Malik
(7/16/04)
With my purchase
of Tales of Symphonia, my view of the world has been focused mainly
on our source of geek pleasure...game stores. So, needless to
say, that is my focus for this week's Malik's Bitchings. So,
with a very large post today, I will not waste any more time with
introductions...after all, you should know the drill by now.
The Price We Pay
More times than
not, people in the gaming industry like to compare games with
movies, music, or other forms of entertainment when the shit hits
the fan. For example, when Congress raises hell about games being
too violent and causing uncalled for aggression in children, the
game industry is the first to (rightly) say that games should not be
held to higher standards than other entertainment (like movies, etc)
due to the nature of how video games are quite similar to other
forms of entertainment; I mean movies, music, TV, book, and even
contemporary theater all can show violence, sexual situations, or
whatever else is causing Congress to get pissy with the gaming
industry.
So, why is it that
the rest of the time, the gaming industry holds itself to be higher
and more mighty than their cousins in entertainment. Don't see what
I mean? Well, try going to Bestbuy, Target, Fred Meyer, Fry's, and a
few other stores that sell different forms of entertainment. Find a
single title of whatever besides games, and then check out the
price. Now go to the next store. Now the next one. Keep that up and
you will see a trend. The prices of DVDs, CDs, etc, are never the
same at every store. Even a new release on DVD that goes for $40
(let's imagine we're talking about a special edition movie) at one
store can be found for as much as $55 at another and as low as $25
at yet another store.
Now try to do the
same thing with video games. With a few rare exceptions, such as
Thief: Deadly Shadows for the XBox when it first came out, and
you'll find that they are always $49.99. If we geeks luck out, we
may find a new release for $49.95, and we may see the games get as
bad as $52.99. However, this is not the same story as you'd get from
any other form of digital entertainment (or a book, or whatever).
So, I'm left with the thought; Why are we geeks getting screwed when
other geeks can luck out with their chosen passion?
At the same time,
there's the question of competition. I mean with proper competition
the market place only improves for all of us who are concerned. On
one hand, the stores who sell us our products will have the chance
to win us over. I mean, would you rather shop at the store that has
a competitive nature and thus lowers their prices, or would you
rather shop at a place that only offers the worst possible prices? I
think the answer is obvious. This would definitely help to lower the
number of stores in the already overly saturated market...seriously,
there are some areas that have as many game stores per block as
Starbucks...and that is not a good thing. If, however, these stores
all offered different prices based on their desire to win us
customers over, the number of stores could diminish and the best
values could be had by all. In particular, since old games sell for
a range of prices (as stores try to clear their shelves for new
arrivals), but new games are always the same price, this could
encourage people to not shop at the most over priced (for old games)
stores and thus we can all get far more bang for our buck while
telling the overpriced places like Walmart (which was recently seen
as the most over priced store for games of the major nation wide
chains) to either clean up their act or to lose all of their
business in the larger markets (which have more game stores per
area).
Solution
Well, like I said,
the varying game stores and department stores that sell games need
to get into the mood for a little healthy competition. Rarely will a
brave company, like Bestbuy or Fry's did with Thief: DS, step
forward with an insanely low price on a new arrival. This only leads
to us feeling less loyal to any store, which in turns creates a less
friendly marketplace for us all. Plus, without the competition, the
number of cold (emotionally) and impersonal stores will only
continue to climb in the larger markets (like Seattle, where I am
based from).
It makes no sense
that in almost every possible market, the competition of the various
stores ensure a good blend of healthy prices and customer loyalty
but giving a wide ranges of prices, but game stores will not do the
same thing. This is a sad trend that must end for the sake of us
geeks and our hollow wallets.
The Starbucks of
Gaming
Recently...well,
this week...I got screwed over by EB in picking up a game I had
pre-ordered, and this left me thinking (check the post for 7/14/04
for my bitchy thinking) about the nature of game stores. In the
past, before games like FF7 and systems like the PSX made geeking
more mainstream, we had all sorts of game stores (at least in my
good old greater Seattle area). We had the national chains, like EB
and Software Etc and FuncoLand (the later two became Gamestop.com),
and the less than national stores like the countless ones that I
cannot remember the names of that we simple ma and pa style gaming
stores. The later of these would be the type of store that you would
feel funny entering at first since the clerks knew everyone who
visited the store (so on your first couple of visits it felt like
you simply didn't belong). Hell, even the national chains were small
enough that you would feel like a "member" of sorts after
a few visits since the management and clerks would know you after
only a few visits.
So, currently we
are faced with, more or less, two chains of national stores that
sell only video games (in other words, not department stores, like
Fred Meyers and Walmart, or general electronics stores, like Fry's
and Bestbuy), being EB and Gamestop. With these stores, the employee
turnover is so insanely quick that by the time a clerk begins to
recognize you they are out the door and off to far greener
pastures.
