Aggieknight said:
While I agree with most of your sentiments, Russ, I'm saddened to hear you knock on Gamestop and used games. I expect to read publishers whining about First Sale Doctrine, but am surprised coming from you guys.
The fact that I can turn around and sell my game (or loan it to a friend) should be incentive to publishers to make games with replayability. First Sale has been a fact of business in the US for more than 100 years now and a cornerstone of consumers' rights. What would be the results if customers could not resell, trade or loan their games? Think about it.
I like Steam, but I will never pay full price for a game there simply because I have no such rights.
The issue with Gamestop isn't the fact that they sell used games, it's their methods with how they go about it. When you're buying used, the idea is that you're buying something that's not mint and that may be in worse condition, but that you're getting a deal with how much elss you're paying. That's not the case at Gamestop. Speaking as an employee there, we sell our used games are usually 2 or 5$ cheaper on a 60$ purchase, and frequently sell brand new unopened copies of games that came straight from the companies as used. If the game comes with a one time use code to unlock it's online mode, we MIGHT knock 15$ off of it to make up for it, but frequently the difference is still only 2$. When you come to trade a game in to us, we will give you 7$ and then turn around and sell it back to you for 40$. Now, obviously, there's going to be mark-up, the business has to make money, but the amount of mark-up is so obscene that it is never a good deal for you to sell to us. Ever. We will give you less money than everyone else in the world. You will make considerably more money selling your games to your friends, online, or to a non-franchised game store than you will ever get selling them to us at Gamestop, and those people will actually give you cash instead of store credit, which is all the more reason why you'd think we'd give you a decent deal. The huge markup, and the fact that people will buy used to save as little as 5$ (while frequently never actually bothering to check the price of the new game, so they don't even realize how little they're saving), is such a huge amount of money for Gamestop, that they will go out of their way and do everything within their power to discourage sale of new games, up to and including lying and claiming we don't have new copies when we do, and trying to sell you a used game or accessory which actually costs MORE than a new one. I am not kidding, it's not out of the ordinary to actually find a new item for cheaper than the used due to promotions that the publishers put out.
It's not that Gamestop just sells used games that's the issue, it's that they go to such extreme measures to do so that they are actively at war with the companies that give them their product, and it's come to the point that the publishers and developers are finally fighting back, by doing everything they can to either discourage used sales, or by going digital and preventing them entirely.
Also, for the record, if Gamestop did just lie down and die, people wouldn't be nearly as hurt by it as you'd expect, because only one, maybe two employees per Gamestop (only the manager and sometimes the assistant manager) actually get enough hours to make a living. Other than those two, all stores have too many employees and not enough hours, ensuring that nobody else working there actually gets a decent wage. At my store alone we have two employees who get 3 hours a week each. If they were to lose their jobs, they probably wouldn't give a shit. Nobody would really suffer from the loss of Gamestop except for the management who are responsible for turning it into a the cesspit that it is.
If you want to buy and sell used, go for it, by all means, it's well within your right to do so, but for the love of God, don't do it at Gamestop. Buy from and sell to your friends, or from online stores, or smaller stores that aren't part of a big corporation, they'll give you considerably better deals, you'll be able to buy cheaper and get more from selling than you ever will by supporting Gamestop's sleazy tactics.
