Some Other Hassle: Gaming Retail

I haven’t had time to play much that’s not on a cellphone in the last week, but I still managed to be completely annoyed by something in gaming. No, I don’t want to preorder. No, I don’t want the strategy guide. No, I don’t want to pay more for shinier packaging. I’m really, really sure. No, I don’t want to buy your crappy “insurance” on the product. And especially, I don’t want to have to purchase (or preorder) the game at a certain retailer to get access to “extra content.”

I miss the days when you could walk into a store and purchase something. But now, oh no, if you didn’t know that you wanted the game six months before it came out, give the retailer an interest-free loan, you will miss out on launch content, be badgered for not preordering the game, be told that there isn’t a copy for you, and generally treated like a chump. The whole concept of “preordering” gives absolutely no benefit to the consumer, and a whole lot of extra perks to the retail chain. The very fact that “preorder” isn’t coming up as a misspelling on my spelling checker should ruffle a few feathers. Yes. I’m a bird now.

When did we decide that we were okay with putting up with this? I haven’t gotten to play too many games lately, but the retailers aren’t making that any easier. Hypothetically, a game that I want is coming out soon—this week. Except, the date given by stores, websites, online, etc is a dirty, filthy, lie. Why would I have any interest, as a customer, in knowing the ship date of a game? Why would you tell me a date that is anything but the date that I can exchange legal tender for your product? Why would you expect me to have any knowledge of the logistics of your supply chain? Honestly. Tell me when I can walk into your store, and in a single transaction, give you money in exchange for a game. No, I don’t want to have to come in TWICE, and give you money TWICE to buy ONE game. No, I don’t want to pay extra for the shinier package. I know you’re saying to yourself, “why doesn’t he just buy online?” Online purchases deserve their own rant.

Then, there’s the fact that you have to be prescient to get all the content available on release anymore. The most recent game I’ve played, Infamous (no, I will not justify their horrid choice of mixed case), includes an entire extra superpower for those who have preordered the game from Gamestop. Not knowing much about this game before it was released, it wasn’t on my radar at all. That said, I picked it up a few days after it came out, and absolutely loved it—even finished it in a marathon playthrough and immediately started a game on hard mode afterwards. For a superhero sandbox game, leaving out a superpower for customers who didn’t have their own superpower of scrying the future is kind of harsh. I mean, it’s not like I couldn’t have used the ability to make Wolverine-like claws out of electricity. It would have made the game much more awesome. This isn’t the only recent game to pull this stunt, however. Fable II, Gears of War 2, Halo Wars and several other high-profile games exclude content to customers who don’t provide Gamestop with an interest-free loan before the release of a game (on top of the already ridiculous charge of sixty of your Earth Dollars). Even so, shady employees of the stores might take your prize for themselves.

I’m not seeing too many reasons for customers to actually want to shop at game-specific retail stores. Heck, I didn’t even mention the whole “pawn shop” aspect going on. I’d love to be proven wrong, however. So, comment away, people.