Poll of the Day > How would YOU make gamestop better

(+) Yeah! (+)

I personally think the digital market is their main threat, but if gamestop was more active with the gaming community as opposed to just selling games they can probably be a little better

watchu think
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Leave me the fuck alone with your CricKet promotional offer bullshit when I walk in the door. K thx
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i've never had a bad experience at gamestop
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Ban children, I've stood in line for twenty minutes behind a group of them that would not shut up and their parents just let them keep buying more games.

KevinceKostner posted...

Ban children, I've stood in line for twenty minutes behind a group of them that would not shut up and their parents just let them keep buying more games.

bruh that would do the exact opposite, I'm pretty sure kids are what save gamestop anyway
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KevinceKostner posted...

Ban children, I've stood in line for twenty minutes behind a group of them that would not shut up and their parents just let them keep buying more games.

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KevinceKostner posted...

Ban children, I've stood in line for twenty minutes behind a group of them that would not shut up and their parents just let them keep buying more games.

So you want Gamestop to stop bringing in money?
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Online-only retailer.
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Hmmm...

More retro games. I know they can't do this innately, but suffusive to say that older games which aren't available through any means except physical mediums would be at least something unique.

Stop with the ****ing offers! I don't need to be reminded every time I enter or shop that I can do a game trade-in! I KNOW! YOU'VE TOLD ME FIFTY TIMES ALREADY!

Promote more game talk, less salesmanship. I'd much rather have someone who can talk shop about why Persona 5 is good than someone try to sell me a CoD pre-order.

Hire some smarter people. I was at a Gamestop a short while back and I could have sworn I heard their little channel talking about Dragon's Dogma and calling the Chimera you fought in the beginning 'some sort of weird japanese monster'.

However... ultimately I think Gamestop simply is in a place where its primary boon is that your PS4 can only download so many games that physical mediums can be convenient as a result. No amount of salesmanship can change that it's just so convenient to be able to download something off the internet and have it always ready without worrying about scratches or the like. Sure, I'm not comfortable with the whole 'you're buying permission to play it not own it' aspect, but I know I'm in the minority and I fully grasp why others want to. Gamestop can't do anything about that. The only reason they haven't gone the way of Blockbuster is because their board of executives aren't so mindnumbingly stupid.
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Unbridled9 posted...

Stop with the ****ing offers! I don't need to be reminded every time I enter or shop that I can do a game trade-in! I KNOW! YOU'VE TOLD ME FIFTY TIMES ALREADY!

Promote more game talk, less salesmanship. I'd much rather have someone who can talk shop about why Persona 5 is good than someone try to sell me a CoD pre-order.

I read this is a corporate issue, the employees DO NOT want to do this but they are forced to.

I honestly think they need to move to a decentralized organizational system. There are tons of people who are well versed in games and can most likely turn their stores around if they were given more freedom to do so. The above complaint would definitely be gone if that were to happen



Unbridled9 posted...

More retro games. I know they can't do this innately, but suffusive to say that older games which aren't available through any means except physical mediums would be at least something unique.

They already do this online. It would be cool if they did it offline though but I don't see the benefits outweighing the cost on that one unfortunately

Unbridled9 posted...

Hire some smarter people. I was at a Gamestop a short while back and I could have sworn I heard their little channel talking about Dragon's Dogma and calling the Chimera you fought in the beginning 'some sort of weird japanese monster'.

To be fair nobody outside of Japan really cares about a Chimera
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I've never had a problem at GameStop and always found them very helpful.

To be fair nobody outside of Japan really cares about a Chimera

Except that it's a monster from Greek mythology. Not even a 'minor' one. Like, if tier 1 is stuff like the Hydra and Harpy, Tier 2 has the Manticore and Chimera. It's like talking about U.S. presidents and saying Nixon was the president of Australia. Like, I could understand not knowing a caoblepas or Hecatoncheires are Greek but a Chimera? Do half a second of research!
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Unbridled9 posted...

Do half a second of research!

