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I bought GH3 on opening night, and didn't play it for about 3 months straight, so I took it and the guitar up to GameStop. My guitar was decked out in NG stickers and shit, and the game was in great condition.

I get about 50 for it. Ballzack, I go buy Mario Kart Wii. Bullshit game, piece of shit worthless, I take it to GameStop, completely awesome looks like it was never played condition WITH THE GODDAMN WHEEL WITH IT.

I get 28 bucks. I wanted to trade it in for the 3 pack of MGS games (1 2 and 3) which was 30, and I was 2 dollars short because of those cheap ass bastards.

Lucky for me, the workers there are fucking awesome and one of them swiped their card in, which gave me enough for the 3 pack, but still! 28 fucking dollars for a new game, hardly played WITH the damn peripheral? You'd think that'd be more than 28 goddamn bucks, but nooo.

My GH controller has been in a box for months (I know because it's sticking out of it, and I can clearly see my awesome faceplate and Pico sticker) for 35 bucks.

I miss him so :(

I have experienced that situation with a few N64/Gamecube games, though most were ones I didn't give a shit about in the first place. The only game I regret selling was (of all games) Luigi's Mansion. I didn't like the game then, but low and behold, now 7 years later when I actually want to play it, I forgot I sold it off years ago.
Also, it's important to go to independant gaming places if you want to buy most used games for all pre-PS3/Wii/360 systems, and all portable systems. They actually will have games for older systems, and those games will be cheaper than what EB Games will try to pull off.
Really, just keep your games, or don't buy them at all; what's renting games for, eh?

At 6/24/08 12:41 AM, TheBigLemon wrote:

Lucky for me, the workers there are fucking awesome and one of them swiped their card in, which gave me enough for the 3 pack, but still! 28 dollars for a new game, hardly played WITH the damn peripheral? You'd think that'd be more than 28 goddamn bucks, but nooo.

You are lucky that you got that much. You got over 50% of your investment back. Just like a car, it losses half of its value as soon as you drive it off the lot. Games lose half of their value as soon as they are opened.

Sadly, I had a Wii. Of course I wanted to rid myself of it, so I tried selling it locally. That didn't work out, so I had to sell it back. A Wii is $250 and I had 4 games. So thats a value of $450. I got $250. Then a week after I had like 10 calls about the fucking thing.

I completely raped Game (in London) one day when they had a deal on where you could buy any game for £1 plus handing in any used game that wasn't football or wrestling.

I went to their bargain bucket and bought three shitty games that were going for £3 to £5 each and then traded them back to them for Metal Gear Solid 3, Gran Turismo 4 and Tekken 5.

MGS3 and GT4 were brand new releases and Tekken 5 was out for about 3 months.

So I got over £90 worth of games for about £15.

Sweetness.

At 6/23/08 11:46 PM, DirtySyko wrote: I try my best to never buy games at Gamestop.

I'm suprised by how much people hate GameStop and other similar stores. I almost never have any problems when I go there. In fact, I sometimes have some pretty interesting conversations with the employees.

The only problem I had at GameStop was when I bought a used game. I had to pay for the game before I actually got to see the case, as a result I ended up buying a game with no case or instuction manuel. Luckily the guy gave me a refund right away, so I wasn't stuck with just the disk.

When you trade in games, two things happen (in a nutshell):

1: You regret the decision. I have never re-sold or traded in a game and later not had a painful nostalgic longing for it. Games that were particularly bad decisions to get rid of:
-Final Fantasy VII - god damn it
-StarCraft - Such a bad idea. I later bought the entire Battle Chest again for $20.
-Gauntlet: Dark Legacy - not exactly one of the best rated games ever, but extremely fun to pound away at...really not a good idea.

I've also let people "borrow" a few games I wish I never let out of my sight:
-007 GoldenEye
-Perfect Dark
-Star Wars: Dark Forces
-Tomba

I think I can fairly say re-selling, trading, or lending games just leads to terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

2: You hurt the gaming industry. In an article I read in Game Developer a couple of months back, the editor wrote on the damages done to the industry by companies such as Game Stop. Whenever anyone re-sells a game, it means less profit for the game industry. Every time someone buys a game that was already in circulation, it means the publisher doesn't need to make more copies and sell them to distributors, which means the game companies don't make that extra money.

The industry is also hurt by things like game rentals, which are a much quicker form of the same thing. The only games protected from this are PC games, because they cannot be rented or re-sold. This is because they are too easy to copy and could be distributed indefinitely in this manner.

Bottom Line
-Don't ever get rid of your old games. You will regret it.
-Support distribution options like Steam. They are direct lines from publisher to gamer.

Sorry to be preachy, but this thread was a perfect opportunity to share this information...information every gamer should know.

