From Across the Counter: A Look at Video Game Retail

I write this article at the risk of losing my job. Unfortunately, Corporate entities are a picky bunch, unable to stand for the slightest bit of employee backlash. More and more, video game retail is being considered the ugly duckling of the gaming industry. Everywhere I turn, people complain and straight-up trash game retail stores and employees because they disagree with their practices. Being an employee at one of the biggest gaming-retail chains has given me a bit of an insiders perspective and at the same time, made me feel like a little bit of an outsider in the industry that I love.

Making a trip to the game store, especially on the day of a big game release, is always a special day for any gamer, no matter what age they are. There is just something special about shopping at a store that is dedicated to gaming that the game section at Wal-Mart or Best Buy just can’t deliver. Unfortunately, as the gaming industry has boomed, changes to retail practices and the opinions of media journalists have had negative effects on how we shop for games. For whatever reason, gamers are now opposed to reserving games prior to release and are quick to turn a negative experience at one store into an opinion of the entire company. More and more gamers are flocking to the likes of Wal-Mart and buying games from people who, for the most part, have little or no knowledge about the games that they sell.


As I get more serious about delving into the world of game journalism, I find it increasingly ironic that so many of the professionals that I admire, shun the business that I currently work in. I suppose that I can feel some comfort from the fact that so many of these writers and personalities started out as Gamestop employees themselves. However, it is discouraging to hear the likes of Ryan Davis or John Davison refer to Gamestop employees as scam artists or something else along those lines. As I continue to grow in this industry, I’m sure that I will have to come to terms with the way that these journalists think because I will have a similar field of experience. With that said, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to a lot of the negative chatter that has taken the industry by storm.

Like I said earlier, I write this not only as an aspiring writer but also as an employee of a huge game-retail corporation. I have listened to hundreds of podcasts, read a number of different articles, and heard endless complaints with my own two ears about the way that these businesses are run. What I can't understand is how people are so quick to judge a company's business strategy when they don't have a full understanding of their logic behind the decisions that they make.
In an effort to keep this article from becoming a rant, I will avoid obvious discussion topics like: "The legitimacy of pre-ordering" or "the reason small stores sell opened new games." Instead I simply want to say that working in video game retail has done me a lot of good and has really played a big part in fueling my interest in this industry. If it weren't for my job, I would have probably been insanely bored throughout my college experience. To everyone who has gone out of their way to complain about something miniscule or lead an internet army on a pointless march against mega-corporations, I say this: your shopping experience is what you make of it. Period. It is easy to understand that many people may not want to take part in the policies or services that these stores provide but there is absolutely no reason that they can't simply find a new store that fits their expectations. Not wanting to shop at a particular chain is one thing, but taking your misinformed rant to cyberspace is immature and uncalled for. If you had to put up with half of the junk that I did, you might understand why some game store employees appear rude or unfriendly. I will close by saying that the store that I work at and the employees I work with do our best to make shopping at our store a fun experience and for the most part, we have been successful. In the end, it is important to remember to look at these stores as what they are, a business, and many of these trite and illogical complaints could be forgiven. It is too bad that 90% of the people who complain are completely unwilling to try and look at these issues from the perspective of someone who works across the counter.