#the life and times as a gamestop manager

[delicatestones]

Various Parahuman Teen Couples Go To The Mall

Brian and Taylor: Going to the mall is a normal thing neither of them enjoy, which is precisely why they convince themselves that they should do it. Brian musters up hope that he will be able to carry Taylor's bags and wait for her on benches outside of clothes stores, which will affirm his value as a man. Taylor, who only wants to buy a single hoodie, anxiously refuses to let Brian carry her bag because she doesn't want to be a burden, which banishes Brian to the Masculine Insecurity Pocket Dimension in his own mind. They attempt to rally by going to the food court, where they try to have an awkward 'normal' conversation over greasy pizza slices.

Fortunately, a supervillain they have history with attacks the mall mid-pizza, and they rush off to change in the mall bathrooms and return to thoroughly beat the interloper's ass. Brian apologizes for the mall date going wrong (secretly relieved, also deeply compelled by watching Taylor break a guy's arm with a baton) while Taylor says it's no big deal (even more relieved, mesmerized by Brian's visible sweat on the back of his neck). They may or may not awkwardly touch hands at the fire exit before they flee the scene of the crime.

Krouse and Noelle (Pre-Simurgh): On a quest for limited edition Ransack merch at the Gamestop, which turns out to be all sold out or on reserve. Krouse tries to social engineer it out of the clerk anyway, but Noelle gets so visibly uncomfortable he desists. In the depths of excruciating failure he says something shitty about the guy's haircut after they leave the store and Noelle tells him he's being a dick, which he apologizes excessively for in a way that just makes it more awkward.

In a now desperate effort to turn things around, Krouse tries to lighten the mood by latching onto listing Alternative Mall Activities including one of those photo booth set ups. He makes fun of how cliche they are and how it would be completely lame if they went into one, which transitions into cajoling Noelle to join him in this extremely cringe activity for the bit. She says her hair looks dumb and she doesn't want to, so he gallantly offers her his over-sized hoodie so she can hide her face the entire time, a gesture he does not realize extends the shelf life of their relationship for a solid two weeks. His visible joy when she agrees to the idea adds another week to the tail end of that. They hold hands on the way to the parking lot.

His copy of their photos becomes an instantly precious memento he sticks on the wall above his bed; Noelle puts hers in her picture shoebox in her closet. He spends all night on E-bay overbidding for the merch.

Krouse and Noelle (Post-Simurgh): Twelve Injured One Dead In 'Food Court Nightmare'.

Dean and Victoria: It takes Victoria half an hour to get ready for a mall trip. Dean shows up too early to pick her up and engages Carol Dallon in small talk for twenty minutes, a time span in which Carol manages to list every single one of Victoria's deepest insecurities in the form of barely veiled criticism while Dean smiles like he's being held at gunpoint.

At the mall they get stopped outside the Gap by a gaggle of Glory Girl preteen fans. Dean holds Victoria's bags (many) while she goes through the New Wave Fan Experience Checklist. Victoria says something afterwards to him on the way to the next store that hints at the Dallon Torment Nexus. Dean continues smiling and offers the mildest possible effort at sympathy, which Victoria reacts to with virulent irritation, so he gives up and buys her a mall outlet jewelry store diamond tennis bracelet instead. Thus mollified, she proceeds to allow him to obtain Jamba Juice for the both of them. It's another normal (bad) day in Brockton Bay.

Aisha and Alec: There strictly to cause problems for the sake of causing problems. Alec 'distracts' the staff at Hot Topic by faking a fall into a rack of studded belts and loudly insisting he will sue them for emotional and psychic damages while Aisha shoplifts bracelets. They buy hot pretzels and perch on the edge of the mall fountain marked 'NO LOITERING' to conspicuously loiter while occasionally kicking each other in the ankle. When a security guard tries to get them to move they collaborate on roasting his bloodline back to medieval times, triggering rent-a-cop wrath and a threat to call the Real Cops.

Now officially Wronged By The System, they decamp to breaking into the mall's back corridors (going through an unlocked access door) to vandalize the security office while throwing gummy worms at each other's mouths and missing 70% of the time. In high spirits, they make their cunning exit (leaving through the same door) and sneak into a horror movie at the mall theater halfway through its run time. They heckle the on-screen slasher victims for being idiots until an usher shows up with the original security guard, and then book it for the outside world while laughing like small and charming hyenas.

