racketboy.com

total draft:

GameStop is a retail store whose focus is selling new and used current generation console video games. The company is owned by Barnes and Noble booksellers but is an entirely separate entity. In the 1990’s there were a handful of electronic stores that specialized in video games, then GameStop bought them all out in the early 2000’s. I mainly play and collect “retro” games which GameStop does not focus on. It is not one of the places I go looking for a deal but it is a place I stop in every once in a while to look for a diamond in the rough. There are many reasons I dislike them and why their existence is a plague upon video gaming as a whole.

I do not believe that GameStop respects the product. They practice “gutting” new copies of games (opening a game for an employee to borrow or use as a store display copy) which will then be sold at the same “new” price. This is a practice that I personally loathe, to me and many collectors it is only worth the new price if it is sealed. I have even read a story where a customer was denied the purchase of a sealed copy after being denied the exchange for his previously purchased gutted copy, they said no to his money. This shows that they do not even have their own straight standards for “New” games and expect the customer to not care and when a customer does care, they get hassled.

I do not believe that GameStop respects the industry. Much of the profit of GameStop makes comes from used game sales, of which none of the profits support the video game industry, whether they are publishers or developers. With many games from previous generations (PlayStation 2 and Gameboy Advance and possibly even Nintendo DS in the future) they have discarded the cases and manuals of these games to make more shelf space for new games, this shows that they do not respect all of the hard work that goes into creating a game but merely want to squeeze the last dollar out of somebody else’s hard work.

I do not believe that GameStop respects the consumer. Recently a pack-in bonus was removed from the Windows version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which was a free download version of the game valued at $50. It was removed because it was for a competing service to their digital game subsidiary, GameStop’s policy was to open the game and remove the coupon, eventually the game was removed from stock. Even on the used level of games that are packaged new with bonus items (art books, toys, art cells) the employees are told not to accept these bonuses because they “take up extra space.” A personal experience of my own, a couple years ago I had bought a used memory card for PlayStation 2 and wanted to return it (I ended up buying two new ones for a better price), the manager explicitly told me “We are not a rental store!” – this really got on my nerves I think I ended up getting store credit and the last time I went into a store alone I didn’t even get greeted (neither did the guy who walked in a minute later), the clerk (a girl) was too busy getting flirted with and giving directions to a customer (I presume). These acts show me that the company as a whole does not value the reaction of the customer at all and want them to herd in and out of the stores just like feeding cattle.

I do not believe that GameStop respects the opportunity. There is very little retail competition to GameStop because it seems that selling to such a niche market is not all GameStop makes it seem. The main competition comes from online 2nd hand sites such as eBay and Amazon or even forums where there is peer to peer trading or selling. In a sense GameStop has closed out or entirely absorbed their once-was competition in sort of a Wal-Mart-ish way, but even Wal-Mart has other big-box competitors while GameStop doesn’t. Because of this, without any open competition GameStop can do whatever they choose to the industry, product or consumer and it affects the consumer the most because a lot of their customers neglect to utilize their voice when things go wrong or ignore the fact they have a choice when shopping. For them being the one game stop for customers who shop offline they really do not try hard to be an attractive choice to the consumer.

This is truthfully a niche problem but quite possibly the only issue I am personally not on the fence about. It can be said that this would mainly affect people who are not GameStop’s core audience. In response, I feel there are simple solutions to appeal to the entire gaming audience and I know they see dollar signs where people are shopping elsewhere since they have a digital game subsidiary. GameStop’s policies will only get worse unless more people speak out against what they are doing now.

you can kinda use the similarity of gamestop to walmart.

Back in the day when walmarts were growing and becoming prevalent in each city drowning out local mom and pop stores, ie taking out the competition.

gamestops have done the same. There are more gamestops now than ever before. I dont think gamestops have caused local gaming stores to go out of business like walmart did to the little guy. but you can use that for stuff I guess.

walmart does get some flak for its business practices. so gamestop is technically the walmart of videogames.

good point, thanks, i was gonna wrap up with "this is going to keep happening" unless we do something about it.

I would work on the body paragraphs by adding transitions to each paragraph. Additionally, I would state them a little different, as the way they are now it is just your opinion.

Like the second paragraph could be like "To begin, gamestop has shown a lot of disrespect to publishers.

Gotta vary up your transitions for your paragraphs, they all start with I do not believe.

Yea it is atotally lazy draft. Ill work those in thanks.

You sort of contradict some of your own points. You sort of "yearn" (for lack of a better word) for the game stores of old, which also usually sold used video games and didn't contribute financially to the publishers or the industry; yet blast Gamestop for doing the same thing.
The "classic" video game stores also usually threw out stuff that they couldn't sell that would be considered valuable to some. I remember I walked once into an old store at the mall, and was offered (for free) some Super Nintendo inserts that were being thrown because they were taking space. (I collect some complete video games, but I didn't have any use for the insert to some random game, so I didn't take them)

where's the research?

This is a better read than the usual gamestop blasting, but still seems to paint the company in the worst possible light rather than explain the average person's experience.

With the accusation of being a plague upon all of gaming, a better explanation would be nice. As is, you've really only pointed out how they are unfriendly to people who collect, which really isnt their target market.

I hate to come out of the blue with criticism, but I lurk a lot and only post when its about something i feel strongly about.

What class is this for?