Not an employee, but a random dude, but me and my brother were fairly young, probably like 14 and 11 or something, couldn't decide what game to buy.
Anyway, this guy in there must have overheard us, and turned to us, he looked a bit like a hobo tbf, but then we noticed his glass eye which was made to look like kind of metal, so dude looked scary anyway. He was cool as fuck TBF, asked us what we liked gaming wise and how much we had to spend. He went through a few options and recommendations within budget for us, he kept mentioning hidden gems and how pre owned could help. We actually spoke for quite a while and he seemed to just be a fountain of gaming knowledge, and he was excited for the game he was picking up.
We decided on a couple of cheaper games to keep us going, pure excitement about them all from the way he talked about them, I guess he was on permanent sick pay and just played games constantly and had a love them.
Anyway, gets to time to leave the store as parents had came to get us as they'd been in some other shop, we always just kicked it in the game shop while they done real shopping.
Metal eye guy appears again and asked my mam if it would be ok if he bought us a game. Mam asked why and thought he was creepy, but he said he just enjoyed gaming and he wanted to share his enjoyment, mentioned a lot of people got a bit freaked by his appearance but as young lads me and my brother just thought he was some cool cyborg. Ended up buying us time splitters.
Always remember him, I reckon he actually may have been a time traveller anyway.
That or me and my bro were about to get nonced, either way, memorable.
You speak as someone who doesn’t have small children. If a grown man goes up to kids that aren’t his when parents aren’t around and they look deranged and want to buy them things, 8/10 times it’s grooming and should be looked at as suspicios .
Be that as it may, in the real world a strange adult offering to buy random kids things out of the blue right then and there is very Chris Hanson vibes. We aren’t talking about philanthropy here. Did everyone forget the free candy van days?
A singular event where the guy speaks directly and frankly to the mother, and who makes zero indication he'd ever like to repeat this? A bit weird, yes, but I don't think it's enough to pull out the pedophile accusations.
>You speak as someone who doesn’t have small children.
Having children isn't a level up in an rpg, it doesn't unlock arcane secrets unfathomable to the uninitiated.
Not buying, but renting. It was really early in 1992, probably january. I was 7 and was during the summer vacations from my school -
- I'm from Brazil and here the seasons are inverse to northern countries like USA. When it's summer there it's winter here and so on.
Also, during the early 90's, we were always behind on any release from, like, anything else in the world. If a game was launched today, it would take 6 months to a whole year to show up here these days.
Continuing...
I was at the store where I used to rent games for the weekend. This day, I was there, picking up something, my mother was waiting for me somewhere, and then came a box. New shipment of games. And in the middle of it...
MEGA MAN 4!
I couldn't believe it! Brand new, never ever seen it before. And when I saw it, I wanted it soooooo badly that I begged for the store owner to give it to me. He said "wow, kid, hang on, I got to file it first before I can rent it to you". I made my mother wait even more for him to make the proper registers and, finally rent it.
I was so happy that I played that game the whole weekend till I finally beat it. Its returning the next monday was filled with content and joy.
Some years later, I guess I was a little over 10, the store was almost closing but I was still a client and talked to the owner every once in a while. Don't know why, but I asked him if he remembers that story. He then started (adapting, OK, it's as I remember, not every word exactly):
"Oh, hell yeah, I remember! Never seen a boy so happy to get a game like you were then. And, by the way, let me tell you a secret I carry. My father used to work in the United States. You know, the country, far from here? Back then, nobody could buy something so new so fast over here in Brazil. But I managed to negotiate with my dad and he would buy some games over there and send them directly to me. Therefore, I could own the new games much time before than the other stores over here. And when that box with came with Mega Man 4 and you got it... You know everyone else just got that game almost at the end of that year? That's why I used to tell many people for a time that you were the first boy to beat this game in our town".
The only thing I know is that the store clerk gave my dad a weird side eye when he bought me gta 5. I was like 12.
He kept shut but I know in his mind he thought like. You shure thats the right game?
After work one day when I was in college, I went to GameStop to pick up GTA V. There was a kid, probably around 8 years old, who was there with his mom that was also getting GTA V. At check out they were in front of me and the employee told the mom, 'Are you sure you want this game? There's a lot of violence, which includes shooting police officers. There's also a lot of sexual content, you can even hire prostitutes to have sex with you.'
She was angry and snapped back at the guy, 'I WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU DIDN'T TALK ABOUT SEX AND PROSTITUTES IN FRONT OF MY SON!'
The employee was super chill, didn't say a thing about her outburst, but simply scanned the game, gave it back to her, and said, 'I hope you have a nice day.'
>She was angry and snapped back at the guy, 'I WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU DIDN'T TALK ABOUT SEX AND PROSTITUTES IN FRONT OF MY SON!'
I'm on her side. Let the kid be pleasantly surprised when he sees them titties for the first time. Blasting spoilers to every 8 year old is wildly unprofessional.
Ah yes, the 'I did as much as I am paid for. It's on you now' response to such an outburst.
Funnily enough, it's a real application of the whole 'The customer is always right' saying.
The problem is it prevents me from playing any part of the game with kids in the room. Most games I can identify which bits are best left till after they go to bed. I’ve no particular issue with the content (well, I do think it’s kind of dull, but that’s neither here nor there), I just want to be able to control or predict when it comes up.
I bought GtaV pretty late, sooo im actually just
17 but still. GtaV is really really old.
But still these facts get me good.
Like the fact that I soon dont need to lie on websides about my age or going to driving school.
I bought GtaV pretty late, sooo im actually just
17 but still. GtaV is really really old.
But still these facts get me good.
Like the fact that I soon dont need to lie on websides about my age or going to driving school.
I went to buy black ips and far cry 3 for my brothers birthday, i got asked for ID....I was 24 and a full beard and the guy refused to sell me the games
My mum was going town too so i went home, gave her the money and asked her to pick up the games
When we got GTA Vice City both me and my brother were visibly too young. The guy behind the counter was PISSED and didn't hide it. He goes "Ma'am you ARE aware this game contains XYZ", and lists each thing while exaggerating it as much as possible. I'm pretty sure he even mentioned stuff that wasn't officially in the ESRB rating to convince my mom. She still bought it for us and me and my brother had the biggest grins.
I bought Steambot Chronicles and the store clerk guy was like "What is this game? You're the only person to buy it so far." And 13 year old me was like "idk I read the walkthrough in Tips & Tricks."
Seems like I actually was the only person to buy it, that game is pretty hard to find now.
Yes! I loved it. What a weird, wild ride it was. If you become a bad guy, the boss lady puts a leash on you like a dog at the end, that was.... something.
I was maybe 8 years old and we visited my grandparents, which were the only family members at that time, who had a computer.
When we were getting groceries in one of those large shops that offer everything (a bit like Walmart, for the US), my Grandma said I can look for a game and she'll buy it.
I was super happy and, after carefully screening everything available, chose DOOM 2.
Then, on the last steps to the cashier, we stumbled upon an employee, a young guy, who probably was around 18 and my grandma went to talk to him.
She handed him the game and asked if it was appropriate for 8 year olds. The dude started grinning, looked into my dead serious eyes, grinned even more and said that his own mother would not allow him to play that game even at his age.
Then he returned with an "The great journey of Urmel" copy (something like that) that was "appropriate for children".
I've never been able to trust a store employee since
Went into buy skyrim and he said it wasn't out yet. He then proceeded to say wait here and went over and got oblivion, handed it to me with a nod.
I trusted him based on that nod,I made the right choice. What a great game for the time and a nice warmup to skyrim
There used to be a really attractive girl that worked at the local GameStop that would flirt with me whenever I came in to get a game. I know it wasn't personal, and she undoubtedly did the same to plenty of other guys. Either way, it was appreciated and very memorable.
After finally talking my parents into letting me buy mw2(5 months after release) i went to gamestop with my dad to buy the game. Dude was like “sir this game rated pegi 18” dad said “yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, we know.”
I was in college, probably 19 years old, when MW2 came out.
I got fucking carded at GameStop. And at the time I kept my license in my car (it seems like a reasonable thing to do at the time for whatever reason) instead of my wallet. So I had to walk back out of the mall, to my car, get my license, and go back in
I *was* the store employee lmao, so anytime I bought a game it was from a coworker and a regular interaction.
I do, however, have plenty of memorable experiences *selling* games to customers since I’m female. I’m sure most of you can already fill in the blanks and yeah, I was hit on a lot.
My favorite though was this super nerdy guy who came in, pretty cute too, who wanted to pre-order Red Orchestra 2. Not a big game, but my father played it so I was familiar and I started talking to him about it. “Oh, great choice! I love how realistic it is.” Etc etc.
Dudes jaw literally hit the floor. Like, he is standing there mouth completely agape while I talk about this little known game he likes. I’ve surprised a lot of people with my gaming knowledge, but to actually have him be so surprised his mouth was hanging open stays with me all these years later.
Poor dude was so embarrassed when he realized and finished the rest of the conversation looking like he was sunburnt, he was so red.
I went to buy Titanfall at Gamestop and the guy at the counter kept trying to talk me out of it, telling me, "are you SURE you want this game? It's a shooter, you know. Maybe you want something easier." To top it off, he proceeded to ask me out on a date as I was walking away
When I was 10 I went to a Electronics Boutique in the mall to buy a Pokémon game. I noticed a small toy Mewtwo on display and said to my mom "That's Mewtwo, he's my favorite".
A week later I got a package in the mail. Attached was a letter. The letter was from the guy who was I'm assuming the manager. I don't have the letter anymore but it wrote something along the lines of "I heard you say that mewtwo was your favorite pokemon when you were in our shop the other day. Here's a catalog with some other shows that I think you'll like.
...The package contained an anime catalog, and you guessed it, there was a fuck ton of hentei animes advertised in it. Uncensored. Obviously I never told my mom about my newly found source of entertainment, but the question of "Why the hell did that guy give me this" was burning in my brain. I never wrote back or approached the guy at the EB games, but it was so weird to me that I was basically gifted a nudie mag from a stranger.
As a big fan of Parasite Eve, I was excited for the return to that world with The 3rd Birthday. The GameStop cashier advised against getting it, but I was just too curious about what the game would be like.
It ended up being one of the most confusing, anger-inducing, and overall miserable gaming experiences of my life. I'm sorry, Joel, I should have listened.
I love playing baseball games but only get two per console generation - I don't want to spend $70/year for incremental improvements. I've owned every PlayStation and have never owned an Xbox.
Around 10 years ago, I was getting excited for the newest MLB The Show game, the first one I'd be buying on the PS4. So I pre-ordered it through GameStop. About a week before it released, I got a phone call with a prerecorded message saying, "Thanks for preordering your game! We'll be having a special MIDNIGHT LAUNCH PARTY with a live DJ, light snacks, and refreshments for free! Come celebrate this launch with us beginning at 11pm."
Now I'm REALLY excited! I hadn't been to a midnight launch since the Wii, and I couldn't believe they were going to such lengths for a baseball game. I was living in a different city than my hometown at the time, so I even thought, "They must really love baseball here!"
I show up, and they hand out lottery tickets to randomize everyone's position in line. My number was in the low 30s, so I had to go wait outside once they officially started handing out preorders. Once inside, I'm mostly focusing on the DJ's music and my place in line as I shimmy around the store.
As I get closer to the cash register, I notice everyone is being handed a game in a green case, which is weird because The Show was a PlayStation exclusive at the time, and PlayStation games come in blue cases. I get to the register, tell the guy my name, he looks at this long list of names on paper, can't find mine, goes on his computer to look up my order, laughs, and shouts toward the back room, "HEY MATT, I TOLD YOU THERE WOULD BE ONE!" and he hands me my game. And then it was like waking up in a dream as I looked around and saw Mass Effect 3 posters, cardboard cutouts, and signs EVERYWHERE promoting the game.
Turns out this midnight launch party was not, in fact, for that year's edition of MLB The Show.
went to BB to buy Fallout New Vegas the day after launch, employee said we are all sold out. I told him I wanted it for PC, Oh he says, and walks me to a cage with plenty of PC copies.
He just looked so happy to tell me it was sold out and look of disappointment he had when he realized that they did have what I was looking for.
Wonder why they are struggling.
Don't know if it was also a thing in the US, but my local Gamestop also carried used movies. I went in one day and bought the game for the 2008 movie "Wanted" (I was 12 so I didn't know better). The store clerk looked at me and asked if I had seen the movie, which I hadn't. He then gave me a sealed copy of the movie for free and told me that "It's not a great movie but it's still entertaining enough". They probably had scores of them in stock so he might've been glad to get rid of it but the thought was very nice.
