for $40-$45 like EB/GS does. No need to use EB/GS for any other reason than the instant gratification thing.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[SuperWes]

Hey, I just thought of something interesting that might have to do with that original post. What if Gamestop just started un-shrinkwrapping games in an effort to do away with an internal differentiation between new and used games? I mean, the cost difference between the two is so small as it is that there's no real incentive for them to continue to offer games as new. What if they just kept one sku for both new and used games and just sold everything at the new price at all times. The customer wouldn't know whether they were getting a "new" game or a "used" game, just that they were getting the game they wanted. Gamestop could base their reorder numbers based on how many used games they had in stock, and there would be no reason for them to reorder "greatest hits" copies of games when they already have hundreds of used copies of those games anyways.

This I can maybe see them doing. If they did something like this I can see it completely disrupting the way games are distributed. IE: Publishers working incredibly hard to do away with used game sales.

-Wes
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[Wilkes]

[dhex]

[Dracko]

The best way to vote is with your cash.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Wilkes]