FOR...EV...ER
FOR...EV...ER
^epic fade-out

I never trade my games. I am a collector and a gamer. All of my games are a part of my childhood, of my life. I would never give any of them away.

At 6/24/08 03:20 PM, Deadly-Shadow wrote:

The only problem I had at GameStop was when I bought a used game. I had to pay for the game before I actually got to see the case, as a result I ended up buying a game with no case or instuction manuel. Luckily the guy gave me a refund right away, so I wasn't stuck with just the disk.

After reading this it made me think of something else that happened to me.

I asked them for a DS game, they had one copy left and it was the display case copy. The display case was pretty crappy looking, with fingerprints and smudges, and had a giant yellow sticker on it. I was like, "Ah, no thanks man, I'll just get it some other time." and he is like "What's the problem?" And I tell him I don't really want it because it was the display case and has the sticker on it, yatta yatta, and he laughs and is like "I can take the sticker off you know." So he does and it just leaves shitty residue behind, and I'm like "Eh, I don't really want it man. When I buy new stuff I like it to look in new condition, I'm just anal about that kind of stuff."

After that I got one of the shittiest looks I've probably ever had from an employee of any place, and he just laughed, shrugged and went, "Whatever man," and basically walked away. I'm a pretty calm and collected guy when it comes to dealing with store workers, because I know they take a lot of shit, so instead of being like, "What's your fucking deal?" I just left.

Although, I have blown up on a Gamestop employee before, after so much built up frustration with dealing with them, I just finally let it out, and this is something I rarely do. I bought a game and my old 360 scratched it all up out of nowhere. I didn't move the 360 or anything, the disc just started scratching very loud and violently, and I had my 360 replaced. I've heard of this happening with other people to, but anyways...

So, after Microsoft customer service told me they couldn't do anything about my game, I called up Gamestop. It had been less than a month since I bought the game, I thought I was covered. Wrong. I didn't purchase the "gameplay guarantee". What the fuck is that? I had no idea, nobody ever offered me that. He told me what it was and said he was sorry he couldn't do anything. That's when I finally decided to get pissed off. I was like, "Look, I've bought games from Wal-mart and Target and they have a fucking 90 day warranty on them. If the game has been opened you can return it for another copy of the same game, up to 90 days. You cover a week if it's unopened, and 3 days if it's been opened? That's ridiculous. Now I'm stuck with a game I can't play because I didn't buy insurance you didn't offer me. This is a fucking joke, Wal-mart and Target do 90 days and a store based around games does 3?" He cut me off at one point and said he would exchange the game "this time", but in the future I need to get the gameplay guarantee, which cost $3.

The best part about the story is, in the future I bought more games from this guy and he asked me if I wanted the gameplay guarantee, and each time I have told him no. The look on his face is just... Too awesome.

At 6/24/08 03:53 PM, CircleNineStudios wrote:

2: You hurt the gaming industry. In an article I read in Game Developer a couple of months back, the editor wrote on the damages done to the industry by companies such as Game Stop. Whenever anyone re-sells a game, it means less profit for the game industry. Every time someone buys a game that was already in circulation, it means the publisher doesn't need to make more copies and sell them to distributors, which means the game companies don't make that extra money.

This is nonsense. I read the same article and that guy is a moron. I also read an article in Writer's Digest with an author ranting about how buying used books is bad and hurts the writer, and I wrote in with my two cents and was put in the magazine in the column where people write in with their thoughts.

The same thing I said about books applies to used video games.

- It's not illegal. People have been selling used things for years. You go to garage sales and buy used CDs, books, games, lamps, clothes, radios, vacuums, etc. Buying anything used takes away money from that industry, but it's a fact of life. It's your possession, do with it what you want.

- The article is hypocritical. The author makes it sound like he has never bought a used game. Maybe he hasn't, but has he ever borrowed a game from a friend? Has he lent a game out? Rented a game? These people who say this shit are like all those preachers you see on TV who end up fucking prostitutes like Jimmy Swaggart. Don't preach what you don't follow.

- It's supposed to be art, isn't it? Books, movies, video games, aren't they supposed to be a form of art? I know video games have been fighting to convince the public it's an art form for years. Why would you be upset that people are enjoying your work? So what if a guy bought your game used, he is experiencing your artwork, and maybe if he likes it enough he will buy the next game you release brand new. Of course they want to get paid, and it's not like they aren't getting money for their work, but they should just be happy that it's getting out and more people are getting to play it. Maybe they should take a lesson from smart musicians like Trent Reznor who will distribute their music for free. It's not like the guy isn't getting paid, just like these video game developers who are against buying used games, and more people are experiencing his work, which in turn is getting him a bigger fan base.

