EB Games Doesn't Care About Us

As game purchasers, our options suck. Oh, sure, there are plenty of ways to get the games, but none of them all that satisfying. I doubt any gamer feels as though he or she is getting a “good deal.”

If it’s a game you really want, you have to preorder. That means either slapping down some cash at the local EB/Gamestop or ordering online from any number of retailers – Amazon, Walmart, Toys-r-Us… but then you have to wait. It may or may not be in your grubby little hands on launch day.

For most games, that doesn’t matter, but for say, Halo 3, knowing your friends have their copies while you wait for yours to be delivered… madness. Someone could be stealing your clan name and you’d just be bxb’ing the wall in frustration. I guess if you don’t have an instant gratification problem, you have no problem. But I don’t think our particular archetype deals well with waiting.

Personally, I don’t particularly like giving my patronage to EBstop, for a number of reasons.

The other day, I took COD2 to the local EB to trade it in for credit/pre-order for Gears of War. Never play the game. Figured it was better as collateral toward a game I might play rather than sitting in my game bin collecting dust. Plus, Gears of War looks cool, and I’m always on the lookout for something to be better than Halo 2. So far, no good.

Walked into the store, and passed a “Featured Used Games” stand on my way to the register. I noted the price of a used copy of COD2 was $45. Sweet. That had to mean I’d get at least a cool $20 bucks of in-store for my copy. Not as good as half back, but not bad.

I handed my copy over when the dude walked up. He scanned it and asked if I wanted cash or store credit. I said I wanted credit toward Gears.

He said, “I can give you $14 cash with an extra 10 percent if you use it for a pre-order.”

In my head, I thought, didn’t I just tell you wanted to use it for a pre-order? And also, that’s it? I was irrationally angry about it. They offered me $14 for a $60 game? That’s goddamn robbery. They’re making $30 profit on it after they resell it.

I found myself standing there, mumbling through the process of pre-ordering Gears. I was short with the guy. I was angry. I felt like I’d been told to bend over and take it without the benefit of a strip of leather to bite down on.

But what were my options? Don’t preorder? Don’t trade it in? Go somewhere else? Where else would I go? The multi-media store here in town doesn’t do so well with preorders for games. Walmart doesn’t do them at all. I guess I could order online and wait…

In hindsight, I should’ve kept the game and just tossed them a $5 to reserve Gears. Should’ve. Financially, unless it’s the week after a game has come out and you want no further part of it, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to trade it. Fifteen bucks? That’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. I’ll still be paying $45 + tax the day Gears drops, just $5 less than the cost of a 180 game.

And speaking of that, you can’t, as a gamer, be happy about the rise in price of your game. Sure, they look prettier, but has the gameplay enjoyment factor increased enough to warrant the jump in price of the game? I’d say no. Or not yet.

Rising costs. Lame-ass pre-order scams by EBstop. Waiting on delivery. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

What I see is a continuing lack of regard for the consumer. EBstop is out to make money. They don’t give a damn about you. The guys at my local store forcefeed you preorders and combo deals and endless amounts of useless drivel.

Back in college when I worked for a movie theatre, we called it upselling. “Sir, did you know for just $.75 cents more you can get a large bucket of popcorn.” A large bucket of popcorn costs the theatre less than $.15 cents to make, popcorn, bucket, labor and butter-flavored oil included. They charge you $5. Even the small is a mad profit for them, but they upsell you.

Same thing at EBstop. Exactly the same thing. All those combos they wanted you to buy to even get your hands on a 360…They don’t give a damn about the consumer, and I’d say they don’t even bother to hide it. Most companies don’t really care, but they do a good job with customer service so at least you’ll come out thinking you had a good experience.

What I want out of a game store is to feel like they genuinely care about the gamers. I know they’re in it to make money. I can even respect that to a certain degree, like giving a nod to a chess opponent.

But I’d sure like a game store chain of, by and for gamers. One that doesn’t feel like a big goddamn corporate sell-out. One that works to get me good deals to support my habit. Make it a mutually beneficial relationship. Take care of me, I give you my money. Earn my patronage.

EBstop… you earn nothing but my disdain. It’s enough to make me start waiting on the FedEx guy. Buy local? Screw you.