Why Gamestop is bad for our hobby.

Is this for real? If it is, I now know why GS employees suck at their jobs; they gouged their own eyes out 30 seconds in.
 
I Always think to myself that The Office is just a show and nobody in real life people don't think like Michael Scott. How wrong I am...
 
Anyone else notice the women at the start of the movie was "professor of Women studies at GS University"?

Every time I think GameStop can't get any worse, they then knock it out of the park.
 
Why the hell are they using someone with a british accent, it's the same thing in the UK, most training videos in the UK are done by americans.

It's probably an Ilumanti conspiracy to wind people up or something.

Still I would though, she's about a 5/10.

EDIT - Actually I think I was being too generous, 3/10 is more like it, maybe 4/10. I like the bit where the GS dude basically told that woman that she was fat.
 
You know, you'd figure the suits who run retailers would realize these types of scenarios NEVER happen. Customers NEVER approach you in that manner and sure as hell don't respond to you in that way. Talking to a customer like that is bad enough, but forcing the employees to watch and "learn" this as if they were fucking 5 year olds is incredibly annoying.

If you don't hire anyone under 16, then talk to them like they're becoming adults or are adults. Jesus Christ.
 
Gamestop training videos are EPIC. Remember that executives, marketing directors, and personnel liaisons have NO FUNCTIONAL idea of how stores are actually run.

this is true for EVERY business.
 
So, why does this mediocre training video make GS bad for our hobby?

I'm not disagreeing with the thesis, but there's scant mention of the trade-in process, constant demands to pre-order games that will be available in 5-10 other stores on launch day, or buying games used to save $5, that games are virtually never sold at 'sale' prices, save for Black Friday, or even the practice of gutting copies of games which pisses off collectors to no end.

The whole point of the video is that their upcoming promotion appeals to casuals (in other words, parents), and that the usual sales tactics don't apply when the buyer has no idea what they're actually looking at. Crappy games are always going to be sold to non-gamers, if only because they don't know better. GS just wants to try and lure in their share of the no-nothings....rather than sending them next door to Best Buy or Target. How exactly is that 'bad' for our hobby?
 
[quote name='Gentlegamer']I love how they use the black man as the first example of intimidating a potential woman customer. EPIC TACKINESS.[/quote]

"Hi Mam, welcome to Gamestop, I'm Big Dick Black"
 
[quote name='bjkrautk']So, why does this mediocre training video make GS bad for our hobby?

I'm not disagreeing with the thesis, but there's scant mention of the trade-in process, constant demands to pre-order games that will be available in 5-10 other stores on launch day, or buying games used to save $5, that games are virtually never sold at 'sale' prices, save for Black Friday, or even the practice of gutting copies of games which pisses off collectors to no end.

The whole point of the video is that their upcoming promotion appeals to casuals (in other words, parents), and that the usual sales tactics don't apply when the buyer has no idea what they're actually looking at. Crappy games are always going to be sold to non-gamers, if only because they don't know better. GS just wants to try and lure in their share of the no-nothings....rather than sending them next door to Best Buy or Target. How exactly is that 'bad' for our hobby?[/QUOTE]
It's not bad for our hobby. It's just people overreacting to everything Gamestop does again.
 
[quote name='Xevious']Why is that woman looking at a map?[/quote]


If she's anything like me she wants to get away from that video as soon as possible.
 
oh god I had to jump out of the way of the iq lowing buckshot that the video just tossed my way. If I could harness the latent power of this video, I believe I could actually create concentrated stupid.
 
The training doesn't make Gamestop bad for our hobby. The employees and clientele at many locations do.

Doesn't take more than a glance inside when walking through the mall to reaffirm non-gamers beliefs that videogames are for kids and nerds.

But c'est le vie. Specialty shops for hobbies like this always attract the nerdier crowd, and no sense worrying about the misinformed opinions of ignorant folks.
 
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I guess this can be used as a "how to get women" training video as well.

Thomas96: What brings you here?

Woman: My Wii cheated on me

Thomas96: Well I got some Wii right here for ya! Wiimote is sturdy, but easy wit mah nunchuck!
 
So, why does this mediocre training video make GS bad for our hobby?

I'm not disagreeing with the thesis, but there's scant mention of the trade-in process, constant demands to pre-order games that will be available in 5-10 other stores on launch day, or buying games used to save $5, that games are virtually never sold at 'sale' prices, save for Black Friday, or even the practice of gutting copies of games which pisses off collectors to no end.

The whole point of the video is that their upcoming promotion appeals to casuals (in other words, parents), and that the usual sales tactics don't apply when the buyer has no idea what they're actually looking at. Crappy games are always going to be sold to non-gamers, if only because they don't know better. GS just wants to try and lure in their share of the no-nothings....rather than sending them next door to Best Buy or Target. How exactly is that 'bad' for our hobby?
Click to expand...

I agree, I dont understand why this video is a problem with "core" gamers. Its like people cannot begin to believe that video games have now expanded past teenagers. Yes, soccer moms play the Wii. Yes, soccer moms no nothing about video games . . .
 
[quote name='bjkrautk']So, why does this mediocre training video make GS bad for our hobby?

I'm not disagreeing with the thesis, but there's scant mention of the trade-in process, constant demands to pre-order games that will be available in 5-10 other stores on launch day, or buying games used to save $5, that games are virtually never sold at 'sale' prices, save for Black Friday, or even the practice of gutting copies of games which pisses off collectors to no end.

