power means nothing. the wii is stronger than anything last gen and technically the weakest of this gen. that doesn't mean anything though, the nes was weaker than a lot of its competition too. so was pretty near every eneration of gameboy. so was the ps2. so was pretty much any popular system to be honest. it's all about the games.

 

It's a common mistake by those who don't understand technology.

The Wii has the same architecture as the gamecube.

A PC running a Pentium 4 and a top of the lines Graphics card and a few gigs of RAM has the same architecture as a 286 with 256K of RAM, and if you're lucky a VGA graphics adaptor.

Same processing power? No. The Wii has a faster core processor, more RAM, faster GPU and more video memory than the Gamecube making it all around more powerful. You can just hit http://gamefaqs.com for the specs.

 

This kind of personal bias makes me sick. Being judgemental by making broad generalizations and assumptions about people doesn't make you any better of a person than someone who may or may not have as much knowledge about video games than you.

Yeah, I'll agree there are some slackers, do-nothings, idiots, and psuedo-authority game snobs working at GameStops all across the US, but then what company doesn't have some crappy employees? Also, if you were being paid a little more than minimum wage, how motivated do you think you would be to educate yourself about the all product you sell--especially when your store has several thousand different games in stock on some consoles they haven't even had the opportunity to play yet?

I make it my business to educate myself. I have to if I want to run my own store properly and be rewarded for it. I don't claim to be an authority on video games--I haven't even had a chance yet to use a PS3, XBOX 360, or the Wii. And I haven't done handheld games for 15+ years, so I don't claim to know anything about the PSP, DS, or even GameBoy. But since it's now my job, I'm trying to educate myself about them. I'll also discourage someone from buying a crappy game even if it costs me a sale, but I'll sure as heck recommend something better instead.

In short, GameStop employees are not all morons, and contrary to what you think all part-time GameStop employees are actually required to be "active gamers" with "previous experience [in] videogame knowledge" (direct quote from GameStop's "Step To Success" mgmt tier). Granted, some employees like myself may only have limited gaming experience and knowledge, but employees are required to be gamers and have some knowledge of product.

Okay, I'll give you that one. But it could've also been a trainee and/or someone else who's not as experienced a gamer as others. It happens. (And if you only knew how many times a day customers request title info and employees always have to follow with "what system?"--it's a habit.)

But that doesn't give you any right to attach this to that store's entire staff by saying "My local gamestop guys...". I have a feeling this was an isolated incident that you observed involving a single employee. Maybe if you stopped exaggerating what actually happened in attempt to make yourself look superior to someone else, it wouldn't make you look like a hypocrite.

Nice. Let's all jump on the GameStop-bashing bandwagon here, especially since this is a thread comparing the Wii to the GC and shouldn't have anything to do with GameStop.

Let's turn the tables and see how you guys would feel if you stumbled into a thread like this only to find people saying--in a public forum, mind you...not to mention off-topic from the thread subject
--that Transformers fans are"useless" and "morons". Yeah, I'm sure that'd make your day all sunny and bright, wouldn't it?

Look, I'm sorry you came up against employees who didn't have an answer to a question that unfortunately didn't have an easy answer (explained below), but that doesn't make all GameStop employees "useless". People have sued for libel over lesser accusations. And won.

Hey, did you consider that maybe if you'd have done that from home in the first place, you'd have saved yourself the trip?

Expecting GameStop employees to know everything is ridiculous. They're only human. Knowing a developer question like that isn't exactly common knowledge, and even GameStop's computers don't have access to that kind of data. But that doesn't give you any right to call them "useless" when it seems to me you could've done your own research with very little effort.

 

Um, no. One would expect the employees in a games store to be able to tell you facts about the things they sell. If someone's experiences with a store are overall negative, as several people here seem to have had, they will have a negative opinion of that chain in general.

 

I said rarely and "typically". I didnt say "always". in my experience, most gamestop employees are mindless half-wits who actually pronounce the "X" in Final Fantasy X's title as the letter X, or will try to tell me a cracked copy of Resident Evil 4 will play just fine and that I should actually stick the thing in my brand new Wii.

Store Manager of 4 years. Although not knowing what system HALO is on for any game store employee is absolutely unacceptable, trainee or not.

No. Its a bit of a running gag with me and my friends. we will often ask the employees if they have Halo 2, and most ask what system we want it for. it just never stops being funny to us. The first incident was actually the week the game launched, making it extra pathetic.

of course, this is just one store by me. the next closest store is pretty good.

 

"Um, no" is your reply to my entire post after I made several points? Gee, thanks for giving me a lot to work with.

Regardless of someone's negative experience at a store, that still doesn't give anyone a right to make sweeping NEGATIVE generalizations about a company's employees. Seriously, labels like "moron" are solid ground for libel.

