Walmart and Gamestop
By
BrandX,
Posted on: 2009-07-03 18:25 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
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why buy from a store and pay tax needlessly? unless you live wherever nc is based.
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Because for some people it is easier to live within their means by buying game time cards. Also people like me who work commission often go through boom bust cycles, so one month I could by like ten cards and put them in my file cabinet but the next month NC Soft hitting my bank account means me going into the negatives.
[/ QUOTE ]Its the same amount of cash. I dont see how its helping you. Just about every bank has a free debit card that you can get. If you cant remember how much money you are spending then maybe you dont need to be playing in the first place.
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I can remember how much money I am spending. That is not the issue, the issue would be running out and canceling my game account to not bounce a check, thus interrupting both my game time and playing whack a mole with my account. The cards don't save me money, they save me heartache and work within my budget better. They are a physical reminder of the months I have stockpiled, they can often be bought on sale (something you can't do with paying by credit card/debit card), I can control when they are applied to my account, debit card is always the day you subbed, and when you have multipal accounts you can pick and chose which you keep up and which you let go down much easier. Sure I could pay 6 months on all of them, but the only account I know I'll want to play straight through for six months is my main, if my commission don't come through or a client bounces a check on me, I don't have to scramble to cancel my game accounts, I just don't apply the cards or "hey look at that" I have them in my file cabinet from when the client didn't give me an IOU. It's not about "do I have the money" or "Do I know where the money is" it is 100% about controlling when I spend the money and how much I spend.
Also it much easier to go to a friend hand them the $20 game card (or one of my 30 day cards if they already have an account) and say "Happy birthday, see you in CoH" with a game card them my debit card.
WoW's success was in bringing non MMO players into the genre. It was touted as being an extremely casual game where anyone could be successful with minimal time invested. Low system requirements meant that anyone could run it fine. It also had an extremely stable launch (outside of a few hiccups like the looting animation bug) that kept people from blowing the game off before they ever gave it a real chance.
EQ2's "problem" was that it was named EQ2. Anyone who didn't like EQ was likely to pass up EQ2 without even trying it. It also doesn't help that SoE is/was fairly notorious as far as MMO developers go. Also I remember the system requirements being pretty steep at release. No matter what the game turned into, these preconceptions at release pretty much kept it from beating out WoW before it even got a chance. Even if an MMO eventually becomes the greatest game ever through updates, it's very hard to convince people to come play if the general consensus at release was that it's not very good.
As for my personal opinion, I loved the graphics and the scope of the world. There were a seemingly endless amounts of texts and random stuff to find in the world along with a lot of factions you could either anger or befriend. It's just the endgame seemed very raid heavy, which I'm not into. Raids are fun every now and then but not as the primary endgame activity.
If a MMO wants to have the success WoW did then it needs to 1) change the genre like how WoW changed the genre when it came out and 2) have a very stable, relatively bug free launch. Most fantasy MMOs recently have either been rushed, causing a very poor launch that the game never recovers from or tries to beat WoW at its own game, which isn't going to happen.
Up until last month, the Walmart near my house still had the Tabula Rasa Collector Edition on the shelf for $80, a craptastic metric chuckload of WoW cards and not even an Architect Edition or CoH/V timecard in sight.
Game Stop had the Architect Edition, but refuse to sell the time cards.
Target and Best Buy have been very hit or miss since '07.
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I can remember how much money I am spending. That is not the issue, the issue would be running out and canceling my game account to not bounce a check, thus interrupting both my game time and playing whack a mole with my account.
[/ QUOTE ] That to me still means you dont know how much you are spending. Knowing how much you are spending means keeping a positive balance in a bank account and knowing how much it is. If you are worring about stuff bouncing then you dont know how to spend its as simple as that. Dont spend money you dont have yet. If the person giving you the check has the check drawn on a bank thats local then take it to their bank instead of depositing it into your account that way you dont have to worry about the funds because you will know right away if its going to clear or not.
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I didnt stop my debit card from drawing on my account because I can't do math, Ryu. I stopped it because I no longer want to pay in 6 month increments. I want a gamecard so I dont have to worry about being charged for a service I may decide not to use.
Thank s all for the info on what stores are carrying! I found one at Best Buy. I had to drive 50 minutes but was shopping to outfit the children for camp so its all good!