They agree they should totally rob the mall for real later, preferably while Brian and Taylor are on their make-up mall date, because they are good and kind teammates who only want the best for them.

(This post inspired by the learned discourses of Wormblr character understanders, particularly users lakesbian and simurghed. Any mischaracterizations and errors are my own. These hypotheticals are a non-representative sample of Ways They Could Be At The Mall.)

[rikebe]

hii if you're still accepting asks about the akihiro x bobby ship meme, could you explain in detail the trust/jealousy/etc scales? also is bobby canonically 5'4" bc 😳❤

I WISH BOBBY WAS THAT SHORT IN CANON </3 unfortunately that's just my hc bc i'm so much smarter and chaddier than all of marvel :/

BUT here's the scales!

bobby:

trust: i def see bobby as having a bit of a cynical streak, so i think he takes a while to warm up to trusting. he has a way of internalizing shit and overthinking and is very neurotic, and i think he can absolutely overthink himself into mistrusting his partner on a wrong day even if he knows he's being irrational :(

jealousy: pretty much the same thing, plus i think growing up as the baby-faced dweeby kid of the x-men doesn't really give you a huge amount of self-confidence. i think he can really struggle w seeing himself as like, hot enough or good enough and project that on other people through jealousy, especially if he has such an objectively sexy partner as akihiro. again i think this is something where he'd KNOW he's being unreasonable but he can't help feeling that way

horny: LISTEN. YES he dresses like the assistant manager of a gamestop. YES he's a boring account. but i know. when i look into that unassuming, boring little face of him i know he's a horndog. if he wasn't he wouldn't have fucking bothered with the little song and dance akihiro and him have, because let's be real, akihiro's a pretty big shithead to him consistently and still bobby's like teehee! let's waltz! teehee! oh no let me kiss that death seed away teehee! that's classic horny for villain behavior. you can't hide behind those cargo shorts, bobby drake. i know what you are.

clingy: to me he's a pretty big relationship guy and is really attached to his partner, which is great if you're on mutual terms but i think can come off as pretty clingy if the other guy's looking for something a little more casual lol. def the type to keep texting a few times after getting ghosted before he gets the hint. oops

akihiro:

trust: BIG HUGE MAJOR trust issues. this guy spent his entire adult life seeing interpersonal relationships as entirely transactional and only started getting into this "unconditional love and trust" shit like five years ago. it's a learning curve. he's the guy in a sitcom who thinks their partner is cheating and starts stalking them

jealousy: see trust. same thing. if some guy is talking to bobby at a bar akihiro WILL stand menacingly close by and then be really annoying about mentioning that thats his BOYFRIEND and they're DATING. the guy asked bobby for the time

horny: controversial BUT: i don't think akihiro is very horny. he's been shown since his first appearance to be very liberal about sex, but in almost all instances these interactions are about control and power. akihiro uses his inherent appeal and other people's attraction to him to get what he wants in his never-ending ploy for power and evil-doing. to him, sex is transactional, it's just something he does just like he lies and pretends to be something he's not. ive seen some interpretations of him as asexual, which i think is really interesting and cool and a great take! i don't know where exactly on that spectrum i see him, i think he does enjoy sex but it would be a really different thing for him to sleep with someone he actually cares about, to the point where i could see it causing whiplash when he's being shy about it all of a sudden :')

clingy: i put him pretty high on the "needs attention" scale which i explained in another post, but i don't really see him being all that clingy. i think i might have coloured it in a little high here even since i think it's a hard thing to define, but basically i think that IN a relationship he would be a little clingy and want to be around his partner a lot, once he gets to a point where he can comfortably express those feelings, but he would never run after someone or try to cling to a partner that's dumped him. he thinks too highly of himself to debase himself by showing that he cares about another human being. this is about SAVING FACE, damn it

[motionpicturedemise]

myth's game writeup of 2023

i waited until the new year to finish this in case i managed to beat a game during december. i did not. ANYWAY.

this will contain new games as well as games i only got around to in 2023. light on spoilers but be warned

Octopath Traveler II (2023)

as far as i remember, this was the first new game I played this year, and god did it deliver. I've been a fan of octopath since the first one came out on switch in 2018, counting it as my favorite game of all time, so to have a sequel after all this time was thrilling. it did almost everything octopath 1 did and better. new path actions, day/night system, branching stories, fucking boats?? incredible.

