Slashdot Mirror
Game Retailers to Have a Good Holiday Season
A story is up at the NYT (registration required) regarding this year's holiday sales, an interview with the President of Electronics Boutique. From the article: "Q. Are consumers spending as much this holiday shopping season? Wal-Mart says they're spending less. A. Based upon what we saw over the weekend and what we've seen for the month of November, I'd have to say that, at least on video games, they're spending a lot more. I do think the category is going to have a strong holiday season." I know it's a small thing, but the staff writer refers to Mario as a "construction worker". Could have done some more research there, sport.
His plumbing job was outsourced to India.
Mario was a construction worker in the NES game Wrecking Crew. Given that Mario has done way more than just his plumbing of late (cart driver, golfer, tennis player, etc.), is it right to still pigeon hole him as a plumber?
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
Mario was a construction worker in Donkey Kong, wasn't he? He was certaintly running around a construction site.
First there's news about how young people are using this new fang-dangled thing called the internet, now people are buying games at Christmas? I wonder what the connection between companies releasing huge titles, people buying tons of gifts for people who like games, and the fact that games are being sold at a greater rate, is. I really don't know.... anyone else?
try { Signature mysig = new CleverAttempt(); } catch(NonCleverSignatureException e) { postanyway(); }
This holiday season seems to have an abundance of good games being released: HL2, WOW, Metroid 2, Pirates!, KOTOR2, etc.
IMO that's the reason for the increased sales.......
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
In the first Mario game I ever owned he worked at a cement factory so I'd say construction worker is close enough. If "construction worker" was wrong, what was the answer that you were expecting?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Back in the 'Donkey Kong' days, he was a construction worker. When 'Mario Brothers' was released, he and Luigi became plumbers at that point.
"Jesus saves, but everyone else in a 10 foot radius takes full damage from the fireball."
For a while people were posting links to NYT articles that didn't require registration using some kind of partner link. Does anyone know if this still works and how it was done? I tried reading the article off of Google News but couldn't because it only lets you read the first page.
The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
How many of us buy games at wal-mart? How many of us avoid wal-mart at all costs?
I am genuinely intrigued!
I'll conceed he was originally a construction worker.
/ / / / / / / /
However, in my defense:
Yo, yo!
It's the Mario Brothers
And plumbin's their game
Found the secret warp zone
While working on the drain
Lend the princess a hand
In the Mushroom Land
Comin' atcha with the plumbers
You'll be hooked on the brothers!"
Right.
Rip-offs.
Like Hanukkah.
Which celebrates events that took place in 165 B.C.E.
Rip-offs.
--AC
Common knowledge in the US, perhaps, but I'm not in the US.
Considering that the year's two most-anticipated games and a new hardware system were released in November, I'd say the November data is a bit skewed.
It's normal for big releases to come out in November but I think Halo 2 and Half Life 2 are special cases.
With respects to Half Life 2, perhaps it is the combination of being a highly anticipated game as well as the difficulty of pirating the game thanks to the infernal 'Steam'.
Steam indirectly aiding Walmart?
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
For everyone else, the price of fuel is insignificant. I make decent money, and my family drives two fuel-efficient cars. The cost of gasoline could double and I wouldn't even notice it. People like me are much more likely to buy video games than the average Wal-mart customer, and so the price of fuel does not affect my spending habits.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Sure, game retailers are all seeing big profits, but the people in the games industry that might be seeing less-than-average profits this year are the video game companies that are not Microsoft, Nintendo, Konami, Rockstar, Valve, or Blizzard- ie anyone who is not releasing one of the HUGE titles this season. Joe Average Buyer will be more drawn to the games that have been receiving ridiculous amounts of hype than the ones that haven't (but are still just as worthy of a buy.)
I believe the parent was referring to Hanukkah as a rip-off holiday because it has become a reason to buy and give gifts for Jews, since they didn't want to celebrate Christmas.
If he wasn't referring to their similarity in rampant consumerism, he's just a dumbass.
Or a fairly good troll. That reply made me chuckle. :)
That you aren't buying any of those stupid EA games. Holiday Boycott!!!
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
I just placed my first - and last - order on playstation.com. I only ordered from them in the first place, because they were the only place I could find the particular games I was looking for, which were for a Christmas present.
Well, rather than receiving my order, I received a pair of emails stating that my credit refund had been processed. When I asked why I was getting a refund, I was told that they had received my return, so I they were refunding the order - but I wasn't informed about any refund on the shipping.
