I skate board. I am not the ressurection of Tony Hawk, but I have fun doing it and it give my fat ass some exercise. It's just a lot of late night, having a soda, blowing off some steam, tired of staring at the monitor type of action. I also do a lot of thinking when I do this.
I have just recovered from a nasty leg infection and I am already out trying to get another one. Considering the lease might be up on my flesh house any second, I might as well make the most of it. You are probably asking yourselves, "What the fuck does this have to do with gaming or petitions?"
Well, I am unsure. Really, I try not to get on the petition ban wagon unless I have too. Yeah, the adult films in the Oscar Awards petition but I did have a unique purpose behind that. I think you could do a really artful and great adult film, that doesn't envolve pizza boys. This idea came about when I saw the movie, 9 Songs.
It's this high art piece about a couple doing coke, listening to music, and how badly it all falls apart. The movie also featured unsimulated sex and one of the best movie soundtracks of this generation. All of this leads to Professor Griff from Public Enemy.
Why may you ask? Well, he is the kind of asshole, that makes it hard on everyone. Blanket assumptions, that what everyone does is watch porn and smoke weed. All of this while pushing 90 dollar books from the same publisher who wrote his piece of shit novel. I am not saying I am a great author by any means.
Griff, is an excuse maker and I hate fucking people like that. Yeah, corporations do have it out for the little guy and they do have more financial resources but that doesn't mean they have a monopoly on the human spirit. Jay-Z, isn't a part of a satanic death cult, he just makes half assed music. He does this because he can. One bad record isn't going to kill his career.
The same goes for some of the cop outs I hear from gamers. EA, Nintendo, Capcom, and virtually everyone else have tied up and raped traditional streams of revenue. It doesn't mean that's the only way or the best way. To a certain degree, it's the fucking gamers fault.
Yeah, you heard it, you can't blame GameStop or anyone else but yourselves. Before the advent of the prepaid debit card, it was hard for a lot of people without credit cards to buy online games. Guess what, we have them now and you still decide to go to a business who treats you like a sheep. It's like this, when I walk into a restraunt and don't see something I want on the menu, I walk the fuck out.
There isn't an excuse, to keep funding these corporations that don't give you what you want. I don't like Steam or Origin, if I can, I go direct to company to get what I want. This all leads into a battle with PR, you know press monkies, at GameStop.
I had some legitimate complaints that I wanted a response from GameStop on. Everything from customer service, price fixing, what they do with pre-order funds, why the push indie developers and publishers out of their stores, as well as why their employees go buy out stock from indie stores before dumping waste games. I thought about how to write this all night last night.
I thought about it because I know that RWS, needs GameStop as a source of future distribution. Stepping on their toes could mean, that something I love, could be potentially harmed because of it. At the sametime if I don't say something, then distribution through GameStop is still impossible and I sat on the sidelines, watching it happen. I decided to go through with it.
The way I obtained the information on the pre-order funds came from an ex-accountant. They currently do the book work for my production company and would perefer to remain nameless. Releasing information about a client, could harm how they gain future business. I also have talked to a lot of independent stores who have had issues with GameStop.
GameStop, will take any piece of shit game, that comes into their store. Now, if stores accumulate to many copies of a certain title, you would think they would take them back to the warehouse and just stop buying said game. This is not the case, before major releases these junk titles are sent back into GameStop stores. What they then do, should be considered illegal.
They have employees go into independent stores in the area, and empty new inventory. This isn't some grand scheme, it's pretty simple in execution and makes them millions in revenue while fucking over their competitors. Why would they want to push out indie game developers?
Well, if you include the indie market, they would have to increase the size of their stores. Part of their revenue stream comes from smaller store fronts so less rent in high rent areas. They can have better logistic placement than other stores do, which means that they have to controll inventory better in order for this pricing structure to work. The only way that an indie company can get on their shelves is with a million plus in sales.
That's possible, it would just be a lot easier if products were availible in their retail outlets. Even if you break into Wal-Mart and Target, GameStop still out sells them in video games. The problem doesn't come from convincing my readers, I basically right shit you guys already know. Where the problem comes, is trying to convince others not to support GameStop.
People love it because of their catchy slogans and cutesy bullshit. "Wow, if I allow them to make millions of dollars under my nose, I get to use an imaginary gun in a game I may hate," is not the common thought stream. I also respect some of you saying, "But Stephen, you are doing a pre-production pre-order for your movie. So how can you talk?"
That is a simple response, because it goes into the production of the product. I have to pay licenses, make the movie, author the product, and deliever it to your doorsteps. All of that, takes cash and this is where I end my rant.
It's simple, just stop going to GameStop and back independent companies. In the long run, it helps the economy and will provide for a better gaming environment overall. Take care guys, I need a Dr. Pepper and a shut the fuck up.