I know it's a creature of greek mythology so I have no idea why I need to do research

Please list any 3 references/instances in America where a Chimera is made. Now do the same for Japan

I've only seen Chimeras in Japanese games, not really outside that tbh. Not saying that they were right to say it on tv but you may want to put your head into why they made that statement because it wasn't really out of the blue
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you can't, their entire business is built on being evil
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Real answer, might be long, sorry.

Gamestop actually wasn't bad initially although it pretty much was always robbing you fro trade ins etc.

Thing is, it used to be a community gaming site, people would gather and play games, tournaments (for guitar hero etc) where held, release parties for big games etc. All that made gamestop more then just a place you could buy a game.

That happens at a few sites now, but it's up to the manager of the store and they are not given incentives (or money) to promote it etc.

Gamestop is going to die (although they are doing quite well finacially right now, having just sold Kongregate for a very large profit) unless they do something to keep people from using Best Buy or Amazon. The prices at both are cheaper then gamestop, significantly with gamersclub at bestbuy or amazon prime, and it's more convienent as well.

The only chance Gamestop has is to grab the feels of it's customers by making them loyal to the store, and willing to pay a bit more because of that loyalty (although honestly if best buy/amazon can offer games at a lower price, then gamestop should be able to come up with a way to sell the games at the same price.).

Even lowering their price to Amazons won't save gamestop by itself, they seriously need to take a page out of many cards and comic stores etc, and become a community gaming center. The place gamers go to meet, a place that holds competitions/tournaments etc, and a place where you can talk with others about upcoming titles, games your currently playing etc. That is it's only possible chance at long term survival in my opinion, as the digital age is here already and non-digital games are going to become more and more rare over time.

Gamestop can last maybe another 10 years like it is, maybe, but to go beyond that, they need to seriously re-invent or retro-invent themselves.
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Make it like amazon, but like better

wolfy42 posted...

Even lowering their price to Amazons won't save gamestop by itself, they seriously need to take a page out of many cards and comic stores etc, and become a community gaming center. The place gamers go to meet, a place that holds competitions/tournaments etc, and a place where you can talk with others about upcoming titles, games your currently playing etc. That is it's only possible chance at long term survival in my opinion, as the digital age is here already and non-digital games are going to become more and more rare over time.

Gamestop can last maybe another 10 years like it is, maybe, but to go beyond that, they need to seriously re-invent or retro-invent themselves.

I think you have a fair point, but as you already stated, what benefit will this have to gamestop in the long run? People can just show up to the tournaments and buy games from Amazon/Best Buy because of the low prices. There literally is no real incentive for them to do that BUT I do think you're on to something. They have the power to advertise niche games as well and be more "fun". I seriously think power to the players isn't something that they even follow so they should probably rebrand themselves to something else.

They can even start by changing the design of their stores. They look so... bland for a store that sells video games
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More Swag. I go to Gamestop (EB Games) more often for T-shirts and board games than actual games.
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Lokarin posted...

More Swag. I go to Gamestop (EB Games) more often for T-shirts and board games than actual games.

It would be cool if they actually sold more swag tbh, and I'm talking coffee mugs, posters, notebooks, etc

something for everybody. hell even appliances maybe but that's stretching it
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Close all the stores

Yeah, honestly money usually wins out, so unless they can compete with Best Buy/Amazon, they are gonna die no matter what.

If they can do that AND they can remake themselves into the "Fun" place to shop. If they can start getting actually demos of things like PS VR etc, get tournaments going and people coming by just for the experience, not just to buy, they can make it work.

There are places like Playlive nation etc, that sell a decent amount of stuff because they get alot of gamers there for other reasons (in this case to play all the games lol). Gamestop could do something similar. Get a customer in the door, and have the same price as your competition, and bam, you'll sell lots of stuff.

The current setup though has no chance at all of working long term. They NEED customer loyalty in the future to survive the digital revolution, and they don't have it right now.
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wolfy42 posted...

The current setup though has no chance at all of working long term. They NEED customer loyalty in the future to survive the digital revolution, and they don't have it right now.

