“I haven’t seen you in a while!”
-Guy that works at my local Gamestop
You know when you buy games too much when the people at Gamestop say that as soon as you walk in. I’m sure there are more prolific buyers out there, but as far as I know I have a one-up on most Gamestop customers: the xx chromosome – boobs, intelligence and wit, somewhat good looks, good hygiene, ability to distinguish what a GPU is, uncanny ability to make geeks feel at ease (this has been pointed out by various friends), etc. BUT do all these traits actually matter? Let’s examine the situation:
So I came in to buy a filler game until the fall game rush gets on, and it happened to be Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the PS3. It’s a good game that’s great in a casual way, especially since I don’t have achievement whoring to worry about. My work schedule (and sideline projects) tends to gear me towards a casual oriented gameplay.
(Side note: I’m still playing Final Fantasy 4. I should be done with it as soon as work projects are done this week. Le sigh to real life…)
While the guy was ringing me up, I began to think about my schedule and I realized I should pre-order a few games that will be coming out in the near future. Namely:
- Mercenaries 2
- LittleBigPlanet
- Fallout 3
His eyes twinkled as I gave this list. Here I am ordering a miniture self Christmas babbling about how I can’t wait for my tin lunch box with vault boy bobblehead, and there he was finding out that I could possibly be the best chick he’s met this side of the universe (/being_self_absorbed). I think that’s what set him off to give me a ton of other free stuff (Kratos costume code for LBP WIN!!!!!!), stuffing my gamestop bag to the brim with the Fallout pre-order exclusives and then stopping to hesitate about the Mercs 2 free swag.
Guy: “Uhh I don’t know if you actually get this…but….”
Me: “It’s okay man, I don’t mind if you can’t give me the stuff.”
Guy: “Oh whatever. [shoves stuff in bag] It’ll be in good hands.”
I got a promo insiders guide as well as a neat beanie hat (SCOOOOORRRREEEEE I <333333 beanies). It wasn’t too bad either, the hat just had the mercs 2 symbol on it so it’s easily wearable without being too much like a walking advertisement.
Of course, in most cases you get the swag by default just for pre-ordering, but does it come with a beaming smile and pleasant conversation? Probably not. I’ll have to try to get one of my guy friends to do the same and see what comes of it. Pending social experiment #1 for Miss Geek?
Perhaps! Stay tuned. :]