And as for product knowlege: do you expect Walmart employees to know "facts about [all] the things they sell"? Or a Barnes & Noble employee to know about every book they have in stock? Or a Blockbuster employee to know about every movie title they have on hand? It's nigh-impossible, even for someone who's been with the same employer for a decade or longer. No employee is going to know everything about every single product they sell, no matter what company they work for.

GameStop employees who are indeed active gamers may have only specialized gaming interests. At the store I work at, there's the following:

- a PC-gamer only
- a guy who only likes Sports games
- a guy who only likes shooters
- a guy who only likes RPGs

There's only one guy on the entire staff who has been a hardcore gamer his whole life and owns every major console system ever released. And I'm constantly picking his brain for his amazing wealth of knowledge.

There's also the fact that not everyone can afford more than one console system. Some people count themselves lucky just to have *one*.

It's this kind of thinking in retail that baffles me--that customers often assume that employees know everything there is to know about every single product a store has in stock. Still, while I may not have an answer for every question customers ask me, I'll sure as heck do my best to find someone who can answer it before that customer leaves my store. That's what genuine "customer service" means.

 

I think when employees of any store are giving blatantly false info about the things they sell, you have every right to call them morons. if someone at gamestop tells a customer that the Wii isnt any more powerful than a gamecube, then that employee is a moron. its not true, and if he doesnt know the answer he shouldnt make one up on the spot.

and again, I stand with my belief that anyone selling games and doesnt know what system Halo is for shouldnt have that job. its essentially the same as asking what sport people want when they ask for madden.

If you dont know anything about these systems, how can you tell people if a game is crappy or not? plenty of great games have gotten horrible reviews, so I hope thats not your criteria. If you dont know anything about the PSP and DS, but you're advising people on games for the systems that you have not played and personally dont know anything about (which you admitted to), then, well, thats just horrible.

 

Basically yes. Every point you raise is countered by one fact:
You're talking about a games store.
We're not talking about Walmart; we're talking about a store thats main stock is centred around a handful of products (a few concoles, a couple of handhelds, and the PC). Considering that the Wii is something you would expect them to be pushing, I would in turn expect them to know what the hell they're talking about. A comment like that, from somewhere like that, means one of two things to me - personal (or company) bias, or outright ignorance.

Do you think a car salesman owns every car he tries to sell? Or someone in a sporting goods store plays every sport they sell equipment for? This is a specialist store, and anyone would expect its staff to be able to get their facts straight. Anything else will give the very clear impression that they are morons.

If I walk into a games store and ask questions about the consoles they sell, I expect the correct answers. I would expect them to at least know a little about what they're trying to sell me. I would not expect ill-informed rubbish from people who are paid to know better, because knowing better pays their wages. And if you want to talk about legal issues such as libel, howsabout we toss giving customers misleading and false information in there too? Companies have gotten in trouble for that sort of thing in the past.

You make a big point about doing your best to find out the correct answers to questions for customers. The people that posters here have dealt with clearly didn't bother. Either way, it certainly doesn't reflect well on a store that sells one type of product if their own sales people don't know the facts about their products, does it?

Know the product you're selling. If not, ask a member of staff who does. Either way, make sure you give the customer the facts.
THAT'S customer service.

 

Without quoting any of the developing quarrel here, I will contribute my two cents:

Not knowing everything about all of the products in a store you work in is not particularly a problem. I don't think people expect that.

Pretending that you do, most definitely is a problem, and one that for some reason or another seems incredibly common at many Gamestop stores.

 

yeah, people would be outraged if they went to a car dealership and the salesman didnt know anything about the car, but he decided to make something up instead, or intentionally misled the customer, or hell, just said anything about the car that was not a fact.

gamestop is a specialty store. the employees should be required to know their shit. and if they don't, stay quiet and get another employee who does, or just tell the customer that they dont know.

I'd like to bring up one GREAT example of how something like the first post's situation should be handled. When the Dreamcast first came out, I was at a Babbages, and asked the clerk a question about it. he didnt know the answer, so he grabbed the phone, and called another employee and asked him about it. he then relayed the answer to me. THAT was awesome.

 

In fact, customers could sue and win over it.

Emphasis mine. Easiest possible solution. If someone feels the need to make random shit up and report it as fact whenever they don't know something, that's a serious character defect, and not one that should belong to people hired to sell things.

 

Since you're basing this on your personal experiences, I guess I can't say anything to the contrary. But others calling GameStop employees "morons" and "useless" is gross exaggeration. They may be entitled to their opinion, but that doesn't make it right.

Also, "mindless half-wit" is an like an oxymoron double-negative. One can't be both.  

I'm sorry for your bad experiences. Very sad to see it. I can't apologize for someone else's poor customer service. There's honestly no excuse for things like them telling you an obviously damaged disc should play okay. I'm extremely particular about disc scratches in pre-owned trades, and if it's cracked you don't accept it at all in a trade or cash-back.