my biggest gripe has to be the new hidden classes. I started with throne so getting inventor 10 minutes after my chapter one did definitely fuck up the progression a little bit. I think I preferred ot1 hidden classes. while the dungeons were underwhelming, the boss battles really make you fight for these secret techniques, something absent in 3 out of the 4 hidden classes of octopath 2.

overall: 4/5 BP.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (2023)

xenoblade 3 as the end of the klaus trilogy really didn't sit well with me, for reasons that don't belong on my review of its dlc, but future redeemed fixed nearly every problem i had with base xc3 — both story and gameplay wise. it ties every xenoblade game and even some of gears and saga into a neat little 40 hour bow, and is truly a love letter to the entire series. I can only think of one problem I still have with it. the fucking menu music.

where do i even fucking start with this one really. relatively speaking, I'm a new xenoblade fan, having started xc1 in march 2022 during a harrowing experience with adhd meds, and since then it had kinda consumed me. I finished it in about a week, went on to watch xenoblade 2 because I had heard the gameplay wasn't great, and got my hands on xenoblade 3 day of release.

overall: 5 dance apples.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

as someone who was not immune to the hype surrounding botw, I had high hopes for the sequel. hopes that were painfully, slowly, fed into a trash compactor over my playthrough. this is another game I got on release day, lining up outside gamestop in the heat, and lets not forget that it's the only first-party switch game with a price tag of seventy bucks.

the game plays like a tech demo. I have a lot of love in my heart for it. the story was better that botw, the world was more expansive than botw, but the problem here is that everything it does is directly compared to breath of the wild. it doesn't get enough time to shine, because we're in the exact same world as 6 years ago, but instead of pinkish black malice we have blackish pink gloom. i much prefer the runes to the zonai abilities, and the sense of wonder that permeated breath of the wild is replaced by a sense of nostalgia that just doesn't appeal to me much.

all of this isn't to say it's a bad game. I think it's a great game, honestly, but a great game that wasn't meant for me. I've seen the insane shit people do with ultrahand, but it just... isn't my style.

overall: 441/1000 korok seeds

Pikmin 4 (2023)

it's pikmin. i dont have much to say about it. it was a lot of fun, loved that part where i bulborbed all over those guys. im not a gameplay reviewer, at heart i mostly talk about story, and a game like pikmin doesn't have much for me to comment on. good fun. lived up to expectations. probably wouldn't replay.

overall: 7500 sparklium

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (2017)

oh, stormblood... the rage you still fill my veins with. I'm not going to spend too long on this one because I have better things to do with my life than shit on an expansion everyone already hates, but let me make it clear I actually do have reasons for disliking it.

having ala mhigo built up since the very start of a realm reborn, only to have half of the ala mhigo expansion take place halfway across the star, was very disappointing. the monotony of the three areas in gyr abania compared to the three far east areas was very disappointing. the treatment of the people of the steppe and honestly that entire segment in the main story quest was very disappointing. hien, as a character, in his entirety, was very disappointing.

I will say it had strong parts. the 61-70 quests for several jobs were the strongest in their entire story (see: dark knight). the dungeons started to get more interesting. it gave us the quest Child Labor, which is hilarious and I'll never be finishing it because I want it there forever.

overall: 1/3 WHM Lillies.

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)

ffxiv immediately got better the second 4.0 was over. even the patch quests instantly shot up in quality. it's not even funny. the lead up to shadowbringers was the most fun I had had with the game since a realm reborn, and all of the first was heartbreaking to go through even though I was spoiled on That Character's Identity.

the duty trust system (is that what it was called?) made dungeons much more fun. getting to go through hell with alphinaud alisaie and thancred made everything 10x better, even if it was a lot slower. the story, again, heartbreaking — ryne's arc in particular felt like being stabbed by thousands of little needles while trying to play. in the best way, of course. and amaurot... amaurot. getting to quote our favorite knight in there was my 8th umbral calamity.

shadowbringers also marks when a lot of your job's functionality is really unlocked, so doing the level 80 raid series was genuinely a ton of fun. and again the thousands of little needles. i cried at least 7 times during the main story.

overall: 85/100 kenki gauge.

Katana Zero (2019)

possibly my favorite game this year. the protagonist, zero (or as i like to call him, katana from zero,) ticked all the boxes for a character I'd be absolutely obsessed with. true enough, i fell in love. the fast-paced gameplay, the diegesis of gameplay elements which would typically go unquestioned, and the care that seeps through every dialogue choice all solidify katana zero as one of my favorite game experiences ever. I'll leave it at this, because I encourage everyone to at least give it a try.

overall: Yes, that should work.