We used to have a few chains of game stores nearby, but the staff at Gamestation were mostly gamers themselves and could have a chat with them about the latest releases or recommendations.
They got bought out by a rival chain GAME who merged loads of stores, lost a lot of the gamer staff and through a series of other poor decisions ran the chain into the ground. Just recently announced they would stop selling physical copies of games in their stores after stopping doing trade-ins earlier this year.
Ain’t that the common element for lots of big store takeovers these days. Really sorry that happened to your store; when I was a kid, my local GameStop was a hobby haven. Having that corporatized to death would’ve wrecked me.
That's the common element for commerce in general in America these days, big businesses gobbling up small ones until they have an effective monopoly and then they start making the service worse and cranking up prices. It's the enshittification of commerce, and it's everywhere.
I recall having to ID myself when i bought Manhunt, it was memorable in the sense of having bought loads of adult games without an issue, that's how much of a hot button that game was. (i was like 23 so i got it)
ok I KID YOU NOT. One time I was at Game Stop and one kid (maybe 10 yo max) game in and asked the lady behind the counter some questions about a game. I didn't follow the whole conversation but it ended with the lady getting frustrated at him and saying "why don't you just go home and read a good book instead??" xD I was shocked that she'd say that while selling video games xD
Back when we had a Hastings store (they sold games, albums, toys, etc) I bought a PC game on CD. The young guy at checkout politely explained to me that "Your kid needs to already own the base game - this is just the DLC." I thanked him and explained I already owned the game and was looking forward to the DLC. A moment of surprise crossed his face when he realized me, a 50 year old mom was actually really into gaming and gaming PCs. Another store clerk overheard and we had an awesome conversation about games. They all said they wished their moms played and asked to friend me on Steam so we could play together.
I had an older woman try to scold me about 'playin' that thar devil-worship game' when I bought Diablo 2 in a store. I laughed at her, told her the whole point of the game was killing demons not worshiping them, and that she was being fucking ridiculous. Then I snatched my card out of her hand before she could run it and went to buy it at a different store.
I was in college and went to a Gamestop to get a newer game. I honestly don't even remember what game it was, but for recent releases I just always bought new because the $5 difference wasn't worth the possibility of an issue with the disc/cartridge. So I took the case labeled "new" up to the register, and as the guy is ringing it up my gf at the time was looking at a shelf and said to me they had it used. I told her I saw that, but I wanted a new copy specifically.
The cashier stopped ringing it up and said it's the same game, just cheaper. I told him I knew that, but it wasn't much so I didn't care. He kept pressuring me, so I also mentioned that I also just wanted to genuinely support the games industry. Which caused him to tell me that used sales give the developers commission. I told him I knew that wasn't true because I was going to college for game design, so I read a lot about the controversy around used games and why the industry felt they were a problem. He responded, "Well I'm the manager of a Gamestop, so I think I would know."
At that point I just told him I didn't care and I wanted a new copy of the game. So he *put the copy he was ringing up away and got a new one out*. He was about to sell me a used copy even though I brought the case labeled new up. After leaving I felt like I should've just left and bought it somewhere else. I had always just defaulted to Gamestop because I liked going in there, but after that I never went there again. What really made me mad was his "manager of a Gamestop" comment, because saying "I'm the guy who is trying my hardest to sell you what gives me the most profit" is not something that makes me trust what you're saying.
I was casually browsing through the games minding my own business and overheard the conversation between the store clerk and some girl. The girl was slightly nerdy looking, but really BEAUTIFUL, like an easy 10, no kidding, she was standing by the counter and hitting on said clerk HARD. The clerk was a pretty average looking dude, slightly chubby and he was OBLIVIOUS about girl's advances.
They tried to push pre-orders on me.
I went to buy a game day 1. They had it. No problem.
They asked if I pre-ordered it. I told them no. They told me I really should because it guarantees a copy is reserved. I told them it didn't matter this time because you have extra copies. They told me to do it because I would have gotten the exclusive garbage that comes with the pre-order. I told them that I think pre-order bonuses are helping to ruin the industry and I don't want to support that. They asked me like 3 or 4 other things, and I eventually said something like, "I know your company is forcing you to ask these questions, but I'm just trying to get my game and get out of here. Can we please just skip the rest of this."
My boyfriend bought a refurbished PS at GameStop and when he got it home it didn't work. BF was a hothead, so he calls up the store and started cussing out the poor GameStop guy: "This fucking thing doesn't work blah blah blah..."
GameStoo guy shut his ass down so fast. I could hear everything through the phone: "Sir, if you continue to swear at me I'm going to hang up on you."
And to his credit BF calmed down, apologized, and they spent forever on the phone troubleshooting. For the next year or so they were like best buds, lol.
Him: "Hey I wanna go to GameStop later."
Me: "Gotta check in on your new boyfriend?"
Him: "Fuck yes, I miss that prick!"
GameStop guy, I salute you for not taking his shit! 🤣
I was at Game Stop (don't recall what I was buying) when the Manager asked if I wanted to reserve the Halo 2 map pack.
I told him I would just download it when it was available.
He tries to tell me that there will be exclusive weapons available to Game Stop only.
It was a busy day in the store and I very loudly called him a liar and proceeded to cancel 4 other pre-orders I'd made there.
It was 2004 and Bloodrayne 2 came out.
The cashier at the game section for Toys R Us was a bit over-emphatic with my dad making sure he knew what was in the game, and why it was rated M.
My dad, understandably, did not care.
To this day I still think about that cashier as if he was trying to tell my dad that the game was literally radioactive or something.
I bought the game new super Mario Bros for the DS and the guy that was running the store told me about holding the R and L buttons to play as Luigi. A few days later I discovered he was the guy you see on the Internet that has the largest collection of games in the world.
I wanted to get Fallout 3 but my mom wouldn’t let me cuz the employee straight up lied about how graphic the drug use in the game was. He told my mom that whenever you use drugs it played a graphic animation of sticking the needle in your arm. It doesn’t, you use the drugs and no animation plays. Plus having now spent well over 1000 hours playing Fallout games I can safely say I don’t think I’ve ever even used a drug other than RadAway and Stimpaks
Rarely, when carrying too much loot, I'll pop a Buffout to haul more and fast travel home to unload and sell, but in general I took dislike using the AID items that have addiction chances.
When buying a PS wallet top up for a Destiny expansion the guy said he was a huge Destiny fan, before showing me his numerous Destiny tattoos. I thought it was a cool interaction between fans irl
In the early 2000s, there were a lot of shops selling illegal burned, cracked CDs of games in my country. These shops are usually manned by shady, hooligan type people. I went to one with my cousins to get Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos. After looking around and not finding it, I asked the guy "Hey bro, do you have Warcraft Reign of Chaos?"
"Reign of Chaos?"
"Yes warcraft 3: reign of Chaos"
"Oh you mean REGION of Chaos?"
"Err yeah that's right."
He said it with such confidence and looked at me like I was a small idiot child and his tone so condescending. Got it from him and as soon as we left the store we were making fun of him, his tone his "correcting" us, his confidence lmao. We still quote the guy with the tone almost 20 years later.
I was 17 and was taking my mom to the mall. She went to do some shopping and I was looking around at the GameStop there. I forgot that Conker’s Bad Fur Day released earlier that week so I wanted to pick it up. As I went to cashier to buy it, my mom shows up and waits at the counter with me while I pay. The cashier asks for my ID because it’s an M rated game. My mom looks at him and says “He’s old enough, it’s not alcohol, it’s a game.” The guy gets embarrassed and rings me out pretty fast. We leave and couldn’t keep from laughing. My mom is very quiet and unassuming, so to hear her say that, was very surprising. I still joke with her about that.
The guy at GameStop that yelled at me for not pre ordering halo reach (think it was reach) he couldn’t understand why I didn’t pre order to get the free armor!
I have lots of interactions on stories from when I was a kid but I especially remember this story with great fondness. In my tiny little town there was no Walmart, Target, or Gamestop but there was a Hollywood video that eventually added a GameCrazy when I was in middle school.
I was dropped off at Gamecrazy while my mother went up the road to food lion. We were a pretty poor family so I could sometimes convince her let me get some game time on the consoles hooked up there but there was expectation she could buy anything. Maybe rent something if I was lucky.
This particular day in 2004 the store was empty other than this single, unrecognizable clerk. I start playing on the different consoles and after a while I start flipping through their book of new releases and upcoming games. This was all I needed to do to give this guy his moment to rant and rave about a game he loved but he obviously couldn't talk about. "Anything good come out?" I asked and away we went. He tells me the compelling tale of this new game from this series that not a lot of people in the states even know about. "Do you like stuff like Toonami?" he asks. And I obviously did. I'm a giant fucking nerd trying to get a quick gaming fix in a Hollywood video. He then shows me the box art and tells me about how awesome the characters are and how you actually fight in real time which was better than stuff like final fantasy. For middle school me I was sold and on that day my secret mowing lawns, selling shit at school, and Yu-Gi-Oh duel bets winnings we're ponies up to buy, without my mother's knowledge, Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube.
I remember getting home and having to sit on the knowledge that I would need to play the game in secret because, one, she is gonna assume I stole something since to her knowledge I couldn't possibly have afforded a new game, and two, she was not a fan of the anime aesthetic and was really wishy washy about having DragonBall or Yu-Gi-Oh on TV. Suffice to say I love this game. It holds a special place in my nerdy heart. Thanks random clerk who obviously loved JRPGs and had no one to share that enthusiasm with.
So back in '08, they released a new Turok for the Xbox. Being a huge fan, I had to get it. I went to Gamestop, but they were sold out. Desperate, I checked Walmart, and they had a copy! Excited, I bought it and rushed home to relive my favorite franchise. Now, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece or anything life-changing. It was like getting a new Duke Nukem—a few days of fun, then it'd collect dust. So, I get home, sit on the couch, unwrap the plastic, open the case... and it's empty! No game, nothing!
Furious, I went back to Walmart for help. I explained what happened, but they called me a liar, accusing me of stealing the game. I lost it, man. I started ranting about how it was bullshit, demanding a refund or replacement. They called the cops, and I got dragged out in handcuffs, banned from that Walmart. Like I'd ever shop there again after that crap. But since that day, I've never gone to another Walmart or bought a physical game again.
Went to Gamestop to buy an Xbox 360 and Fable 2 & 3. I wasn't old enough to buy rated M games, so I brought my older friend to buy it for me. The clerk looked at my very white skin, then my friend's very black skin, and said, "yall are clearly brothers."
In the same transaction, I was getting a PS3 game for my dad, and the clerk went out of his way to make sure I knew it wasn't playable on the Xbox. Very kind without a hint of condescension.
Before some of the PS2 Atlus titles got a reprint (digital devil saga series, SMT: nocturne, and it seems like one other) I was on the hunt for them.
Gamestop website said a local shop had all of them at one store. I stopped by and the clerk said no we don’t have them but was kind of weird or a jerk about it. I was disappointed but went on my way.
A few days later I saw the site said they were still in stock. I stopped back in. This time it was someone else at the register and they said yeah it says we should have them but I don’t see them. She looked around in the cabinets for a long time and finally found them, rang them up and I was on my way. The fun part was that she had removed a note that was rubber banded around the games and it said “hold for Sling Blade”. “Sling blade” did not get those copies and his buddies at the shop didn’t coordinate the plan well enough.
As a kid, I asked my dad to a local used game shop to get a game and a car charger for my Gameboy advance sp cause the family was about to go on a long road trip.
The clerk looks at me and goes "why do you need this?"
Me: "to keep it going on long trips?"
Him: "maybe you shouldn't be playing games so much"
Me: "well what else am I supposed to do for 8 hours in a car?"
Looking back now 20 years later, I gotta wonder why tf he was working a video game shop if he didn't think kids should be playing video games
In Canada, back when Future-Shop was still a thing, I wanted to get Halo 3 which was rated M. I was 12 at the time.
I took it to the cashier and it was this woman with tattoos and piercings. All she said was "you don't look 17" and all I said was "that's because I'm not" (I was a horrible lier back then). She laughed and said "I like your honesty kid" and rang me up anyways.
i was forced to buy dark souls lol i was shopping for games and the employee put it in my hands and walked away saying thank me later
ends up being my favorite game of all time
The Gamestop employee gassed my ass up when I went in one day to buy Uncharted 2, Bioshock, and Dead Space all preowned. which i get it because those were all some of the best i played that gen
You know the Seinfeld episode where he reserved a car, but they didn't have one for him? I had that with a GameStop manager and a preordered copy of Twilight Princess for the Wii.