Sad :(

Well not really, it was more sad watching its downfall
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lmao

gamestop is doing completely fine

they aren't going away for many, many years.
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Given that I've never worked in their company -- especially not a management or executive level -- I couldn't possibly make suggestions because I'm not sure how everything performs. However, I do suspect that they have way too many stores which cannibalizes their own business.

My one suggestion is to stop running BBT ads, since those make me want to leave the store and never return.

mastermix3000 posted...

I personally think the digital market is their main threat,

Unless all publishers banned together and agreed to only publish digital, they'll be fine because most publishers are too scared of losing sales to go completely digital.

mastermix3000 posted...

but if gamestop was more active with the gaming community as opposed to just selling games they can probably be a little better

What? I'm not sure what benefit you think that entails.

Unbridled9 posted...

Hire some smarter people. I was at a Gamestop a short while back and I could have sworn I heard their little channel talking about Dragon's Dogma and calling the Chimera you fought in the beginning 'some sort of weird japanese monster'.

Yes, their ignorance offends me.

Unbridled9 posted...

To be fair nobody outside of Japan really cares about a Chimera

Except that it's a monster from Greek mythology. Not even a 'minor' one. Like, if tier 1 is stuff like the Hydra and Harpy, Tier 2 has the Manticore and Chimera. It's like talking about U.S. presidents and saying Nixon was the president of Australia. Like, I could understand not knowing a caoblepas or Hecatoncheires are Greek but a Chimera? Do half a second of research!

Manticores aren't greek, they're persian

mastermix3000 posted...

Unbridled9 posted...

Do half a second of research!

I know it's a creature of greek mythology so I have no idea why I need to do research

Please list any 3 references/instances in America where a Chimera is made. Now do the same for Japan

I've only seen Chimeras in Japanese games, not really outside that tbh. Not saying that they were right to say it on tv but you may want to put your head into why they made that statement because it wasn't really out of the blue

The only Japanese games I've seen chimeras in are Final Fantasy games which are known for ripping off Western mythology (and the biggest non-Japanese game I know them from -- and better than I do from FF -- is Gauntlet Legends). More importantly, Western mythological films/shows often feature chimeras as a stock monster. I'm sure you saw Wrath of the Titans, for starters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIV_2msDpsE

If not, you might have seen the Hercules cartoon as a kid:
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Chimera_(Hercules)

That's assuming that you didn't hear the legend of Bellerophon and Pegasus the winged horse, which is taught in many schools when covering Greek myths since it's one of the more famous stories (not quite on par with Perseus). And, of course, chimera is frequently used to describe hybrids.

Otherwise, as a layperson, it's not terrible that you don't have this knowledge. However, they're PROFESSIONALS so they should know their heads from their asses.
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The most improvement to Gamestop would probably be their online functions. The physical stores are basically like any other brick and mortar, sometimes you get one with good people, other times you get one with shitty people. I try not to hold one bad CSR experience against a company that employs many thousands of people, I mean it's not like these guys have MIT grads beating down their doors to get minimum wage for selling video games.

I haven't been a regular in years, but what made me stop going was how they handle(d?) their loyalty system. The last major purchase I vaguely recall from them included Borderlands 2, and I was supposed to be getting a decent chunk of points to add to my stockpile from that purchase. Took ages for the points to be deposited, although they've never had a problem depositing my money in their bank accounts lickety fucking split, and by the time they did show up the promo I wanted to use them all on was expired. I never canceled the order, just picked up my purchase whenever it was available, but I haven't really been back. I'm not opposed to buying from them, but I haven't seen much reason to since their rewards system wasn't useful to me and IIRC my points have all expired as well.

Do what my former employer (Borders) should have done: Focus on transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online-only in order to save the business. Except do it intelligently. Borders-dot-com was terrible.
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Please list any 3 references/instances in America where a Chimera is made.

