Go GameStop!

You know how it always seems that as soon as you learn a new word (or discover a new author, or hear a new song, or whatever), you run into it again almost immediately later that week? I had a similar experience recently with a store.

Until I caved and bought Pete his Nintendo DS in April, I was pretty oblivious to the whole gaming world, including where one would go to buy games. I bought the DS at Best Buy, along with a game I knew Pete would like. I told him that as part of his birthday gift, he could go back with me to choose one more game, which he did. Then, when we finally got around to having his birthday party, some of his friends' moms asked me for gift ideas. I mentioned a few things, including a gift card to Best Buy or the like, so he could buy more games. Sure enough, he got a gift card, but it was to a place called GameStop. Huh? I'd never heard of it. Or had I? Snap! I had indeed. A few days earlier I had gotten an email from Mom Central, asking me if I'd be willing to shop at a GameStop store and post the review on my blog. I had deleted it, because I figured there wasn't a GameStop near me, or else I'd have heard about it. Duh.

Turns out there are GameStop stores all over the place, but of course I'd never noticed them—partly because I avoid malls like the plague and partly because gaming wasn't even on my radar until recently. So shortly after Pete's party, I took him and his gift card to the GameStop at the Arsenal Mall, where he found the game he wanted. They seem to have every game for every system imaginable, and what's more, they buy back used games and resell them at a pretty good mark-down. Frequent flyers can get a discount card that entitles them to an additional 10% off of used games—which are all guaranteed to work. Since game cartridges are nearly indestructible (or, at the very least, easily recognized if they've been damaged), it seems to me that the only drawback to buying a used game is if it's, for instance, a Pokemon game where you can trade away some of your Pokemons to other players via wifi. (For the record, I don't let Pete use the wifi feature on his DS. Yet.) Otherwise it seems like an ideal way for an avid gamer to get his gaming fix without breaking the bank.

So today I took the gift card I got from Mom Central back to GameStop along with the name of another game Pete had in mind. The guy who rang up my purchase, Don, was very knowledgeable and helpful, managing somehow not to roll his eyes at my dumb questions. He explained the discount system but didn't try to put any pressure on me to join up. Color me a happy customer!

Comments

[Susan]

I have seriously considered buying the DS just so I can get the Brain Age game which appears to be exclusive to Nintendo. If I could find it, I'd buy the game for my laptop but so far no luck. I am not a gamer so the price seems high for me to use 1 game and so far I have not given in. Maybe you could buy the game and review it for me. :-)

[Riley McArdle]

Trading away Pokémon via Wi-Fi does not permanently remove them from the cartridge. If you start a new game, everything is back exactly the same as a brand new cartridge. This is the same for all games as there is no way to permanently change the cartridge.

As far as letting your son use the Wi-Fi, I wouldn't worry. The interactions through the Wi-Fi connection are all extremely limited. There's no Internet chat or voice features at all in any of the games. Nintendo won't allow it.

There is a program called PictoChat that is built into the Nintendo DS (you can play it without any cartridge inserted into the system). PictoChat only lets you chat with people within range of the DS though (about 65 feet). It doesn't allow any chat over the Internet.

[Alissa]

I agree with the comment about regarding the wi-fi; it's ccol, harmless and fun. No worries there. And the PictoChat is adorable too.

AND, I was going to say the same thing, but I read the above comment more carefully - GameStop resets all the used games so when you buy a used game, it's like a brand new game.

My boys adore game stop. I have the card and it's great - one super thing is that if you buy a used game and the kids don't like it, you have one week to return it. You can't do that with new games.

The one thing I hate about the store, though, is that when the boys get all their games or old systems together to sell back, I remind them hundreds of times that you get back a TINY fraction of what you paid for it. If you buy a $50 Wii game and sell it back, maybe you'll get back $15? $20? I don't think it's $20. It kills me.