Over the christmas break i happened to pop into one of my local gaming stores, no names of course, and was browsing the shelves for the next purchase to grab my eye when i happened apon a box i've not seen for years.
The box stood out, for all its shiney text, the shooting car, and that atomic logo on the side... instantly i was thrown back into the memories of beta, the few months after release and the eventual closure of the servers as discontinuation of the game, it was none other than Auto Assault.
Curious to see how far the staff would go, i grabbed the box and went up to the counter with it... stood in line for a few mins while the staff dealt with another customer doing a trade in, and eventually plopped the box on the counter where the store clerk ran it up.
To break in conversation i asked how the game was, indicating i liked the racing shooter genre, to which i received the reply of great, the graphics are cool, and the community is really pumping... apparently the clerk himself played the game, and was checking out some of the end game areas, saying its well worth the effort to get to this point in the game but is a bit of a struggle if you dont have a good guild.
Internally i thought, yea he's on the money, but its a shame about the connectivity issues that i'm guaranteed to experience.
I asked about the possiblilty of game insurance for the disc, suggesting that my discs always seem to get dropped or slide about, but unfortunately this was not an option. As he went off to get the disc for me I looked busy, checking out the art work on the back cover, looking at system requirements, and when he came back i mentioned that i'd read reviews on it.
As the guy popped the disc into the box, i said i'd probably have connection issues, which greeted the reply of "Oh why's that?"... "Because the servers have been shut down since 2007."
Should have seen his face, from the nice customer support friendly look to shock and a little bit of unease, he reassured me that it wasnt the case and that its still safe to buy the disc, i suggested he check online through the store's website to see if it was still being sold, it wasnt, then he pulled up the game website to see the news that it wasnt being sold by the developer.
He apologised, suggesting he had the games mixed up, and gave me a $20 store credit for my hassles, pulled the disc from teh case, promptly snapped it and droped it and the case into the bin.
I said no worries, and with voucher in hand, left the store.
Has anyone else had a store try to pull the wool over their eyes on discontinued games? seen a copy of tabula rasa on the shelves, and not thought anything of it? What about hellgate:London?
It was a fun experience, better because of a good reaction, but bad because they were still charging $50 for the useless disc and the store policy of not accepting mmo games after they've been open would have prevented the disc from being returned.
The box stood out, for all its shiney text, the shooting car, and that atomic logo on the side... instantly i was thrown back into the memories of beta, the few months after release and the eventual closure of the servers as discontinuation of the game, it was none other than Auto Assault.
Curious to see how far the staff would go, i grabbed the box and went up to the counter with it... stood in line for a few mins while the staff dealt with another customer doing a trade in, and eventually plopped the box on the counter where the store clerk ran it up.
To break in conversation i asked how the game was, indicating i liked the racing shooter genre, to which i received the reply of great, the graphics are cool, and the community is really pumping... apparently the clerk himself played the game, and was checking out some of the end game areas, saying its well worth the effort to get to this point in the game but is a bit of a struggle if you dont have a good guild.
Internally i thought, yea he's on the money, but its a shame about the connectivity issues that i'm guaranteed to experience.
I asked about the possiblilty of game insurance for the disc, suggesting that my discs always seem to get dropped or slide about, but unfortunately this was not an option. As he went off to get the disc for me I looked busy, checking out the art work on the back cover, looking at system requirements, and when he came back i mentioned that i'd read reviews on it.
As the guy popped the disc into the box, i said i'd probably have connection issues, which greeted the reply of "Oh why's that?"... "Because the servers have been shut down since 2007."
Should have seen his face, from the nice customer support friendly look to shock and a little bit of unease, he reassured me that it wasnt the case and that its still safe to buy the disc, i suggested he check online through the store's website to see if it was still being sold, it wasnt, then he pulled up the game website to see the news that it wasnt being sold by the developer.
He apologised, suggesting he had the games mixed up, and gave me a $20 store credit for my hassles, pulled the disc from teh case, promptly snapped it and droped it and the case into the bin.
I said no worries, and with voucher in hand, left the store.
Has anyone else had a store try to pull the wool over their eyes on discontinued games? seen a copy of tabula rasa on the shelves, and not thought anything of it? What about hellgate:London?
It was a fun experience, better because of a good reaction, but bad because they were still charging $50 for the useless disc and the store policy of not accepting mmo games after they've been open would have prevented the disc from being returned.
