Not only was your comment rude, but completely not funny. But good job. And by the way, argue semantics with me all you want ("my company"), but you should know that those in retail management positions and higher up tend to see checks a wee bit higher than $200. It's usually around $203.48 after taxes.
"All you're doing by carding is creating a rich environment for someone to make money off of buying games for kids and sellling it to them for a little profit."
You're kidding me, right? This is a stretch...it's not perfect by any means, but it works. I've seen it. A child walks up to the counter and attempts to purchase GTA: San Andreas. They're met with, of course, a speech about how it's an M rated game and they'll need to have proof of age or an adult. So they grab their parent.
"What game are you getting," they'll ask.
The cashier explains what the game is about and shows them the ESRB rating. The incredulous parent says, "Heck no! Pick out a nice dirt bike game."
Carding just "worked." That happens more often than not. Does that happen all of the time? Nah. Your scenario about how this is creating some kind of "Buy Games for Underage Kids" underground is a bit far fetched however and not a really great argument against it.
Last time I checked my sales mix, Gamecube wasn't doing so hot. Now granted, it's only being lead by a small margin by the Xbox (with the PS2 decimating them both), but more and more I see people lamenting at the lack of Gamecube titles available vs. it's competitors and I also see kids that are no longer interested in Mario Party/Tennis/Kart/Golf/Cheerleading Melee. They want to play what the big boys are playing, Pokemon Battle Arena Championship Turquoise edition notwithstanding.
Sure, there are people who will tell you that they love their Gamecube more than life itself, but 99% of the time it's what you'd call your typical "fanboy." Whatever that might mean.
I'm surprised to see what a burden it is for some people to actually have to pull out their ID to show it to a cashier before purchasing an M rated game.
Listen, I work video game retail and my company requires that myself and all of my employees verify that a purchaser is 17 years or older before buying an M rated game. In many cases, it's certainly not necessary, but if you're carding one person, you should probably, as a rule, card everyone. I've seen 16 year olds who look like they're 29 and 29 year olds who look like they're 16.
"But I have a full beard!" Congratulations - I knew this girl in middle school who was rocking some chin hair for awhile. All of the kids used to send her to get pork rinds, Hustler and cigarettes from the local Exxon. Now I'm an overweight, porn addicted chain smoker.
If someone asks to see your ID and you're insulted or inconvenienced, talk to your doctor about changing your meds. We're not playing surrogate parent, we're just trying to enforce the ESRBs ratings here. I have had some of my employees NOT card teenagers when purchasing an M rated game and there have been instances where the parent came back wondering why we sold them Mortal Theft Autohunt: Streets of LA. This isn't a particularly good situation to be in for a company (or a store manager who has to calm an irate parent), so it's a good practice to have.
And trust me, I for one think that there are indeed many children not "of age" who are "mature" enough to play Manhunt or Halo 2. But it's not my job to decide that and there's certainly no harm in erring on the side of caution. Hell, you're going into your wallet anyhow; your ID is already right there, man!
This isn't out of nowhere...while I was surprised to see the headline, it's only because back in July, there had been rumours of such a deal. Ultimately, it seemed like it was too unlikely to be true...but here it is.
In terms of people downloading their own rosters and console game modding...football games, on the whole, are a very mainstream arena. EAs Madden sells systems to people who use them for nothing more than to PLAY Madden. Downloading rosters, modding games...this is foreign talk or geek talk to many people and it would go right over there head. And in the meantime, they're going to think any game that doesn't have their team's logo, stats, or name is lame. Because on a very basic level, that's one of the major changes in these types of games from year to year.
Like any console or handheld, it's going to come down to the software, ultimately. I think the PSP is going to have a stronger library than any of Nintendo's handheld's have seen since the launch of the GBA...that is of course, barring Nintendo exclusive franchise titles, which will be the reason to own a DS (which is really the only good reason to own a Gamecube as an alternative to your actual gaming system).