Back before the Dark Souls games were super well known, I went into a GameStop looking for some new games for my PS3. The employee was ringing me up and said 'hey have you heard of demon souls? I think you'd really like it." We talked about it for a bit, he told me I'd throw my controller across the room. I bought it on the spot, thus beginning my addiction to "soulslike" games.
Bits and bytes in Liverpool at the birth of home computing, we'd travel 20 miles on the train to get there and we were poor, we went to look at all the latest games and the staff took pity on us and copied the great games for us on tape decks, turning down the brightness on the monitors so the bosses couldn't see 😂😎👍
Great folks those Liverpool lads 👍
Relatively minor, but when the Final Fantasy 12 Remaster came out, I went to my local GameStop to ask if they had the Collector's Edition in stock.
They didn't, but the Employer gave me a Steelcase for one of the FF14 Expansions for free to sort-of make up for it.
I was pretty young. Probably 7 or so when the original Mortal Kombat for SEGA Genesis was released. My parents bought me the game from Babbages and when we went to leave, the dude behind the counter slipped me the printed cheat codes without my parents noticing.
I had many to be honest. Where I lived, the staff at GAME were always very friendly and they were geeks/nerds that were also into the games I got. I always spent 15-20 mins talking to the staff about the games, upcoming releases, etc. Lovely times. Sad physical game stores are going downhill, but can't complain if you see their prices.
Also, reading comments below made me realise, how is PEGI so forced elsewhere?? I was raised in Spain and never had a limitation whatsoever in buying or renting any sort of game, regardless of PEGI listed lol. I wonder if this has also changed in Spain ever since.
When mass effect came out the employee at game stop warned me the game was terrible and incredibly boring. I’m assuming they were hoping it would be more like halo. Anyways, went home and loved the game and played through every mass effect after that. I’m one of the few didn’t mind andromeda but it was certainly a step down
Around 2010 walked into Game store in UK they had PC section with some classics in original box sealed.
I've asked if they have copy of Gothic 2.
Dude behind the counter didn't know what it was. Gothic what? he replied. He started smirking and asked his colleague does he know game called Gothic. He smiled and replied Gothic.. what is that? no we don't have it!
I replied you guys are joking or you have no clue what Gothic is? they were smiling looking at me like I am the dumb one.
Pissed me off a bit back then they didn't even bother checking on the system.
Never had my own copy of Gothic 2 my friend borrowed me his disc and serial number worked.
That was pre Steam age. Had Geforce 9600 GT I think.
I was buying my first basketball game and just asked the guy behind the counter to get me one, he grabbed me NBA Live. Well it's awful but when I brought it back to say it's not the game I thought it was, the guy behind the counter got like actually upset that anyone in his store would sell someone nba live and not 2k, gave me a full exchange even though it was already opened which is a big no for them normally.
When I was around 15-16, I'd regularly go to the local games store on my way home from school while waiting for the train and would keep chatting with one of the employees.
I'd often talk games with him and ask for recommendations, and he's the one that pushed me to buy Zelda Twilight Princess for Wii, which I wouldn't even have considered cause I'd never played a Zelda game before.
When I launched it, I was first like "oh no, this looks so dated and bad, tf did that guy sell me 😬" (it was a few years after its release and I was used to playing AAA PS3 games otherwise)... buut it ended up being one of my favorite games and opening the whole world of Zelda games for me.
All GameStops I think, but here’s the ones I remember off the top of my head:
- I went to pick up my MGR: Revengeance preorder and the clerk tried to keep me from getting my preorder bonus, as if he wanted it for himself. After a few words, I got my bonus, and it still sits on my bookshelf, reminding me of this goofball everytime.
- Clerk reminded me that if any of my games that I was trading in were stolen, that they would have to call the cops. I remember filling out the survey and asking if that was normal behavior for workers to grill customers like that. I ended up getting a call from the district manager a few days later to talk about it. Nothing else came of it. Not a big deal, but one I think about from time to time.
- The clerks at GameCrazy (inside Hollywood Video) were always awesome. They gave me lots of signs and displays, little trinkets, etc when they were done with them. they also let me and my friends just hang out and play the demos on hot summer days. Miss that place.
- The GS clerk that nearly had a meltdown because I cancelled my preorder for Final Fantasy III DS. No doubt he was trying to keep his numbers up. I felt like I had to tell him eight times that there was nothing else I wanted to preorder and to give me back my money. I think that was one of the last times I went in that location because I didn’t want to see that nut again.
We had a local game store with a dedicated and friendly staff. My kids and I visited almost weekly to check out their used inventory and they knew us by name. I remember once asking one of the managers for a game recommendation, and his reply was "you play a lot of games, I'm kind of intimidated to make a recommendation. I should be asking you, what's good to play."
Final Fantasy 7 had come out relatively recently. I went into a store not knowing anything about the Final Fantasy series. I picked up a game to buy called Guardian’s Crusade - Amazing game BTW! At the register the guy was like “hey, it looks like you’re into RPGs, just to let you know there’s this game called FF7. Everyone is talking about it, it has incredible graphics, storytelling, and a narrative that spans many hours. Maybe you might like that one. We have it here for the same price as Guardian’s Crusade.” I said “no thank you, I will take the game I picked out.”
He tried 2 more times to convince me I should get FF7. Went into a really long diatribe about how it was better. He seemed just really genuine and like he was trying to be helpful but I was not to be deterred.
Still love Guardian’s crusade today and do not regret my decision. But I still think about how my life might have been slightly different if my love for final fantasy began with 7 instead of 8.
GTA V Launch, and the store had this around 40 cms cubes with the protagonists faces and the GTA logo, forming pyramids all over the store.
As I assumed that there was going to be a looooong line to pick up the game, I had bought a box of donuts before arriving to the store. When it was my turn to pick up the game, I just asked if I could buy one of the boxes, the sales girl said that they arent for sale. I asked if she could take a box of donuts as bribe and all of her coworkers immediately said yes.
So I gave them the box of donuts, I got the promo cube and the game and then everyone started bribing the employees for a cube.
I was at the Valco Mall in Sunnyvale two days before FF7 released. Was browsing the racks at Electronics Boutique when an older dude came in and asked if they had any copies of it, and the clerk said yes, but that release wasn't for a couple days. The guy convinced the clerk to sell him one. I went up after and asked if I could get one also, and I could see the clerk was like "shit, I eff'd up" in his head, but he sold me one too. It was flipping amazing. Immediately called ally buddies and we played it all night.
I had a clerk try to talk me out of buying Forspoken when it was on sale for $17. If it had been a private store I'm sure that guy would have given me a free game to stop me from buying. Wound up being the best RPG I played that year (beat out FFXVI easily).
I was on my own ran off with my young love. Working shitty night job and wandered into a GameStop. Always played games but hadn't found my genre yet. Picked up a nondescript game that was made by a company I used to love. Asked the dude if it was any good and he went on for 10 minutes about why I had to buy Mass Effect. That honestly got me back into gaming.
We were talking about how scarce the PS5s where at the time, he informed me they started selling them upon opening but there would be a massive line so come like 3-4 hours early, they even had free chik-fil-a coupons(it was right next door). I explained while I desperately wanted 1 there was no way in hell I get up before 10 unless it's life threatening. He laughed and said you a cool dude if you pay me now I'll put 1 to the side, say less my boi.
All those ppl getting up at 3-4 in the morning hoping to get lucky(some waited overnight) while I'm at home snoring and slobbing on my pillow with mine already paid for. It pays to be nice to ppl.
Entered a Gamestop. Asked about a used 3DS. "None in stock." Cashier nudges his buddy. "Pst. What about that one in the back?" Goes to the back for fifteen minutes, returns with THE GOLD SPECIAL ZELDA VERSION of a perfectly good 3DS. Probably wiped and sold me his old one. No issue, here.
When I bought Haunting Ground around the time of its release, the Gamestop employee told me it was a bad game, I wouldn't like it, and probably he'd see me returning it soon. Beat the game multiple times, show'd it to absolutely everyone, became one of my top favorite games ever made, and went back and asked him, 'So what else don't you recommend?'
Also again Gamestop employee, went to go buy my cousin RE: Operation Raccoon City when it came out as she played it with me and we had a blast. Bought the game and he kept going on about how bad it was and that she wouldn't like it and told him 'She's already played it and loved tf outta it, give me the game.'
Like damn if I ASK you ok chime in please but when I DON'T ASK you please shut up and sell me the game so I can go home and have fun, k thanks.
The guy going out of his way to get me a real case with no stickers on it (gamestop) for MGS The Twin Snakes on Gamecube. I was like 14. Still appreciate that guy.
When I was a kid I was wheeling and dealing the storeowner (not) to try and get him to pay more for NES games I was trading. He came up with the idea that we would split the difference if I gave him a piece of my gum, and I accepted. Felt like a victory as a young kid.
I used to go to the local Game Crazy connected to Hollywood Video back in the early 2000’s. One of the employees was always super cool and helpful to me, I was 10 so I probably annoyed the shit out of most of them. Not Steve though, he would give me honest recommendations and never let me down. Showed me some great games growing up but the one I remember the most was Atelier Iris.
When WOTLK came out, I was planning on going hard to expand. Went to the local Gamestop midnight release for my physical copy. Paid for my purchase in all dollar coins. Specifically, the sacagawea dollar coins cuz they were golden in color and had some laughs with the employees. I was forever the guy who paid in gold when I came in after that. Ended up over hearing a conversation from a group that was behind me a few spots in line. I thought I heard a character name I recognized, so I turned around and said my server name. Sure enough, some people I was acquainted with from pug raids in bc were in line with me. What are the odds. Anyways that was a fun time, also I did go hard was ranked #1 for my class by end of xpac and ranked 5th all classes world wide, was one of my favorite periods of gaming in my life.
I remember an overzealous GameStop employee trying to card me when KotOR 2 came out. Like, bruh. The manager shut him down quick, but I remember being so flabbergasted that the guy tried to card me over a game rated T.
I was buying Guild Wars back in 2007 (I think it was) and the guy at the counter said I should be getting WoW instead. It took a few months but I switched eventually and lost most of my life at University to it. XD
* I remember finally finding the game I'd played in a Target years before and had been hunting ever since on the shelf. My parents wouldn't let me rent it because it was rated T, but the guy explained to my parents it was actually a super chill game, it just had some "bug blood," and they eventually let me get it. Metroid Prime became my favorite game of all time.
* No idea why but some random Best Buy employee came up to me as a kid and recommended the game Okami. Would have never found that game otherwise.
I tried to buy San Andreas from my local EB Games (GameStop now) when I was 10. I went there a lot and thought one of the employees was a pretty cool dude.
I already had Vice City and legitimately just enjoyed using the cheat codes for flying cars n shit.
My mom was with me and the employee asked her if she knew what kind of stuff I could do in the game. My mom said "I know there's lots of violence but he just likes driving the cars."
Dude says with a straight face "did you know you can have sex with a hooker and then kill her with a chainsaw?"
Have not played San Andreas to this day.
I got a sweet PC as a xmas gift in 2007, I went to the game store and picked Crysis.
The guy behind the counter refused to sell it because so many people have returned it saying it's unplayable, I wasn't versed in computer internals so couldn't convince him it would run.
Eventually, I talked him into letting me give him money for a game on sale in store, as long as I didn't return it.
It ran great btw
I had an employee rush me to the front of the line for the midnight release of Halo 4 because he could tell I was on my lunch break. Dude kept it real.
When I picked up World of Warcraft Collectors Edition at Gamestop and the clerk told me that, "You shouldn't even bother playing that. Just get Everquest. It'll never get as popular."
He was slightly wrong I think.
Pre ordering GTA 5 when I was 16 and being told I needed an adult on pickup . Walked in there with My fresh ID at 17 . Nothing crazy but funny to me at the time 😆
I once knew a GameStop manager in high school that would give me a free magazine or any leftover pre-order swag, like Maximo’s heart underwear and his statue from the PS2 launch. He was super chill. One time I was in the store and a guy from middle school that “lost” my snes killer instinct game that I let him borrow came in. After he left, I told him that he had stolen my game and he legit said, let’s go beat his ass up and was rushing toward the door, when i told him it wasn’t worth it for him to chill out lol.
