276: Confessions of a GameStop Employee - Part Four

[Forthwin]

A Gamestop voice includes, but isn't limited too:

-Being able to talk to parents while not sounding like your trying to sell them something they don't need
-An urban touch
-Appropriate inflections that don't make you sound like an idiot
-A complete absence of a condescending attitude
-Being polite to anyone of any race, gender, and age.
-Not being a jerk-wad.

 

[JunebugJuJuBee]

I seem to recall hearing stories about a lot of shrink in gamestops occurring due to employee theft. not sure if that happened in your store (I think you would have mentioned it) or if it was heresay and rumor to spread bad pr about GS.

Either way, I don't shop there at all. If there is a hole in the wall, small business game store in your area, support them instead. They probably carry more, and for better prices, in my experience, anyway.

 

[deadbeat503]

Really great series, keep it up.

 

[EDB]

Finally, an end to this pointless, poorly written retail rant. I'm literally shaking my head because I'm befuddled as to what this series was supposed to accomplish.

 

[Obrien Xp]

But But BUT...

But I LUV my boxed copies! they come with all my favourite things. Posters, manuals that you can hold, disks, installation codes, nice boxes. I just hate buying online. I do avoid Gamestop though, I realize that you can't really sell PC Games (physical copies) and make alot of profit, I actually find quite a few steals at office stores (3 games for 15 bucks I got Merc 2, BF 1942, and the GW trilogy so my friend could finally get his hands on it).

 

[aldowyn]

People are idiots. Not all people, of course, but some people are most definitely idiots.

I'm attempting to get a job at Gamestop, as well. (It looks like I have a good chance too, as some of them are just now hiring for the holidays.) This series has made me a little apprehensive about what I may experience there, but I believe it has also helped me to understand the tasks I would be set and the perspectives of the company, the manager, the employee, and even the customers.


On the topic of digital distribution, I greatly prefer the physical copy, as I'm a collector (I realized that a while ago. It's why I don't rent or borrow games as much, too.), and want to have that substantial proof of that box sitting on my shelf. I have nothing against digital distribution, it's just not my preferred medium.

Comparing games to books is impractical, though. Reading an eBook is fundamentally different from a hard copy - everything is different to the senses. Playing a game is the opposite - the actual act of playing a game is identical.

I believe that physical copies are far from doomed, and that they will remain for at least a long time, if not permanently.


On a slightly unrelated topic, I actually don't get most of my games from a retailer like Gamestop. I order them from Amazon. You can do it without even leaving the house, and oftentimes it's even cheaper. (It's possible to get no tax as a member and there are often sales and discounts - if not as big as Steam's)

 

[syndicated44]

I read them all and to be honest it just seems like another day in retail.

 

[Gothproxy]

Awesome article, Scott. Really. Makes me remember my time as a GA at a Game Stop about the time Halo 2 was released and then working for a Game Crazy for about a year after that. It's in those special places in the retail world (ie Game stores, Hot Topic and the like) that it really does give you a sense of "Us" and "Them". 'Us' being the game geeks that work there and 'Them' being the average (or non-average) people that come in that are simply not on our level when it comes to understanding gaming.

Oh, and when you mentioned "Fanboys" working for a game store, it reminded me so much of a manager at a Game Crazy that I worked for for a while that was the way-above-average Nintendo fan boy. In fact, this is why I was sent as an assistant manager there because his entire staff were Nintendo heads and had no real clue about PS2 and Xbox (at the time) games. For good or for ill, it was an interesting time.

Again, thanks for the article and the trip down memory lane.

 

[Optimystic]

Meanwhile: "Today I just tried to steal store credit from a local retail, was tricked into giving my home phone number, and am on my way home to my abusive father. FML"

That's a bit rude of an assumption don't you think? Just because he's Hagrid-sized doesn't make him an abusive father.

I'd be livid if my kid stole something. A smack on the head (or two) wouldn't be out of the question. It's just reinforcing the simple fact that STEALING IS WRONG, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE PARTICULARLY STUPID ABOUT IT.

That was a joke. An informative one since statistics have shown that the leading cause of crime in youth is overly authoritative or abusive households, but a joke nonetheless. Sorry if it was too much for you to handle.

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny?

 

[FutureHousedad]

I used to work at EB games (Gamestop for Canadians) and these articles are spot on. well done sir.