Fire Emblem Engage (2023)

this is one of the few 2023 releases on this list that I didn't get on launch, because at the time I had relatively little interest in fire emblem as a series. then I made a lot of friends who enjoy it, and in october, bestie sen decided to buy it for me as an early birthday present. everyone say thank you sen.

considering this is my first fire emblem game, i have absolutely no deeper insight into how it matches up compared to the others, and plenty of people more eloquent than me have already talked about that. what I do know is that the gameplay was surprisingly fun as my first tactical rpg, and the story was passable. all the characters were appealing in one way or another, and I'm still mad I had to choose between marrying kagetsu or fogado. they're both my husbands at heart.

overall: I didn't internalize enough of this game to come up with a clever rating.

Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue (2023)

I was expecting the dlc to continue the main story, so I put it off until I had finished the base game. in hindsight, I regret it, because I'd love to have brought the winds and twins with me to fight their evil versions and alternate universe dad. the story was... alright. I really liked all the small battle interactions between fell characters and our party members which they would've known. I instantly recognized fogado in chapter 1 because I am in love with him by the way.

overall: i dont know. 1¾ dragonstones

with 2024 upon us, I'll probably be writing reviews for games as I play them. I'm trying to use tumblr more as a social platform instead of just reblogging. we'll see how that plays out. if you like any of these games (yes, even tears of the kingdom) please talk to me about them! that's all for now. look out for my mangled thoughts on SANABI and Nier: Automata next :)

[silveragelovechild]

“DUMB MONEY”

“Dumb Money” is based on a true story, but unless you regularly watch CNN or dabble on the stock market with a smart phone app you’ve probably never heard of it.

The events of the story are fairly recent (2019 to mid 2021). Keith Gill (Paul Dano) shared his theories about the stock market on Reddit. He thought the GameStop stock (retail video game stores) was undervalued because deep pocket investors and investment companies were betting against it. Gill’s enthusiasm about GameStop motivated a legion of fans to buy shares in the company. This caused “yadda yadda yadda”. (I can already see your eyes glaze over as you read this.)

And that’s the problem with “Dumb Money” - lots of talk about the stock market and lots of characters; it’s gets boring. Despite this Paul Dano, with his round face and soft marshmallow body, is likable in his Everyman role. Dano is good in everything I’ve seen him in, from “Little Miss Sunshine” to his turn as a serial killer villain in “The Batman”.

The “Dumb Money” has lots of villains as well - institutional investors played by Seth Rogan, Vincent D'Onofrio, and an especially slimy Sebastian Stan. Plus Dane Dehaan as an officious store manager. It’s fun seeing them shit their pants and lose hundreds of millions of dollars in a single day. (But in reality they were already so rich, it probably didn’t really impact them.)

But truthfully, my biggest complaint about the movie is a song played repeatedly throughout the film - “Pussy, Money, Weed” by Lil Wayne. Keith Dill’s user name on YouTube (and the app formerly know as Twitter) was Roaring Kitty. Someone thought it was be a good idea to use Lil Wayne’s tune as Gill’s theme song. I have never heard the word “pussy” said so many time in less that 2 hours. I never want to hear the word “pussy” again in my life!

Rather than invest $12 of your hard earn cash on a ticket for “Dumb Money”, I recommend skipping it and rewatching your favorite Paul Dano from your streaming library.

[heinousactszx]

thanks for the mystery dungeon ask! What kind of feelings do you have about the games? Which is your fave?

Okay so I don't know if this is a story I've told before, but one time my family took a trip to boston, and while we were there I went to a gamestop in a mall. when you're a kid all you can really do is look at the games and maybe play the demos. anyway i had spent enough time in there and my dad called for me but as i was walking out i saw the little kiosk for blue and red rescue team. All i saw was "play as a pokemon!" and i desperately wanted to go back and look more but i didn't want to get in trouble so i just had to imagine the potential game awaiting me for the rest of the trip.

when i finally got it, after waiting months reading nintendo power previews (and the little manga that came with them), of course i fell completely in love with the game. playing as a pokemon, seeing the world through a different perspective, managing your inventory, bonding with your partner, lying on the test so I could get the pokemon i wanted... oh it was so good. i even bought the guidebook (remember those?) so i could get every last bit of the game completed. I lost DS privileges multiple times because I kept getting caught playing the game late at night on school nights. I loved blue rescue team

then explorers came out... and it was better in every possible way. more items. more pokemon. less frustrating dungeons. a story that was somehow even more powerful than the first game. the guild oh my god i love the guild and everyone in it so much. I bought sky because i wanted to play it even more. i bought TWO guidebooks for those games. still have them.

