If you buy games online a lot it’s possible to forget all the horrors of retail. Last weekend I went downtown on a game buying binge but was sadly reminded how depressing actual stores can be, not to mention their customers.
I set out to buy Zack & Wiki and Singstar (with microphones). You’d think that would be an easy mission, but after visiting five different stores I was still empty-handed. To my huge surprise I couldn’t even find a Singstar microphone bundle at any Free Record Shop (the main DVD/CD/game chain store in The Netherlands; think HMV or Virgin Megastore). I did find two stand-alone editions of SingStar in a bargain bin, but that was all.
I will accept that Zack & Wiki can be hard to find, but if I can’t find FREAKIN’ SINGSTAR at a Free Record Shop, there’s something terribly wrong. Isn’t Singstar just about the most mainstream game you can think of? Of course, I had forgotten that you should never go to any of these stores for a pre-meditated purchase. These stores expect you to go there and impulse buy whatever they happen to have in stock.
I overheard three teenage kids trying to decide whether to buy Super Mario Galaxy or Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. They were going for the latter because one of them said “it looks like a sports game, and I like sports games!”. I should have pointed my finger in the air and said “I’ll take the case!” and told these kids about the huge mistake they were about to make, but of course I didn’t.
Later I overheard two customers trying to decide whether to buy The Orange Box. One guy said he’d heard some good things about it. Then the other one said he “already owned Half-Life 2″ and “didn’t want to pay for it again”. Sigh. Who will teach them?
I’m not at all grumpy, by the way. No grumpiness…
Fortunately I remembered a small independent game store, so I went there and was greeted by the store owner, a happy middle-aged guy. I found what I wanted and also picked up a copy of ICO for good measure, as I never actually completed that game. While I was browsing, a man asked the store owner to advise him on what to buy for his two sons. The store owner happily guided him away from licensed crap and recommended him three really good games, The Orange Box among them.
Meanwhile, a kid was standing hunched over the counter with a PS2 controller in his hands playing Bully on a monitor behind the counter. He was trying to decide whether to buy it, and talked to his dad and the store owner about the controls and how the game had some “typical Rockstar” elements. I have no idea what he meant, but it somehow sounded a lot better than “I like sports games so I’ll buy Mario & Sonic”.
The only mic bundle for Singstar is apparently the Disney High-School Musical edition which… umm… yeah. Fortunately, the store owner took the microphone box, cut it open with a knife and switched out the cd case with Singstar Rocks. I’m not sure if he’s supposed to do that, but nice service. We chatted briefly about ICO and then I was on my way with a smile on my face and my faith in retail and humanity slightly restored.
If you’re in Amsterdam and you’re going to buy games, go to Powerplay in the Van Woustraat.
If I’ll visit Amsterdam in June during my vacation, I’ll most definitely visit Powerplay, seems like a great place.
We have even more problems here in Finland with gameshops, there are no real gameshops existing anymore, not even big chains. Only supermarkets have games and you know that there you get no service what so ever and only the mainstream hype games are on display always.
We used to have two excellent independent gameshops in the 90’s, both of them went bankcrupt in the end, such a huge shame… I was a regular customer for both shops.
Now I just buy games online, but I sometimes kind of dream about those good old stores where I got real customer service and even special deals sometimes for used games.
Kolzig
February 6th, 2008
1) That independent game shop sounds glorious
2) I’ve had some painful “overheard at a game shop” moments:
- A father browsing used Xbox games with his 5-year-old (or so) son: “Hey, you want this Grand Theft Auto? You want this Vice City? Hey how about that Terminator 3?”
- A frattish guy on a cell phone: “I’m looking at games, bro… yeah they got ‘Lost Planet,’ I think I’ve heard of that, I’ll pick it up.” (joke was on him– it was a preorder box)
- A kid about 10 years old holds up the Unreal Tournament 3 box to his mother: (insistently) “No, mom! It’s not blood, it’s just war! Like my other games! It’s like Halos. It’s a Halo.”
Steve
February 13th, 2008