The Glade 4.0

The software re-sale thread in the gaming forum inspired this one.

I know several here have expressed their dislike for GameStop in the past, and as a former employee I'm genuinely curious to hear what those complaints are and see if they match my experiences (I've kinda grown away from the company as time has gone on).

So let's hear them. What are some specific complaints/crappy experiences you have had? Time for me to see it from the other side of the counter.

I frequent two different Gamestops here and I've frequented one in Arizona. I've had no problems with any of them. Then again, I don't find it to be harassment when someone asks me if I want to buy a strategy guide or if there's anything else I want to pre-order while I'm there.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Their marginalization of PC gaming stock (because there's no second-hand market for them to leverage after the sale) and the drastic reduction in non-preorder day 1 stock are my primary two gripes.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yeah, I'm a bit (and was in the past) sad to see the continued phasing out of PC selection. When I first started working at Babbage's (pre-GS buy out) we had a huge PC section (literally one entire wall facing) of both games and productivity. Now, you're lucky to find a GS store with one side of one gondola with PC games (mostly just copies of WoW and EQ and a few REALLY notable new releases).

I mean, it's a game store for cryin out loud. The PC has games on it, too, and still a rather large market at that.

If a game is opened, it's not new, you useless pieces of human refuse.

Stock new games? Why, that's absurd! We'll shovel overpriced used games (money no dev ever sees) down your throat, though!

What, now you want cover art and game manuels with your used games? Pishaw! Begone, blaggard!

Digital delivery cannot destroy these douchenozzels fast enough, as far as I'm concerned. Amazon FTW.

The opened games as new is a touchy subject. I'm actually surprised more customer didn't complain about it during my time at GS. When I was there, employees had a "Check out" policy, where they could take a new or used game (as long as we have more than one copy of it) and try it out at home. While it (in theory) allowed employees to do their job better, I always saw it as a somewhat shady practice. Whenever a product is used by someone and returned to the store to be re-sold, it becomes a used product. Period. No matter how great of shape it is returned in.

Now, that said, the opening of games for display purposes only is another matter, and comes down to how you define what constitutes a "used" and "new" game.



I'll admit, the focus on used games got a little ridiculous, even while I was there and pretty much witnessed the birth of the big used game push. That and it was a pain in the *** keeping up with the constant price changes, judging what needed money knocked off of it for refurbishing, etc. And offering ridiculously low trade-in value (even less if you opted for cash) and resale of sometimes only $5 less than the new counterpart was like . . . /scratch head WTF. Obviously, the company wants to make profit, but come on.

Now, that all said, they do offer the magazine subscription which gives you the discount card, as well as the various trade-in/used purchase specials they run quite frequently. Then it becomes a matter of how much value you put into those offers. I personally think the magazine and the discount card are nice, but there is something to be said for seeing more up-front reduced game prices. Course, if they did that, the magazine/card attach rate would drop like a rock, which is probably why that will not happen anytime soon.



This kinda ties into the price of used game issue for me. It makes no sense to still pay the prices of most used games and not get a manual. Not all games have in-game tutorials/walkthroughs. Cover art, IMO, is more arbitrary. Unless it is a potentially valuable collectible game, I could care less about cover art, but that's just me.

For new games (when I was there at least) a 10% discount was offered if the box/cover art had gone missing for whatever reason.



I think at this point, stores like GameStop exist purely for those who: A) are truly in the dark about games and need more personal assistance when purchasing, or B) do not have internet access. For a gamer, they are pretty much going to know what they want already and what to look for. Only reason they should go to GameStop is for the exclusive specials or promo events/deals that GS runs periodically.

You must have a really bad one. Because I've never bought a single new game from them that wasn't wrapped. I've heard people talk about them opening games and keeping the discs behind the counter, but I've never experienced it.

Also, every used game I've purchased has had the original box and manual.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

There's really no question about the definition of "used" and "new." "Used" = opened, "new" = not opened. Easy-peasy. To try to justify any other definition is absurd. "Like new" /= "new."

Except that opening a wrapped game does not mean you are using the product.

Used, to me = putting a disc into a qualifying disc player and reading the information on it.

Simply opening a wrapped game has nothing to do with the physical media itself. The information on the disc is not affected. Thus it has not been used.

EDIT: Unless you are saying that opened new games aren't used so much as they should be marketed as "opened product," in which case I agree with you.

