Gaming Malaise and a Game Stop Anecdote
- Thread starter Xprimentyl
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Lol, for all you bleeding hearts coming to the defense of that ?poor clerk,? you?d note in my post original she was LAUGHING. We both knew the dance, she was going through the motions just as I was.
But anyway, the following week, I had a much better experience at a different Game Stop when I purchased Dark Souls 2. After a fair bit of digging, I managed to find the only copy they had, used, for $9. I went to the counter, and when the clerk found the disc, she noted it was scratched, and without even asking me, she upgraded me to Scholar of the First Sin version of DS2 which was selling for $20, but she rang it up as the vanilla DS2 for $9. She didn?t try to upsell me on anything, didn?t ask me about preorders, just mentioned how she heard Dark Souls was really hard, put my receipt in the bag, smiled and a asked that I have good day. It was cool.
But anyway, the following week, I had a much better experience at a different Game Stop when I purchased Dark Souls 2. After a fair bit of digging, I managed to find the only copy they had, used, for $9. I went to the counter, and when the clerk found the disc, she noted it was scratched, and without even asking me, she upgraded me to Scholar of the First Sin version of DS2 which was selling for $20, but she rang it up as the vanilla DS2 for $9. She didn?t try to upsell me on anything, didn?t ask me about preorders, just mentioned how she heard Dark Souls was really hard, put my receipt in the bag, smiled and a asked that I have good day. It was cool.
Yeah, with modern games I actually prefer digital since what you get on the disc is usually incomplete code that requires a day 1 update to even function properly. The only difference between digital is that it saves you the chore of swapping discs(and also the benefit of not having to worry your disc being damaged, stolen or lost). Physical and digital even take up the same hardware space.hanselthecaretaker said:
Physical media in general just seems to be on it's way out. I remember back in the days of the Super Nintendo or even the PS1 era games came with thick instruction manuals and actually some care and consideration was put in the packaging. Now a box of cheap chocolates is of a better quality than the flimsy cases of modern games. They don't even have instruction manuels anymore. Sure, for 100$ extra they sell the game with some cheap plastic crap and call it the 'collector's edition' but really, that money is probably better spent elsewhere.
Game stores lost their magic for me when they usurped the small mom&pop stores and became these big chains. But even these big chains don't seem to be making much money anymore and are disappearing as well. I'm not surprised they are aggressively pushing season passes and accessories and all that kinda crap since they probably need to live from bonus payments from the bigger publishers now. So, it also makes sense why they have barely any other games in stock than from those big publishers.
From about 1996 to 2000 I used to regularly visit this import store and that was pure gaming heaven. Remember in Europe many games that were localized in U.S.(primarily JRPG's) wouldn't get released here but that store had everything; Japanese, U.S. and titles that would eventually also be released in Europe but months in advance. I really have great memories of that time like Chrono Trigger and FF6(originally never released here), being able to play FF7, RE2, MGS, Silent Hill etc way in advance, the entire Squaresoft line-up during the company's prime(like Xenogears that I would otherwise never got to play). During the PS2 days the magic was gone and this became just another game store but it was still the era of physical media so you could still find some great stuff but you could just see how these kinda stores became redundant as the PS2 transitioned into PS3 and physical to online shops. Now all you have left here is either toy stores that also sell some of the newest games or the few surviving big retail chains that are also disappearing rapidly.
As for not getting excited about games; yeah I totally understand that. The only games I'm still getting genuinely excited for is when From Software announces a new title but other than that there aren't really any games I'm passionate about. I might enjoy them for sure but that blind excitement is definitely gone. Getting older is certainly part of that. I was super excited and hyped for Bloodborne so I guess the problem isn't on my part but rather that games haven't evolved with me and just remain in the same adolescent stage that I've outgrown. That and many games are just the same stuff over and over. There are many games that are certainly enjoyable but for me it's now similarly like watching a movie. I don't get excited about that either. Though I do think games is something I will always enjoy unlike say superheroes or anime which I just can't stand anymore. I do still like Batman though!
Which platform did you buy it for?Xprimentyl said:
Here are the differences [https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/32cz4m/just_a_friendly_reminder_to_all_who_plan_on/] as an fyi.
I got it for the 360. Thanks for the link; I was wondering what all extra I was getting; didn't realize it was 3 DLCs-worth.hanselthecaretaker said: