Why do I hate Gamestop so?

[johnlucas]

Who hates GameStop like I do?

In my local area here in Southeast Georgia, USA, there used to be this really really nice gameshop called Rhino Video Games which was run all throughout southeast United States throughout Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Had almost every game for almost every system in history except for maybe Atari era stuff. Had collector's edition controllers, a variety of accessories, and a selection of old and new games to pick from. Used games everything. I picked up a lot of my old NES collection hanging around this store. Found good cheap deals on my GBA which I got for $25 and finally entered the world of handheld gaming. All kinds of N64 games, Gamecubes, SNES's. Got my rare copy of Earthbound from there. I seen old original NES controllers (not 3rd party knockoffs) and Zappers there even! NES Max, NES Advantage! Multitaps! Capcom Power Sticks!

They had PC Games, Saturn, Dreamcast, Genesis, Game Gear, NES, SNES, N64, GC, GameBoy, GBA, DS, PS1, PS2, PSP, XBox, XBox 360, mighta seen some Turbo-Grafx 16 in there if I'm not mistaken. All kinds of "shtuff"!! Got my Game Boy Player from there.

They had comic book store like stuff. Trading cards, rare stuff, dice, collectibles. It was a cool place to hang out if you enjoyed videogames even though the store was stuffy, smelled like farts, and could use some ventilation. But who cares it had all the selection!! Plus the staff were actual video gamers who were cool and friendly.

In 2004, Blockbuster bought Rhino's and the store still kept its integrity with that old Blockbuster rental stock giving even more selection to choose from. 2 for 1 deals and discounts! Clearance sales! Trade-ins! (even though I never trade my games...once bought they're mine forever)

Then in 2007 that soulless monster known as GameStop came out and took over Rhino's. No thanks to the poor business planning of Blockbuster Video, Rhino's was able to be bought out and erased from history by this Death Star of gaming.

All that selection was gone. Only the "current" systems mattered now. No more cool controllers and legacy products to pick up for collectors like me. No more original NES carts (they even had Bible Adventures y'all! The unauthorized NES titles in blue!). No more wide variety of genres and game styles. No more cool deals.

The store almost overnight became impersonal and looked like it was only about the money. Rhino's had some love behind what they were doing.

Every time I go into this place I get more and more depressed. My region is about only two places to get games from. Big Wal-Mart with its limited selection and GameStop if you don't count the offhand deals in the various movie rental places & pawn shops around here. Thank God for the pawn-happy soldiers of Fort Stewart!

Even when buying used games I liked to have the instruction book with it if possible. I'm a completionist that way & I like the instruction books even if I don't need 'em. Plus it makes the game case feel fuller and less thrown about. I like to get the original game cases too. Don't like those generic runoffs with company logo on it. I want game cover artwork.

GameStop does a lot of generic "shtuff" at their store with the game cases and controller packaging. That ugly bland plastic that holds the old controllers. It's just so throwaway when Rhino's had love behind their packaging even if it didn't have original game case.

I just hate that shop!! I went in there today after months of not going inside to see if I could find a little better selection than what Wal-Mart had to offer in this small town. Got new discounted copies of Batallion Wars 2 (BWii) & Harvest Moon DS. Plus an old Gameboy game called BurgerTime Deluxe (always loved Burgertime).

Come to find out that this Gamestop discount card of mine had "expired" since March. I thought when store handed you a card you didn't have to worry about it expiring. Disgusted I said just keep it. Ain't no good to me no more anyway. The selection was even less varied than the last time I went in there. At least there used to be a whole host of interesting DS games in there at one time and now even that was fading out.

I'm resolved to going online to do my rarer game shopping now 'cause I don't think I can take much more of that soulless money grubber GameStop. I miss my Rhino's!!!

Who else feels the same that I do and do you have any similar stories?
Rant complete.
John Lucas