From what I can gather, developers are hopping on the PSP bandwagon and finding it a more attractive system to develop for. The touch screen is novel and innovative, no doubt, and I hope it gets used in some fun, creative ways. Innovation does not always lead to success.
But being an owner of the DS and having played all of the software currently available, I'm having a hard time believing that this isn't a novelty that won't wear off. The most fun I have with it are playing mini-touch screen games. For all of my deeper gaming needs, I'm thinking I might be looking elsewhere.
It's called marketing - you want it to be made clear that you sell that item. Whether you have it or not is another story, particularly with a hot ticket item like the DS or the PSTwo. I don't necessarily see it as misleading, either.
It's advertising. Pick up any circular for Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, EB Games, Toys R' Us from the past three weeks and you're guaranteed to see advertisements for both items. Does it mean every location has them all of the time? Of course not. It's product. It sells out. But we get more - we'd like people to know that, yeah, we sell this product. And if a customer says "Hey, do you have any in stock," we politely explain that we're sold out, that we should be getting more in [insert approximation here] and the likelihood of that customer coming back to the store in order to acquire said item is greatly increased.
The concept of an empty display box isn't something new. What's worse is I've had people stand in front of my DS demo units and when I told them we're sold out they'd say "Well you have two right there." Pretty unbelievable how moronic people can come across.
Wrong, buddy. Not sure where you live, but in my area, you can NOT find the new PSTwo systems or DS systems anywhere. I'm the manager of a video game retail store and I can comfirm Mr. Game Crazy's account. I will get 6 DS systems tomorrow, all of which will sell out by noon and I will not see more until next Thursday. It'll be great.
Your reply makes some valid points, but has Nintendo fan boy written all over it. People can fight the "Nintendo is kiddie," argument all they want. The fact of the matter is...it's predominately geared towards a younger crowd. Feel The Magic isn't aimed at kids...but than again, it's not really aimed at anyone in particular, actually. In general, most kids AND adults GET it.
What exactly was your position with the company? It seems fish that any retailer would lay off an employee unwarranted unless they were easily replaceable (don't take that the wrong way...). I know that a lot of my employees (I work for another video game retailer that is not EB Games; wild guesses welcome) aren't getting the hours I'd like to give them because of the massive amount of holiday help the company has required me to hire.
But maybe EB games works differently and they did off you because someone needed a Yacht...but that seems pretty unlikely and probably not good business practice.
How far into the game did you play? Too much combat? Not enough rooms to navigate? Are you insane?
If anything, this game's platforming/navigation/trap avoiding is far more difficult than SoT. The fighting/navigation seems pretty well balanced. I think the fighting sticks out so much just because you're not necessarily expecting it to be there (and be more like SoT).
Beyond, Good and Evil 2 is already in production. Jade's a gun toting, vampire killing, drug dealing street walker. Linsday Lohan will be providing the voice and a remix of Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" will be played everytime you press the A button.
I had read about a lot of people experiencing similar issues, but I've played a few times on a bunch of servers this morning and it runs like a dream. It's an absolute blast and I look forward to seeing more maps and game modes released.
For the record, I'm only running a PIV 2.4ghz, half a gig of ram, with a GeForce 4 MX. Hardly optimal, but everything runs super smooth. I, for one, am impressed.
Great copy protection scheme they have, no doubt. But, what if someone who purchased Half Life 2 didn't have access to the internet and therefore couldn't activate the game via Steam? Maybe this is unlikely that someone who would own a PC capable of running the game wouldn't have an internet connection, but I'm sort of curious how that would be handled.
The shipping date for the DS is indeed the 15th, which means they will probably arrive in stores on the 16th. HOWEVER, there is a street date of November 21st which is indeed a Sunday. Same goes for all of the launch games.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone starts selling them next week...somewhere. Nintendo has yet to even give my store an interactive, which I had expected weeks ago. Oh well. We can all be using one soon enough!