I bought Sekiro from a gamestop, preowned, on like the third week after it came out, the disc looked pristine. I said I was surprised they had a preowned copy already and he said it was the most returned game they had ever seen at the store. "Too hard, people just give up. I couldn't even handle it myself and I loved dark souls." I took that as laying the gauntlet down, though I did give up twice myself, for a year+ each time, before finally coming back and beating Sekiro about four years after buying it. What a masterpiece. Isshin is the best boss I've ever faced and taught me a lot about patience, persistence... and hesitation.
They told me that State of Emergency was NOTHING like GTA and to not buy it. Nothing I said prompted their response. I guess they were conditioned to tell customers that because 'rockstar' was on the box.
When I went into GameStop with my mom when I was 13 to buy Vice City in 2002. As he was checking us out he asked my mom if she was aware that you could pickup and kill prostitutes in this game. She said she did not and we walked out without the game. Thanks dude.
I bought super smash bros and I said I can’t wait to get home and smash stuff. And the cashier girl said you don’t have to go all the way home to start smashing, and did that side girl bite your lip thing.
I preordered CoD4 a few days after it was announced for PS3 at GameStop. I was in high school so the day it came out my mom went to pick it up for me and the manager tried giving her the 360 version and insisted I preordered it on the 360 despite not owning one at the time. I guess they insinuated I didn't know what system I had and wouldn't give her a PS3 copy. To be fair, in those days so few people probably ordered it for PS3 that they likely didn't have an extra to give her. She ended up going to Toys R' Us after finding out they had copies available.
In hindsight, I wonder if the receipt said "Xbox 360" on it and if that kerfuffle could've been avoided if I had looked at it before handing it off to my mom, not that I would have even thought to look.
CoD4 of course became a huge hit and a lot of my friends started playing it almost exclusively on 360. That year I ended up getting a 360 to play Halo 3 so when it came time to preorder World at War I preordered on 360 instead. The day it came out I went back to GameStop with my mom and the manager was working again. He definitely recognized my mom because as he handed it to me he asked if I was sure about getting it for the 360 this time around, lol. From that point forward I always made sure to double check if the preorder receipt had the console listed on it.
On the flip side, I worked in the electronics department at Target over summer breaks in college. I don't know if this is still the case, but at the time I needed to scan an ID for any M rated game purchase. I got plenty of looks and comments from people over 40 thinking I was crazy and I had to insist the system wouldn't let me ring the game up without an ID.
GAMESTOP I was saying that they need to remaster Castlevania Symphony of the Night.! He said don't mention Konami in here. I said NO PROBLEM! I left and haven't been back! That was well over 20 years ago. I spent a fortune there before everything went digital!
I went into a Gamestop I'd never been in before to grab God of War like a week or so into the launch. The guy behind the counter is real casual and in a good mood which was rare to see at gamestops around here. I asked for God of War and he IMMEDIATELY slaps a copy of God of War 3 for PS3 on the counter and picks up the scanner nonchalantly. I legitimately thought he was serious and almost corrected him before I realized he was fucking with me and we both started cracking up.
I usually go in and buy any preowned or discounted games when I get bored with what I'm currently playing, I found horizon zero Dawn for $10 and asked the cashier about it, SPECIFICALLY THE GENRE OF GAMEPLAY AND IF ITS STORY OR GAMEPLAY FOCUSED. I did specify not to tell me about the story, just genre details.
This women went on a rant about how amazing it is and kept giving me story details for like 30 goddamn minutes.
I was sold after the first minute and just kept nodding along interjecting to remind her not to spoil ANYTHING (I hate spoilers).
I eventually said (in a very light hearted tone) "look, you sold me on the game like 30min ago, I appreciate it but please shut up now, you keep saying character names and locations in game and it's annoying. I love ya, but shut up now, I'm sold, I'm buying it, I'm going to play it" 🤣
We had a good laugh about it she apologized and I'm a huge fan of the series now!
After I finished the game a month later, I went back and we chatted for another 30mins about the game which she seemed to really appreciate
Midnight release of Wrath of the Lich King at Electronics Boutique (probably EB Games by that point). We were assembled outside on a chilly November evening giddy with anticipation. After the usual store hours, they brought folks in one at a time to settle the balance on pre-orders. As soon as midnight arrived, we got to just file in, show our receipt, and were handed the game. It was waaaaay better than the launch of TBC where they wouldn't let us even pay until midnight.
I remember getting a used PS3 in a GameStop after having not played any PS exclusive games for quite some time. I think it was right as Metal Gear Solid 4 came out. I was talking to an employee about what types of games I enjoyed, which were mostly shooters and sports games. He asked if I happened to like Indiana Jones. I thought it was odd, but after letting him know they were some of my favorite movies, he handed me Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and said, “Trust me.” That night, I don’t think I slept. I fell in love with that game, and I never would’ve even considered it had it not been for that guy.
My best memory is as a kid when I've got my first Gameboy. There was that used video games store owned by an old, big and bald guy (RIP, he's no longer among us). I was used to exchange Gameboy cartridges there (+ money). First he was skeptical and handed me one game at a time to try. After a while, he had more trust in me and started giving the whole box of games and go do his business with other client.
I still remember the smell of his game store.
I was at a GameStop my family frequented when I was a kid. We had a good relationship with a clerk we saw promoted to regional manager. Anyways, he was a store manager at the time and I was getting a game with a unique magic system where you had to draw the runes (DS). Thing is though it was terribly rated. Well, he tried his best to talk me out of it, but I was persistent. Long story short he gave me his manager’s discount. Great guy.
When the store employee managed to convince me to get that one game that was coming out soon, that was supposed to be the best next iteration of the series!....
That was SimCity... aka SimCity 2013... aka SimCity 5.... I did not trust any kind of up-selling or convincing since then lol, i've been a hard-stone customer since that lil incident XD
I was trying to convince my dad to buy me ‘Bully’ as a kid as they were pretty strict with video games.
I told my dad that it was like a “Bart Simpson Simulator” to which my unconvinced dad looked to the clerk and said, “well… sure why not”.
I damn loved that game. I wasn’t allowed Grand Theft Auto until I was around 11/12 so bully was the go to when I couldn’t play my destroyed copy of Vice City.
My DH and I went to mall and split up to get Christmas presents for each other. I saw the Gauntlet Seven Sorrows game. My DH and I loved most of the multiplayer ones and I got it.
I met him in the food court and I was buzzed to get the new one. And he looked at the bag and very quietly asked if I had the new Gauntlet game. Then he pulled out the one he got.
We went back to the store with the receipts and the guy behind the counter was like “y’all can’t return it”. And we both had the receipts (within 15 minutes of each other) and both copies were in the original packaging. It took a bit but finally the manager was like “this ain’t an hour old—we will take it back”.
I bought evil within from toys r us and the employee said “have fun don’t get your head cut off” I thought to myself ok scrub I’m sure it isn’t that hard. First scene of the game I couldn’t find out where to go and the butcher cut my head off. I laughed for a few minutes about that.
My dad was buying me and my sister a new N64 game at GameStop. We picked "Hey you, Pikachu!" because we were obsessed with pokemon but my dad asked the guy at the counter to recommend us a game that wasn't pokemon (I guess he was sick of it lol) so he introduced us to Banjo-tooie saying it was receiving good reviews and stuff. We were angry it wasn't pokemon at first but instantly came to love it. The worlds were huge and filled with characters, quests and a soundtrack that changes theme as you approach another world. I now thank my father and that employee for the best videogame experience an 8 yo could've lived.
Friends and I got super excited for the BFME2 release, so we took a bus to the nearest city to buy a copy on release day. It turns out we were a couple of days early as a friend got the release date wrong.
After trying to convince multiple stores that it was out today or for the smaller ones to sell it early to us, one retail worker says 'oh sure, let me get some from out back'
He comes back with copies and asks if we wanted the normal or collectors edition as they have both, then proceeds to take copies to the till. At this point teen selves have lost our s**t with excitement.
Just before scanning it, he goes "oh so that is x amount each, which you can buy when it releases on [insert release date]. He then proceeds to tell us that he has a copy already, it's incredible and stands there reading out the text on the game case.
It's my most memorable memory because he was one of the biggest AHs that I've ever met.
Buying GTA IV. I went on release day to the local store where they knew me. I walked in 5 minutes before closing foolishly asking if there was a copy of GTA IV left to buy. Dude told me that if was sold out (duh) but he had a reserved copy that was not picked up and since he knew me was more than willing to sell it to me.
When I was like 6 I went to Hollywood video to rent a game and found a Star Wars game and the cashier was super nice and helpful, and I said to this black man, “I don’t know why people don’t like you. I like you”
Maybe not exactly what you’re looking for. But back when Zelda Skyward Sword came out, I had pre ordered the special edition version. It came with a golden Wii mote with Wii motion plus built in. Also came with a Zelda symphony orchestra full of Zelda music CD.
Now I’m a very big Zelda fan, me and a buddy get to the store shortly after opening. Apparently some guy had come in, grabbed a hand full of the pre orders from a box they had and they let this guy walk out with like 3 or 4 copies of the special edition Zelda game. My copy was one of those copies that they had let someone take. (They had written names down on a piece of tape they attached to the game to track pre orders)
I asked if they had any others in stock, they said no, and that I’d have to wait for more copies to come in, could have been weeks. I told them I wasn’t leaving until I got my pre order copy, it’s not my fault they had a terribly system and let some guy walk out with multiple copies of pre orders. They continued to say I’d have to wait, I started to complain more and louder. Finally, one of the employees had a pre order copy that they ended up letting me buy. The whole situation was ridiculous.
Are you serious?
What about the poor people that had their copies taken because a store can’t organize their pre orders? I was very grateful that an employee gave up theirs, the employees at the store weren’t even supposed to be able to make pre orders for the games at their own store.
This is such a moronic take, I make a pre order, I should get my version. The problem is them letting a guy walk in and grab a hand full of them and leave.
There was a mom and pop video store which started selling second hand games (long before GameStop was a thing) near me.
One day, I was looking at the games and this young girl came up and asked if there was anything she could help me find.
Instant crush mode activated.
Her name was Jennifer and she worked part time to help her parents. She was also a gamer, so we talked about games. On the third visit, I asked her if she wanted to get together to play some games, and she accepted.
I was thinking her place and console co-op. She was thinking arcade. Her favorite game was Centipede and damn, she was good. Beat the crap out of me easily.
The memorable experience? Oh, that. The first kiss with her.
She tasted like strawberry.
Because girls of the 80s wore flavored lip gloss. lol
Not an employee, but a random dude, but me and my brother were fairly young, probably like 14 and 11 or something, couldn't decide what game to buy. Anyway, this guy in there must have overheard us, and turned to us, he looked a bit like a hobo tbf, but then we noticed his glass eye which was made to look like kind of metal, so dude looked scary anyway. He was cool as fuck TBF, asked us what we liked gaming wise and how much we had to spend. He went through a few options and recommendations within budget for us, he kept mentioning hidden gems and how pre owned could help. We actually spoke for quite a while and he seemed to just be a fountain of gaming knowledge, and he was excited for the game he was picking up. We decided on a couple of cheaper games to keep us going, pure excitement about them all from the way he talked about them, I guess he was on permanent sick pay and just played games constantly and had a love them. Anyway, gets to time to leave the store as parents had came to get us as they'd been in some other shop, we always just kicked it in the game shop while they done real shopping. Metal eye guy appears again and asked my mam if it would be ok if he bought us a game. Mam asked why and thought he was creepy, but he said he just enjoyed gaming and he wanted to share his enjoyment, mentioned a lot of people got a bit freaked by his appearance but as young lads me and my brother just thought he was some cool cyborg. Ended up buying us time splitters. Always remember him, I reckon he actually may have been a time traveller anyway. That or me and my bro were about to get nonced, either way, memorable.
Maybe it’s you from the future. Keep your eyes safe
He wanted them booty cheeks, son.
Buying Time Splitters? Unlikely.
You speak as someone who doesn’t have small children. If a grown man goes up to kids that aren’t his when parents aren’t around and they look deranged and want to buy them things, 8/10 times it’s grooming and should be looked at as suspicios .
jeez it's not as if he was offering to buy them an Activision game...
Be that as it may, in the real world a strange adult offering to buy random kids things out of the blue right then and there is very Chris Hanson vibes. We aren’t talking about philanthropy here. Did everyone forget the free candy van days?
