Because Cafe Press is evil and they must be destroyed.

Qbe, a couple of other ideas:

1) have them shrink it in the store or seal it in a bag.
2) have them mark on the receipt that it was the display copy

Andrew, so who the beneficiary is of the prior use doesn't matter, which was my point.

Kagath's suggestion to keep your receipt is a great one. In general terms, I think there's a lot more latitude to assist a customer with a problem when we know when and where an item was purchased and whether it was new or used, than if we have no info.

Fair enough...if you're paying for new, you're entitled to have it in new condition. I didn't realize that was the beef you had with the whole thing.

Andrew, you bring up an interesting point in regard to trying on clothing benefitting the customer. Is that really relevant, though? I mean, suppose a new game were loaned out so someone could see if they wanted to buy it. Does that realy change anything?

Bottom line is a new game should be in new condition, and if it isn't, you should ask for a discount as an open/shopworn item.

All IMHO of course.

I guess what gets me is that sometimes posters make it sound as if there's a deceptive practice going on here, and there isn't....at least not at a corporate level. I generally make a habit of explaining to customers exactly what I'm doing and why. Most of them don't really care as long as the game works but some of them choose an alternative.

I was stoked when I read about this yesterday, because I already have mine preordered, but don't expect to call Gamestop and get more info because nothing has been sent to the stores yet (at least as of yesterday).

Sooo...

In all seriousness:

When an article of clothing gets tried on in a store, then gets refolded and repinned by the person that comes in at 3am to fix all the damage from the day before, is that piece of clothing now used?

It is unfortunate that the necessity to not display discs on the floor exists, but it does. You always have the option not to purchase a new, opened item. But to me at least, to say something is "used" means it has been sold previously. You could argue that if an employee borrows a game for a couple of days that an item is used, but I'd liken this to a car used by the manager at a dealership for being sold as "new".

It's actually funny that we often take things in trade that are still in shrinkwrap, but by definition these are "used" even though they are unopened. So we have opened new and unopened used...go figure.

Yep... though if you're just interested in doing that, you can get away with just using DUF and DAB without the Charcoal piece.  Ultimate UI comes with DAB preinstalled, so just add DUF and you can basically move anything you want.
gellar

I'm sorry...what language was that?

gellar that is the weirdest UI setup I've seen.   :shock:

It's actually preconfigured setup from the guy who made MonkeyQuest.  I found and switched to it this weekend, and find I like it quite a lot.

http://www.toctastic.net/

gellar

Can you move stuff around?

I don't know if it's EB Games or Gamestop that I've seen this happen before . . . maybe both . . . but I hate it when employees try to do that "game warranty" to people.  

That isn't gamestop.

Yes, we can check out games, but we take the used if available.

I'm always happy to shrinkwrap an open copy, or even a used copy when it is a gift, but you are right that it wouldn't like identical to a new one. Wanting a gift to look nice is something I understand completely.

Just started a trial account a couple of days ago and am pretty darned impressed so far. I really like mining/smithing. Playing Alliance on Kul Tiras.

I've had FATE on my computer since it was released, and I've never had any problems with it or WildTangent.

Ditto

looks like I'm screwed.
EB is out.
I had an order thru amazon with Target but it said it wasnt shipping for a month, so I cancelled and ordered thru TRU, which said it would ship in 2-3 days, but after I placed the order it says mid March (which probably means never).

Mine just shipped....

Eduardo, where did you get yours from?
Target and Gamestop are both backordered.

Back to the question of pre-orders, I think there's a potential that after the XBox 360 debacle, there might actually be LESS preorders placed.

After all, who would pre-order again at an EB or Gamestop after paying for a 360 back in Sept/Oct and still not receiving their unit?  It's no secret that those who saved the cash then did some camping ended up with their units long before those who preordered.

While it's reasonable to think that might occur, all I can tell you is that we have had a lot of people asking about preordering the PS3 since the 360 launch. If anything, I think a lot of people are that much more determined to get on the preorder lists early.

Jade Empire and Ninja Gaiden: Black are next on my list of BC games to pick up.  i've read online that JE works pretty well right now, but NG:B apparently has some slowdown that makes later parts of the game even more difficult that normal.  MS is supposedly working on that one though...