You know, usually previews are for things that haven't been released yet. Seeing as how this has been available (at least in the US) since last week, it seems particularly pointless to have a preview of it.
But yeah. It's tiny and it comes in a cute, white box. Yay.
Based on everything I've seen and read (previews, developer interviews), the puzzle aspects have not been tossed. An emphasis has been put on the fighting, however, since that's what did need the most work - the plan, I believe, is to mesh both the fighting and the puzzle in a more seamless fashion, as opposed to Sands of Time's "fight...puzzle...fight...puzzle" formula.
Actually, the combo pack has been done for quite some time (since around E3 and the price drop). Retailers have just been selling their warehouse stock since then. I was referring to the barebones system in my post. I've had a lot of customers tell me they've had trouble finding them anywhere but big box retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc) - they're able to purchase a lot more at once and probably have a ton of back stock.
But as far as getting more, it doesn't look like that's happening for awhile.
Let me back up this speculation with one more fact:
Sony has more or less recently stopped sending retailers Playstation 2 systems. This has been going on for at least two months and word is, we're not going to be getting any more in the next month, either. So of course you have to wonder, if they do intend on releasing this PStwo, what would be the point of supplying the market with more older models? Exactly!
Can't wait to see what this thing looks like (and if it has a broadband adapter built it...and where the HDD will go and if it actually plays media!)
There's this one game I had been hearing about for a long time. I've seen people play it, I've heard them rave about it, but I just never really got around to playing it. A few months ago, I finally took the dive: I found the game to have silly and cliched dialogue, repetative sequences, drab and uninspired artwork, music that didn't necessarily seem to fit the action, and pretty much everything I've seen in other games in it's genre...it was a competent game, but just kinda, you know...boring.
Overall, I found myself simply marching forward, plugging away, only beacuse I thought I owed it to myself to play what some people might argue is one of the best games of all time. Turns out, I found myself literally falling asleep while playing. No joke.
That game? It starts with an "H," it ends with an "O" and there's a sequel coming out in November. True story.
Anyone know how many homes have broadband connections in the Japan? Is it affordable? Because if I didn't have broadband in my house, I certainly wouldn't look twice at online gaming. I'm kind of ignorant as to how that's coming in other parts of the world.
What I got from the "and I'm guessing here") was him guess HOW the Sushi X persona came about, not guessing as to who the writer behind him was. He seemed pretty clear that it was Ken Williams. There didn't seem to be much speculation on that, actually.
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Not only was your comment rude, but completely not funny. But good job. And by the way, argue semantics with me all you want ("my company"), but you should know that those in retail management positions and higher up tend to see checks a wee bit higher than $200. It's usually around $203.48 after taxes.
"All you're doing by carding is creating a rich environment for someone to make money off of buying games for kids and sellling it to them for a little profit."
You're kidding me, right? This is a stretch...it's not perfect by any means, but it works. I've seen it. A child walks up to the counter and attempts to purchase GTA: San Andreas. They're met with, of course, a speech about how it's an M rated game and they'll need to have proof of age or an adult. So they grab their parent.
"What game are you getting," they'll ask.
The cashier explains what the game is about and shows them the ESRB rating. The incredulous parent says, "Heck no! Pick out a nice dirt bike game."
Carding just "worked." That happens more often than not. Does that happen all of the time? Nah. Your scenario about how this is creating some kind of "Buy Games for Underage Kids" underground is a bit far fetched however and not a really great argument against it.
Sure, there are people who will tell you that they love their Gamecube more than life itself, but 99% of the time it's what you'd call your typical "fanboy." Whatever that might mean.
I'm surprised to see what a burden it is for some people to actually have to pull out their ID to show it to a cashier before purchasing an M rated game.
Listen, I work video game retail and my company requires that myself and all of my employees verify that a purchaser is 17 years or older before buying an M rated game. In many cases, it's certainly not necessary, but if you're carding one person, you should probably, as a rule, card everyone. I've seen 16 year olds who look like they're 29 and 29 year olds who look like they're 16.