Of course, I knew I hadn't returned the order, since I didn't even receive it to begin with. Obviously they must have shipped it to the wrong address, and it got refused on delivery. I double-checked the order's details, and I indeed got the shipping information correctly so it's their shippers at fault. But, rather than resend my order, I was politely informed that I need to place a new order - no mention about receiving a refund on shipping, or any special code to enter to not pay shipping on the new order.
Needless to say, I have no intention of ordering from Playstation.com in the future, and informed them that I would warn everyone I know not to order from them. I told them that if they can't either resend my order, without me having to place a new order myself and pay for shipping twice, or refund me for the shipping on the order I never received, I would call up Visa and have them cancel the transaction. Now to wait for their response.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
As someone in this thread correctly pointed out, Hanukkah has been celebrated since 165 B.C.E. when the events took place. As is customary in Jewish holidays celebrating happy events like this, there are "fun" customs. For example, in the case of "Purim" (where Jews celebrate liberation from a tyrant in Persia who wanted to kill all Jews - it's the story of the bible book "Esther"), they celebrate this happy occation by dressing up in costumes and getting drunk.
To celebrate Hanukkah, it was always traditional for parents to give their children a few coins as a gift at this time of year to celebrate the "miracle" that jews believe occured in 165 B.C.E. You may have seen these chocolate coins sold at this time of year. They are often given to kids as a fun substitute for coins.
Anyway, Christmas occurs at the same time as Hanukkah, and the gift-giving idea evolved from judaism's coin-giving. This gift-giving was "re-borrowed" back by jews, so now everyone gives gifts.
Speaking as the son of a Rabbi, the rip-offs thing is correct. Gift giving was a creative "reinterpretation" of older customs in order to lead to fewer angry Jewish kids who want presents too. There is no mention of presents in the actual story whatsoever.
And worn out over-worked employees. Well, at least from my laid off ass it is. Thanks corporate Eb Games, for laying me off weeks before the holidays start, because you didn't have the hours. You make no sense in doing so, as this year is the year of the sequel. The games this year are going to sell like hot cakes, and frankly, i'm a bit, no, im very disappointed in your move to lay me off. I for one, need the job. I dont make the "big bucks" like you corporate clowns down. I cannot get laid off before the holidays and really expect to be "OK" through them. Greed is all I can think of, you know, the big boss needs another yacht in Brazil, just fire a couple people, big deal. (replies regarding, get a job loser, quit whining and get another job, that job sucks anyway you loser, oh too bad, hey i hear a small violin, and the ever popular, j00 g0t j0wnedz are not needed. Thank you)
Flat Screen TV for F
but then... I got that info from the Addams Family movie...
click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
Not to mention that Hanukkah is a bit overplayed just because it comes within the same time as Christmas.
I'm not a Jew, but isn't Passover traditionally considered more of a major holiday? Or is it Yom Kippur?
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Actually, the Christmas gift-giving tradition is relatively new as well (according to some Western Studies class I more or less slept through). It only dates back about 150-200 years (not far, in the scope of religion), and originally kids made gifts for their parents while their parents gave them things like candy. Giving gifts to kids wasn't very widespread in the US until the early 1900's, when toy companies decided that this would be a great way to boost profits.
But anyway, it's pretty mute, as the winter Christmas holiday as we know it was stolen from the "pagans" by the Roman Catholic Church as an attempt to convert them. For all of you evangelical Christans out there, read the bible again. Christ was born in the spring, as evidenced by descriptions of annual Roman events that were taking place when the Magi traveled to Bethlehem.
-=-=-=-=-=
I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
wasnt he also a fumigator in donkey kong 3? or was that a distant relative or something?
Yes, Hanukkah is a "minor" holiday in terms of religious "importance" - you are correct that both Passover and Yom Kippur are more "important" holidays. In fact, it's one of the only jewish holidays to not be in the Hebrew Bible (ironically, only the Catholic Bible has it - Macabbees I-IV).
Working in the Electronics Dept. rather often, I can say that sales could be a LOT better if we could actually keep stuff in stock. I can't think of how many times I've had to say no to PS2s, Xboxes, GB-DS, and almost all of the digital cameras that we sell. It's quite frustrating, actually. I could see another 10%-25% more sales there, if only we stocked the items.