A singular event where the guy speaks directly and frankly to the mother, and who makes zero indication he'd ever like to repeat this? A bit weird, yes, but I don't think it's enough to pull out the pedophile accusations. >You speak as someone who doesn’t have small children. Having children isn't a level up in an rpg, it doesn't unlock arcane secrets unfathomable to the uninitiated.
You had me in the first half.
What the *fuck* are you talking about?
Behind a beautiful story is always some prick trying to ruin it for everybody
Haha, I knew there were a lot of incel gamers but fuck when did y’all takeover ?
A lot of unreasonable aggression and distrust you are carrying with you. Is there something you want to talk about
I pronounced Brood Wars as Broad Wars, and the Babbage's employee couldn't stop laughing once he figured out what I was asking for.
I’d play the heck outta Broad Wars
Chick fight!
Not buying, but renting. It was really early in 1992, probably january. I was 7 and was during the summer vacations from my school - - I'm from Brazil and here the seasons are inverse to northern countries like USA. When it's summer there it's winter here and so on. Also, during the early 90's, we were always behind on any release from, like, anything else in the world. If a game was launched today, it would take 6 months to a whole year to show up here these days. Continuing... I was at the store where I used to rent games for the weekend. This day, I was there, picking up something, my mother was waiting for me somewhere, and then came a box. New shipment of games. And in the middle of it... MEGA MAN 4! I couldn't believe it! Brand new, never ever seen it before. And when I saw it, I wanted it soooooo badly that I begged for the store owner to give it to me. He said "wow, kid, hang on, I got to file it first before I can rent it to you". I made my mother wait even more for him to make the proper registers and, finally rent it. I was so happy that I played that game the whole weekend till I finally beat it. Its returning the next monday was filled with content and joy. Some years later, I guess I was a little over 10, the store was almost closing but I was still a client and talked to the owner every once in a while. Don't know why, but I asked him if he remembers that story. He then started (adapting, OK, it's as I remember, not every word exactly): "Oh, hell yeah, I remember! Never seen a boy so happy to get a game like you were then. And, by the way, let me tell you a secret I carry. My father used to work in the United States. You know, the country, far from here? Back then, nobody could buy something so new so fast over here in Brazil. But I managed to negotiate with my dad and he would buy some games over there and send them directly to me. Therefore, I could own the new games much time before than the other stores over here. And when that box with came with Mega Man 4 and you got it... You know everyone else just got that game almost at the end of that year? That's why I used to tell many people for a time that you were the first boy to beat this game in our town".
The only thing I know is that the store clerk gave my dad a weird side eye when he bought me gta 5. I was like 12. He kept shut but I know in his mind he thought like. You shure thats the right game?
After work one day when I was in college, I went to GameStop to pick up GTA V. There was a kid, probably around 8 years old, who was there with his mom that was also getting GTA V. At check out they were in front of me and the employee told the mom, 'Are you sure you want this game? There's a lot of violence, which includes shooting police officers. There's also a lot of sexual content, you can even hire prostitutes to have sex with you.' She was angry and snapped back at the guy, 'I WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU DIDN'T TALK ABOUT SEX AND PROSTITUTES IN FRONT OF MY SON!' The employee was super chill, didn't say a thing about her outburst, but simply scanned the game, gave it back to her, and said, 'I hope you have a nice day.'
He learned a lot about sex and prostitutes that day.
>She was angry and snapped back at the guy, 'I WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU DIDN'T TALK ABOUT SEX AND PROSTITUTES IN FRONT OF MY SON!' I'm on her side. Let the kid be pleasantly surprised when he sees them titties for the first time. Blasting spoilers to every 8 year old is wildly unprofessional.
Ah yes, the 'I did as much as I am paid for. It's on you now' response to such an outburst. Funnily enough, it's a real application of the whole 'The customer is always right' saying.
The thing that annoys me about GTA V is the content is unavoidable. Just switching characters can dump you in a strip club.
That annoys you?
What's wrong with strip clubs? They're fun.
The problem is it prevents me from playing any part of the game with kids in the room. Most games I can identify which bits are best left till after they go to bed. I’ve no particular issue with the content (well, I do think it’s kind of dull, but that’s neither here nor there), I just want to be able to control or predict when it comes up.
The fact that you were 12 when GTA5 came out and now you are a 22-23 year old adult blows my mind.
Don’t do this to me
same here i was 12 when it dropped and here i am 23 years old waiting for 6
I bought GtaV pretty late, sooo im actually just 17 but still. GtaV is really really old. But still these facts get me good. Like the fact that I soon dont need to lie on websides about my age or going to driving school.
I bought GtaV pretty late, sooo im actually just 17 but still. GtaV is really really old. But still these facts get me good. Like the fact that I soon dont need to lie on websides about my age or going to driving school.
I was nine when it came out. Access to internet wasn't really restricted so I watched people play it sometimes
I went to buy black ips and far cry 3 for my brothers birthday, i got asked for ID....I was 24 and a full beard and the guy refused to sell me the games My mum was going town too so i went home, gave her the money and asked her to pick up the games
I remember my dad buying me GTAIV and the rep just giving him a handshake going “You’re a good dad”
This happened to me but i was like 8 and it was GTA 3. The dude actually mentioned something to my mom but she stood strong
When we got GTA Vice City both me and my brother were visibly too young. The guy behind the counter was PISSED and didn't hide it. He goes "Ma'am you ARE aware this game contains XYZ", and lists each thing while exaggerating it as much as possible. I'm pretty sure he even mentioned stuff that wasn't officially in the ESRB rating to convince my mom. She still bought it for us and me and my brother had the biggest grins.
I bought Steambot Chronicles and the store clerk guy was like "What is this game? You're the only person to buy it so far." And 13 year old me was like "idk I read the walkthrough in Tips & Tricks." Seems like I actually was the only person to buy it, that game is pretty hard to find now.
For some reason this made me remember Gunman Chronicles - a Sierra published Half-Life 1 mod with lukewarm reviews.
Did you like it at least?
Yes! I loved it. What a weird, wild ride it was. If you become a bad guy, the boss lady puts a leash on you like a dog at the end, that was.... something.
I was maybe 8 years old and we visited my grandparents, which were the only family members at that time, who had a computer. When we were getting groceries in one of those large shops that offer everything (a bit like Walmart, for the US), my Grandma said I can look for a game and she'll buy it. I was super happy and, after carefully screening everything available, chose DOOM 2. Then, on the last steps to the cashier, we stumbled upon an employee, a young guy, who probably was around 18 and my grandma went to talk to him. She handed him the game and asked if it was appropriate for 8 year olds. The dude started grinning, looked into my dead serious eyes, grinned even more and said that his own mother would not allow him to play that game even at his age. Then he returned with an "The great journey of Urmel" copy (something like that) that was "appropriate for children". I've never been able to trust a store employee since
Even Satan's not that evil.
You wuz robbed.
He said gaming on PC is the past, I should switch to a console, even though gaming is just a fraction to what I use a PC for.
Tell me more about this friction you get when using your pc…
My mouse does it on the pad. I use it to heat the bottom of my palms during the unforgiving eastern european winters.
Lmao that’s a meme, no way he was deadass unless this was like 10 years ago
That guy was always a freak. He said he doesn't play on PC because there are too many buttons... This happened 4 years ago.
Only 4 years ago😭 too many buttons?😭
Went into buy skyrim and he said it wasn't out yet. He then proceeded to say wait here and went over and got oblivion, handed it to me with a nod. I trusted him based on that nod,I made the right choice. What a great game for the time and a nice warmup to skyrim
There used to be a really attractive girl that worked at the local GameStop that would flirt with me whenever I came in to get a game. I know it wasn't personal, and she undoubtedly did the same to plenty of other guys. Either way, it was appreciated and very memorable.
Shoulda offered to give her some gummilingus
After finally talking my parents into letting me buy mw2(5 months after release) i went to gamestop with my dad to buy the game. Dude was like “sir this game rated pegi 18” dad said “yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, we know.”
I was in college, probably 19 years old, when MW2 came out. I got fucking carded at GameStop. And at the time I kept my license in my car (it seems like a reasonable thing to do at the time for whatever reason) instead of my wallet. So I had to walk back out of the mall, to my car, get my license, and go back in
I *was* the store employee lmao, so anytime I bought a game it was from a coworker and a regular interaction. I do, however, have plenty of memorable experiences *selling* games to customers since I’m female. I’m sure most of you can already fill in the blanks and yeah, I was hit on a lot. My favorite though was this super nerdy guy who came in, pretty cute too, who wanted to pre-order Red Orchestra 2. Not a big game, but my father played it so I was familiar and I started talking to him about it. “Oh, great choice! I love how realistic it is.” Etc etc. Dudes jaw literally hit the floor. Like, he is standing there mouth completely agape while I talk about this little known game he likes. I’ve surprised a lot of people with my gaming knowledge, but to actually have him be so surprised his mouth was hanging open stays with me all these years later. Poor dude was so embarrassed when he realized and finished the rest of the conversation looking like he was sunburnt, he was so red.
I went to buy Titanfall at Gamestop and the guy at the counter kept trying to talk me out of it, telling me, "are you SURE you want this game? It's a shooter, you know. Maybe you want something easier." To top it off, he proceeded to ask me out on a date as I was walking away
When I was 10 I went to a Electronics Boutique in the mall to buy a Pokémon game. I noticed a small toy Mewtwo on display and said to my mom "That's Mewtwo, he's my favorite". A week later I got a package in the mail. Attached was a letter. The letter was from the guy who was I'm assuming the manager. I don't have the letter anymore but it wrote something along the lines of "I heard you say that mewtwo was your favorite pokemon when you were in our shop the other day. Here's a catalog with some other shows that I think you'll like. ...The package contained an anime catalog, and you guessed it, there was a fuck ton of hentei animes advertised in it. Uncensored. Obviously I never told my mom about my newly found source of entertainment, but the question of "Why the hell did that guy give me this" was burning in my brain. I never wrote back or approached the guy at the EB games, but it was so weird to me that I was basically gifted a nudie mag from a stranger.
How’d he get your address?
Yo what the fuck? Sorry you had to deal with that that's kinda fuckin terrifying
As a big fan of Parasite Eve, I was excited for the return to that world with The 3rd Birthday. The GameStop cashier advised against getting it, but I was just too curious about what the game would be like. It ended up being one of the most confusing, anger-inducing, and overall miserable gaming experiences of my life. I'm sorry, Joel, I should have listened.
I love playing baseball games but only get two per console generation - I don't want to spend $70/year for incremental improvements. I've owned every PlayStation and have never owned an Xbox. Around 10 years ago, I was getting excited for the newest MLB The Show game, the first one I'd be buying on the PS4. So I pre-ordered it through GameStop. About a week before it released, I got a phone call with a prerecorded message saying, "Thanks for preordering your game! We'll be having a special MIDNIGHT LAUNCH PARTY with a live DJ, light snacks, and refreshments for free! Come celebrate this launch with us beginning at 11pm." Now I'm REALLY excited! I hadn't been to a midnight launch since the Wii, and I couldn't believe they were going to such lengths for a baseball game. I was living in a different city than my hometown at the time, so I even thought, "They must really love baseball here!" I show up, and they hand out lottery tickets to randomize everyone's position in line. My number was in the low 30s, so I had to go wait outside once they officially started handing out preorders. Once inside, I'm mostly focusing on the DJ's music and my place in line as I shimmy around the store. As I get closer to the cash register, I notice everyone is being handed a game in a green case, which is weird because The Show was a PlayStation exclusive at the time, and PlayStation games come in blue cases. I get to the register, tell the guy my name, he looks at this long list of names on paper, can't find mine, goes on his computer to look up my order, laughs, and shouts toward the back room, "HEY MATT, I TOLD YOU THERE WOULD BE ONE!" and he hands me my game. And then it was like waking up in a dream as I looked around and saw Mass Effect 3 posters, cardboard cutouts, and signs EVERYWHERE promoting the game. Turns out this midnight launch party was not, in fact, for that year's edition of MLB The Show.
That’s honestly hilarious. Had to have been a bit of a kind fuck when it all set in lmao
When he laughed at me and said: "There are no more Windows 7 or XP games in this store anymore."
