My Last Day Working for the Enemy (Gamestop)

So I worked my last shift at Gamestop today. As many of you know, I took on a part-time job at the video game retailer back in November to earn extra money for the Holidays. My plan was to quit right after the New Year. However, my better half was recently laid off, so I kept working to earn a little extra cash. An additional bonus to the position was that I was able to score some cool swag in the form of standees and posters to give away to you, my fellow 2old2play members. But with the good (money & SWAG) frequently comes the bad - in this case the soul-crushing realization that I was working for a company that was, in essence, destroying my love for video games. I came to realize the negative effect that my position was having on me almost as an afterthought. At first, I did not notice the little ways that working for GS was slowly crushing my enjoyment of the industry, eating away at my love of playing and talking about video games, even seeing video game imagery.

I have come to believe that Gamestop represents all that is currently wrong with the video game industry as a whole. With a focus on sheer numbers, on the turnover of used games and systems for new, the very nature of the business slowly sucks the joy of gaming out of both the customer and the employee in such small incriments that it is hard to notice. When you first walk into the store, you are met with several stimuli simultaneously. First there is the visual impact of all the games lined up along the walls, the posters and ads, all holding the promise of something exciting, some new experience awaiting discovery with the next purchase. The video screen above the register line further supports the impression that cool things are happening, new game releases are being unveiled, people are having fun at launch events - Power to the Players! You can join the club and get discounts using your EB Edge card.

As I spent more time within this environment, I realized that every aspect of the store is geared toward one goal, to get as much money from the consumer as possible whle giving back as little as possible. The ways that this is done range from obvious (pre-orders anyone?) to more subtle. By pushing the sale of used games over new ones, the consumer gets less for their investment while the company maximizes profits by reselling an item that was purchased (or more often traded) for a fraction of the resale value. Everyone always bemones how much of a rip-off this structure is for the purchaser, yet we all still participate in the process. The prevailent philosophy espoused by GS is to push the latest and greatest in a non-stop barrage of promotion. As employees, we were frequently required to answer the phone with phrases like "Thank you for calling Gamestop, where you can pre-order a Nintendo DSI" and "We now have Wii Fit in stock."

Now at this point in my original blog, I started to go into subjects like employee compensation, benefits, training, knowledge and public perception of the "typical" Gamestop employee. But after some thought, I wish to simply state that, despite the regularly perceived shortcomings of the stereotypical GS employee, the people that I worked with are knowledgeable and for the most part truly enjoy video games. However, the environment that we worked in did not allow us to cultivate that love of the industry. If anything, the GS culture stifled our appreciation of video games. Though it may be hard to identify, there is something about that environment which drained me of my appreciation for the fact that I was working among games and getting paid to do so.

As someone who is seriously looking into the concept of opening an independant video game store, I fully understand the need for any retail endeavor to make money or perish. However, as I think about my experiences working at GS, my thoughts center on how one can build a successful business around the sale of video games  while respecting and embracing the reason why we all play video games in the first place, while paying homage to the love of the hobby. I think back to my early days of gaming and what really got me excited about a new game. Whether it was a cartridge for my Atari 2600 or a new coin-op in the local arcade, there were certain intangible traits that were conveyed in the box art, game marquees and sounds of those games that made me want to delve further into the world promised there. It seems to me that that sense of awe and wonder is missing in the modern gaming experience, at least on the retail level. Certainly, we have bigger and better games available for purchase these days, sharper graphics, more memory, ever exapanding gaming environements - but among all this technology and nearly limitless choice with regard to available titles, we also have alot of shovelware and dreck. Perhaps I am simply showing my age and casting fond memories on the experiences of my youth, but I have to believe that there is a better way to run a gaming business and still be profitable.

I have seen some good ideas, such as offering the opportunity for customers to rent screen time and gather to play new and classic games among friends, that create a more welcoming environment.  I have my own thoughts on what I think would make my ideal gaming store, but what I want to know is what you, the members of 2old2play think. What would you like to see in your local gaming retailer? What is missing from the Gamestop Model? Give me your insight on what you think would make the perfect video game store. Perhaps together we can save the industry from imploding and repeating the video game crash of the late 80's. If nothing else, perhaps we can come up with ideas for a place where we all would want to shop, hand out and rekindle our love of video games. The question is, if I build it, will people come?