I don't have exact numbers for how many times i've replayed each pokemon game, but explorers has to be up there. it's in my top 5 pokemon games and the only spinoff on the list. it's so fundamentally a story representing everything i love about pokemon. and it has spinda's juice bar.

as for the others, eh. i didn't play gates because i'd heard they drastically reduced the available pokemon and i wasn't into that (dexit foreshadowing), and while I did play super, i didn't get very far into it because the pacing and difficulty jumps in that game are horrible, and the fact that the playable pokemon were just starters and riolu was kinda lame. the whole mechanical rework for super also irked me. it was fine before why change a good thing. i played the demo for the rescue remake and it was more of the same.

but you know what? I don't need any more. Rescue and explorers are good enough I can enjoy them for the rest of my life no problems. I'm sure I'll replay sky again soon, it'll never go out of style.

[beardedmrbean]

Okay thank you for liking my Jrpg idea. Actually during the launch of Diablo 4, a lot of og Diablo fans realize the age gaps between them and the new blood is that many new blood around their own kids ages.

Hell I knew about Diablo because my dad played the second game on the family computer.

Meh, dystopian Ya novels died in the mid 10’s. Also this

“Hey writers, maybe try writing and working out a solution occasionally, like, as said, patching up a familial relationship issue.”

Well Encanto did that, yes yes the running gag that the big fantasy is elder members apologizing.

Hmm given the abuse my stepmom put me through and my little sister, who was raised by her since the age of 6, develop depression so she can’t join the navy. And the bitch said my little sister said she faking it

Also keep in mind my stepmom is 14 years older than. So she a millenial, like yes she an incest survivor and came from a broken family. Sliver lining she isn’t a misandrist

But I can smell her toxic ass in modern ���abuse survivor groups” like on tumblr

So when you see people on social media and the entertainment industry have the same toxicity and try to INFANTILIZE such garbage because they are women with a hard life.

You get pissed.

Oh sorry have to get it out, but the reason why say family healing from a mess is rare in modern media.

Welll a lot of modern writers have unresolved parental issues and treat the audience like their therapists. But feel hard when the writers still think they are the abused child with no power vs the insufferable manchildren that want to take away our human rights

And omg can we go back to HEALING abused children vs INFANTIZING them?

Like this idea that abused people need to be docile for the rest of their lives. Huh, explain a coworker of mine out of the kindness of his heart got me a GameStop gift card

Okay this anon is weird, but I often go

“Okay can we all stop acting like we are an abused character in a kids cartoon? Yes we don’t repeat the same cycle as our abusers. We still have toxicity we need to control…unless you believe you don’t have any.”

I send a better Jrpg, now I shouldn’t have been on here at that age…

I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable with the dehumanization and Nazis level stuff tumblr had towards white people. Like these was from fellow blacks and non whites. So them calling white people subhumans that need to be wipeout

Can for the love of god anyone explain to me why a 13 year old black child who just managed to make sure I never in the same house as my abuser (who never got punished. Enjoy your lonely death when your youngest daughter ditched you in a nursery cunt!) have more empathy and compassion to humans than people who were in their late teens or in COLLEGE?!

What the FUCK cause me to have better morals than the fuckers who grew up on BTAS and ATLA during it height of popularity?

Hell I knew about Diablo because my dad played the second game on the family computer.

I bought 2 a few months after moving back to CA from FL was the only video game I had for like 8.5 years till I got FF6 on steam a couple months back, love that game, both of them. Can't do 3 I get vertigo, never tried 4.

Meh, dystopian Ya novels died in the mid 10’s. Also this

I'm old things run together for me at times as a result, that and people keep bringing them up all the time.

“Hey writers, maybe try writing and working out a solution occasionally, like, as said, patching up a familial relationship issue.” Well Encanto did that, yes yes the running gag that the big fantasy is elder members apologizing.

Fantasy is that because young writers blame their elders for every problem in the world even the ones that predate them.