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I didnt stop my debit card from drawing on my account because I can't do math, Ryu. I stopped it because I no longer want to pay in 6 month increments. I want a gamecard so I dont have to worry about being charged for a service I may decide not to use.
Thank s all for the info on what stores are carrying! I found one at Best Buy. I had to drive 50 minutes but was shopping to outfit the children for camp so its all good!
[/ QUOTE ]You act like there is no option to pay month to month, which is what I do. I still dont see the point of game cards. Most of us here are adults and practically any adult can get a debit card. Hell even kids can get the pre-paid debit cards. There is no reason what so ever to needing game cards unless your country has some funky laws against debit cards.
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Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
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Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
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I can remember how much money I am spending. That is not the issue, the issue would be running out and canceling my game account to not bounce a check, thus interrupting both my game time and playing whack a mole with my account.
[/ QUOTE ] That to me still means you dont know how much you are spending. Knowing how much you are spending means keeping a positive balance in a bank account and knowing how much it is. If you are worring about stuff bouncing then you dont know how to spend its as simple as that. Dont spend money you dont have yet. If the person giving you the check has the check drawn on a bank thats local then take it to their bank instead of depositing it into your account that way you dont have to worry about the funds because you will know right away if its going to clear or not.
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Okay I have to now pull out the snark.
It is clear you've never worked commission based. It is also clear that your farts don't stink. Not everyone lives on a stable paycheck. Not everyone is perfect. I can tell you in the 40+ years of my life I have bounced only one check and that was because a client's check bounced (oh and it was a business check not a check drawn off a personal account), it was a $2500 check, the bank put the money in my account, said the money was there, then 3 weeks after the fact reversed the charges. Yeah I'm sure if your pay check was reversed 2 weeks later without anyone telling you (because the bank takes the money away then mails you a letter that takes it's own sweet time getting to you) you'd have enough cushion in your bank account that all your bills would be paid, because you are a 100% perfect financial wizard with money flying out your rectum.
Of course your whole dang argument is pointless, some people prefer the game time cards, they are nice little trifles you can hold and carry around and give to friends. By your argument why should we carry around cash, it's all physical and ugly and you can just use your bank card right, it's not like spending cash really saves you any money in the long run.
Outside of a thin attempt to talk down on people who don't have your financial acumen what is the point you are trying to make? Honestly?
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When I used multiple accounts, I'd always use gamecards for the additionals. I'd always check Gamestop first, as I have not one, but 2 of them within 5 minutes. They never, ever have time cards. They sometimes have game copies of CoX, but that was it. At one point I asked the managers why stock an MMO, a successful one at that, and not time cards when they've got an entire display full of WoW products. More or less the same answer, noone buys them, the sipments haven't arrived, sold out...yada yada. Needless to say, I don't buy games there anymore. Best Buy always has them but I don't like driving 30 minutes for a time card. Never shopped at Walmart so I couldn't tell you about them.
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I have a couple of GameStops within short driving distance too (and another by work, actually). Both appeared to have one copy of the Architect Edition. Both also had a lone copy of GvE - for $9.99. I bought one for each of my accounts. I'm wondering what the odds are that I will be able to pick up the copies of Architect once the next box update comes out.
Oh...and at the one store when I was buying it, the cashier remarked "hey, you know Champions Online is coming out soon, right?" As if I was loco for wanting to buy CoH.
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There's a Best Buy here in Virginia that has a whole shelf full of Time cards and other PlayNC stuff. Best Buy is a good place to go for your gaming needs.
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Oh...and at the one store when I was buying it, the cashier remarked "hey, you know Champions Online is coming out soon, right?" As if I was loco for wanting to buy CoH.
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Wow, I would have punched them in the face for that remark!
Well, not really. I'm not completely insane yet, so I'd like to keep my non-existent criminal record in check. Looks like I'd just have to settle for imagining punching them in the face. 
Arc ID: 348998 - Becoming a villain
Arc ID: 373341 - To Save a Hero
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Just a note on the cards at 7-11s... they're reusable and could be loaded at any of them regardless if they got the card themselves or not. Just an fyi thing.
The petition link to Save CoH:
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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Oh...and at the one store when I was buying it, the cashier remarked "hey, you know Champions Online is coming out soon, right?" As if I was loco for wanting to buy CoH.
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Just to go on the cashier's side for a second, the employees of those stores for the most part rely on preorders and the like for their hours. Chances are, he was just suggesting a game that you could potentially give him a reserve for that is in the same genre as COH.
