At 5/17/11 03:13 PM, Jackho wrote: But they are though, from a developer's point of view. You're getting the game legit, but the people who made it aren't getting anything from the sale.

Even still the two methods of getting a game are rather different. One, as the article states, requires that someone first purchase the game at full price so that it can be a used game. Where in piracy the developers don't even get the cash from first hand purchasing.

;Shakes head: Wow....

At 5/19/11 12:00 AM, Travis wrote: Keith you seem to think my hate on Gamestop is misplaced, if you would ever visit that link in my signature, then you would quickly learn the ins and outs of the company that is screwing you, the devs, and the industry as a whole.

Really, if you show this much hate for Gamestop just because they are capitalizing on a huge market then I believe you should learn how business works. I will admit, after looking at your link, I shop at Gamestop less but you have to understand just because they succesfully rip people doesn't make them bad, they are just trying to make a living. If anyone deserves your hate, it's the idiots that shop there and allow that to happen. Not implying that everyone who shops there has the IQ of a squirrel but the ones that are not informed or simply refuse to shop elsewhere for its convenience are the ones that are fucking things up for us all. I do not approve of how the employees are treated sometimes but everything else is fair solely on the fact that people are satisfied and still shop there. This is strictly based from a business stand point which is what it all really matters to. I believe that if people spent more time looking into what they want and choose the best alternative instead of going to Gamestop and ironically buy a used game for the price of a new one then you would have a different outlook on them.

At 5/19/11 12:00 AM, Travis wrote: Gamestop buys LA Noire from me the day I get it for 30 bucks and sells it for 55 bucks used.

I'm afraid I have to tell you this is exactly how you run a business. Buy low, sell high. Do you also hate other businesses that do exactly the same thing (as in: all businesses around the world)?
What should Gamestop do, sell it for 20 bucks when they gave you 30 for it?

That being said, I never shop at Gamestop, since you can get the games cheaper elswhere if you just keep looking hard enough.

At 5/19/11 12:00 AM, Travis wrote:

At 5/18/11 11:00 PM, orangebomb wrote:
Once again, total ignorance on how Gamestop works. People need to buy games, gear, etc. without paying an arm and a leg to get it, thus that's how they get their money and you get whatever you need without burning through your bank account. Didn't think of that one, did you?

Gamestop buys LA Noire from me the day I get it for 30 bucks and sells it for 55 bucks used.

That's how any business works, buy low and sell high, otherwise, they wouldn't make a profit at all. Plus, it sounds like you sold the game to Gamestop the day you bought it, which makes no sense whatsoever, considering you didn't even play it. Yes, I do notice that it is rather one-sided to trade in your games to GS, but then again, there is a thing called "holding on to your games instead of selling them the minute you get bored with them."

At 5/17/11 09:07 PM, dmansland wrote: They do realize that with used games they see profit from the original buyer but with piracy they get nothing at all?

The developers who made the game see ZERO profit from the sale of a used game. All the money goes to the shop. This is why developers and publishers dislike the used game market so much, for every new game bought, about 10 pre-owned copies are sold. And all that money goes to a retailer rather than being pumped back into the gaming industry.

After reading the article it seems they are comparing not piracy V.S. used games as a whole, but pirated games on the P.C. to used game sales on the Xbox 360.

Lets take the quote for what it is "Piracy these days on PC is probably less problematic than secondhand sales on the Xbox".

This, in its bare form, I would agree with. I don't have any exact figures but I do not have a hard time seeing that there would be way more used Xbox 360 games sales than there are pirated copies of a P.C. game. In this case, the game is Fable III. I can easily see more people buying a used copy of Fable III than torrenting the game on the P.C. or something along those lines.

Now if you're comparing Used game sales V.S. Pirating as a whole, I would probably disagree. This is a bit of a gray area depending on how you look at it. In theory, if pirating were to be easy enough for the average Joe to get away with and perform, it would be far worse than used game sales. With used game sales at least one person has purchased the game and will most likely purchase some digital content along with it at some point in time, for the most part. A pirate however (haha), would most likely download the game illegally and then also proceed to download the digital content illegally as well. They have now put absolutely no money into the pockets of the developers at all.

Having said that, pirating video games is not nearly as mainstream as buying used games is and thus, it is a bigger issue. Especially among console games. So I think, what the person is trying to say is that depending how you look at it used game sales can be just as threatening to developers as piracy can be.

I hope that all made sense to you. It was pretty poorly and hastily written.

They should just shut the fuck up and be glad the original owner bought the damn game in the first place.

