I write this article at the risk of losing my job. Unfortunately, Corporate entities are a picky bunch, unable to stand for the slightest bit of employee backlash. More and more, video game retail is being considered the ugly duckling of the gaming industry. Everywhere I turn, people complain and straight-up trash game retail stores and employees because they disagree with their practices. Being an employee at one of the biggest gaming-retail chains has given me a bit of an insiders perspective and at the same time, made me feel like a little bit of an outsider in the industry that I love.
Making a trip to the game store, especially on the day of a big game release, is always a special day for any gamer, no matter what age they are. There is just something special about shopping at a store that is dedicated to gaming that the game section at Wal-Mart or Best Buy just can’t deliver. Unfortunately, as the gaming industry has boomed, changes to retail practices and the opinions of media journalists have had negative effects on how we shop for games. For whatever reason, gamers are now opposed to reserving games prior to release and are quick to turn a negative experience at one store into an opinion of the entire company. More and more gamers are flocking to the likes of Wal-Mart and buying games from people who, for the most part, have little or no knowledge about the games that they sell.
As I get more serious about delving into the world of game journalism, I find it increasingly ironic that so many of the professionals that I admire, shun the business that I currently work in. I suppose that I can feel some comfort from the fact that so many of these writers and personalities started out as Gamestop employees themselves. However, it is discouraging to hear the likes of Ryan Davis or John Davison refer to Gamestop employees as scam artists or something else along those lines. As I continue to grow in this industry, I’m sure that I will have to come to terms with the way that these journalists think because I will have a similar field of experience. With that said, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to a lot of the negative chatter that has taken the industry by storm.
Like I said earlier, I write this not only as an aspiring writer but also as an employee of a huge game-retail corporation. I have listened to hundreds of podcasts, read a number of different articles, and heard endless complaints with my own two ears about the way that these businesses are run. What I can't understand is how people are so quick to judge a company's business strategy when they don't have a full understanding of their logic behind the decisions that they make.
In an effort to keep this article from becoming a rant, I will avoid obvious discussion topics like: "The legitimacy of pre-ordering" or "the reason small stores sell opened new games." Instead I simply want to say that working in video game retail has done me a lot of good and has really played a big part in fueling my interest in this industry. If it weren't for my job, I would have probably been insanely bored throughout my college experience. To everyone who has gone out of their way to complain about something miniscule or lead an internet army on a pointless march against mega-corporations, I say this: your shopping experience is what you make of it. Period. It is easy to understand that many people may not want to take part in the policies or services that these stores provide but there is absolutely no reason that they can't simply find a new store that fits their expectations. Not wanting to shop at a particular chain is one thing, but taking your misinformed rant to cyberspace is immature and uncalled for. If you had to put up with half of the junk that I did, you might understand why some game store employees appear rude or unfriendly. I will close by saying that the store that I work at and the employees I work with do our best to make shopping at our store a fun experience and for the most part, we have been successful. In the end, it is important to remember to look at these stores as what they are, a business, and many of these trite and illogical complaints could be forgiven. It is too bad that 90% of the people who complain are completely unwilling to try and look at these issues from the perspective of someone who works across the counter.
18 comments:
Yeah, I know how you feel. Working at large companies can be hard like that. (I've had my experiences) What part of the industry are you interested in becoming involved in?
I understand your pain Nick ;_;
Im just going to say, gamestop pissed me off a few days ago.
I sold 2 games that they sold over 20 dollars each and together I only got 21 dollars. I understand marketing and all but what really annoyed me is when they asked if I wanted store credit or cash, they would proceed to say. "If you want cash, there would be 25% taken out of your current amount."
Seriously, what the fuck?
One moment they say I have so and so, but once I want it in cash, they take more away?
Im done shopping at gamestop for that and other reasons. I dont hate any employees, just the company's rules on these sort of things.
This is exactly the kind of thing I am referring to. It's a 20% deduction on cash because they want to encourage people to spend the money in the store. And the yes the markup on used games is high but most people don't realize that Gamestop makes almost nothing on the sales of new games. A HUGE chunk of their profit comes from used game sales. It is a business, and that is what must be done for this kind of store to operate.
Gamestop also makes tons of money on accessories...They encourage us to sell controllers and bags for the DS etc.
