I have an awesome package coming my way from amazon.com. It will contain Halo 3: ODST, the first Uncharted game, and blu-rays of both Gladiator and Terminator 2. I initially set it for the free shipping option, waited 24 hours, couldn’t bear the thought of waiting another week, and upgraded to the two day option. I love buying video games. And while it seems inevitable — and perhaps for the best — that we’re moving to an all-download future that will be devoid of physical media, I’ll continue loving the physicality of a new box in my hand so long as they’re around.
I’ll tell you one aspect of the video game purchasing experience I left behind a long time ago, though — the video game specialty store. The reasons are many — the prices are at least as high as Amazon or Best Buy; you are typically bombarded with terrible sales pitches from underpaid, angsty-looking teenagers; the selection isn’t nearly as diverse as one might expect from a store that sells almost nothing but games; and on and on.
It’s a shame, in a way. When I was a kid, I often frequented my local Electronics Boutique several times a week. The clerks knew me, some of them by name. Even though I was a kid with little to no money, I loved hanging out in there. I could talk shop with the other customers. And when I was an angsty teenager myself, I spent one memorable summer, and the following Christmas, working the EB sales floor, cash register and back room. Oh man, that backroom. I would get stuck back there for hours, re-sealing returned “new” games in shrink wrap and prepping “used” games more or less the same way, if memory serves.
But something changed as the years went by. It was probably just me getting older and crankier, but being pestered by employees when I just want to browse the shelves really started to drive me nuts. Used games in general have never really appealed to me — I support my game developers, thank you very much — and the mall in general is a place I avoid whenever possible. So yeah, you won’t see me in Gamestop unless I’m desperately hunting for some hard to find game they will invariably not have.
Best Buy is ok for new releases, but frankly even then I’ve found their stock to be shockingly lacking at times. It was month’s after the World Ends With You was released, for example, by the time the nearest Best Buy received any copies, and by then I was tied up with some other bullshit. Another game for the Season of Completion, perhaps.
But my point is this — it would be kind of nice to have a local shop that actually carried the games I’m looking for, had fair prices, and was staffed by knowledgeable-though-NOT-overbearing sales staff. I haven’t had a place like that since I was a kid, though. Considering we probably won’t be buying physical copies of games anymore in a few short years, I doubt I’m going to have that again.
