Game Stop, Stop, Stop the Jerk Manager

Let me start out by saying that I have nothing against Game Stop as a store. I will go to other Game Stop stories at other locations in the future when I don`t go to my favorite non-chain store Games 4 You.

That said, a store level report on Gaming over Spring Break. No class this week. You supply the punch line. Stopped in to the local Game Stop because my local Game Crazy went belly up after my friend Tim Hanson quit as the manager. Sad. It was a rough location right next to a 99 Cent Only store so there where zero walk-ins and Tim was the only one who could make a profit out of that store. He left because he came to realize that he was too valuable to promote.

The manager at Aliso Viejo Plaza Game Stop need not fear that fate. He was a real jerk. He was hungry for used games. He just wouldn`t shut up about their great deal of all the way up to 40% or 60% of original price on trade ins or whatever the deal was.

I never get rid of my games and neither does my son. We aren`t trading in our games. Thank you. But no!

That wasn`t good enough for him. No, 3 more times he asked us.

Even if they are games you don`t like we will …

I love all of my game especially my bad games. I have E.T. for the 2600 and I am not letting go of it or any other game. Ever!

But that was not good enough. The manager hit me up 2 more times until I had to get rude with him and even that didn`t work. So I finally had to tell him that I taught a college class on the History of Games and there was no way I was letting loose of any of my games. (So back off and stop harassing me). I hate having to tell people off and I hate having to tell game store people that I teach a class in the History of Games. A lot of them get kind of weird when I do. But the leech just would not take no for an answer.

No Damn it, NO!!!

This tells me 2 things. First, I will not be going back in that store for a long time. I grew up in Sarasota, Florida. Because of the high Millionaire population on near by Siesta Key store personnel knew how to keep their distance in Sarasota and not get in the customer`s face. This guy wouldn`t have lasted 20 minutes in a Sarasota store.

Secondly, and more importantly for my report on the state of games, this jerk`s actions screams that Game Stop is hungry for used games. They make most of their money on trade ins. All game stores do. The margin of profit is too small on new products for a store to make a go of it in the Video Games game with just new games.

The way this guy was putting on the pressure the chain must have offered an incentive of some kind. So that means the whole chain just may be hurting for used games.

Does that mean people are holding onto their old games during the economic crunch? Could be? Maybe it has something to do with the games themselves? Maybe there is more replayablity built into games now days? Or, real bad news for game stores, maybe it is more to do with gamers these days. We have a whole generation who grew up playing games and a lot of them are mad at themselves for getting rid of their old games and game systems. I know this because they go wild over all the old stuff I bring to my class.

So maybe Gamers are getting smart at last. Gods I wish I still had my _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Pong/Packman/Mario/Battle Toads. You fill in the blank.

Another thing I found at that store I will not be going back to is a game named Blood Will Tell that was suppose to be based very loosely on Tezuka Osamu`s Dororo. It is a hack and slash game of very little value that would make Tezuka-san turn over in his grave.

Tezuka-san was a gentle man opposed to the depiction of violence in any form. He once did a Kimba episode about a meat eating Water Buffalo where we find out that Kimba is a vegetarian lion, a grass eater.

This game is a violation of the very spirit of the man who created Astro Boy. I know this for a fact because of have spent hours and hours talking to Fred Ladd about his years bringing the works of Tezuka-san to this country. So this would lead me to strongly believe that someone other than the Tezuka people have control of this property and are cashing in on his name big time.

The Tezuka people have always seemed to honor the gentle creative spirit and will of the master to the point that they never even tried to sue Disney over the Lion King. Tezuka-san loved the works of Walt Disney, he would have been honored that Disney saw fit to copy his work. Was the official reply from the Tezuka people even thou Walt himself was rumored to have threatened legal action when Tezuka wanted to copy a scene from Disney`s Fantasia.