The article started out interesting but just fell off at the end. You are defending GameStop because it made your college experience more enjoyable and helps drive your interest? For a lot of people, shopping at GameStop isn't an enjoyable experience. That is the real reason they go to shop at other stores.
You say people should forgive GameStop because they are just a business. I believe people rightfully take serious issue with the fact GameStop peddles their used games sales over new games, pester you to pre-order things or buy into a gameplay guarantee. These are underhanded methods for making profits. I think you miss the point of some of the discussions going on about GameStop. I don't think I have seen a serious discussion about GameStop that specifically targets the employees of the stores instead of the tactics the employees are forced to use.
To address of point of people saying all GameStop stores are bad because of of an isolated incident: Consumers take a bad experience from one store and apply it to all because GameStop is a huge chain. And chains are suppose to have a consistent experience from store to store.
This really just came off as side stepping the issue instead of directly addressing it. I would have liked to see your take on the things you said you didn't want to get into (the necessity of pre-ordering, selling open games as new and used games).
I work at Gamestop, I don't understand why people bitch. We give 20% less cash trade in value? Boohoo go try and trade your game in at Best Buy and see what they say.
By the way Nick, did you enter the "Name the bunny, win some money" contest?
good article, i personally dont have anything against stores i just shop online due to lower prices and the only thing i dont like about them is that when you trade in a game you get virtually nothing in return
Thanks for the responses. I tried to avoid some of the more obvious discussions in order to keep it a reasonable length for the blog. Maybe I will write a follow up about the "Used Game Market" or something. Let me know what you would want to read my opinions about.
A very interesting read, I'm going to send this to a few friends who act like Game Stop is the spawn of satan that killed their family.
While I have never worked there before, I have seen a bit of how annoying some of the customers can be while waiting in line, whether it be ignorant or flat out annoying.
I'm curious as to what you think about the used game market though. I always thought had no effect on the market, does it have any effect at all?
I don't have any bad experiences with Gamestop persay but what is the deal with this latest fiasco about employees selling used games as new? There was a report on Kotaku about how employees would nab new copies still shrink-wrapped, go home and play them, then return them to the store then selling them as new?
I would tend to think these are isolated incidents due to irresponsibility of the employee him/herself but it seems so widespread recently.
The CORPORATE policy is that employees are allowed to check out used games for 3 days. This does not apply to new games and any store that does this is in clear violation of the policy. The report that you read is what inspired me to finally make a post like this because they are assuming that this is a corporate policy when it is in fact just an isolated incident.
However, we do open 1 new copy of every game we recieve to put the box on the wall for display. If an employee takes this home and plays it, they are breaking the rules and should probably be fired.
3 days? We get 4 days, but the day you take it out is day 1. And my store is allowed to take home new games but it depends on a few things. Like how well it has been selling among others. I've taken out a new copy of LOTR: Conquest once when the game was relatively new but not selling much anymore and we hadn't gotten any used copies yet.
I'm afraid the logic behind the last sentence didn't quite come through. The stores are a business and therefore.... all should be forgiven? The explanation must have been lost somewhere, because surely it would take volumes to support the contention that a store's identity as a corporation entitles it to immunity from disapproval? Or was the meaning lost somewhere in that sentence?
In the UK the biggest gamer store is Game which I usually visit once a month, across from that store is the used entertainment store Cex(yes it really is called that). Comparing the two Cex is always busier than Game, I've cued as long as 45mins to get served. But what ever store you use to trade in your games they have the same policy, if you want cash you really lose out, I find it better to get credit or exchange for another game.
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Digitalis(purpurea)
what gamestop does he work at
CALIFORNIA?
Thank you Yurodivoy, while writing this, I was really unsure as to how I would finish the article without straying off into a rant about something that was deserving of it's own post. I was trying to keep it somewhat broad but still make the point that I wanted to make. Your comment inspired me to go back and revise that last few sentences so that hopefully, it will make a bit more sense and provide better closure to the post.
If you still don't get it... I don't expect you too. It doesn't become entitled to immunity from disapproval but some people take it way too far without knowing all the facts. Most people simply don't care enough to try and understand the reasoning behind the way a business is run. All they care about is how it makes THEM feel.
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