An Observation

Today I walked into Gamestop to pick up something cheap and used. Usually its dead quiet at my local store, but this time there was a cute little mob of 3 boys. They were likely middle school aged, and completely unsupervised, as is the case with most children these days. While I hate to sound crass and stereotypical, I wasn't shocked to find all three of them to be rather overweight. They were clamoring around the used games section, one trying to find Gamecube versions of a few titles, the other ones oggling some brand new 360 games while raving about how violent they were. One of them finds his purchase, but of course he doesn't quite have enough money for it, so he tries to peddle a few bucks from his friends. It isn't over then however, since the cashier tell him he can't buy this M rated game without an ID.

I have no idea what happened after that scene. It seems that they left (either with or without a purchase) while I was physically stunned at the $70 price tag on a new copy of Disgaea. I bought my own copy of Tony Hawk Underground and left. As usual, I inspeted the disc on my way out and found the bottom absolutely manhandled. It actually won't play right now, meaning I have to go back tomorrow and point out no employees asked me to pay for their little disc protection racquet and hope they have another copy. I thought my disks were sometimes in bad shape, but this thing makes them look immaculate. The first thing I thought about were those kids. "Someone like those punks probably owned this once. Why the hell can't they keep their shit in good order?"

Every serious gamer on the Internet thinks that the rest of the world is just like them. They think that all the bad press, all the political crackdown from Congress is completely unfounded and undeserved. After all, isn't the average gamer in their mid 20's? I'm starting to belive those reports are as accurate as the ones that claim more women play beause the researchers included Bejewled and Solitaire. I think the truth may really lie in those Gamestop kids. People who's parents can't bother to watch them, spending money they don't earn on games they shouldn't be playing, and treating delicate electronic equipment like playground equipment. The politicians always scream "Think of the Children!", and maybe they should, because for whatever reason, today's youth are an absolute embarassment. For every 15 year old I'd trust with GTA3, there are twenty I wouldn't even give a Sonic game to.

No wonder our industry is in so much constant heat. Young gamers are fucking morons.