 

[Skweebl]

So you know how the NES just saw it's 25th anniversary here in the US? How many of you still have your NES? Or SNES? N64? Sega Genesis? Dreamcast? How many of you play any of those consoles regularly? Or at least often enough? Personally, I'm playing through Chrono Trigger on the SNES right now (which is AWE. SOME.). Here it is, 25 years later, and if I can find the hardware that still works, I can enjoy those the same as I did decades ago.

Now how many of you love the modern classics? GTA4? Mass Effect 2? Assassins Creed 2? Fallout 3? Borderlands? If I still have a working 360/PS3 25 years from now, I can enjoy those too... at least the main story. If it weren't for the 'GOTY' and 'Ultimate/Complete' packages, I'd be out of luck if I wanted to play The Ballad of Gay Tony, or Broken Steel or Lair of the Shadow Broker.

This doesn't really apply to the PC guys though, you guys are in another league here. Still love y'all though.

Don't get it twisted, digital distribution and DLC is great for expanding the story/gameplay, fighting piracy/used games sales etc, but once the servers hosting the content go down, it more or less gone forever.

I guess my point here is if I want to play Earthbound today, I could take on the internet, buy it, and play it. If I want to play Sonic 4 15 years from now, I'm boned (as of now at least).

I was thinking this as I was reading other peoples' replies as well. I like having physical copies of games so they'll be mine for the foreseeable future. Although I doubt there will be any working 360's or PS3's in 25 years. Modern consoles aren't as sturdy as those old Nintendo brick houses (especially the SNES). I know a few people who have been through multiple 360's in just the past few years, while the SNES I've had for over a decade still works fine, even if the games themselves don't hold save data as reliably as they used to.

 

[JusticarPhaeton]

I read them all and to be honest it just seems like another day in retail.

This. I have worked a lot of retail and honestly, his experiences are not exactly of exceptional calibre. This sort of thing happens at pretty much any and every major chain retailer; when there are franchises or multiple store involved, there are always lots of draconian policies, low wages, and high employee turnover, lest the employees take advantage of the system (and they will). Unfortunately, these retailers, when they grow to such large sizes, worry a lot about watertight profit margins and will maximise them as much as possible.

It's the same wherever you go; it's how business is done, unfortunately.

 

[cheese_wizington]

I'm sad that this is over.

Escapist, find enough ex Gamestop employees so when you are done with "Confessions of a GameStop Employee" you can make "Confessions of a GameStop employee who had to work with The Escapist" and so on.

 

[imburke]

i work at a gamestop, eb games here in canada, id guess tghat the company has 5 years left. they have declined a lot since i first started, they treat the employees like crap, they treat the customers like crap and the treat the developers/publishers like crap, everyone in the industry hates them, if they dont change soon, theyre done for. seriously people, 59.99 for a new game when the used one is 54.99, who is still buying the used game?? i wish eb games was still canadian owned, gamestop blows.

 

[imburke]

I'm sad that this is over.

Escapist, find enough ex Gamestop employees so when you are done with "Confessions of a GameStop Employee" you can make "Confessions of a GameStop employee who had to work with The Escapist" and so on.

i'd do it, happily

 

[imburke]

This is part one of I believe 6.


It too is the tale of a (former) gamestop employee. He is significantly less nice to gamestop than this man here.

Its like an hour long rant but its a great listen and I was shocked to hear about some of gamestops shadier business practices.

Give it a look.

worst i have ever seen working there: me and my manager (who was actually someone who did work) noticed that there were games, wolfenstein, fable 2 etc, trading in for 2$, we were selling them for 42.99.
another: need for speed shift (new copy) went on sale for 9.99 but the used copy was 14.99, we were told to take all the new copies off the shelf and put them in the back room until the price went up..... total bullshit

 

[Firia]

They aren't stupid... they back up your purchase record.

And Steam has the nice little feature of allowing you to back up any game you purchase right onto DVD.

I did not know that. I may actually purchase more Steam games now that I know.

 

[PlasticTree]

I could have sworn that this story would have gotten a very, very unfair conclusion.

 

[Orekoya]

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny?

When you're busy trying to lie to yourself that it's okay to beat your kids, nothing mocking it is ever funny. Incidentally, I got bored after reading your post and looked it up in the dictionary. Jokes can be anything making light of something and don't have to be funny, in case your question was actually sincere.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny?

When you're busy trying to lie to yourself that it's okay to beat your kids, nothing mocking it is ever funny. Incidentally, I got bored after reading your post and looked it up in the dictionary. Jokes can be anything making light of something and don't have to be funny, in case your question was actually sincere.

I, for one, enjoyed your clever piece of satire about the youth's likely LJ/FB status.