"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." --Paul Beatty
Altaholic since '05, 0 months sober
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Oh...and at the one store when I was buying it, the cashier remarked "hey, you know Champions Online is coming out soon, right?" As if I was loco for wanting to buy CoH.
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Just to go on the cashier's side for a second, the employees of those stores for the most part rely on preorders and the like for their hours. Chances are, he was just suggesting a game that you could potentially give him a reserve for that is in the same genre as COH.
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This. And they're rode on hard to make as many preorders as they can, in some districts. Or he could have just been trying to start a conversation about gaming, to maybe gauge what you're interested in to further sell you something else.
IE: He was doing his minimum wage job.
I suppose that could be the case. I don't think he mentioned a preorder though (this was on 6/20 - before it was available, possibly).
I always got the impression that PC games there were an afterthought at GameStop - relegated to one little shelf. Even on just that trip I spent more on Wii/GameCube/DS stuff for the kids.
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Oh...and at the one store when I was buying it, the cashier remarked "hey, you know Champions Online is coming out soon, right?" As if I was loco for wanting to buy CoH.
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Just to go on the cashier's side for a second, the employees of those stores for the most part rely on preorders and the like for their hours. Chances are, he was just suggesting a game that you could potentially give him a reserve for that is in the same genre as COH.
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This pretty much. Gamestop employees are judged not by their usefulness, but how many pre-orders, magazine subscriptions, and used titles they can sell. The first because if is effectively a scam, as many stores will not actually hold your copy, keep your pre-order bonuses to themselves unless you hound them (most people will not), and generally operate on the assumption that you will totally forget about your pre-order and give them $5 for effectively nothing. The second and third are because it costs Gamestop basically nothing for them to obtain those products, especially the used games, since the cash you'd get from them is nothing and the store credit is, at best, a discount on something you'll buy at their store.
Don't blame the guy behind the counter. Blame the CEO in the office.
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Don't blame the guy behind the counter. Blame the CEO in the office.
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And then blame the shareholders and board members who demand the CEO performs. And then we can blame society and capitalism for valuing this behaviour...
What are you, a communist?
Walmart near my house stopped selling all CoH stuff before the GvE box came out =\ made me sad. I haven't been to GameStop in years...but I used to buy time cards from them.
I've been working on getting Wally World to put CoH on the shelves for some time. No success yet, but I'm still trying!
When I spoke with Ross at Herocon we discussed the topic as well. With luck, I'll speculate Going Rogue may break the streak we've had. My own current effort could be described as an attempted end run around the electronics department and into my own. But I'm still rebuilding the clout I had when I led a sales category for a year in '03 after a 2 year sabbatical.
It's not how many times you get knocked down that count. It's how many times you get up.
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This pretty much. Gamestop employees are judged not by their usefulness, but how many pre-orders, magazine subscriptions, and used titles they can sell. The first because if is effectively a scam, as many stores will not actually hold your copy, keep your pre-order bonuses to themselves unless you hound them (most people will not), and generally operate on the assumption that you will totally forget about your pre-order and give them $5 for effectively nothing.
[/ QUOTE ] So do you have any actual facts or information to back up this claim, or is it just some weird conspiracy theory? I would really like to know, because what you say makes no sense.
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This pretty much. Gamestop employees are judged not by their usefulness, but how many pre-orders, magazine subscriptions, and used titles they can sell. The first because if is effectively a scam, as many stores will not actually hold your copy, keep your pre-order bonuses to themselves unless you hound them (most people will not), and generally operate on the assumption that you will totally forget about your pre-order and give them $5 for effectively nothing.
[/ QUOTE ] So do you have any actual facts or information to back up this claim, or is it just some weird conspiracy theory? I would really like to know, because what you say makes no sense.
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Gamestop employees have managed to get a very poor reputation on the internet from many, many personal accounts for various reasons.
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EQ2's "problem" was that it was named EQ2. Anyone who didn't like EQ was likely to pass up EQ2 without even trying it. It also doesn't help that SoE is/was fairly notorious as far as MMO developers go. Also I remember the system requirements being pretty steep at release. No matter what the game turned into, these preconceptions at release pretty much kept it from beating out WoW before it even got a chance. Even if an MMO eventually becomes the greatest game ever through updates, it's very hard to convince people to come play if the general consensus at release was that it's not very good.