What's Jade Empire like? How hard is it?
I gave up playing Fable because it was too hard for me. Fable also has some choppiness and occasional sound glitches, and crashed on me once. Crimson Skies works great, but displays some graphical artifacts near the top of the screen.

http://ps3.qj.net/

Bascially, it sounds like getting a new HDMI protocol with 16bit color output over HDMI in time for system launch is a question mark.

I just took my original xbox to Blockbuster's Game Rush and got $85.  Not bad really.  I find there was practically nothing that interested me anymore on it.  I like my PS2 much much better.  Never thought I would say that.  

At any rate, I agree the list of BC games is mostly a joke.

Wow, 85 bucks is really good.

A few thoughts: The only people I know that have tried to burn the emulator to CD have not gotten it to work. I haven't tried myself.

Halo also requires emulation IIRC, it is just that the emulator included on the HD already covers Halo 1/2.

Autistic Angel, If you want a new Xbox, I wouldn't wait too long. You may find it increasingly hard to locate a core system (I know at my store we've been out for a week or two...all we have are bundles w/ Forza Motorsports).

Flashing Red is overheating I think. Shouldn't be hot if it was off all night....odd

No, it's an interesting one...not trying to splash water on it, just trying to think it through.

They won't really be aiming at the mass market at first and will probably talk about how they envision a transition from PS2 to PS3 rather than a traditional quick switch over.

That's interesting...is PS3 supposed to have full backward compatibility? One thing that might make me question such a potential strategy is that they have to have developers on board and with the reported costs of making a next gen game, the devs are going to need to shift some copies. How are they going to do that in a big way if Sony isn't doing the same?

Wow...just...wow.

I can understand why you'd have some hard feelings (and maybe an aneurysm or two) about that. I've spent a lot of time working in situations that made me miserable and I'm not willing to do that any longer. I think I'd find it extremely difficult to work in an environment where my superior (i.e. the DM) wasn't willing to get my back in such a situation.

With all the 360 hoopla, I've had the chance to see (not directly) how my DM has responded to some angry folks. I had a run in with a customer last week, myself (not 360 related). I made the mistake of casually tossing a pad of post-its onto a counter and a customer took this as a grave offense, insisting that I had thrown it at them. My manager was in the store at the time. He said to me, "Did you do anything wrong?" I replied, "I don't feel like I did." He said simply then I had nothing to worry about.

LOL, thank you for the advice. Truthfully, I'm still trying to figure out what to be when I grow up....never mind I'm older than many/most of the folks here. I never worked retail until March. I signed on as a temp for a Barnes and Noble at a new mall. I ended up getting promoted to full time there and staued 7 months, but moved over to Gamestop to be in a smaller retail environment. Right now I'm learning an awful lot, enjoying myself, and I feel like there are opportunities with the company. If that changes eventually, hopefully I'll have a solid base to make a move at that time. My employment history is a bit bizarre though and I really need to establish more of a track record.

sorry for the digression.

-Push offs. We can clench, we should be able to push off.

My opponent did push off when I tried to clinch once, and I only did that a couple of times.

I have retail customers who drive over an hour past 3 other stores to see me and my staff.

And the truth is that would happen regardless of where you were at because you are good at what you do. We have customers like that at my Gamestop. Bottom line is that there are tons of places people can buy games. From the net to big box stores and everything in between. You better have superior knowledge/customer service because that's the only way you have a prayer of building loyalty.

Believe me when I say that they guy whose problem with his 360 I diagnosed last week after he had been tearing his hair out for days...the guy who was overjoyed enough to actually call me on the phone to thank me...people like that will go to some lengths to come back.

I could see them doing deluxe editions that require it, especially once we start hitting the point where games are shipping on multiple DVDs.

And games can and do use the HD for caching AFAIK (well, I don't know that for a fact, but in a couple of the articles that popped up in reference to why there are only 13GB available on the HD, this was mentioned as a reason IIRC), it just isn't required.

Yeah I don't really see the point of this other than as a marketing thing to say that 360 supports hd movies, but Sony will still counter they don't support "true" HD (i.e. they don't do 1080p). Now if this doodad allowed you to output 1080p....that would be worth crowing about. It doesn't really matter now that much, but as that technology starts to filter into more TVs it will become more of an issue.