God of War. Age of Mythology. Dungeons and Dragons. Easy. I'm also pretty sure they get at least a mention in Harry Potter. Plus the name pops up quite frequently in various stuff like World of Warcraft (albet, they don't LOOK like the traditional Chimera's), so I'd say that a western gamer would be at least decently familiar with the name in passing.

Manticores aren't greek, they're persian

Fair enough. They often get lumped in with greek monsters though so a bit of confusion in understandable. In fact, while I can think of multiple times I've seen them in with greek stuff, I'm having trouble thinking of times I've seen them with persian stuff.
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Judgmenl posted...

Online-only retailer.

This is the only way. Plus some kind of rewards program.

I want to be able to walk in and casually browse for PS2 or PS1 games (or other retro games), and be able to buy one right from the store.

Also, more accessories could be interesting.
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Stop selling physical games, focus on relevant peripherals for stocked games, add some in-store gaming to take advantage of the physical, social aspect.
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They should keep trade values between 40-60% of what they sell them for, and have a minimum $10 price difference between new and used full-price games. In order to maintain values, inventory of titles taken in trade should be limited.
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Close it down, make all game sales digital.
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I would edit their Wikipedia page.
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Close their doors, permanently, and have the CEOs from the past 15 or so years issue a public apology before donating their fortunes to worthy causes, such as teaching kids to read, write, play music, etc.
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You can't make it better, or save it at this point.

What really worries me is their recent implications that they want to get into the "retro" market.
What happens in 5, 10, 20 years when Gamestop goes under (which they will)? Where do all those games go? Knowing Gamestop's current policies most will be discarded rather than donated or auctioned off.

If Gamestop gets into the retro business we could see some games go extinct.
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I_Abibde posted...

Do what my former employer (Borders) should have done: Focus on transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online-only in order to save the business. Except do it intelligently. Borders-dot-com was terrible.

Few problems:

1) Gamestop isn't Borders. They can manage retail because they don't have much offline competition. Borders had to deal with one other major chain in an industry where both were losing to Amazon who was seriously undercutting them on pricing.

2) Going strictly online would have killed Borders since then it'd just be Amazon with less selection and worse pricing.

3) Online-only would all but kill their business model. They make a lot of profit on used game sales which requires getting people to trade in games, which is harder when everything needs to be mailed in. That was never an issue with Borders.

Unbridled9 posted...

Fair enough. They often get lumped in with greek monsters though so a bit of confusion in understandable. In fact, while I can think of multiple times I've seen them in with greek stuff, I'm having trouble thinking of times I've seen them with persian stuff.

Have you seen much persian "stuff," though? =p

Yellow posted...

Judgmenl posted...

Online-only retailer.

This is the only way. Plus some kind of rewards program.

It's the only way to tank their business overnight. The only faster way to go out of business would be to only sell items at a loss or just burn all of their inventory.

Entity13 posted...

Close their doors, permanently, and have the CEOs from the past 15 or so years issue a public apology before donating their fortunes to worthy causes, such as teaching kids to read, write, play music, etc.

While I agree that selling games is fundamentally contributing to juvenile delinquency, that seems a little overboard.
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Another thought I had would be to give the employees more of an incentive to do a better job. EB Games paid commissions for certain things on top of the hourly wage. I worked there before GS bought it out and nobody was actually as pushy with the things you earned them on compared to when goals became the reason. Extra money is nice, so you roll with it. "The beatings will continue until morale improves" replaced that and resulted in some pretty awful stores. The two GS locations in my city are fantastic, with the only very spotty times being 2005-2009, iirc...

There was one asshole I remember, his name was Corey (literally everyone I have met with that name has sucked) and he looked like Shrek cosplaying as Kevin McCallister. He disappeared one day and I later found out somebody had ran off with a 360, he chased them down the street, rolled his ankle stepping off the curb, and the guy ran back and just suckerpunch KO'd him while he was somewhat incapacitated and he ended up in hospital. That story still makes me happy all these years later.
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Zeus posted...

Entity13 posted...