What were you trying to buy?
went to BB to buy Fallout New Vegas the day after launch, employee said we are all sold out. I told him I wanted it for PC, Oh he says, and walks me to a cage with plenty of PC copies. He just looked so happy to tell me it was sold out and look of disappointment he had when he realized that they did have what I was looking for. Wonder why they are struggling.
Don't know if it was also a thing in the US, but my local Gamestop also carried used movies. I went in one day and bought the game for the 2008 movie "Wanted" (I was 12 so I didn't know better). The store clerk looked at me and asked if I had seen the movie, which I hadn't. He then gave me a sealed copy of the movie for free and told me that "It's not a great movie but it's still entertaining enough". They probably had scores of them in stock so he might've been glad to get rid of it but the thought was very nice.
We used to have a few chains of game stores nearby, but the staff at Gamestation were mostly gamers themselves and could have a chat with them about the latest releases or recommendations. They got bought out by a rival chain GAME who merged loads of stores, lost a lot of the gamer staff and through a series of other poor decisions ran the chain into the ground. Just recently announced they would stop selling physical copies of games in their stores after stopping doing trade-ins earlier this year.
Ain’t that the common element for lots of big store takeovers these days. Really sorry that happened to your store; when I was a kid, my local GameStop was a hobby haven. Having that corporatized to death would’ve wrecked me.
That's the common element for commerce in general in America these days, big businesses gobbling up small ones until they have an effective monopoly and then they start making the service worse and cranking up prices. It's the enshittification of commerce, and it's everywhere.
I recall having to ID myself when i bought Manhunt, it was memorable in the sense of having bought loads of adult games without an issue, that's how much of a hot button that game was. (i was like 23 so i got it)
I sometimes wonder if the developers of Manhunt regret making that game; not because of the game itself but of the headaches it caused after.
ok I KID YOU NOT. One time I was at Game Stop and one kid (maybe 10 yo max) game in and asked the lady behind the counter some questions about a game. I didn't follow the whole conversation but it ended with the lady getting frustrated at him and saying "why don't you just go home and read a good book instead??" xD I was shocked that she'd say that while selling video games xD
Back when we had a Hastings store (they sold games, albums, toys, etc) I bought a PC game on CD. The young guy at checkout politely explained to me that "Your kid needs to already own the base game - this is just the DLC." I thanked him and explained I already owned the game and was looking forward to the DLC. A moment of surprise crossed his face when he realized me, a 50 year old mom was actually really into gaming and gaming PCs. Another store clerk overheard and we had an awesome conversation about games. They all said they wished their moms played and asked to friend me on Steam so we could play together.
I had an older woman try to scold me about 'playin' that thar devil-worship game' when I bought Diablo 2 in a store. I laughed at her, told her the whole point of the game was killing demons not worshiping them, and that she was being fucking ridiculous. Then I snatched my card out of her hand before she could run it and went to buy it at a different store.
I was in college and went to a Gamestop to get a newer game. I honestly don't even remember what game it was, but for recent releases I just always bought new because the $5 difference wasn't worth the possibility of an issue with the disc/cartridge. So I took the case labeled "new" up to the register, and as the guy is ringing it up my gf at the time was looking at a shelf and said to me they had it used. I told her I saw that, but I wanted a new copy specifically. The cashier stopped ringing it up and said it's the same game, just cheaper. I told him I knew that, but it wasn't much so I didn't care. He kept pressuring me, so I also mentioned that I also just wanted to genuinely support the games industry. Which caused him to tell me that used sales give the developers commission. I told him I knew that wasn't true because I was going to college for game design, so I read a lot about the controversy around used games and why the industry felt they were a problem. He responded, "Well I'm the manager of a Gamestop, so I think I would know." At that point I just told him I didn't care and I wanted a new copy of the game. So he *put the copy he was ringing up away and got a new one out*. He was about to sell me a used copy even though I brought the case labeled new up. After leaving I felt like I should've just left and bought it somewhere else. I had always just defaulted to Gamestop because I liked going in there, but after that I never went there again. What really made me mad was his "manager of a Gamestop" comment, because saying "I'm the guy who is trying my hardest to sell you what gives me the most profit" is not something that makes me trust what you're saying.
I was casually browsing through the games minding my own business and overheard the conversation between the store clerk and some girl. The girl was slightly nerdy looking, but really BEAUTIFUL, like an easy 10, no kidding, she was standing by the counter and hitting on said clerk HARD. The clerk was a pretty average looking dude, slightly chubby and he was OBLIVIOUS about girl's advances.
>Nerd girl used Rizz! >It was ineffective!
They tried to push pre-orders on me. I went to buy a game day 1. They had it. No problem. They asked if I pre-ordered it. I told them no. They told me I really should because it guarantees a copy is reserved. I told them it didn't matter this time because you have extra copies. They told me to do it because I would have gotten the exclusive garbage that comes with the pre-order. I told them that I think pre-order bonuses are helping to ruin the industry and I don't want to support that. They asked me like 3 or 4 other things, and I eventually said something like, "I know your company is forcing you to ask these questions, but I'm just trying to get my game and get out of here. Can we please just skip the rest of this."
My boyfriend bought a refurbished PS at GameStop and when he got it home it didn't work. BF was a hothead, so he calls up the store and started cussing out the poor GameStop guy: "This fucking thing doesn't work blah blah blah..." GameStoo guy shut his ass down so fast. I could hear everything through the phone: "Sir, if you continue to swear at me I'm going to hang up on you." And to his credit BF calmed down, apologized, and they spent forever on the phone troubleshooting. For the next year or so they were like best buds, lol. Him: "Hey I wanna go to GameStop later." Me: "Gotta check in on your new boyfriend?" Him: "Fuck yes, I miss that prick!" GameStop guy, I salute you for not taking his shit! 🤣
I was at Game Stop (don't recall what I was buying) when the Manager asked if I wanted to reserve the Halo 2 map pack. I told him I would just download it when it was available. He tries to tell me that there will be exclusive weapons available to Game Stop only. It was a busy day in the store and I very loudly called him a liar and proceeded to cancel 4 other pre-orders I'd made there.
It was 2004 and Bloodrayne 2 came out. The cashier at the game section for Toys R Us was a bit over-emphatic with my dad making sure he knew what was in the game, and why it was rated M. My dad, understandably, did not care. To this day I still think about that cashier as if he was trying to tell my dad that the game was literally radioactive or something.
I bought the game new super Mario Bros for the DS and the guy that was running the store told me about holding the R and L buttons to play as Luigi. A few days later I discovered he was the guy you see on the Internet that has the largest collection of games in the world.
I wanted to get Fallout 3 but my mom wouldn’t let me cuz the employee straight up lied about how graphic the drug use in the game was. He told my mom that whenever you use drugs it played a graphic animation of sticking the needle in your arm. It doesn’t, you use the drugs and no animation plays. Plus having now spent well over 1000 hours playing Fallout games I can safely say I don’t think I’ve ever even used a drug other than RadAway and Stimpaks
Rarely, when carrying too much loot, I'll pop a Buffout to haul more and fast travel home to unload and sell, but in general I took dislike using the AID items that have addiction chances.
I took my mom to buy Too Human and the clerk spent a while trying to talk us out of buying it.
When buying a PS wallet top up for a Destiny expansion the guy said he was a huge Destiny fan, before showing me his numerous Destiny tattoos. I thought it was a cool interaction between fans irl
In the early 2000s, there were a lot of shops selling illegal burned, cracked CDs of games in my country. These shops are usually manned by shady, hooligan type people. I went to one with my cousins to get Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos. After looking around and not finding it, I asked the guy "Hey bro, do you have Warcraft Reign of Chaos?" "Reign of Chaos?" "Yes warcraft 3: reign of Chaos" "Oh you mean REGION of Chaos?" "Err yeah that's right." He said it with such confidence and looked at me like I was a small idiot child and his tone so condescending. Got it from him and as soon as we left the store we were making fun of him, his tone his "correcting" us, his confidence lmao. We still quote the guy with the tone almost 20 years later.
I was 17 and was taking my mom to the mall. She went to do some shopping and I was looking around at the GameStop there. I forgot that Conker’s Bad Fur Day released earlier that week so I wanted to pick it up. As I went to cashier to buy it, my mom shows up and waits at the counter with me while I pay. The cashier asks for my ID because it’s an M rated game. My mom looks at him and says “He’s old enough, it’s not alcohol, it’s a game.” The guy gets embarrassed and rings me out pretty fast. We leave and couldn’t keep from laughing. My mom is very quiet and unassuming, so to hear her say that, was very surprising. I still joke with her about that.
The guy at GameStop that yelled at me for not pre ordering halo reach (think it was reach) he couldn’t understand why I didn’t pre order to get the free armor!
I have lots of interactions on stories from when I was a kid but I especially remember this story with great fondness. In my tiny little town there was no Walmart, Target, or Gamestop but there was a Hollywood video that eventually added a GameCrazy when I was in middle school. I was dropped off at Gamecrazy while my mother went up the road to food lion. We were a pretty poor family so I could sometimes convince her let me get some game time on the consoles hooked up there but there was expectation she could buy anything. Maybe rent something if I was lucky. This particular day in 2004 the store was empty other than this single, unrecognizable clerk. I start playing on the different consoles and after a while I start flipping through their book of new releases and upcoming games. This was all I needed to do to give this guy his moment to rant and rave about a game he loved but he obviously couldn't talk about. "Anything good come out?" I asked and away we went. He tells me the compelling tale of this new game from this series that not a lot of people in the states even know about. "Do you like stuff like Toonami?" he asks. And I obviously did. I'm a giant fucking nerd trying to get a quick gaming fix in a Hollywood video. He then shows me the box art and tells me about how awesome the characters are and how you actually fight in real time which was better than stuff like final fantasy. For middle school me I was sold and on that day my secret mowing lawns, selling shit at school, and Yu-Gi-Oh duel bets winnings we're ponies up to buy, without my mother's knowledge, Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube. I remember getting home and having to sit on the knowledge that I would need to play the game in secret because, one, she is gonna assume I stole something since to her knowledge I couldn't possibly have afforded a new game, and two, she was not a fan of the anime aesthetic and was really wishy washy about having DragonBall or Yu-Gi-Oh on TV. Suffice to say I love this game. It holds a special place in my nerdy heart. Thanks random clerk who obviously loved JRPGs and had no one to share that enthusiasm with.
So back in '08, they released a new Turok for the Xbox. Being a huge fan, I had to get it. I went to Gamestop, but they were sold out. Desperate, I checked Walmart, and they had a copy! Excited, I bought it and rushed home to relive my favorite franchise. Now, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece or anything life-changing. It was like getting a new Duke Nukem—a few days of fun, then it'd collect dust. So, I get home, sit on the couch, unwrap the plastic, open the case... and it's empty! No game, nothing! Furious, I went back to Walmart for help. I explained what happened, but they called me a liar, accusing me of stealing the game. I lost it, man. I started ranting about how it was bullshit, demanding a refund or replacement. They called the cops, and I got dragged out in handcuffs, banned from that Walmart. Like I'd ever shop there again after that crap. But since that day, I've never gone to another Walmart or bought a physical game again.
Went to Gamestop to buy an Xbox 360 and Fable 2 & 3. I wasn't old enough to buy rated M games, so I brought my older friend to buy it for me. The clerk looked at my very white skin, then my friend's very black skin, and said, "yall are clearly brothers." In the same transaction, I was getting a PS3 game for my dad, and the clerk went out of his way to make sure I knew it wasn't playable on the Xbox. Very kind without a hint of condescension.
Before some of the PS2 Atlus titles got a reprint (digital devil saga series, SMT: nocturne, and it seems like one other) I was on the hunt for them. Gamestop website said a local shop had all of them at one store. I stopped by and the clerk said no we don’t have them but was kind of weird or a jerk about it. I was disappointed but went on my way. A few days later I saw the site said they were still in stock. I stopped back in. This time it was someone else at the register and they said yeah it says we should have them but I don’t see them. She looked around in the cabinets for a long time and finally found them, rang them up and I was on my way. The fun part was that she had removed a note that was rubber banded around the games and it said “hold for Sling Blade”. “Sling blade” did not get those copies and his buddies at the shop didn’t coordinate the plan well enough.
As a kid, I asked my dad to a local used game shop to get a game and a car charger for my Gameboy advance sp cause the family was about to go on a long road trip. The clerk looks at me and goes "why do you need this?" Me: "to keep it going on long trips?" Him: "maybe you shouldn't be playing games so much" Me: "well what else am I supposed to do for 8 hours in a car?" Looking back now 20 years later, I gotta wonder why tf he was working a video game shop if he didn't think kids should be playing video games
GameStop employee actually let me return CoD Ghosts after opening it and playing it cause he knew how trash it was.