Graphics are remarkable.
Round-by-round replays need to be overhauled completely or scrapped.
Gameplay...I'm not so sure...never played a game like this. There's virtually no blocking taking place.
I'm not familiar with the series but the scoring seems to favor big punches overt scoring points with jabs. I peppered Jones with 200 jabs (landed) in 4 rounds and only won two of them.

For the life of me, I can't throw an uppercut or haymaker. This is using config 5. I tried the total punch control and couldn't do a bloody thing. I did figure out how to throw body punches by holding the left trigger.

Ugh. That sounds awful.
One of the reasons I left Barnes and Noble was to work with my current manager, whom I really like and have a tremendous amount of respect for. He spends quite a bit of time with customers. Heck, we're a low volume store, so now that the holidays are over there's only one person on in the mornings, either myself, the ASM, or him....so it would be awfully hard not to interact with customers

Say...have you guys ever read Acts of Gord?[/url]

There's a ton of opinion here presented as fact. Again, there's some good advice presented as well. I really disagree with the assertion that the company doesn't care about the hardcore gamer. The advice about the used return policies is off base in some respects, in my opinion. The notion that managers are "hidden" from customers boggles the mind.

I don't want to argue about it or anything. As much as it pains me, I know there are some among you that think I work for the evil empire or something. I think we can all agree on this: Any store is as good or bad as the people who work there.

Some of this stuff seems flat wrong to me, but there's some good advice here. Keeping your receipts is always a good idea.

Sadly for MS the casual consumer believes the defects are widespread.

It amazes me that there are a number of articles circulating at various websites the last several days talking about widespread scratching problems that all cite as their "evidence" the notice from Gamefly. Maybe it is a widespread problem, maybe it isn't, but many of those articles seem misleading to me.

*shrug* Mine has been vertical the whole time and no trouble.

Hmmm...it looks like you'll be able to touch the mini map and zoom to any part of the playfield. That would rock.

Wow, that's a new one...

I have mine positioned vertically and no problems. I think the only crash I've had was while trying to play a BC game (Fable). No disc probs to report.

Has it happened with any other games or just DOA?

Cool, glad it is working for you.

When I bought my speakers, I didn't envision getting a console or needing digital, so I went with Klipsch over the Logi's. While I love them, the Logi's extra features would come in handy. Still, I'm getting a lot of use out of them with the PC and 360, as well as my PSP, which I run into the little breakout box with the volume/base/etc via a line in jack.

Calvin, does your sound card have a line in port on the back?
If so you can do what I did:

I went to radio shack and got an adapter that has 2 female rca jacks on one side and a male 1/8 stereo mini plug on the other (i.e. a normal small headphone plug). I then got an extension (which you might not need) to runthat into the line in on my sound card, which is already set up wiith the speakers.

This means the PC has to be on to play the Xbox. Note: in my case I had to enable the line in jack on the audigy control panel (the line in port was muted).

the MK1 linked here is an audio switch to choose between two inputs:

http://electronicsusa.com/mk1and2.html

You would need a male-male 3.5mm stereo cable to connect the switch to your PC and a 3.5mm male to RCA Female Y adapter to connect the switch to the xbox 360 RCA cables, then the front speaker 3.5mm male connector form your speakers goes into the output of the switchbox.

Probably cost you ~$30 in the end. I probably have the two pieces other than the swicth in a drawer around here somewhere, unfortunately, they are the cheap parts.

I do not know anything about ElectronicsUSA, so you are ordering form them at your own risk.

-Coop

Coop, thanks for the help bro-do you think that a Radio SHack or similar store might have this type of thing so I dont have to order online? I guess I could just go in and check-it doesnt seem like BB, Compusa or Circuit City has anything.

Thanks for all your help so far though man.

Hey, Misguided,

Is this in-store only? I don't have one near me and couldn't find it anywhere online... which is funny since I get their email notifications, no mention there either, unless I missed it (who me?).  :?

I honestly don't know, sorry

I'm confused.
I've seen this in my store once, and I was intrigued by it, but we had no DS yet. When I went to get a DS for my son a few days later, it had been sold. Was that a Japanese one??

Yeah, I think I was the lone voice of dissent in the other thread as being more toward the IN side than I was before playing the demo. This is a pure arcade racer and it is only marginally more a racing game than Carmageddon was (though with the demo level you did actually have to finish the race).