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Yup. Occasionally a burned out WoW player will post on the EQ2 boards about how they missed this game and it usually winds up being something just like this. I really get bored very quick with WoW, but have been playing EQ2 for 5 years off and on.
Oh and on-topic. Trying to find gamecards is a waste of time IMO. If you don't want to use your own debit or credit cards, buy a pre-paid VISA card from a supermarket, bank, 7-11, etc. Functionally the same as a gamecard, but you're replacing the sales tax with a small charge for the card. Some cards only ask you to pay the fee once and then let you reload it with value for free.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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This pretty much. Gamestop employees are judged not by their usefulness, but how many pre-orders, magazine subscriptions, and used titles they can sell. The first because if is effectively a scam, as many stores will not actually hold your copy, keep your pre-order bonuses to themselves unless you hound them (most people will not), and generally operate on the assumption that you will totally forget about your pre-order and give them $5 for effectively nothing.
[/ QUOTE ] So do you have any actual facts or information to back up this claim, or is it just some weird conspiracy theory? I would really like to know, because what you say makes no sense.
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My hubby has ran a Gamestop for roughly four years now, and he's never hoped that customers forget about reservations. And yes, they hold the copy up to weeks after the game is released. It is only after the automated number calls to remind them (and I personally have had that number call me more than telemarketers), the store calls repeatedly, and the customer still fails to come get the game, that they may sell it if they're sold out (and even then I'm not sure they sell it).
And, even if said reserve isn't there for whatever reason when the customer comes to pick it up, their five or however many dollars aren't gone. It's under their name that they have money up to put towards a purchase or whatever.
It sucks if some of the stores are actually doing that to their customers, but, if so, maybe that manager should be reprimanded for training his employees like that.
"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." --Paul Beatty
Altaholic since '05, 0 months sober
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This pretty much. Gamestop employees are judged not by their usefulness, but how many pre-orders, magazine subscriptions, and used titles they can sell. The first because if is effectively a scam, as many stores will not actually hold your copy, keep your pre-order bonuses to themselves unless you hound them (most people will not), and generally operate on the assumption that you will totally forget about your pre-order and give them $5 for effectively nothing.
[/ QUOTE ] So do you have any actual facts or information to back up this claim, or is it just some weird conspiracy theory? I would really like to know, because what you say makes no sense.
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Gamestop employees have managed to get a very poor reputation on the internet from many, many personal accounts for various reasons.
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Most of the GameStop employee reputations center around not knowing anything about video games, or they're just "frat boys" who spend all their time playing Halo or other "casual" games. There are the occasional reports of people who pre-order something and GameStop claims to have not gotten the game even a week after it was released, but I find most of these to be rare rather than the norm.
What that other guy is talking about, this supposed activity of scamming the customer, isn't common from any GameStops I've been to.
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Oh...and at the one store when I was buying it, the cashier remarked "hey, you know Champions Online is coming out soon, right?" As if I was loco for wanting to buy CoH.
[/ QUOTE ]
Just to go on the cashier's side for a second, the employees of those stores for the most part rely on preorders and the like for their hours. Chances are, he was just suggesting a game that you could potentially give him a reserve for that is in the same genre as COH.
[/ QUOTE ]
This pretty much. Gamestop employees are judged not by their usefulness, but how many pre-orders, magazine subscriptions, and used titles they can sell. The first because if is effectively a scam, as many stores will not actually hold your copy, keep your pre-order bonuses to themselves unless you hound them (most people will not), and generally operate on the assumption that you will totally forget about your pre-order and give them $5 for effectively nothing. The second and third are because it costs Gamestop basically nothing for them to obtain those products, especially the used games, since the cash you'd get from them is nothing and the store credit is, at best, a discount on something you'll buy at their store.
Don't blame the guy behind the counter. Blame the CEO in the office.
[/ QUOTE ]QFT. I dont think this can be said enough. I used to work for this horrible company so I know this all too well. This is also why I hardly shop there unless I have no choice.
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Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
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Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
I disagree strongly about eq2, having played both, i found eq2 to be vastly superior, the depth of the heroic oppertunities made combat less mashy, the races beat the snot out of wow, and the hideous cartoony graphics witht he popeye bodies, eeeych. maybe some people prefer that look,and the fact that it came out after 3 very popular rts games certainly helped, as well as the low system specs, but based on my playtime with both games, i simply do not see what is more polished about wow than eq2, i found everything better at eq2.