Why is it so inactive online?

[Ryd]

And this is why GS just cheeses me off. The one I went to actually handed me an opened copy of PSP 2 a couple days after release and tried to charge me full price. Returned that one for a full refund, and bought sealed from Best Buy.

But seriously, for a company that thrives on pre-sales, they really should know better.

Game Stop opens a copy of the game to remove the disc so the box can be displayed to let people know they have it in stock. If they only have one copy of the game, that one gets "gutted". The logic they run on is that a game is still new if it's never touched a system. If the manual/box is missing for a new title, you can get a discount if you push for it.

Also, they don't thrive on pre-sales. For the most part, they don't give a shit if you're interested in a new title; all those pre-orders do is influence the amount of a given title that they receive (so they can chide you on not pre-ordering an obscure title if it's not in-stock on release day). The company itself thrives on used games, where they buy games off suckers for $5-10 on average (rare/new titles may net you up to $25! And it's not uncommon for games to get less than $5 either), and then turn around and sell it for 2-10x the price (sometimes more).

[DarkPhoton]

I worked in a game repair/ sales store for 4 years.

Do you know how much money we made off of original nintendo games alone?
We gave people 50 cents for a title we would then turn around and sell for 5-7 bucks. 15 bucks in some rare cases. Re-selling is where the market is. Honestly they purchase new games whole sale at around 55 bucks. That makes only a 5 dollar profit.

[Ce'Nedra]

Well i would play it more online but i don't really feel like playing with randoms, specially after reading so many hacks ruin your save files, i don't wanna have my 90 hours going to waste. If people of PSOW want to game then i gladly play, just need to set up times since i live in europe.

[ShinAnt]

I do wonder why...

[xBladeM6x]

And where, pray tell, would one go to meet up and party with other PSOW members?

Oh, you mean like this?

Look what I did thar. Seriously though, it pretty much the only way it's going to be a good experience online. Which isn't really bad to be honest. It gets the job done.

[BIG OLAF]

Look what I did thar. Seriously though, it pretty much the only way it's going to be a good experience online. Which isn't really bad to be honest. It gets the job done.

Well, I was actually referring to Ginno's chat. I prefer that one over the others. But, that's fine too.

[Fayorei]

Game Stop opens a copy of the game to remove the disc so the box can be displayed to let people know they have it in stock. If they only have one copy of the game, that one gets "gutted". The logic they run on is that a game is still new if it's never touched a system. If the manual/box is missing for a new title, you can get a discount if you push for it.

Also, they don't thrive on pre-sales. For the most part, they don't give a shit if you're interested in a new title; all those pre-orders do is influence the amount of a given title that they receive (so they can chide you on not pre-ordering an obscure title if it's not in-stock on release day). The company itself thrives on used games, where they buy games off suckers for $5-10 on average (rare/new titles may net you up to $25! And it's not uncommon for games to get less than $5 either), and then turn around and sell it for 2-10x the price (sometimes more).

My friend went in the next day, on a whim, and asked for PSP 2. They got a sealed copy out. Same store, and how could they get a shipment so soon on a weekend since GS gets stuff on Tuesdays? I also got "mansplained" to, and he actually told me they did that to ALL of their games to "prevent theft". I asked for a sealed copy politely, and I'd never had a problem before getting the guys at my old GS to unlock one from the case behind the counter. Also, my UMD was smudged on the actual disk, and I have no clue how they even managed that.

Also, think about this- the pre-order money. Some people most likely pre-order from their unabashed downright pushy pre-order campaigns, and then forget they did. Free money for GS.

And I'm not saying GS isn't thriving off used game sales either. I'd criticize for that, but honestly everywhere is doing that now and it is hardly an uncommon thing. And, I've traded in certain things at Funcoland, and later on GS. I'm well aware of the price gouging, but nowadays that's anywhere. Amazon also is offering VERY low trade in values for their credit.

TL;DR: My bottom line? Making fun of a customer for purchasing anything is a definite no-no, and I'm pretty disgusted to hear something like that happened.

[Ryd]

My friend went in the next day, on a whim, and asked for PSP 2. They got a sealed copy out. Same store, and how could they get a shipment so soon on a weekend since GS gets stuff on Tuesdays? I also got "mansplained" to, and he actually told me they did that to ALL of their games to "prevent theft". I asked for a sealed copy politely, and I'd never had a problem before getting the guys at my old GS to unlock one from the case behind the counter. Also, my UMD was smudged on the actual disk, and I have no clue how they even managed that.

Also, think about this- the pre-order money. Some people most likely pre-order from their unabashed downright pushy pre-order campaigns, and then forget they did. Free money for GS.

They gut all games that are displayed on the sales floor because those are open to the public, and thus much more susceptible to theft. Anything that's not on display along with the games for the boxes on display are kept in cabinets/drawers behind the counter/registers; there's no point in gutting those to prevent theft since they're kept in the same place, and the registers are never to be left unattended while the store is open. You would've gotten the lecture because you complained about receiving an opened copy when it was quite likely the last one (they only received 1 copy of PSP2 at several stores I checked; GS is not big on having large amounts of backstock on games that aren't in heavy demand, new releases or otherwise). I used to have give the same lecture when I worked for them.

Game Stop doesn't only receive stock on Tuesdays, that's just the day that new titles are generally released and thus, guaranteed a shipment. They receive additional shipments throughout the week as needed (especially frequent when big titles are released); the only day they're pretty much guaranteed to not get anything is on a Sunday. It's possible your friend got there just after they finished checking in a shipment, or the box that had PSP2+whatever was buried behind massive boxes of something else (Halo...) and accidentally forgotten until then or something. It happens, especially around big launches.

As for pre-orders, they generally can't be taken without a phone number. When the title reaches the stores, a printout comes up with a name and phone number to be called in addition to the automated reminder you get the previous week informing you of the upcoming release. If you give an invalid phone number or change numbers between reservation and release, that's a different matter; but to my knowledge, that money stays applied toward that title and should be fully refundable if you forget about it till months later and they don't have it in stock.

[Rayokarna]

I generally play on Ad Hoc Party instead. European one is really quiet. That and my OFW PSP is being leant out to a friend so they can play PSP2.

[Kage Shiroyuki]

Yeah I would much rather play PSP2 with people on PSOW then random people on the server. My data still works but I got a message after a mission that said my data was corrupted.

The gamestop I go to isn't like that I'm pretty much friends with all the workers there and the new games I buy are always wrapped and in awesome condition.

I go to ad-hoc party and there is never anyone playing PSP2, but there is the occasional locked room.