Close their doors, permanently, and have the CEOs from the past 15 or so years issue a public apology before donating their fortunes to worthy causes, such as teaching kids to read, write, play music, etc.

While I agree that selling games is fundamentally contributing to juvenile delinquency, that seems a little overboard.

The point to my suggestion, though, is the company's (more-than-often dishonest) practices.
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Picture gamestop.

Now picture a local board game store.

The community growth around one. The tables. The space. The tournaments.

Now picture a video game store that did that.

Now, add a coffee bar, with energy drinks.

While we are at it, embrace the internet, anything that they don't have to sell, they have referral links so you can buy it on amazon and give them 10%.
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I am a Gamestop regular and when I say regular, I have spent more than $3000 a year there for the past 2-3 years. I think if they start selling JP-region games or AS-region games, they would earn more money as that I will be buying from them. It is a matter of time that I reach the highest loyal member rank. Just a few more thousand dollars and I will have a black card.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

Another thought I had would be to give the employees more of an incentive to do a better job. EB Games paid commissions for certain things on top of the hourly wage. I worked there before GS bought it out and nobody was actually as pushy with the things you earned them on compared to when goals became the reason. Extra money is nice, so you roll with it. "The beatings will continue until morale improves" replaced that and resulted in some pretty awful stores. The two GS locations in my city are fantastic, with the only very spotty times being 2005-2009, iirc...

They're already too pushy on a lot of stuff. Overselling can be a turnoff.

TheCyborgNinja posted...

There was one asshole I remember, his name was Corey (literally everyone I have met with that name has sucked) and he looked like Shrek cosplaying as Kevin McCallister. He disappeared one day and I later found out somebody had ran off with a 360, he chased them down the street, rolled his ankle stepping off the curb, and the guy ran back and just suckerpunch KO'd him while he was somewhat incapacitated and he ended up in hospital. That story still makes me happy all these years later.

Wait, the thief sucker-punched Corey or Corey sucker-punched the thief when the thief came to check on him?

Nightwind posted...

Picture gamestop.

Now picture a local board game store.

The community growth around one. The tables. The space. The tournaments.

Now picture a video game store that did that.

Now, add a coffee bar, with energy drinks.

While we are at it, embrace the internet, anything that they don't have to sell, they have referral links so you can buy it on amazon and give them 10%.

Most local board game stores struggle to stay afloat. Plus, where a lot of them sell CCG stuff, it kinda behooves them to run CCG tourneys because it helps to move product. Having people come in to play video games doesn't necessarily sell extra games.
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True, but set up more of the little demo stalls, and run tournaments, and resurect the lan party....

just get people IN there, and make it not a hell hole.
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helIy posted...

i've never had a bad experience at gamestop

I have but its rare, and it was the stupid employee and not the store itself (unless upper management had pushed them to do what they did)

long story short I wanted a used xbox 360. and chick kept trying to talk me into this specific one despite them not having one in stock and i'd have to wait a week or so before they got another. I kept saying no and pointing to one behind the counter and saying I want that one, but chick was having none of that. ended up going to walmart and buying a brand new 360
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Zeus posted...

Picture gamestop.

Now picture a local board game store.

The community growth around one. The tables. The space. The tournaments.

Now picture a video game store that did that.

Now, add a coffee bar, with energy drinks.

While we are at it, embrace the internet, anything that they don't have to sell, they have referral links so you can buy it on amazon and give them 10%.

out where my best friend lives they actually have a chain of video game stores that have most of that. though the tables/tournaments thing was for card games and the such like magic the gathering. had tons of old games and systems. place had a decent stock of atari's nes's snes's and so on. and sold a bunch of merch too like figurines and such.
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helIy posted...

i've never had a bad experience at gamestop

I've had enough bad experiences for everybody. Among other things, they:
1) Packed in the wrong used game -- bought Prime Hunters, but they gave me the demo version.
2) Sold me non-working games on many occasions (meaning somebody didn't fully test the merch)
3) They stiffed me on promo items for a pre-order; I finally canceled the pre-order then had to buy the promo item on ebay and waited for the game's price to drop so I didn't lose much
4) They've overcharged me by accidentally ringing up items multiple times
5) Some locations repeatedly failed to get in their promo stuff (which is corporate's fault and, if you can't honor something, don't advertise it)

mooreandrew58 posted...