At 5/19/11 01:41 PM, Idocreating wrote:

At 5/17/11 09:07 PM, dmansland wrote: They do realize that with used games they see profit from the original buyer but with piracy they get nothing at all?

The developers who made the game see ZERO profit from the sale of a used game. All the money goes to the shop. This is why developers and publishers dislike the used game market so much, for every new game bought, about 10 pre-owned copies are sold. And all that money goes to a retailer rather than being pumped back into the gaming industry.

That makes no sense... how could they sell 10 used games if they're only selling 1 new game. Someone needs to sell a new game in order for there to be used games on the market.

At 5/19/11 03:42 PM, sinfulwolf wrote: That makes no sense... how could they sell 10 used games if they're only selling 1 new game. Someone needs to sell a new game in order for there to be used games on the market.

People actually do trade-in games they bought pre-owned. A pre-owned copy can go through several hands as it's traded back to the shop for a tiny bit off something else the customer wants.

At 5/17/11 09:07 PM, dmansland wrote: They do realize that with used games they see profit from the original buyer but with piracy they get nothing at all?

True but piracy isn't as widespread as publishers make people think, a surprisingly low amount of people pirate games compared to people that buy second hand games

The biggest issue with Gamestop and retail stores that generate most of their profit from pre-owned merchandise is the fact that they're sapping cash from the developers. This means a studio that makes the best game ever won't get as much money as they deserve because most people would rather pay slightly less for a pre-owned copy.

Money makes the world go round, and any amount of piracy or pre-owned sales reduces the amount the developer gets paid and what the publisher makes. This can lead to potential new I.P.s not being made as the publishers whore a good franchise out to make a stable income, because much of it is pillaged via pre-owned sales from retail shops.

The fact that said shops treat their customers like retards isn't all that suprising. It's retail, every shop treats it's customers like retards, it's the best way to keep them from getting angry.

At 5/20/11 12:39 AM, Travis wrote: What really sucks though is that it has a huge stranglehold on the market because... well it markets itself.

I would agree with you, because Gamestop is the only major player that is solely dedicated to games and game accesories, The vast majority of game stores are small, mom-and pop stores, and even they can at least compete with GS to a degree.

People don't seem to understand that you can shop online, find deals, etc.

The problem with that is that most of us are impatient to get what we need. I don't shop online because I don't have a Paypal account and have no real interest to get one, plus in a lot of places, they can't promise that the game or accessory is going to work outright. Although I know that GS has a very similar policy to returning games if they don't work, without a recipt of course.

The video serves three purposes, to inform you that Gamestop treats its employees like shit, screws the customer over, and to try and make us informed consumers.

I like the video because it's message of making us INFORMED consumers. If people weren't so stupid then they could save so much money.

I'm not a fan of GS practices either, but sometimes, we have to find deals for the games that we want. As for the treatment of employees, well it's like that for most huge businesses like GS and others. Believe me, they can fire you on the spot if you screw up for any reason, even if it's just to see your grandmother in the hospital and you happen to be late because of that, hypothecially speaking, of course.

I am not just a hater of Gamestop because it nasal rapes customers wallets, but I also hate the company because of it's policies, employee treatment, and the fact that it insults human intelligence to be an informed consumer.

As I said before, I'm not too crazy about GS myself, but when it comes to gaming, I try not to get too caught up on the politics of gaming, {i.e GS is robbing the devs of money, even though game developers are pretty rich themselves.} I worry about finding the games I want for the lowest price, and if I have to get it at a GS, then so be it. Most of the games I get anyway don't come from GS to begin with, considering that Best Buy, Walmart, etc. usually have a decent selection.

Gamestop found out how to shift the business in it's favor and other companies are starting to follow suit.

Almost every major company does that to a degree, and they have been doing that since the 1800's. I don't like it either, but there isn't really too much we can do about it, except for the occasional boycott, which is a futile effort, even with good intentions in mind.

At 5/20/11 02:06 AM, Idocreating wrote: The biggest issue with Gamestop and retail stores that generate most of their profit from pre-owned merchandise is the fact that they're sapping cash from the developers. This means a studio that makes the best game ever won't get as much money as they deserve because most people would rather pay slightly less for a pre-owned copy.

Like I've said before, they are stll making money, I mean some had to buy the game for it to be used so what's it matter? They make millions upon millions every year and more. God forbid your on a tight budget and want the same thing for less of the price.

It's times like this that I'm reminded why Club Nintendo was such a good idea. Get people to buy games new so that they'll get codes that can be put online that can be exchanged for free swag. What a brilliant little system.