At 6/23/08 11:46 PM, DirtySyko wrote: I don't know why I can't just go in, get a game, and leave. It's never that simple. The employees will gang rape me with their elitist video game opinions, try to impress me, and then belittle me when I don't want to purchase the collector's edition of whatever game I am buying.

Sounds like my visits to the local guitar store. That's why I try to stock up on a few sets of strings to avoid going there often.

I traded in my PS2, and Xbox hoping to get enough for Gears when it first came out. For both (in great condition) I only got $30. I still want to beat the fuck out of the guys who ripped me off.

At 6/24/08 03:53 PM, CircleNineStudios wrote: -Star Wars: Dark Forces

I have Dark Forces laying around; I could give it to you if you want.

Let me guess: I am going to get banned because of this.

DirtySyko, your stories about GameStop remind me of Best Buy or Direct2Drive/Game stop.

One long and one short story really quick and longly.

Best Buy/Geek Squad:

My computer fan is acting funny. I bring it into Best Buy's Geek Squad that I have a warranty with. There's 8 people there, all getting paid. By Best Buy/Geek Squad. One of them surely can fix my computer, yes? Oh, but no. They must ship it to butt fuck midwest somewhere, which they say will take 2 weeks. Whatever, I can go 2 weeks without my computer and the fan is annoying me.

2 weeks go by, and I call up Geek Squad. "Is my computer in?" I ask, to which i get the response "We just shipped it yesterday, it should arrive within 7 days or so." The, fuck. So you're tell me you've had my computer sitting in your back room with just a simple fan problem for 2 weeks, and no one has even attempted to fix it or send it out until yesterday? I'm angry, but I hold back.

Another week and a half goes by or so, and I give another call, wanting a status update. "It just arrived and we don't know, try again tomorrow". I try again tomorrow. "Oh well they haven't had the chance to look at it yet." The fuck? I call again the next day, "Well, the motherboard is shot and the computer doesn't run, so we need to replace it." he says, "How the hell did that happen?" I ask, "Well we got it that way." Fuck you. You did not get it that way, it was perfectly fine, just loud. "How long will this take?" I ask. "Oh about 2 weeks." WONDERFUL I call up the next day, seeing if there was any progress on it, "Nothing has really changed. Oh by the way your hard drive needed to be wiped clean." Oh fuck you. I had the only pictures of my puppy on that. This is what pissed me off the most. Oh, and then he has the balls to tell me it would have cost 150 dollars anyhow. Yeah, go fuck yourself Mr. Minimum wage.

I let up for a week, depressed as I am to be a month now without a computer. I'm forced to masturbate to the Wii internet channel when it was in beta...which wasn't very easy to navigate. I call them up to see if my computer is almost ready. It's not. I call back every, fucking, day, for the next 4 weeks. 4 fucking weeks.

Finally, they tell me they're going to ship back my blank, fan fixed, motherboard replaced computer which has been taken hostage by best buy for so many months. After a week of calling, it's in. I nearly have a heart attack out of shock. They return my baby to me. I hate them for keeping us apart, however I'm also in a state of bliss that my computer is returned to me. I come home, plug her in, start her up...

And I get all my old information. The hard drive wasn't wiped? Oh Best Buy guys, you shit heads. How dare you make me depr- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? The fan starts up. The fan that was supposed to be fixed. Starts up. Loud as a mother fucker. I open it up, look inside, and see they haven't even done so much as to blow the fucking thing out of dust. They had my computer for nearly 3 months, and they haven't even blown the fucking thing out?!

I call them up, furied, demanding I get a new computer from them. At this point they're sick of my voice. They're sick of my calling. They're sick of my number coming up on their caller I.D. They accept. I get a superior computer that's worth 200 dollars more than my past one. I am pleased, however I demand one more favor. I demand they burn my data from my old hard drive to CD's so I may keep my dog pictures. They agree, but say...it will take up to two weeks. I'm moving in a week, and am far too busy to pick them up, so I tell them I'll be in within the next 2 months to pick them up.

A month and a half goes by. I give them a ring, as I am settled in my new house with my mother and dog, now fully grown. I say, "Hi, J-------- P-------- calling, you have some back up disks of mine?", they respond "Hold on a second, let me check."............................."Yea h we threw those out last week."

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I hang up, angered to no extent, and have only gone there once after for my graphics card, which was cheaper there. Geek Squad, don't use, moral of the story.

Direct 2 Drive/Game Stop:

This one will pale in comparison to the last, but it's still ridiculous.

I pre-order Spore creature creator off of D2D right when it's posted, very little info on it. I come back the next day "6/18/08". Oh hell no, not a day after I could simply get it at the store, I think. So I ask for a refund.