The whole point of the video is that their upcoming promotion appeals to casuals (in other words, parents), and that the usual sales tactics don't apply when the buyer has no idea what they're actually looking at. Crappy games are always going to be sold to non-gamers, if only because they don't know better. GS just wants to try and lure in their share of the no-nothings....rather than sending them next door to Best Buy or Target. How exactly is that 'bad' for our hobby?[/QUOTE]

Because they've jumped the shark. They're trying to sell subscriptions to magazines that would never be in Game$top. It doesn't even have to be womens' magazines. It could've been Sports Illustrated or something. That's like selling Herbal Essences shampoo in a comic book store.
 
[quote name='Chuplayer']That's like selling Herbal Essences shampoo in a comic book store.[/quote]
Considering the type of folks that visit comic stores, that might not be a bad idea. :lol:

But really, it's funny how GameStop's offering subscriptions to non-gaming magazines via those offers, yet they can't be bothered to carry any other gaming magazine that isn't GameInformer (not counting strategy guides).
 
Companies are in business to make money.
In order to grow your business, you try to expand your markets and get people buying who previously haven't been.
While catering solely to 'teh H@RDC0R3" may seem cool, and many think that if you haven't been gaming for ten years then you shouldn't game at all, it's no way to run and improve a business.
I watched about thirty seconds of the video, and I give them credit for trying to make a training video somewhat fun to watch. I'll take that over another Powerpoint read-along any day.

I personally think GS isn't bad for "our" hobby at all. Lets people who don't want to deal on the internet trade in games on other games, makes games older than two months available, very open return policy on used items, and most of the employees I've encountered actually do know about games and are more than willing to share information. I don't begrudge them the suggestive sell, that's a typical edict from on-high.
 
Then why don't they just put up a newsstand with the latest Home and Garden and Family Circle magazines? They can put it where they used to put the XBOX 1 games. That's what I'd call expanding their market.
 
[quote name='bjkrautk']So, why does this mediocre training video make GS bad for our hobby?[/quote]
i assume that "our hobby" = sex with the womenz and that videos like this means all the womenz will hang out at GS now instead of my bed.
 
[quote name='Chuplayer']Then why don't they just put up a newsstand with the latest Home and Garden and Family Circle magazines? They can put it where they used to put the XBOX 1 games. That's what I'd call expanding their market.[/QUOTE]

so we dont kick their mag rack. thats why :D
 
[quote name='advanced']Is that legit?

Pretty good. I'll now send my girlfriend in first, as a "Hunter" and see what happens.[/QUOTE]

Hell yeah! But you should try and video tape their response to her, and compare it to the video we see here. That would be fucking awesome!
 
Unlike you wussies that bailed, I watched the whole friggin' thing (while waiting for my infant son to finish pooping). That they believe a simple line dropping Oprah's magazine can suddenly upsale a women buying a gift card from a friend into walking out with a new DS and game for herself is laughable.

That being said, this is not much different than the trainings we had when I worked at Sears. I worked in hardware, and we were taught to break the ice with people looking at power tools with a silly line like "Looking for something to trim your fingernails with?"

The worst part was, it actually worked.
 
[quote name='hostyl1']Unlike you wussies that bailed, I watched the whole friggin' thing (while waiting for my infant son to finish pooping). That they believe a simple line dropping Oprah's magazine can suddenly upsale a women buying a gift card from a friend into walking out with a new DS and game for herself is laughable.

That being said, this is not much different than the trainings we had when I worked at Sears. I worked in hardware, and we were taught to break the ice with people looking at power tools with a silly line like "Looking for something to trim your fingernails with?"

The worst part was, it actually worked.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for having an attention span. It was a mistake to let the video speak for itself.
 
Classic. I actually enjoyed it in a twisted sort of way ;).

But I see two big problems here - it was sort of a training module for that promo that started Jan 5th, right? Well, why is it that when I went in to stores specifically looking for that deal no one knew a thing about it? Clearly they did not force all their employees to watch it - though it seems they should have.

The other thing that was off about that is that they completely skipped over the awesome part of that deal, though you can see it briefly at the end when she runs through the promo. The best part of that promo (and why I went in looking for it) was the $20 off specific DS games and $30 off specific Wii games when trading in two titles (at first it ADDED the $20/$30 to the trade-in value, but then they modified it to bump the games to $20 or $30 - still a great deal if you had cheap stuff to trade in). The whole magazine thing just seemed like an afterthought (to me) in connection with the rest of that promo. Now, I can see why you wouldn't want to push trade-ins on someone who is clueless about gaming, but, still, you think they'd have mentioned that part of the promo. No clerk I dealt with in the first week of the promo knew anything about it (trade-ins or magazine subs). In fact, I didn't know about the magazine subs and even though I bought $49.99 games with the promo, I was not even offered the qualifying magazine subscription. No huge loss, though my wife would have wanted a few of those I'm sure.
 
I friggen hate upselling. I worked at around 5 different retailers and I would NEVER up sell. That's probably why I had to work at 5 different retailers; funny thing - they don't like you being nice with the customers, they just want them to buy a bunch of useless crap.

When I worked at Best Buy I would tell them to go to EBGames for certain deals ect. And would convince people not to buy bundles. They had me do this -

Package together:
a PSP - $200
2 games - $60
1 movie - $15
some random thing - $10
_____________________
put a price sticker on it = $285

Trying to make it seem like you'd save money buying this useless crap. I'd just take them apart when no one was looking or tell customers not to buy it.

The funny thing is though, when you try and help customers they always get really fishy like you are actually trying to rip them off... "Don't buy that bundle, its the same price as purchasing them separately. Just buy a PSP and pick the stuff you want yourself" they look at me weird and still buy it.

fuck retail. I hate retail and I hate all employees of them that try at their jobs. Just kill yourself.
 
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