Hmm given the abuse my stepmom put me through and my little sister, who was raised by her since the age of 6, develop depression so she can’t join the navy. And the bitch said my little sister said she faking it

And here I thought white women were supposed to be more willing to accept mental illness as a thing others have.

But I can smell her toxic ass in modern “abuse survivor groups” like on tumblr

That's the other option ya, social media points

And omg can we go back to HEALING abused children vs INFANTIZING them?

Like this idea that abused people need to be docile for the rest of their lives. Huh, explain a coworker of mine out of the kindness of his heart got me a GameStop gift card

That's the therapy right there, it's different for different people, and genuine kindness, like learning about rome, or building a shed, or many other things can be therapy.

Reese Witherspoon did a movie called Wild, based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed who afaik that's the only thing she wrote, apparently looking I'm wrong, but she did a 1100 mile hike up the pacific crest, and it was therapy, woman from my church who's husband just died of cancer recently is doing something similar in Europe except it's a pilgrimage walk and nowhere near as isolated, still 8 weeks and therapy.

“Okay can we all stop acting like we are an abused character in a kids cartoon? Yes we don’t repeat the same cycle as our abusers. We still have toxicity we need to control…unless you believe you don’t have any.”

Gaslight the trauma away, or maybe realize it's not so traumatic after all, or things in between too.

Can for the love of god anyone explain to me why a 13 year old black child who just managed to make sure I never in the same house as my abuser (who never got punished. Enjoy your lonely death when your youngest daughter ditched you in a nursery cunt!) have more empathy and compassion to humans than people who were in their late teens or in COLLEGE?!

You were less concerned with how people perceived you where as they felt the need to dehumanize other people and bring them down below their level in their minds so they could feel superior.

Short version even with all the trauma you had/have more self esteem than they do.

What the FUCK cause me to have better morals than the fuckers who grew up on BTAS and ATLA during it height of popularity?

For me it's Mr Rogers and Sesame Street, going with church upbringing that never made me feel lesser for being who I was is another primary one that ran longer than watching Mr Rogers, breaks my heart people got my saviour so wrong as to use him as a hammer to harm others, that ain't who he is.

Fundies may think they're getting the rules right but they forget that the greatest commandment is love, Jesus is the carpenter let him take care of the hammer.

For you it may be that you actually took what you learned from those shows to heart, lots of people did and lots of people got it right, lots of people loved Steven Universe too, and then they nearly bullied an artist to suicide and formed online hate mobs over other peoples opinions and interpretations.

[nysocboy]

Gemstones Episode 1.9 Review, Continued: Kelvin goes dark, Keefe goes down, and Captain America saves the day

This is a continuation of Gemstone Episode 1.9 Review: Jesse is racist, Judy is a rapist, and Kelvin is the Devil

He's not my boyfriend:  Earlier in the episode, Kelvin reveals that "he's coming apart," certain that his lack of interest in women and recent forays into "darkness" signify that he is the Devil.  The siblings tried to comfort him, but apparently it didn't help: he shows up at the teen group wearing a Goth teddy boy outfit, mascara, pale lipstick, dark glasses, and shiny vinyl pants, and announces "I have transformed myself into something Dark."  He's not Jesus, but a vile creature of sin, he must leave them.  

But his replacement, Ronald Meyers (Josh Warren), is "pure": chubby, greasy-haired, an assistant manager at the GameStop.  One can't help but conclude that "pure" means "never had sex," a contrast with Kelvin, who obvioulsy has. 

Kelvin makes a dramatic exit.  Dot Nancy, whom he rescued from Club Sinister, scoffs, as if to say "What an idiot!", and follows. "Is this about your boyfriend?"  Notice that she is not being pejorative; she honestly believes that they are a gay couple.  

Kelvin corrects her:  "Ok, no, he's not my boyfriend. We're just a couple dudes who like to hang out. Why?"  He's being awfully nonchalant -- compare Season 3, where "rumors swirling around" drive him into a panic.  He's already the Dark Lord, a being infused by homoerotic desire, so why get upset over a simple mistake?

Fans who insist that "Kelvin is straight!" often point to this statement, but maybe they're not "boyfriends," partners in a caring, emotionally-fulfilling relationship.  Kelvin believes that Satan is all about sex, not love, so whatever he feels for Keefe -- whatever he does with Keefe -- must be driven solely by lust.   