Plus, with many of
these national chains currently going, they will not just cause a
smaller store to go out of business, they will often times devour
the other stores (at least around here). Back in the day, for
example, I had EB, Software Etc, Super Software, and Funco Land all
within a 5 minute drive of each other (this area would be
Southcenter Mall...for those of you who live around here). Then, one
day, Super Software (a great place for used games), Software Etc (a
place for rarer games), and Funco Land (the best place for out of
print used games...ever) all became Gamestop, and all these stores
continued to thrive...all within 5 minutes of each other...isn't
this market saturation? Then, a few years later, EB went belly up at
Southcenter, so there are now 3 video game stores...all of which
would be Gamestops. Then, in the downtown Seattle area, there are
two game stores, of which they are both EBs.
So, my bitch is a
bit two-fold. Firstly, since used games can sell for various prices
depending on the chain (although all stores within the chain have
set prices for everything) of store you frequent, having this
Starbucks Syndrome (my word for an over abundance of a certain store
brand in one small area...since you can find in many areas an
average of about 5 blocks between Starbucks, at most, and sometimes
as many as three Starbucks per block...or more...I've seen 5 at one
location once...that's sad...who are they trying to compete against?
Themselves?) you're almost forced to buy all your games at a given
chain, even if the price is better (for used games...I mean I just
went over the new game price game) at a different chain, unless you
want to grossly go out of your way to another neighborhood to go to
another chain...and if you get there and see the price was better at
the first chain...well, then you have another trip back to the first
chain...blah.
My second
complaint is how with the lack of ma and pa style stores, there is
no incentive for customer loyalty. I mean, why would you keep going
to the same store over and over (assuming you have a selection in
your area) when no one who works there gives a shit if you're a
regular or not. I mean at the old Funco Land of Southcenter, the
manager (who was canned once Gamestop took over the game/name) got
to know most of my family and would set games aside for me (without
any reservation) when they came out if he thought I would be in in
the next couple of days to buy it. That was hella sweet. Instead of
that coolness, I now have to deal with EB selling my pre-ordered
Tales of Symphonia because their clerks are a bunch of idiots who
don't give a shit; and for a good reason...if you're probably going
to end up at another job in the next 6 months, would you give a shit
about your job? I think not...well, maybe at first, but not after
you've been there for a whole week. Plus, I imagine the current
chains treat their employees like crap, for the most part, since
usually one chain will be the only one in town (so, if someone wants
to work in a game store, they will have to take your crap or be shit
out of luck).
Solution
Sorry, but there
isn't really any solution to speak of...for now. However, the only
possibility to reverse this is if one of two things occurs. Firstly,
if the game industry hits a major recession, then the chains will
start to suffer and customer loyalty will then matter. Then things
could change, but this is not a situation I want to see (the game
industry suffering, that is).
Secondly, some
store could show up out of the blue and start to offer some insanely
low prices in order to take down the gaming giants. This is unlikely
since the few independent store currently out there have the
definite problem of the major stores getting most of the business
and word of mouth/media advertisements. Thus, a smaller store
usually needs higher prices in order to survive the lower number of
customers. This, in turn, creates fewer customers in the long run,
and things once again revert to the static state of the two national
chains winning all. It's a lose-lose battle for the minor stores
(low prices=no income or higher prices=no customers...in the end
both turn into a store biting the dust).
A sad situation
indeed.
The End of an Era
Normally I like to
get in at least three Bitchings things into each Malik's Bitchings
column, but something came up this week that just shattered my
thinking process...that being Doom 3 going gold. This is the type of
news that almost makes me cry...not just because of the thought of
another crappy game crowding the overly crowded store shelves.
The main fact of
this issue is that I'm not going to be able to fall back on Doom 3
for ideas for this column anymore when bitchable subjects start to
run thin. True, I will be able to complain about the quality of this
game ("ooohhhhh...scarry....that skeleton has rocket launchers
on it's shoulders...someone hold me...it's too scary!"), but I
can complain about E3 showing the same footage of D3 every year with
the same empty promises of this previously dubbed
"vaporware" coming out in the next year. Plus I can't
complain about how ID gives us a crappier screenshot every couple of
months to try to actually get us excited about this sad creative
vision. It's like we're at the end of the perfect era for a bitchy
geek like myself.
I mean to wrap up
the recent developments; Phantom is actually no longer just a pipe
dream (although it is a pretty lame idea, none the less...a PC
without a CD drive or disk drive), Half Life 2 will actually (in all
likelihood) come out this year and will no longer fall back to the
stolen source code as an excuse for their vaporware project, Halo 2
is actually set for a real release date, Fable has a release date
(more or less...at least a set couple of weeks in September), and
now Doom 3 is gold...sigh...this is the end of a really fun and
bitchy era of vaporware and "phantom" projects.
Solution
Well, unless
Activision goes belly up in the next week, I don't think Doom 3 is
being stopped, but there's good news in all of this. No matter what
happens, I'm a bitchy geek with a voice to share what is wrong in
the game industry, so I will carry on despite the major set backs of
2004 (the actual releases of the unreleasable)...so, have no
fear...at least until you see an upside-down head with robotic
spider legs...then you'll know fear...Doom 3 is so scary!
Conclusion
Well, it's been a
hell of a weird week for me with that Doom 3 news, so I'll be glad
to conclude this week and get ready for a new week of things to
bitch about. Anyway, if you have a problem with my lack of faith in
Doom 3, you know how to contact me,
or you can hit the forums.
Malik
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