I'm a gamer, have internet access and am hardly in the dark about games. I still prefer to go to a store (usually Best Buy, I kinda get tired of the Gamestop "want our discount card" hard sell every time I go there) to buying online.

True enough, Timmit, that was a bit of an all-inclusive statement now that I look at it.

I agree with FarSky on this one. If the box has been opened... it is "used". I do not care if you just opened it to make sure the proper disk is in there... it is not new any longer.

My gripe is when I go in there and get to listen to some douchebag tells me that my taste in games is obviously inferior to theirs because I did not like the latest installment of the N64 Exclusive "Fap-bait and the Fappy Fappy Fanclub IVXX"

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

I've heard that this unfortunately happens a lot, too. Fortunately, in the area that I worked in, we were all pretty honest about game suck-itude and um . . . rule-itude. Perhaps a bit too honest for the company's tastes

So in other words, you guys participated in the same sort of behavior that Darksiege hated the most.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Um no -- we were honest and did not force the next installment of "Dudebro: My **** Is **** Up So I Have To Shoot/Slice You, It's Straight Up Dawg Time" on people just because it was the company's next focus title.

If the game sucked I would tell you that. If it ruled, likewise.

I would never tell a customer their opinions/tastes sucked. If you ask me "How is this game?" or "Is this game any good?" I will give you an honest answer, not a company tool answer.

I would think that the correct company tool answer would be "Yes sir this is the greatest game ever. You should buy two copies." Even if it is Big Rigs

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

That sounds really annoying..

How do you know that the customer even likes the same game genre's you do? Some people love FPS's, some people abhor them. Some people love RPGs, others don't. Some people are video game legends, others just play casually and could care less.

^^^ Because I would answer them based on what game I was asked about.

And, for the record, one of the questions I frequently asked customers (when presented with a general recommendation question) was "What kind of games do you prefer?"

They would answer and I would give them suggestions based on their answer. I would never force a specific game on them, and if they said "no thanks" I would oblige and move on.

Like I said, we weren't tools or pushy jerks in that store.

I get constant up-sells at every GameStop I step into. Asking me about pre-orders are what bother me the most.

The game stop that is right near my house now... is awesome.

I went in there with my son the other day. We were trading in a bunch of crap games: Dead Rising (had it for 72 hours.. they treated it as a return and not a trade in), FF XIII and Madagascar.

They asked if they could help us pick out a game. I told them what games I liked, my boy told them what games he liked. The game we ended up with... Dante's Inferno.

The employee gave the warning that it is just like GoW, but shorter. She also warned that there is some (but not a lot) of replay value.

Through talking with me she did try to get me to pre-order Cata and Fallout New Vegas. But when I declined she said that if I change my mind, I can always come back and preorder later (no pressure).

My girlfriend came in and decided to pre-order Monopoly for the Wii.

We got no pressure to renew our membership card, no pressure to preorder anything else, the employee did not push an agenda for one system over the other. It was nice

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Darksiege:

That's how the store I was in operated -- honesty, low pressure.

Of course we would still try to sell something if we saw an opportunity (it is sales after all), but we wouldn't badger the customer if it looked like a lost cause -- that's way more harmful than helpful to business.

The "if you change your mind, come back and see us" was pretty much a mantra for us. Hell, it even worked on several occasions.

I have a couple issues with GameStop

The one by my house has 100% stopped selling pc games, they do not have even WoW anymore, or any shelf space for PC games.

#2, the only company that opens games and puts empty boxes on shelf's?!? What is the point of that? install EAS pedastal's, I have gotten everything with said game, except when I purchased Dragon Age and didnt get my Shale code (I beleive it was that I was missing, I know it was some DLC code for 1 game) I had to go back up there and fight an argue for 30 minutes to basically be told you were given it... After much ***** finally got said code, but I shouldnt have to go through that. If the box was sealed, no issues!

Thats my biggest gripe is the fact that a good majority of games are coming with DLC codes now and gamestop takes them out of the box, this has been at least 10-15 gamestops in Las Vegas when I lived there and in Detroit now that all do this.

Needless to say, no gamestop ever again....Some of there power hours have been good lately though, but thats what Cheap *** gamer is for to tell me when there are good deals and order online

Gonna play advocate, not because I care, just out of curiousity. why should GS stock a bunch of discs they have no promise of selling?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Seems to work okay for the Walmarts and Best Buys of the world.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yeah, this. Everyone upsells. It's what a lot of businesses do. Can't fault them for that.

Now, if I say no and they badger me (this has never happened) then I'd be pissed.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!