That will all change in a moment, when Dot shows him Keefe's instagram page. He has returned to his old job as Baby Queef, a performance artist at Club Sinister: "The baby is back!"  and "Haven't I fallen far enough?"  

Responses from fans: "I'm psyched!  I can't wait!"  "We're off to never-never land!" 

Yelling "No, no, no," Kelvin rushes off. Why is he fine with turning into the Dark Lord, but upset when Keefe becomes one of his followers?  Maybe because his transformation was all about wallowing in self-pity, while Keefe's is for real. He is about to be destroyed, spiritually, psychologically, and maybe even physically.

Gideon in Haiti: Before we can find out what happens next with Kelvin and Keefe, we cut to Gideon in Haiti: colorful "third world" shots of goats, a taverna, Gideon  meeting a group of kids, and so on.  The Water 2 Haiti ministry reflects the real Water for Life, which has been sponsoring well digging and irrigation since 1983. 

Jesse tracks Gideon down and asks him to come home. He refuses: he's doing missionary work to expiate his sins, so he can find peace.   Jesse will have to find anothe way to reconcile with Amber.

BJ is Shocked:  Back to the Gemstone Compound, night.  BJ wants to do a grand gesture to get Judy back (you dumped her, remember?), but Brock the Security Guard makes fun of his name and won't let him in (he lived there before the breakup -- wouldn't Brock know him and let him by default?).  

Rejected at the gate, BJ says "It's time to be a man" and finds an isolated place with a fence he can climb over.  We get a good view of the amusement park as he sneaks through, trying to abandon "childish things," as St. Paul suggested.   But the stealth plan doesn't work:  he is surrounded by security guards and tazed.

The Isolation Tank: Meanwhie, Kelvin is trying a grand gesture of his own (you dumped him, remember?). He arrives at Club Sinister with yet another party going on (or is there always a party in the Satanic realm?)  He pushes through the crowd (and, significantly, shrinks back with audible “Ewww!” at the sight of a naked lady), and finds Keefe's old friend Daedalus.  "Keefe is discovering some things about himself," he says. What does Keefe not know about himself?  Surely he knew that he was gay.  

Then: "I transformed him back into the earliest state of his being. He's sinking beneath his reality as we speak.  He's regressing to a transitive state."  I couldn't find an exact meaning for this phrase, but it probably means a state where you can be transformed into a different person.  

Kelvin threatens him: “Take me to him right now! I will beat your f*ng ass!”   

Daedalus immediately backs down and leads Kelvin to a private room.  Keefe is floating in a milky liquid like amniotic fluid, wearing a gimp outfit with his genitals exposed.  This is performance art: party guests are watching him descend past the womb into oblivion. Some are inhaling or drinking his life force.

Kelvin thinks that Satan offers strength and power; you become a Dark Lord.  But he is wrong.  You become nothing, absorbed and obliterated by the Sadness.

He pushes away the "hissinig demons,"  ignores Keefe's semi-erect penis, jumps in, and starts tearing off the tubes and wires. Um...dude, he gets oxygen from those.  The mask comes off: it is Satan, not God, who forces us to live in masks, hide who we are from the world.

Kelvin kisses Keefe's  forehead and presses their faces together, crying and yelling "Fuck the Sadness."  This is a call-back to Atreyu yelling "Fight the Sadness" in The Neverending Story earlier.   Finally Keefe returns, gasping and sputtering, to the world of the living.  He explains:  “I was so lost without you…then the Beast came for me, and I let it in.  Hold me.” Kelvin responds: “Shh.  I’m here now.”  

"I'm still really high.": a kicker to add some levity to a critical scene.Tony Cavalero states that he and Adam were going to play it for laughs.  Then director Jody Hill told them that this scene was an "affirmation of their love."  So they played it with real emotional intensity, and ended up in tears. This is not a spiritual leader saving his disciple, or a good buddy saving a friend; Keefe is the damsel in distress in a 1940s movie serial or superhero comic book, rescued from certain doom, whispering "if it weren't for you, I'd be...." before the fade out kiss. (Captain America saves Bucky below).