"But I have a full beard!" Congratulations - I knew this girl in middle school who was rocking some chin hair for awhile. All of the kids used to send her to get pork rinds, Hustler and cigarettes from the local Exxon. Now I'm an overweight, porn addicted chain smoker.
If someone asks to see your ID and you're insulted or inconvenienced, talk to your doctor about changing your meds. We're not playing surrogate parent, we're just trying to enforce the ESRBs ratings here. I have had some of my employees NOT card teenagers when purchasing an M rated game and there have been instances where the parent came back wondering why we sold them Mortal Theft Autohunt: Streets of LA. This isn't a particularly good situation to be in for a company (or a store manager who has to calm an irate parent), so it's a good practice to have.
And trust me, I for one think that there are indeed many children not "of age" who are "mature" enough to play Manhunt or Halo 2. But it's not my job to decide that and there's certainly no harm in erring on the side of caution. Hell, you're going into your wallet anyhow; your ID is already right there, man!
In terms of people downloading their own rosters and console game modding...football games, on the whole, are a very mainstream arena. EAs Madden sells systems to people who use them for nothing more than to PLAY Madden. Downloading rosters, modding games...this is foreign talk or geek talk to many people and it would go right over there head. And in the meantime, they're going to think any game that doesn't have their team's logo, stats, or name is lame. Because on a very basic level, that's one of the major changes in these types of games from year to year.
Like any console or handheld, it's going to come down to the software, ultimately. I think the PSP is going to have a stronger library than any of Nintendo's handheld's have seen since the launch of the GBA...that is of course, barring Nintendo exclusive franchise titles, which will be the reason to own a DS (which is really the only good reason to own a Gamecube as an alternative to your actual gaming system).
From what I can gather, developers are hopping on the PSP bandwagon and finding it a more attractive system to develop for. The touch screen is novel and innovative, no doubt, and I hope it gets used in some fun, creative ways. Innovation does not always lead to success.
But being an owner of the DS and having played all of the software currently available, I'm having a hard time believing that this isn't a novelty that won't wear off. The most fun I have with it are playing mini-touch screen games. For all of my deeper gaming needs, I'm thinking I might be looking elsewhere.
It's advertising. Pick up any circular for Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, EB Games, Toys R' Us from the past three weeks and you're guaranteed to see advertisements for both items. Does it mean every location has them all of the time? Of course not. It's product. It sells out. But we get more - we'd like people to know that, yeah, we sell this product. And if a customer says "Hey, do you have any in stock," we politely explain that we're sold out, that we should be getting more in [insert approximation here] and the likelihood of that customer coming back to the store in order to acquire said item is greatly increased.
The concept of an empty display box isn't something new. What's worse is I've had people stand in front of my DS demo units and when I told them we're sold out they'd say "Well you have two right there." Pretty unbelievable how moronic people can come across.
Wrong, buddy. Not sure where you live, but in my area, you can NOT find the new PSTwo systems or DS systems anywhere. I'm the manager of a video game retail store and I can comfirm Mr. Game Crazy's account. I will get 6 DS systems tomorrow, all of which will sell out by noon and I will not see more until next Thursday. It'll be great.
Your reply makes some valid points, but has Nintendo fan boy written all over it. People can fight the "Nintendo is kiddie," argument all they want. The fact of the matter is...it's predominately geared towards a younger crowd. Feel The Magic isn't aimed at kids...but than again, it's not really aimed at anyone in particular, actually. In general, most kids AND adults GET it.
But maybe EB games works differently and they did off you because someone needed a Yacht...but that seems pretty unlikely and probably not good business practice.
How far into the game did you play? Too much combat? Not enough rooms to navigate? Are you insane? If anything, this game's platforming/navigation/trap avoiding is far more difficult than SoT. The fighting/navigation seems pretty well balanced. I think the fighting sticks out so much just because you're not necessarily expecting it to be there (and be more like SoT).