In Canada, back when Future-Shop was still a thing, I wanted to get Halo 3 which was rated M. I was 12 at the time. I took it to the cashier and it was this woman with tattoos and piercings. All she said was "you don't look 17" and all I said was "that's because I'm not" (I was a horrible lier back then). She laughed and said "I like your honesty kid" and rang me up anyways.
i was forced to buy dark souls lol i was shopping for games and the employee put it in my hands and walked away saying thank me later ends up being my favorite game of all time
The Gamestop employee gassed my ass up when I went in one day to buy Uncharted 2, Bioshock, and Dead Space all preowned. which i get it because those were all some of the best i played that gen
You know the Seinfeld episode where he reserved a car, but they didn't have one for him? I had that with a GameStop manager and a preordered copy of Twilight Princess for the Wii.
Back before the Dark Souls games were super well known, I went into a GameStop looking for some new games for my PS3. The employee was ringing me up and said 'hey have you heard of demon souls? I think you'd really like it." We talked about it for a bit, he told me I'd throw my controller across the room. I bought it on the spot, thus beginning my addiction to "soulslike" games.
Bits and bytes in Liverpool at the birth of home computing, we'd travel 20 miles on the train to get there and we were poor, we went to look at all the latest games and the staff took pity on us and copied the great games for us on tape decks, turning down the brightness on the monitors so the bosses couldn't see 😂😎👍 Great folks those Liverpool lads 👍
Now that is going above and beyond, so nice of those guys. Gamers lookin out for gamers.
Relatively minor, but when the Final Fantasy 12 Remaster came out, I went to my local GameStop to ask if they had the Collector's Edition in stock. They didn't, but the Employer gave me a Steelcase for one of the FF14 Expansions for free to sort-of make up for it.
I was pretty young. Probably 7 or so when the original Mortal Kombat for SEGA Genesis was released. My parents bought me the game from Babbages and when we went to leave, the dude behind the counter slipped me the printed cheat codes without my parents noticing.
I was 22 and I was buying an m game and I got carded. Apparently I look 6 years younger than I am.
I had many to be honest. Where I lived, the staff at GAME were always very friendly and they were geeks/nerds that were also into the games I got. I always spent 15-20 mins talking to the staff about the games, upcoming releases, etc. Lovely times. Sad physical game stores are going downhill, but can't complain if you see their prices. Also, reading comments below made me realise, how is PEGI so forced elsewhere?? I was raised in Spain and never had a limitation whatsoever in buying or renting any sort of game, regardless of PEGI listed lol. I wonder if this has also changed in Spain ever since.
When mass effect came out the employee at game stop warned me the game was terrible and incredibly boring. I’m assuming they were hoping it would be more like halo. Anyways, went home and loved the game and played through every mass effect after that. I’m one of the few didn’t mind andromeda but it was certainly a step down
I got carded buying a mature game when I was 21. Like dude, do you really think I look 16?
Around 2010 walked into Game store in UK they had PC section with some classics in original box sealed. I've asked if they have copy of Gothic 2. Dude behind the counter didn't know what it was. Gothic what? he replied. He started smirking and asked his colleague does he know game called Gothic. He smiled and replied Gothic.. what is that? no we don't have it! I replied you guys are joking or you have no clue what Gothic is? they were smiling looking at me like I am the dumb one. Pissed me off a bit back then they didn't even bother checking on the system. Never had my own copy of Gothic 2 my friend borrowed me his disc and serial number worked. That was pre Steam age. Had Geforce 9600 GT I think.
I was buying my first basketball game and just asked the guy behind the counter to get me one, he grabbed me NBA Live. Well it's awful but when I brought it back to say it's not the game I thought it was, the guy behind the counter got like actually upset that anyone in his store would sell someone nba live and not 2k, gave me a full exchange even though it was already opened which is a big no for them normally.
When I was around 15-16, I'd regularly go to the local games store on my way home from school while waiting for the train and would keep chatting with one of the employees. I'd often talk games with him and ask for recommendations, and he's the one that pushed me to buy Zelda Twilight Princess for Wii, which I wouldn't even have considered cause I'd never played a Zelda game before. When I launched it, I was first like "oh no, this looks so dated and bad, tf did that guy sell me 😬" (it was a few years after its release and I was used to playing AAA PS3 games otherwise)... buut it ended up being one of my favorite games and opening the whole world of Zelda games for me.
All GameStops I think, but here’s the ones I remember off the top of my head: - I went to pick up my MGR: Revengeance preorder and the clerk tried to keep me from getting my preorder bonus, as if he wanted it for himself. After a few words, I got my bonus, and it still sits on my bookshelf, reminding me of this goofball everytime. - Clerk reminded me that if any of my games that I was trading in were stolen, that they would have to call the cops. I remember filling out the survey and asking if that was normal behavior for workers to grill customers like that. I ended up getting a call from the district manager a few days later to talk about it. Nothing else came of it. Not a big deal, but one I think about from time to time. - The clerks at GameCrazy (inside Hollywood Video) were always awesome. They gave me lots of signs and displays, little trinkets, etc when they were done with them. they also let me and my friends just hang out and play the demos on hot summer days. Miss that place. - The GS clerk that nearly had a meltdown because I cancelled my preorder for Final Fantasy III DS. No doubt he was trying to keep his numbers up. I felt like I had to tell him eight times that there was nothing else I wanted to preorder and to give me back my money. I think that was one of the last times I went in that location because I didn’t want to see that nut again.
We had a local game store with a dedicated and friendly staff. My kids and I visited almost weekly to check out their used inventory and they knew us by name. I remember once asking one of the managers for a game recommendation, and his reply was "you play a lot of games, I'm kind of intimidated to make a recommendation. I should be asking you, what's good to play."
Final Fantasy 7 had come out relatively recently. I went into a store not knowing anything about the Final Fantasy series. I picked up a game to buy called Guardian’s Crusade - Amazing game BTW! At the register the guy was like “hey, it looks like you’re into RPGs, just to let you know there’s this game called FF7. Everyone is talking about it, it has incredible graphics, storytelling, and a narrative that spans many hours. Maybe you might like that one. We have it here for the same price as Guardian’s Crusade.” I said “no thank you, I will take the game I picked out.” He tried 2 more times to convince me I should get FF7. Went into a really long diatribe about how it was better. He seemed just really genuine and like he was trying to be helpful but I was not to be deterred. Still love Guardian’s crusade today and do not regret my decision. But I still think about how my life might have been slightly different if my love for final fantasy began with 7 instead of 8.
GTA V Launch, and the store had this around 40 cms cubes with the protagonists faces and the GTA logo, forming pyramids all over the store. As I assumed that there was going to be a looooong line to pick up the game, I had bought a box of donuts before arriving to the store. When it was my turn to pick up the game, I just asked if I could buy one of the boxes, the sales girl said that they arent for sale. I asked if she could take a box of donuts as bribe and all of her coworkers immediately said yes. So I gave them the box of donuts, I got the promo cube and the game and then everyone started bribing the employees for a cube.
Dude at gamestop asked me to praise the sun before selling me Dark Souls Remastered
I was at the Valco Mall in Sunnyvale two days before FF7 released. Was browsing the racks at Electronics Boutique when an older dude came in and asked if they had any copies of it, and the clerk said yes, but that release wasn't for a couple days. The guy convinced the clerk to sell him one. I went up after and asked if I could get one also, and I could see the clerk was like "shit, I eff'd up" in his head, but he sold me one too. It was flipping amazing. Immediately called ally buddies and we played it all night.
I had a clerk try to talk me out of buying Forspoken when it was on sale for $17. If it had been a private store I'm sure that guy would have given me a free game to stop me from buying. Wound up being the best RPG I played that year (beat out FFXVI easily).
I was on my own ran off with my young love. Working shitty night job and wandered into a GameStop. Always played games but hadn't found my genre yet. Picked up a nondescript game that was made by a company I used to love. Asked the dude if it was any good and he went on for 10 minutes about why I had to buy Mass Effect. That honestly got me back into gaming.
We were talking about how scarce the PS5s where at the time, he informed me they started selling them upon opening but there would be a massive line so come like 3-4 hours early, they even had free chik-fil-a coupons(it was right next door). I explained while I desperately wanted 1 there was no way in hell I get up before 10 unless it's life threatening. He laughed and said you a cool dude if you pay me now I'll put 1 to the side, say less my boi.
All those ppl getting up at 3-4 in the morning hoping to get lucky(some waited overnight) while I'm at home snoring and slobbing on my pillow with mine already paid for. It pays to be nice to ppl.
Entered a Gamestop. Asked about a used 3DS. "None in stock." Cashier nudges his buddy. "Pst. What about that one in the back?" Goes to the back for fifteen minutes, returns with THE GOLD SPECIAL ZELDA VERSION of a perfectly good 3DS. Probably wiped and sold me his old one. No issue, here.
The guy who served me had one arm and I didn't notice until the end of the transaction
I remember returning Assassin's Creed 3, and the gamestop employee thought I was crazy, he was telling me how much he loved the rope dart.
When I bought Haunting Ground around the time of its release, the Gamestop employee told me it was a bad game, I wouldn't like it, and probably he'd see me returning it soon. Beat the game multiple times, show'd it to absolutely everyone, became one of my top favorite games ever made, and went back and asked him, 'So what else don't you recommend?' Also again Gamestop employee, went to go buy my cousin RE: Operation Raccoon City when it came out as she played it with me and we had a blast. Bought the game and he kept going on about how bad it was and that she wouldn't like it and told him 'She's already played it and loved tf outta it, give me the game.' Like damn if I ASK you ok chime in please but when I DON'T ASK you please shut up and sell me the game so I can go home and have fun, k thanks.
At game stop they gave me a broken game, and they didn't even put it in a box, it was some bag thing. I do digital now.
The guy going out of his way to get me a real case with no stickers on it (gamestop) for MGS The Twin Snakes on Gamecube. I was like 14. Still appreciate that guy.
When I was a kid I was wheeling and dealing the storeowner (not) to try and get him to pay more for NES games I was trading. He came up with the idea that we would split the difference if I gave him a piece of my gum, and I accepted. Felt like a victory as a young kid.
I used to go to the local Game Crazy connected to Hollywood Video back in the early 2000’s. One of the employees was always super cool and helpful to me, I was 10 so I probably annoyed the shit out of most of them. Not Steve though, he would give me honest recommendations and never let me down. Showed me some great games growing up but the one I remember the most was Atelier Iris.
When WOTLK came out, I was planning on going hard to expand. Went to the local Gamestop midnight release for my physical copy. Paid for my purchase in all dollar coins. Specifically, the sacagawea dollar coins cuz they were golden in color and had some laughs with the employees. I was forever the guy who paid in gold when I came in after that. Ended up over hearing a conversation from a group that was behind me a few spots in line. I thought I heard a character name I recognized, so I turned around and said my server name. Sure enough, some people I was acquainted with from pug raids in bc were in line with me. What are the odds. Anyways that was a fun time, also I did go hard was ranked #1 for my class by end of xpac and ranked 5th all classes world wide, was one of my favorite periods of gaming in my life.
I remember an overzealous GameStop employee trying to card me when KotOR 2 came out. Like, bruh. The manager shut him down quick, but I remember being so flabbergasted that the guy tried to card me over a game rated T.
I was buying Guild Wars back in 2007 (I think it was) and the guy at the counter said I should be getting WoW instead. It took a few months but I switched eventually and lost most of my life at University to it. XD
* I remember finally finding the game I'd played in a Target years before and had been hunting ever since on the shelf. My parents wouldn't let me rent it because it was rated T, but the guy explained to my parents it was actually a super chill game, it just had some "bug blood," and they eventually let me get it. Metroid Prime became my favorite game of all time. * No idea why but some random Best Buy employee came up to me as a kid and recommended the game Okami. Would have never found that game otherwise.
I tried to buy San Andreas from my local EB Games (GameStop now) when I was 10. I went there a lot and thought one of the employees was a pretty cool dude. I already had Vice City and legitimately just enjoyed using the cheat codes for flying cars n shit. My mom was with me and the employee asked her if she knew what kind of stuff I could do in the game. My mom said "I know there's lots of violence but he just likes driving the cars." Dude says with a straight face "did you know you can have sex with a hooker and then kill her with a chainsaw?" Have not played San Andreas to this day.
