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I mean half the people working there don't know anything about games, and the other half seem to be so biased it's unbelievable. I was in GAME the other day with my cousin, refunding a game.
Whilst I was browsing through the Xbox rack, I saw a 12-year old with his mother, who seemed to be fairly interested in buying an Xbox. Then, a member of staff walked over and said asked if he could be of any help. The mother replied that her son was interested in buying a new games console, and GAME attendant replied "Well, you don't want to be looking there, then."
When the boy said that his mate had Halo, and he had played it and thought it was a good game, the sales attendant said that "it's the only decent game," and by next year "Xbox will be finished"
He then took them to the PS2 section of the store and showed some games, talked through the specs and let him play a store demo (set up behind the counter). The mother then said "We'll get that one then," but the boy didn't seem too enthusiastic. Nevertheless, they left with a PS2.
I mean wouldn't the store want to shift MORE Xboxes anyway?
I have also come across staff who seemed to know nothing about games, and when I saw someone hunting down Unreal Tournament on Dreamcast a while ago they informed them that it had been "cancelled," even though it was sitting on the Dreamcast rack further back in the store which I pointed out to this customer. The attendant then looked embarrased when he had to check out the game he had just denied even existed.
There are some good stores where games can be purchased however - Computer Exchange stores are helpful, friendly and feature games-crazy staff who keep talking about downloading the latest Everquest patches, and in ePlay, when I was picking up Jet Set Radio Future, the staff commented on how it was excellent.
However, I can see the games industry going down a horribly under-represented route if GAME, one of the biggest games stores in the country, continue to hire mis-informed staff, and as more and more unsuspecting members od the public decide to venture into computer games for the first time, they could easily be misled.
I mean half the people working there don't know anything about games, and the other half seem to be so biased it's unbelievable. I was in GAME the other day with my cousin, refunding a game.
Whilst I was browsing through the Xbox rack, I saw a 12-year old with his mother, who seemed to be fairly interested in buying an Xbox. Then, a member of staff walked over and said asked if he could be of any help. The mother replied that her son was interested in buying a new games console, and GAME attendant replied "Well, you don't want to be looking there, then."
When the boy said that his mate had Halo, and he had played it and thought it was a good game, the sales attendant said that "it's the only decent game," and by next year "Xbox will be finished"
He then took them to the PS2 section of the store and showed some games, talked through the specs and let him play a store demo (set up behind the counter). The mother then said "We'll get that one then," but the boy didn't seem too enthusiastic. Nevertheless, they left with a PS2.
I mean wouldn't the store want to shift MORE Xboxes anyway?
I have also come across staff who seemed to know nothing about games, and when I saw someone hunting down Unreal Tournament on Dreamcast a while ago they informed them that it had been "cancelled," even though it was sitting on the Dreamcast rack further back in the store which I pointed out to this customer. The attendant then looked embarrased when he had to check out the game he had just denied even existed.
There are some good stores where games can be purchased however - Computer Exchange stores are helpful, friendly and feature games-crazy staff who keep talking about downloading the latest Everquest patches, and in ePlay, when I was picking up Jet Set Radio Future, the staff commented on how it was excellent.
However, I can see the games industry going down a horribly under-represented route if GAME, one of the biggest games stores in the country, continue to hire mis-informed staff, and as more and more unsuspecting members od the public decide to venture into computer games for the first time, they could easily be misled.
"Hmm, thought this didn't exist?......"
Ha, his face was a picture, I now only go injto GAME for their deals and Pre-Owned games, they are idiots.
apart from that, very true, i was in GAME the other day, and a woman asked one of the assistants if the X-Box could play PC, PS2, Gamecube games, and he said *puts on idiotic moron voice or somethin* YES.
Anyhoo, I totally agree that GAME staffies suck. They're in it for the money, ahead of customer satisfaction. With the XBox issue, they never even considered the good and bad points to find the console which was most suitable for the kid. Like you said to me on MSN the other day, XBox does have it's good points. May i ask which GAME store this was? If it was Hounslow, I had a massive ruck with the dudes in there. If it was Staines, they know jack-all about games. So, which one was it?
> I have a question *raises hand* how the heck did you know the 12-year
> old boy was 12?
Well, he looked near enough 12. Unless he was 65 and had some kind of growing disorder :-)
The bloke then had a go at the staffie for at least 10 minutes, finally the manager was called and he got his refund. The funny thing was, other customers who saw this display also started asking for refunds and they were granted
> I look 12, but I'm fooking 15. Damn ye...
Remember in Kingston when they wouldn't let you buy The Thing because they thought you weren't 15 :-)