Zeus posted...

Picture gamestop.

Now picture a local board game store.

The community growth around one. The tables. The space. The tournaments.

Now picture a video game store that did that.

Now, add a coffee bar, with energy drinks.

While we are at it, embrace the internet, anything that they don't have to sell, they have referral links so you can buy it on amazon and give them 10%.

out where my best friend lives they actually have a chain of video game stores that have most of that. though the tables/tournaments thing was for card games and the such like magic the gathering. had tons of old games and systems. place had a decent stock of atari's nes's snes's and so on. and sold a bunch of merch too like figurines and such.

Just to clarify for anybody else reading, he's actually quoting Nightwind's comment because I assume he highlighted then quoted some text from my post which killed the attribution.
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Zeus posted...

helIy posted...

i've never had a bad experience at gamestop

I've had enough bad experiences for everybody. Among other things, they:
1) Packed in the wrong used game -- bought Prime Hunters, but they gave me the demo version.
2) Sold me non-working games on many occasions (meaning somebody didn't fully test the merch)
3) They stiffed me on promo items for a pre-order; I finally canceled the pre-order then had to buy the promo item on ebay and waited for the game's price to drop so I didn't lose much
4) They've overcharged me by accidentally ringing up items multiple times
5) Some locations repeatedly failed to get in their promo stuff (which is corporate's fault and, if you can't honor something, don't advertise it)

mooreandrew58 posted...

Zeus posted...

Picture gamestop.

Now picture a local board game store.

The community growth around one. The tables. The space. The tournaments.

Now picture a video game store that did that.

Now, add a coffee bar, with energy drinks.

While we are at it, embrace the internet, anything that they don't have to sell, they have referral links so you can buy it on amazon and give them 10%.

out where my best friend lives they actually have a chain of video game stores that have most of that. though the tables/tournaments thing was for card games and the such like magic the gathering. had tons of old games and systems. place had a decent stock of atari's nes's snes's and so on. and sold a bunch of merch too like figurines and such.

Just to clarify for anybody else reading, he's actually quoting Nightwind's comment because I assume he highlighted then quoted some text from my post which killed the attribution.

yeah I screw the shit up sometimes. still getting the hang of the highlighting then quoting thing as I just learned about it the other day
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Put trade values at a reasonable amount(this also applies to PNP Games). I want $20 at least for a Bowser's Inside Story cart, not $3(that's what PNP offered me). Make Edge Platinum 20% off traded games, Onyx 30% off traded games. Actually restock amiibo rather then offering up the same 1s.
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DiduXD posted...

Put trade values at a reasonable amount(this also applies to PNP Games). I want $20 at least for a Bowser's Inside Story cart, not $3(that's what PNP offered me). Make Edge Platinum 20% off traded games, Onyx 30% off traded games. Actually restock amiibo rather then offering up the same 1s.

i've actually been to a gamestop where they refused to buy a game because according their system it was worth half a penny. now the games selling for 169 bucks in some places
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mooreandrew58 posted...

DiduXD posted...

Put trade values at a reasonable amount(this also applies to PNP Games). I want $20 at least for a Bowser's Inside Story cart, not $3(that's what PNP offered me). Make Edge Platinum 20% off traded games, Onyx 30% off traded games. Actually restock amiibo rather then offering up the same 1s.

i've actually been to a gamestop where they refused to buy a game because according their system it was worth half a penny. now the games selling for 169 bucks in some places

OG 2DS is $30 at EB Games.
Ironically, Pokemon Omega Ruby was traded toward a preorder for $30(the preorder only needed $5 more to be paid off).
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i learned a long time ago, gamestop isn't such a shitty store if you willingly forget you can sell games there and simply treat it as a place you can buy them from
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