In my district, lousy service is not "typical" and employees are generally informative and helpful. Granted, we do have stores with some deadwood employees unfortunately. And they pull our entire district's numbers down too. Like I said, every store has at least one deadbeat. That's why the district mgr is trying to weed them out.

If it was indeed a store mgr of 4 years, then I agree. However, you still have to take into consideration that it's a force of habit for video game store employees to ask "what system" to the question of any title. Since my knowledge is limited on three major systems (and I only played through the first Halo recently), I'd probably look like an idiot to some other hardcore gamer asking the same question--at least for the next couple of months until I complete my training.

I honestly believe this is a force of habit with them responding that way. But I'm going to try it out on some of my co-workers later this week. Thanks for the gag.

 

Comparing cars with video games is like comparing apples and oranges to me, but I see your point.

And I agree 100%, and that's always been my approach in retail. If you don't know, you find someone who does.

We're pushing to get at least limited internet access with Corporate--it would really be beneficial for many of the everyday questions we get that we don't always have an answer for.

No, I wasn't referring to consoles I have no experience with. But I have played many PC, PS2 and XBOX games. But I didn't get an XBOX until this past Christmas, and there were two years between where I didn't play any games at all because my wife and I couldn't afford a console.

And I'm not fond of most sports games either (except for racers)--I usually defer to my co-workers for recommends on those titles.

 

People like to generally throw about some insulting things when they have a bad experience at a store, but I've never really taken it personally. I worked retail before, and I always tried my best to help out.

Sometimes you just have bad employees. This happens everywhere. People just have to understand that this isn't true universally, and when you call every employee a moron, you are being pretty unfair to those who actually do try and do a good job.

Just remember; there are plenty of idiots out there. They aren't limited to just one place. And when you work retail, you become very, VERY aware of how many morons there are out in the world.  

It just stands to reason they'll have jobs too.  

 

If I can expect a DIY store employee to know which aisle the Sugar Soap is, what its used for, as well as ALL the items in a store the size of a football field, then I can expect a Videogames employee to know about his distinctly smaller subject, this I think is reasonable.

But in my mind, if you want to know about the subject, go out and buy a multiformat games magazine. Or google it. Its like the DIY analogy, do I buy screws or nails? Or should I look up what I need for the job?

To be fair though, a lot of games in development for the Wii look like GC titles... and nothing (yet) that can't be done by the humble Xbox. But that's the point isn't it? Nintendo have made the deliberate move not to max out their console, which means their manufacture costs are low, (ie, they sell each unit at a profit) and because the Wii architecture is the same as GC, development should be easy, with all the years of GC coding experience.

Is their way better? Who knows? In my mind the Wii cannot be realistically compared to a 360 or PS3, which both follow different business models and goals. It all depends on what the consumer wants out of his system. My friend describes himself as not a hardcore gamer, he just dabbles. So he got a Wii. I have a HDTV, and I want brand new smashing graphics so I got a XB360. (The PS3 'might' be in the running except its not out yet over here, its too expensive, and the main reason I'd buy one (VF5) is coming to 360 in September). If the Wii continues its current trend of cutesy (ish) graphics and motion controller gimmicks (which right now is a trend it doesn't seem to want to buck) then I'll not be impressed.

It really is down to personal opinion, and personally I can't wait for the next wave of software, I still remember how the GC Resident Evil remake blew me away.

Once that happens, I'll have a Wii by my TV.

You know. To mark my territory.

 

I'd just like to point out one thing.

Halo 2 is coming out for the PC.

 

That sounds like a caring sales person to me.

"I want Halo 2."

"For which system?"

"PS2."

"...it's an Xbox only title, sir/madam."


See how that works?

 

Yep, that's about correct from the reports/articles I read on all the new systems.

Wow, damn you people hate on someone not knowing everything about every game system ever. But when I did work at gamecrazy, I had all three systems out at the time (ps2, xbox, gamecube) and if I didn't know, I would just yell at another associate if they knew. I know if a customer asked me what RPG game was the best for PS2 or whatever, I personally wasn't a RPG person but I still knew which one got the best reviews and also knew which one another employee would rave about.

 

As for performace I think you have the right idea. Last gens performace went like this.
PS2
xBox
Game Cube
with the cube being the most powerful. Mind you power does not mean the best. Get the system that has the games you enjoy.
This gen
Wii
PS3
xBox 360
With 360 being the most powerful. But if the most powerful system does have the games you enjoy than you just have an expensive paper wieght.

As for the rest of the posts. If some asked me for halo I would ask which system. Since it is on three systems Mac, pc, and xbox. As for halo 2 it is currently on 1 and soon to be on 2. With its impending relaease on vista. So the sales clerk is not entirly wrong. I may not like gamestop much my self. But for me it is the pushing of preorders and magazines. But also that with ebgames before they got bought out, even if you did not preorder you could still get a copy of said game. But gamestop usualy only gets a couple more than the preorders.

 

360 more powerful than the PS3?

:/