Buzzscope: If you want to buy video games, buy them anywhere but Electronics Boutique. Just so you all know, The Mad Gamer was at one point in time an employee of EB. I’ve seen it all, done it all, and now I will repent for my past sins by dishing out all the dirt you never knew about EB. In the end you’ll be glad that you’ve read what I have to say.

I read what he had to say… I’m still shopping at ebGames, even before it games taken over by GameSpot.

Cry baby shit. Worse than the whole “we’re over worked at EA” fest that was going around last year, true, but I still equate the two together. I mean, don’t get me wrong: abuse of employees is wrong. I firmly believe that. But when you’ve got software designers and retail workers making the same complaints that sweatshop kids from a Kathy Lee factory in Asia are making, there’s a problem. The kids have a right; the well fed, white collar workers do not. The whole article about EB is moot and obvious, at least to me, and frankly the kid doesn’t have much to complain about.

Let’s look at the finer points, shall we?

Wages: There’s no amount of money that a company could give you that could compensate you for the abuse that the public can give you. Honest. It could be $50/hour and you’d still feel cheated. Such as it is, I would bet that EB employees make more than minimum wage, and that too takes the bite out of the argument. You’re making more than an average McDonald’s worker and you don’t smell like grease when you go home – count that as a blessing. Oh, and you probably get discount – or at least early access – to games; call that another perk to compensate for a mediocre wage.

Personal opinions [on product]: Ever wonder why customers rarely ask car salesmen their opinion of the car that they’re selling? They already know the answer that “it’s a great car!”. Yeah, this too is another side effect of retail: you’re never allowed to say something that is up for sale sucks. It’s bad for business. Can’t be an EB only thing. Along the same lines, ever wonder how magazine advertising works? Ever wonder why the manufacturer of an Editor’s Choice of an issue has the most ads placed in that product class? Did they place the ads before or after they won the award? Hard to say. Either way, this shouldn’t be an issue – it’s not like Blockbuster, where Average Joe comes in to browse and wants a good movie… clientèle at EB is pointed and often knowledgeable about what they’re looking for.

Trade-in Policy: Dude, what the hell are you thinking? You think they’re going to take a game in at the same price they’re going to sell for? So they take in the game, check it out as “working” and then release it back to the public for free? The naivety is refreshing but, WTF? I trade in to EB when it’s convenient. I traded in Madden 06 for the XBox. Got back $20 which applied to my XBox 360 pre-order. Will they sell it for $35? Sure. Could I have gotten $35 if I pawned it on eBay? Possibly. But for $5? $10? Easier to trade it in. For GTA3 on the PS2 they offered me $5. I took it b/c it’s a not-in-demand title. Jeez.

Broken Used Games: This has to be a specific issue for the cartridge based games. I mean, DVD’s, CD’s, UMD’s? They don’t “break”. Sure they can get scratched to the point of uselessness, but um, can’t you see that when you buy them? Or is it like you get a used PS2 DVD, look at the disc, take it home, and it spontaneously scratches itself to hell and back again? Does the disc shatter after two uses or something? Cartridges are another matter, and since I haven’t had a cart based system for years, I can’t speak to their sales habits. I just know what we all know: you can’t see inside the cartridge. If we can’t, how can EB be expected to? I can’t comment much on this one… but I do know that one EB store took advantage of the Goats’ wife by selling a warrantee for a PSP game, but in her defense, how could she know that it wasn’t needed? Besides, if this was for a child, it might even be a handy add-on, since the disc could have gotten mauled.

Pre-Order: Again, the naivety is neat, but oi. This is common practice for nearly all pre-order and layaway orders everywhere. If ya took the time to read the receipt, you’ve find that there’s a finite amount of time that they will hold an item. It’s not like an hour or two. Or even 24 hours. It’s weeks before they’ll munch your deposit. If it’s not listed on any of the receipts or paperwork, then you’ve got a case, but the odds of that happening in today’s day and age? Unlikely.

Lame. Get off the soap box and be glad you didn’t have to be a french fry technician to support your gaming habit.

Very Lame.