Pretend to be all sad about not being able to spread the Nintendo love with a decent supply of Wii systems, then suddenly pull a ton of them out of his ass and go "HEY GUYZ, WE GOT SUMZ!" but then force them to wait for it. With just 10 shopping days left until Christmas, this is sure to get lots of attention though.

This whole "Rain Check" thing makes me pretty nervous, but I want to feel optimistic about it. To be honest, it really sucks the life out of me, having to constantly say "No" to so many people everyday asking about the Wii, and then having to be so vague about it. I'm a usually cheerful person, so being the bearer of bad news is no good for my soul.

With the Rain Check system, we can finally give out accurate dates and perhaps even availability. But the timing of this announcement has added more stress to our jobs. Now we have to spend time on the phone explaining how the Rain Check system will work to ever so anxious customers. Mix that in with the other mess of phone calls we're getting, mostly asking us if we actually have the system in stock, or customers asking us to explain the differences between the 4 different XB360 bundles or the 2 PS3 bundles, and among other things.

\Makes me wonder...what was Nintendo doing over the summer? We were well stocked in the system throughout the year after the month of May, and now that I think about it, I don't think Nintendo effectively advertised it enough at that time. This mad rush for the system is a result of holiday madness and the fact that parents or loved ones did not have any other reasons or excuse to buy the system until now. Maybe this was their ploy all along? Who knows.

In the end, it still prints money.

While I didn't hit any shops for Black Friday, I took advantage of GameStop's buy two, get one free used games deal to snag up some games for a decent price. Picked up Assassin's Creed, Super Mario Galaxy (yes someone actually traded it in already!), and Super Paper Mario. A $145 dollar value for just $90 (which included the edge card discount). Not a bad haul if I say so myself, although I curse the company for NOT allowing our employee discount to stack on top of that. *mutters*

I also have Employee Appreciation days at the end of the month, which I'll use to my advantage for new games. I've got a copies of King of Fighters XI and Fire Pro Wrestling waiting for me. And NeoGeo Battle Coliseum finally hits our shores next month! Ah, I love wonderful cheap games. I couldn't wait for Mass Effect any longer though, as I already purchased it and it's currently sucked the life out of my fiance. Thankfully all of these should last us until February when all the other cool shit comes out.

Crap, has it already been a year since the Wii and PS3 launch? I can still remember the stress of working on both of those launch days, although the PS3 one was much more memorable than the Wii one....

For the PS3 launch [I work at a Gamestop, for those who don't know], we had some crazy bitch go berserk on us because we told her we weren't taking any more pre-orders for the system. We explained that pre-orders took place a month before and if she wasn't there, she wasn't going to be able to get one at the actual launch date. She gets very upset and caused a scene and everything.

We had to go through a grueling process for her, which included us asking a good customer of ours to give up his pre-order for her. But then we received an upsetting letter from the corp that Sony will be unable to supply us with enough systems to fulfill pre-orders. We were only receiving HALF of them. Great. So had to contact the lower half of our pre-order list letting them know they weren't going to be able to pick up their system at launch date, this included the crazy lady. Of course she screams at us and claims we were bullshitting her. In the end, she didn't get her system until the third shipment, because our second shipment still didn't fulfill our pre-orders. Also one of our units from the first shipment got stolen during transit. It wasn't fun having to call one of our customers that he wasn't going to get his system on launch after we had told him that he was. Ugh.

On the more amusing side of things though, the amount of bribes we were getting from customers were incredible. We had a couple that brought a huge box of donuts, with a note saying "Dear Gamestop, thank you for putting up with us annoying customers and our phone calls throughout this holiday season. Please accept these for your hard work. You all deserve it. PS - We're still looking for a Wii!" *insert smiley face* Other brought us boxes of chocolates, candies, or discount coupons for whatever company they worked at, etc. We really didn't want to accept them, as we weren't allowed to pull strings when it comes to our policies. But they insisted anyway. Oh well, guess we can't pass up free goodies.

We got these cute Mario Galaxy Christmas Ornaments in the store yesterday. I didn't realize it until I saw the ornaments, that it seems like Nintendo really wants to stuff the stockings this holiday year! Literally, as we're selling these pretty neat Mario Galaxy christmas stockings as well.

Last month we also received various shipments of Nintendo radio controlled go-karts (which we've sold in the past), Nintendo Monopoly boards, and we're also expecting shipments of various Nintendo mascot plushies. Let's not forget that copies of Super Mario Galaxy will likely be wrapped up under the tree.

However it's also that time of the year where we'll be getting lots of phone calls from desperate parents looking for the Wiis. Some tell stories are sad, some are "wah, cry more", and some are just plain lol. One of my favorites from last year? A mother came in and told me that her son said to not worry about getting a Wii for him, because "Santa Claus will get one for me." Haha, way to corner yourself "Santa". I wonder if she ever found one in time.

My first blog post on Destructiod! Wow, I feel pretty nervous. But Dale North did chime in that I should sign up for this, so here I am.

Quick introduction for anyone unfortunate enough to stumble upon this: I go by Kismet on the Interwebz, and yeah I got the idea from a Magic: The Gathering card [all cards come into play tapped!]. I am also one of those annoying managers from GameStop. You know, the ones that harasses you for a preorder and a subscription to GameInformer Magazine. ..I love you too. =]

I just finished playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass a few hours ago. Wind Waker is my favorite title of the Zelda series, so picking up a direct sequel of the game made me all giggly. I think PH was a decent game but surprisingly much more shorter than I hoped. In fact I'm sitting not believing that it's done already. A shame too, since the game doesn't have any replay value, other than doing what Zelda does best, collecting shit. I don't really feel the need to go back and try to find all the random ship parts to complete my collection. Overall, decent effort from Nintendo but it's a game no one will really remember in a few months.

GameStop just shipped us boxes full of these "activity books" that I guess we're supposed to hand out to customers. I guess they want to do this coloring contest that people can enter and win some stuff, I dunno. I started to feel like procrastinating a bit on the job, so I flipped to the "Draw a Dragon!" page and doodled this up.




...is homestarrunner.com even popular anymore?