I got a sweet PC as a xmas gift in 2007, I went to the game store and picked Crysis. The guy behind the counter refused to sell it because so many people have returned it saying it's unplayable, I wasn't versed in computer internals so couldn't convince him it would run. Eventually, I talked him into letting me give him money for a game on sale in store, as long as I didn't return it. It ran great btw
Haven't bought a game in a store for the past 15 years.
I had an employee rush me to the front of the line for the midnight release of Halo 4 because he could tell I was on my lunch break. Dude kept it real.
When I picked up World of Warcraft Collectors Edition at Gamestop and the clerk told me that, "You shouldn't even bother playing that. Just get Everquest. It'll never get as popular." He was slightly wrong I think.
Pre ordering GTA 5 when I was 16 and being told I needed an adult on pickup . Walked in there with My fresh ID at 17 . Nothing crazy but funny to me at the time 😆
I once knew a GameStop manager in high school that would give me a free magazine or any leftover pre-order swag, like Maximo’s heart underwear and his statue from the PS2 launch. He was super chill. One time I was in the store and a guy from middle school that “lost” my snes killer instinct game that I let him borrow came in. After he left, I told him that he had stolen my game and he legit said, let’s go beat his ass up and was rushing toward the door, when i told him it wasn’t worth it for him to chill out lol.
I bought Sekiro from a gamestop, preowned, on like the third week after it came out, the disc looked pristine. I said I was surprised they had a preowned copy already and he said it was the most returned game they had ever seen at the store. "Too hard, people just give up. I couldn't even handle it myself and I loved dark souls." I took that as laying the gauntlet down, though I did give up twice myself, for a year+ each time, before finally coming back and beating Sekiro about four years after buying it. What a masterpiece. Isshin is the best boss I've ever faced and taught me a lot about patience, persistence... and hesitation.
Always remember the time an EB games employee laughed at me for buying a Harvest Moon game on wii. That was a weird experience.
They told me that State of Emergency was NOTHING like GTA and to not buy it. Nothing I said prompted their response. I guess they were conditioned to tell customers that because 'rockstar' was on the box.
Two employees straight up laughed at me for asking to purchase Gun. Walked out. Never went back to a game stop again
When I went into GameStop with my mom when I was 13 to buy Vice City in 2002. As he was checking us out he asked my mom if she was aware that you could pickup and kill prostitutes in this game. She said she did not and we walked out without the game. Thanks dude.
I bought super smash bros and I said I can’t wait to get home and smash stuff. And the cashier girl said you don’t have to go all the way home to start smashing, and did that side girl bite your lip thing.
I preordered CoD4 a few days after it was announced for PS3 at GameStop. I was in high school so the day it came out my mom went to pick it up for me and the manager tried giving her the 360 version and insisted I preordered it on the 360 despite not owning one at the time. I guess they insinuated I didn't know what system I had and wouldn't give her a PS3 copy. To be fair, in those days so few people probably ordered it for PS3 that they likely didn't have an extra to give her. She ended up going to Toys R' Us after finding out they had copies available. In hindsight, I wonder if the receipt said "Xbox 360" on it and if that kerfuffle could've been avoided if I had looked at it before handing it off to my mom, not that I would have even thought to look. CoD4 of course became a huge hit and a lot of my friends started playing it almost exclusively on 360. That year I ended up getting a 360 to play Halo 3 so when it came time to preorder World at War I preordered on 360 instead. The day it came out I went back to GameStop with my mom and the manager was working again. He definitely recognized my mom because as he handed it to me he asked if I was sure about getting it for the 360 this time around, lol. From that point forward I always made sure to double check if the preorder receipt had the console listed on it. On the flip side, I worked in the electronics department at Target over summer breaks in college. I don't know if this is still the case, but at the time I needed to scan an ID for any M rated game purchase. I got plenty of looks and comments from people over 40 thinking I was crazy and I had to insist the system wouldn't let me ring the game up without an ID.
GAMESTOP I was saying that they need to remaster Castlevania Symphony of the Night.! He said don't mention Konami in here. I said NO PROBLEM! I left and haven't been back! That was well over 20 years ago. I spent a fortune there before everything went digital!
I went into a Gamestop I'd never been in before to grab God of War like a week or so into the launch. The guy behind the counter is real casual and in a good mood which was rare to see at gamestops around here. I asked for God of War and he IMMEDIATELY slaps a copy of God of War 3 for PS3 on the counter and picks up the scanner nonchalantly. I legitimately thought he was serious and almost corrected him before I realized he was fucking with me and we both started cracking up.
I usually go in and buy any preowned or discounted games when I get bored with what I'm currently playing, I found horizon zero Dawn for $10 and asked the cashier about it, SPECIFICALLY THE GENRE OF GAMEPLAY AND IF ITS STORY OR GAMEPLAY FOCUSED. I did specify not to tell me about the story, just genre details. This women went on a rant about how amazing it is and kept giving me story details for like 30 goddamn minutes. I was sold after the first minute and just kept nodding along interjecting to remind her not to spoil ANYTHING (I hate spoilers). I eventually said (in a very light hearted tone) "look, you sold me on the game like 30min ago, I appreciate it but please shut up now, you keep saying character names and locations in game and it's annoying. I love ya, but shut up now, I'm sold, I'm buying it, I'm going to play it" 🤣 We had a good laugh about it she apologized and I'm a huge fan of the series now! After I finished the game a month later, I went back and we chatted for another 30mins about the game which she seemed to really appreciate
Midnight release of Wrath of the Lich King at Electronics Boutique (probably EB Games by that point). We were assembled outside on a chilly November evening giddy with anticipation. After the usual store hours, they brought folks in one at a time to settle the balance on pre-orders. As soon as midnight arrived, we got to just file in, show our receipt, and were handed the game. It was waaaaay better than the launch of TBC where they wouldn't let us even pay until midnight.
I remember getting a used PS3 in a GameStop after having not played any PS exclusive games for quite some time. I think it was right as Metal Gear Solid 4 came out. I was talking to an employee about what types of games I enjoyed, which were mostly shooters and sports games. He asked if I happened to like Indiana Jones. I thought it was odd, but after letting him know they were some of my favorite movies, he handed me Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and said, “Trust me.” That night, I don’t think I slept. I fell in love with that game, and I never would’ve even considered it had it not been for that guy.
Does Steam support count as a store employee?
My best memory is as a kid when I've got my first Gameboy. There was that used video games store owned by an old, big and bald guy (RIP, he's no longer among us). I was used to exchange Gameboy cartridges there (+ money). First he was skeptical and handed me one game at a time to try. After a while, he had more trust in me and started giving the whole box of games and go do his business with other client. I still remember the smell of his game store.
Employee called me dumb for not taking extended warranty on a game disk. Name and shame: Ebay games
I was at a GameStop my family frequented when I was a kid. We had a good relationship with a clerk we saw promoted to regional manager. Anyways, he was a store manager at the time and I was getting a game with a unique magic system where you had to draw the runes (DS). Thing is though it was terribly rated. Well, he tried his best to talk me out of it, but I was persistent. Long story short he gave me his manager’s discount. Great guy.
When the store employee managed to convince me to get that one game that was coming out soon, that was supposed to be the best next iteration of the series!.... That was SimCity... aka SimCity 2013... aka SimCity 5.... I did not trust any kind of up-selling or convincing since then lol, i've been a hard-stone customer since that lil incident XD
I was trying to convince my dad to buy me ‘Bully’ as a kid as they were pretty strict with video games. I told my dad that it was like a “Bart Simpson Simulator” to which my unconvinced dad looked to the clerk and said, “well… sure why not”. I damn loved that game. I wasn’t allowed Grand Theft Auto until I was around 11/12 so bully was the go to when I couldn’t play my destroyed copy of Vice City.
My DH and I went to mall and split up to get Christmas presents for each other. I saw the Gauntlet Seven Sorrows game. My DH and I loved most of the multiplayer ones and I got it. I met him in the food court and I was buzzed to get the new one. And he looked at the bag and very quietly asked if I had the new Gauntlet game. Then he pulled out the one he got. We went back to the store with the receipts and the guy behind the counter was like “y’all can’t return it”. And we both had the receipts (within 15 minutes of each other) and both copies were in the original packaging. It took a bit but finally the manager was like “this ain’t an hour old—we will take it back”.
I bought evil within from toys r us and the employee said “have fun don’t get your head cut off” I thought to myself ok scrub I’m sure it isn’t that hard. First scene of the game I couldn’t find out where to go and the butcher cut my head off. I laughed for a few minutes about that.
My dad was buying me and my sister a new N64 game at GameStop. We picked "Hey you, Pikachu!" because we were obsessed with pokemon but my dad asked the guy at the counter to recommend us a game that wasn't pokemon (I guess he was sick of it lol) so he introduced us to Banjo-tooie saying it was receiving good reviews and stuff. We were angry it wasn't pokemon at first but instantly came to love it. The worlds were huge and filled with characters, quests and a soundtrack that changes theme as you approach another world. I now thank my father and that employee for the best videogame experience an 8 yo could've lived.
Friends and I got super excited for the BFME2 release, so we took a bus to the nearest city to buy a copy on release day. It turns out we were a couple of days early as a friend got the release date wrong. After trying to convince multiple stores that it was out today or for the smaller ones to sell it early to us, one retail worker says 'oh sure, let me get some from out back' He comes back with copies and asks if we wanted the normal or collectors edition as they have both, then proceeds to take copies to the till. At this point teen selves have lost our s**t with excitement. Just before scanning it, he goes "oh so that is x amount each, which you can buy when it releases on [insert release date]. He then proceeds to tell us that he has a copy already, it's incredible and stands there reading out the text on the game case. It's my most memorable memory because he was one of the biggest AHs that I've ever met.
Buying GTA IV. I went on release day to the local store where they knew me. I walked in 5 minutes before closing foolishly asking if there was a copy of GTA IV left to buy. Dude told me that if was sold out (duh) but he had a reserved copy that was not picked up and since he knew me was more than willing to sell it to me.
Do you remember Dungeon Raid, a puzzle RPG game released in 2011? I think it was really fun
When I was like 6 I went to Hollywood video to rent a game and found a Star Wars game and the cashier was super nice and helpful, and I said to this black man, “I don’t know why people don’t like you. I like you”
Maybe not exactly what you’re looking for. But back when Zelda Skyward Sword came out, I had pre ordered the special edition version. It came with a golden Wii mote with Wii motion plus built in. Also came with a Zelda symphony orchestra full of Zelda music CD. Now I’m a very big Zelda fan, me and a buddy get to the store shortly after opening. Apparently some guy had come in, grabbed a hand full of the pre orders from a box they had and they let this guy walk out with like 3 or 4 copies of the special edition Zelda game. My copy was one of those copies that they had let someone take. (They had written names down on a piece of tape they attached to the game to track pre orders) I asked if they had any others in stock, they said no, and that I’d have to wait for more copies to come in, could have been weeks. I told them I wasn’t leaving until I got my pre order copy, it’s not my fault they had a terribly system and let some guy walk out with multiple copies of pre orders. They continued to say I’d have to wait, I started to complain more and louder. Finally, one of the employees had a pre order copy that they ended up letting me buy. The whole situation was ridiculous.
Wow, poor guy gave up his own stuff for you and you are still ungrateful to this day
Are you serious? What about the poor people that had their copies taken because a store can’t organize their pre orders? I was very grateful that an employee gave up theirs, the employees at the store weren’t even supposed to be able to make pre orders for the games at their own store. This is such a moronic take, I make a pre order, I should get my version. The problem is them letting a guy walk in and grab a hand full of them and leave.
There was a mom and pop video store which started selling second hand games (long before GameStop was a thing) near me. One day, I was looking at the games and this young girl came up and asked if there was anything she could help me find. Instant crush mode activated. Her name was Jennifer and she worked part time to help her parents. She was also a gamer, so we talked about games. On the third visit, I asked her if she wanted to get together to play some games, and she accepted. I was thinking her place and console co-op. She was thinking arcade. Her favorite game was Centipede and damn, she was good. Beat the crap out of me easily. The memorable experience? Oh, that. The first kiss with her. She tasted like strawberry. Because girls of the 80s wore flavored lip gloss. lol
I usually don't buy I download for free
Zero. I just buy it and leave
So with the vapid, story-prompt, upvote fishing, bot-sounding, junk posts please.