Curmudgeon GamerWhile picking up Tomb Raider: Legend at Rhino Games today I met the very first idiot clerk that I've encountered there in the past two years.
After 30 seconds in the store I got asked "So, you ready to reserve Madden?" A simple "No" seemed to stop him.
After browsing a bit, I ask for a copy of Tomb Raider: Legend for PSP and was told it wasn't in yet. After I bring to the counter an empty retail case, he checks the computer to find that ... WHOA ... they actually do have it.
"So, you going to apply your FIFA game credit toward that?" he queries. I reply that, sure, I'll take FIFA credit if he wants to give me some, but I actually don't know what he's talking about.
He did recommend the Nintendo DS for Castlevania. I guess he wasn't all bad, but it was close.
Update: Got the PSP updated. Yay. Tomb Raider has subtitles. Yay. But, like every other game, they're not on by default. Grrr.
Ah, well. Perhaps I'll get to play Tomb Raider tomorrow sometime. This took too long and now I've got to get to bed or I'll fall asleep feeding the baby tonight or at work tomorrow.
I wouldn't be too hard on the poor schmo, working in retail makes one subject to a host of petty indignities. Whether he likes Madden or not, whether he really thinks you knew nothing about Castlevania, it's his job to operate as if you didn't, in the unfalsifiable hope that mentioning it will inspire sales that wouldn't occur if he hadn't.
It's better than the clerk who once actively tried to dissuade me from buying an N64 in favor of a Playstation. I'm sure THAT wasn't in his job description.
By 
JohnH, at
28 June, 2006 03:34
Hrm... N64 games were bigger. They cost more for the store to order. They were less likely to sell. Their used game market was weaker. It is easier to focus on one hardware standard.
If I wanted to be a jerk of a store owner, I might would hint for my employees to push the PS1 as well...
By 
, at
28 June, 2006 04:16
Hrm... N64 games were bigger. They cost more for the store to order. They were less likely to sell. Their used game market was weaker. It is easier to focus on one hardware standard.
So, the store would have found it better to push games that would have no trouble selling?
Further, the store in question was a Wal-Mart, and it was soon after the N64's debut so the comparative history of the consoles had yet to be established.
By JohnH, at
28 June, 2006 17:47
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