Beyond, Good and Evil 2 is already in production. Jade's a gun toting, vampire killing, drug dealing street walker. Linsday Lohan will be providing the voice and a remix of Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" will be played everytime you press the A button.
I had read about a lot of people experiencing similar issues, but I've played a few times on a bunch of servers this morning and it runs like a dream. It's an absolute blast and I look forward to seeing more maps and game modes released. For the record, I'm only running a PIV 2.4ghz, half a gig of ram, with a GeForce 4 MX. Hardly optimal, but everything runs super smooth. I, for one, am impressed.
Great copy protection scheme they have, no doubt. But, what if someone who purchased Half Life 2 didn't have access to the internet and therefore couldn't activate the game via Steam? Maybe this is unlikely that someone who would own a PC capable of running the game wouldn't have an internet connection, but I'm sort of curious how that would be handled.
The shipping date for the DS is indeed the 15th, which means they will probably arrive in stores on the 16th. HOWEVER, there is a street date of November 21st which is indeed a Sunday. Same goes for all of the launch games. I wouldn't be surprised if someone starts selling them next week...somewhere. Nintendo has yet to even give my store an interactive, which I had expected weeks ago. Oh well. We can all be using one soon enough!
Wait, hold on - are you being sarcastic, too? Because I guess you missed it but uh so were they. That's the entire point of the game.
You know, usually previews are for things that haven't been released yet. Seeing as how this has been available (at least in the US) since last week, it seems particularly pointless to have a preview of it. But yeah. It's tiny and it comes in a cute, white box. Yay.
Based on everything I've seen and read (previews, developer interviews), the puzzle aspects have not been tossed. An emphasis has been put on the fighting, however, since that's what did need the most work - the plan, I believe, is to mesh both the fighting and the puzzle in a more seamless fashion, as opposed to Sands of Time's "fight...puzzle...fight...puzzle" formula.
Actually, the combo pack has been done for quite some time (since around E3 and the price drop). Retailers have just been selling their warehouse stock since then. I was referring to the barebones system in my post. I've had a lot of customers tell me they've had trouble finding them anywhere but big box retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc) - they're able to purchase a lot more at once and probably have a ton of back stock.
But as far as getting more, it doesn't look like that's happening for awhile.
Let me back up this speculation with one more fact:
Sony has more or less recently stopped sending retailers Playstation 2 systems. This has been going on for at least two months and word is, we're not going to be getting any more in the next month, either. So of course you have to wonder, if they do intend on releasing this PStwo, what would be the point of supplying the market with more older models? Exactly!
Can't wait to see what this thing looks like (and if it has a broadband adapter built it...and where the HDD will go and if it actually plays media!)
There's this one game I had been hearing about for a long time. I've seen people play it, I've heard them rave about it, but I just never really got around to playing it. A few months ago, I finally took the dive: I found the game to have silly and cliched dialogue, repetative sequences, drab and uninspired artwork, music that didn't necessarily seem to fit the action, and pretty much everything I've seen in other games in it's genre...it was a competent game, but just kinda, you know...boring.
Overall, I found myself simply marching forward, plugging away, only beacuse I thought I owed it to myself to play what some people might argue is one of the best games of all time. Turns out, I found myself literally falling asleep while playing. No joke.
That game? It starts with an "H," it ends with an "O" and there's a sequel coming out in November. True story.
Anyone know how many homes have broadband connections in the Japan? Is it affordable? Because if I didn't have broadband in my house, I certainly wouldn't look twice at online gaming. I'm kind of ignorant as to how that's coming in other parts of the world.
This is one of these things in the works with XNA. Hold on to your pants!
What I got from the "and I'm guessing here") was him guess HOW the Sushi X persona came about, not guessing as to who the writer behind him was. He seemed pretty clear that it was Ken Williams. There didn't seem to be much speculation on that, actually.
A guess? I'm pretty sure he flat out says who was writing as the "original" Sushi-X.