Best. RPG intro. Ever.
You gotta remember, this is when people were still buying carts with cheap midi music and synthesized voices that sounded like sandpaper spinning on a record player. I loved Lunar so much that 10 years later I named my cat after the game.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Hatin' on GameStop and EB
Long ago, I blacklisted GameStop/EB. Yes, I have a blacklist. Why? Do you really need an explanation? Okay, well its a combination of general store policies and specific personal experiences that drove me to my decision. Here's a few reasons:
1. They hire a-holes for employees. Really, I think it's in the job description. Always has been. They make cell phone salesmen look good.
2. They push reserves like dealers push dope.
3. They gouge on used games ($5 less than full retail? Gimme a break). Additionally, they think you are crazy if you want a new copy while they have a used one to sell you. "Are you sure you don't want the used one? It's cheaper! Really? Positive?"
4. Strategy guides. Rendered obsolete by the internet nearly two decades ago, these guys push strategy guides just as hard as they push reserves. In fact, one particular GameStop tried telling me I couldn't reserve a game without buying the strategy guide first. In fact, that same store told me the same thing a year later. I think it might have actually been store policy at the time.
I am a gamer. We all are. We are the customer. Ready to drop $60 on a piece of foil and plastic that you (the retailer) had to do nothing to produce. Nothing. You're a retailer. Your business is built on price gouging a product someone else made. And then buying it back for pennies and selling it again for nearly as much as the first time around. You should be groveling at the feet of the consumers who so willingly spend hard earned cash on you, the retailer, the leech.
So I was inspired to write this post after reading Gabe's post over at PennyArcade.com, in which he mentions "the sort of classic douchebaggery we've come to expect from (the GameStop manager)". This disdain is universal. Gabe, BTW, went across the street and bought the game he was looking for at Best Buy with no hassle. Personally, I try to hit privately owned shops, but they are few and far between now-a-days. If they don't have a game I'm looking for, I hit Game Crazy, just because they haven't pissed me off enough yet to blacklist them, lol.
Update: Tycho at PennyArcade.com continues to have BS problems with their local EB:
"I don't want to keep harping about this, okay, I do, but we went to the Best Buy near the office and saw four palettes of Rock Band for the 360 and one palette for the PS3. This was after being rebuffed in an attempt to secure the same product from the Electronics Boutique, ostensibly a store that sells videogames."
1. They hire a-holes for employees. Really, I think it's in the job description. Always has been. They make cell phone salesmen look good.
2. They push reserves like dealers push dope.
3. They gouge on used games ($5 less than full retail? Gimme a break). Additionally, they think you are crazy if you want a new copy while they have a used one to sell you. "Are you sure you don't want the used one? It's cheaper! Really? Positive?"
4. Strategy guides. Rendered obsolete by the internet nearly two decades ago, these guys push strategy guides just as hard as they push reserves. In fact, one particular GameStop tried telling me I couldn't reserve a game without buying the strategy guide first. In fact, that same store told me the same thing a year later. I think it might have actually been store policy at the time.
I am a gamer. We all are. We are the customer. Ready to drop $60 on a piece of foil and plastic that you (the retailer) had to do nothing to produce. Nothing. You're a retailer. Your business is built on price gouging a product someone else made. And then buying it back for pennies and selling it again for nearly as much as the first time around. You should be groveling at the feet of the consumers who so willingly spend hard earned cash on you, the retailer, the leech.
So I was inspired to write this post after reading Gabe's post over at PennyArcade.com, in which he mentions "the sort of classic douchebaggery we've come to expect from (the GameStop manager)". This disdain is universal. Gabe, BTW, went across the street and bought the game he was looking for at Best Buy with no hassle. Personally, I try to hit privately owned shops, but they are few and far between now-a-days. If they don't have a game I'm looking for, I hit Game Crazy, just because they haven't pissed me off enough yet to blacklist them, lol.
Update: Tycho at PennyArcade.com continues to have BS problems with their local EB:
"I don't want to keep harping about this, okay, I do, but we went to the Best Buy near the office and saw four palettes of Rock Band for the 360 and one palette for the PS3. This was after being rebuffed in an attempt to secure the same product from the Electronics Boutique, ostensibly a store that sells videogames."
Monday, March 12, 2007
Old News Items
Before I take down the old Orion Java site, here is the news items from it:
| 09.15.06 | Moved to Portland. No big deal. |
| 05.15.06 | Spent an awesome extended weekend in NYC with Eric. |
| 03.28.06 | We spent this past weekend in Philly with friends. On Monday, we went to Washington DC for Carla's birthday to see the cherry blossoms. We were a day or two too early, but there were still some in bloom. |
| 05.28.05 | Got married today, with a two week honeymoon in Japan! |
| 01.05.05 | Game status is working again. |
| 11.28.04 | Spent Thanksgiving in Texas |
| 05.08.04 | Just returned from a short week in Pensacola |
| 04.24.04 | More nice weather, so this time I made a false floor for the Maxima. |
| 03.28.04 | I took advantage of the nice weather and installed a Shift Light. |
| 11.13.03 | Latest Mods! I got snow tires, and James got a TREE! |
| 09.30.03 | Pictures from our weekend bender in NYC |
| 09.15.03 | Pictures from the Kodak HI Picnic |
| 06.22.03 | Just returned from a weekend in the Adirondacks. |
| 05.23.03 | My car stereo is finally done. |
| 03.29.03 | Posted pics of our trip to Fallingwater. |
| 01.20.03 | Posted pics of my table I made in my woodworking class. |
| 11.30.02 | It's officially done. My new interior. |
| 02.28.02 | Visited Hong Kong a second time. I love that place, I could live there. |
| 12.25.01 | So nothing happened in my life for six months, and then... A NEW CAR! |
| 06.18.01 | My first day at Kodak went well. Yeah, I think I'll go back tomorrow... |
| 06.09.01 | Just returned from Disney World, pictures are here. |
| 05.26.01 | Holy shit! I graduated. (from RIT, BS in Computer Science, minor in Creative Writing). |
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