GameStop: Evil Empire or Gentle Giant?

Lately the video game goliath GameStop has been in the news on several occasions. Some news being bad and some a little more promising. All the news has conjured up a question that has been eating away at me for some time: "Is GameStop hurting the gaming industry?" Follow me on a magical two part journey where I discover the facts and theorize their possible impact on the gaming community. Today's article will focus on the evil side of GameStop.

Would you like cash or death for your trades?

A long time ago in a gaming generation far far away I once worked at a GameStop in my hometown. I would have to say out of all of my previous job experiences this one ranks pretty high. I mean who wouldn't want to work in a store that sells video games and for the most part just talks with customers all day about them. I would have to say that the main drawback to this job (and all jobs have them) was constantly having to hassle the customers at the register.  "Would you like to get scratch protection on this disc?" "Would you like to get this pre-owned? It's cheaper." "Would you like to reserve anything coming out?" "Do you want to sign up for our Power Up Rewards card and save 10%?" This is where all of those awesome conversations I've ever had with customers had to come to an abrupt halt as I had to rattle through all these annoying questions. As a customer now to that same GS store hearing the same routine turned around on me makes me feel not like a customer but a sales opportunity. Don't get me wrong I have nothing wrong with sales but the way the "sales game" is going now, customers don't want to know they are being sold to and are more prone to buy through subtlety. This by no means makes GS an "evil" corporation but there could be some changes in the customer service department.

Trade in all your games and get a high five and a cookie!

This is all small fries when it comes to the bigger issues that have been surrounding GameStop recently. In my mind the biggest concern (the Double Quarter Pounder with cheese, if I'm going to continue with food analogies) is exclusive game content or DLC (downloadable content) available only at GameStop. For almost every game that comes out there is a different pre-order bonus in one form or another. If you pre-order a Call of Duty game it's almost guaranteed you will get a specialized gun or two, some kind of experience boost to get you to a certain level just for pre-ordering, or an exclusive multiplayer map to play on. Now there are other video game venues that offer different content for pre-ordering at their stores, so for each retailer comes a different version of the game. My main question is, "Is it fair for a person to receive all this bonus/exclusive/extra content just because they pre-ordered a game?" In my mind the answer is a resounding, "No!" They are essentially playing a different version of the game than everyone else is. It's almost like the debate on photo-shopped images. Is an image that has been photo-shopped still an image of the same person the photo was taken of? In my mind it isn't. Once you start editing that image it becomes something different entirely. The same goes for these games. They are different because of all the changes made in the name of exclusivity. 

Go ahead and try not to pre-order now!

What is even more concerning is that GS is now partnering with different video game developers to have certain game content only available through the retailer. This may include campaign missions, maps, or quests, that will only be available to GS customers regardless of pre-ordering. To a certain degree I believe this is interfering with the creative process of a video game developer. Imagine for a second you are writer for a game developer who is making the next big release for your company. You are putting your main characters through some crazy stuff but they are leveling up and becoming more awesome because of it. The next thing you know you are e-mailed a memo stating that a quest has to be written into the story-line that will be exclusive to only a few gamers. You have to decide, "Is this just going to be some throwaway mission or is it going to have some lasting meaning to the story?" "If it does have meaning is the continuity of the story still intact enough for the people who don't play it?" This exact moment is when the creative process for the game has been interrupted and shifted from what the game COULD have been to now what it HAS to be. As a gamer I would prefer the creators of the games I geek out so much for to have as much creative freedom as possible.

Does all of this make GameStop an "evil" company? I don't believe that they are deliberately trying to take advantage of their customers for financial gain because really you could make that argument for any big corporation. At the end of the day they are trying their hardest to make money and stay a step ahead of the competition. In that pursuit of the almighty greenback I do believe they are making some unfortunate choices that may be harming the gaming industry. However GameStop has made some great strides lately to right their ship and give customers a more streamlined experience in their stores. Stay tuned next Tuesday when I will explore those positive choices that I believe will eventually lead GS away from the dark side.

-Demo