"THIS PRODUCT IS NON-REFUNDABLE, AS IT SAYS HERE (Link to WoW for a reason I don't know). I send a scathing email back, saying there was no reason to hold the refund considering it wasn't released yet, I had no download link, no product key, nothing. They send an email back saying they'll refund my card as a "Courtesy". Yeah whatever makes you sleep at night bitch.

So I wake up the 17th, happy as could be. My beloved Creature Creator is getting released. I go to their website, type in my zip code..."This Product Isn't Available Within 100 Miles of You". Wha-..how dare you. How dare you, sir. I call up the store, and they tell me it's being released the 18th. I know it's released today, considering I know basically everything about the game at this point. I call a bunch of other stores, not available at any.

This is more towards released dates. Don't post a release date as when it's being shipped, post it when it's going to be on the shelves. Jesus Christ people.

At 6/25/08 05:37 PM, Jezuz wrote: motherboard blown.

There's a conspiracy with motherboards becoming faulty.

I knew someone who had to buy about 6 motherboards because each of them blew. So either they were taking him for a ride or they didn't ground themselves which is easily done by touching a non painted bit of metal.

At 6/25/08 05:44 PM, BlueFlameSkulls wrote:

There's a conspiracy with motherboards becoming faulty.

I knew someone who had to buy about 6 motherboards because each of them blew. So either they were taking him for a ride or they didn't ground themselves which is easily done by touching a non painted bit of metal.

Why on Earth would he pay for that many? Wouldn't the motherboard still be under warranty?

The only game I can ever recollect returning that wasn't a rental was Sonic Heroes, and I did that within a few days for full price.

Now, can you blame me?

Though now I have a huge bundle of games to sort through and put in the right cases, at the end of it hopefully I'll have a nice awesome stack of games to show off though.

The following games I traded in.
http://batdan.newgrounds.com/news/post/1 43350
At least the ones I can remember.

And Gamestop gave me jack shit for all that. Even MvC2 they only gave me $35 for it.

Of course I wanted to recall all the games I traded in, but Gamestop "purges their systems" on a regular basis so I have to recall them all by memory.
Bastards.

At 6/23/08 07:30 PM, Thegluestickman wrote: I tried, but the retards at EB games wouldn't let me, I traded in a brand fucking new game, not even open the plastic was still on it! "Um... There's to many of these games, $2"

So you mean, after all that hard work stealing it from whatever other store, they still wouldnt give you a good offer for it? Man, I bet you were mad.

At 6/23/08 07:09 PM, AshfordPride wrote:

At 6/23/08 07:04 PM, kidd25 wrote: ...ebay anybody:Dwe buy it,play it,and sell at the same price. ITS EBAY!

You go, eBay. I sure do love paying thirty five dollars for God Hand. Thanks for the seven dollar shipping and handling fee.

Ha, welcome to the future!!! Where everything is a million times easier and faster at a million times the cost! Yay!!!

I remember a while back when EB was still EB they had a promotion where you could stick all the games you wanted to trade into a big bag, slap a sticker that they circulated in EGM on it and get 30% more credit on them. I traded in so many awesome games that I should have just held onto. I think after all was said and done I'd gotten something like $170. I rode that as my gaming allowance for the next year and I thought I was hot shit for being such a thrifty consumer. It was still probably a rip off, but back then, since none of my friends wanted to buy any of my games, it was the only avenue a kid had to unload the games he wasn't playing. At least it was something.

The big gaming chains used to have good trade in deals all the time and I keep seeing less and less of them. I remember there used to be promotions where you could tade in three old games for a new one. All you had to do was find three shitty games and bring 'em in, no questions asked. I guess they wisened up and realized that most people will trade in their games regardless so there's no need to entice them with an offer that's at least marginally better than the usual paltry sum.

Yeah they totally rip you off. I just went to trade in some stuff at Gamestop yesterday and heres what I got for everything:

GTA IV: 30.00
Gameboy Advance: 9.00 (WTF!?)
Gameboy Advance SP: 20.00
Six Gameboy Advance Games ranging from .25 to 8.00
PSP Headphones w/Button Attachment (New): 1.00
X BOX 360 Remote: 4.00

It really pisses me off knowing that I spent around 3 to 4 hundred dollars on all of these things and the grand total came out to about 90 bucks...total rip off...

I thought about trading in games, until they told me I get some shit deal, like 10% of some other used game. So basically they get my games for 2-3 bucks... Besides, I only buy a few games, ones I KNOW I will like, and want to play multiple times.

At 6/23/08 07:30 PM, Thegluestickman wrote: I tried, but the retards at EB games wouldn't let me, I traded in a brand fucking new game, not even open the plastic was still on it! "Um... There's to many of these games, $2"

This is when you do what we call a return.