Why don't they kiss?  (Spoiler alert: there is no on-screen kiss until the penultimate episode of Season 3.   From the showrunners' point of view, there are lots of reasons: fear of offending conservative viewers, interest in sparking fan discussion; reluctance to commit to Kelvin being "really" gay.  But for analysis of a naturalistic program, we must pretend that we are looking through a window at real people, whose reactions are consistent what what came before: for Kelvin, kissing means love.  It means a  permanent, exclusive, emotionally intimate relationship. It means getting party invitations as a couple, sitting together at the family dinners, celebrating anniversaries, growing old together.  Kelvin isn't sure that what he feels for Keefe is love, or if romantic love between men is even possible.  He won't be sure until near the end of Season 2.

Or maybe he just doesn't want to kiss a guy who is sputtering a noxious, milky liquid. Would you?

Next: Gemstone Season 1 Finale: Kelvin and Judy begin to heal, Scotty joins the family

[agentnico]

Dumb Money (2023) Review

Does anyone else think that Seth Rogen looks like a cuddlier version of David Boreanaz? Angel's stoner brother? No? Anyone? Alright then, just me as always.

Plot: Everyday people flip the script on Wall Street and get rich by turning GameStop into one of the world's hottest companies. In the middle of everything is Keith Gill, a regular guy who starts it all by sinking his life savings into the stock. When his social media posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets wealthy -- until the billionaires fight back and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.

Looking back at the COVID pandemic, now it seems so strange that that time even happened. A time of dread and uncertainty, now almost feels like a 2-year blip, where things were off but then all of a sudden we have returned to normal. Doesn't seem real. Think of Thanos snapping his fingers and dusting half the world's population away for 5 years and then they all come back and it's back to regular hijinks. Regardless, the pandemic lockdowns were crappy, but one of the few glimmers of hope and goodness came from that whole GameStop stock event when a bunch of Redditors and online geeks managed to take down multiple Wall Street hedge funds that were originally gaining money from other's people's losses. Reading about it on the news was absolutely mad, and naturally, now we have a movie about it.

If you're looking for a factual detailed behind-the-scenes depiction of what occurred, and also if you're seeking out a lesson in finance, Dumb Money isn't that type of movie. I'm sure there is a Netflix documentary out there that delves deeper into the ins and outs of it all, as for this movie, this is very much a classic David vs. Goliath tale of regular people sticking it to the man. The combination of winning personalities and a mind-blowing reality makes for a very entertaining film, if not profound, yet this is a prime example of a crowd-pleaser. And to be fair, with all the politicians, tech firms, and media that get sucked into the events of the movie, it does seem like director Craig Gillespie has taken some creative liberties in inflating the revolutionary aspect of what was ultimately achieved, as even though the situation that transpired is undoubtedly absurd and the type of I-cannot-believe-this-really-happened situation, I feel the movie made it a bigger deal than it actually was. The over-dramatization is self-aware in this movie though, as the hedge-fund billionaires here are presented as very cartoon-villain-esque, with Pete Davidson's character even observing in-movie how the rich Wall Street joes seeming to have come straight out of a Disney animation.

It boasts a solid cast too, with Paul Dano showcasing yet again that he doesn't always need to play creepy dudes, and that in fact, he can be very likable and heartwarming. Though for those who have seen Okja that should not come as a surprise. Shailene Woodley as his wife shares good chemistry and the two performers commit to the meaning behind the meme-ry. Seth Rogen, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sebastian Stan, and Nick Offerman are fittingly slimy and evil as the Wall Street chaps, with America Ferrera and Anthony Ramos as some of the regular folk who managed to cash in on the action round out the cast well. Dane DeHaan pops in too as a company sales rep and is entertainingly unrecognizable. That being said, with this huge cast of characters there is, perhaps, a little too much bouncing around between stories, and not all the plot threads land powerfully. Pete Davidson as Gill’s layabout brother doesn’t add much, and America Ferrera as the nurse, as sweet as she is, doesn't really get much to do besides look at her phone all the time. Then again, who didn't spend hours upon hours staring at their phone during lockdown, am I riiiiiight??....

Gillespie’s directorial style is funky and fun, and he tailors his film to the subject matter. Again, it's nowhere as deep or clever as, say, The Big Short, however, it's an entertaining and empowering movie that showcases what can happen when people actually come together to show it to the man. Though could have done less with that brass language in the soundtrack. Nearly every scene was accompanied by some rap about f**ks and ducks. And yeah, I get it, Dano's character likes cats in this, but saying the word pussy seventy-five times isn't high-brow humour. Nonetheless, Dumb Money is an easy watch. Definitely the best choice between it and The Expendables. No shade. Now - let's go buy some stocks!!

Overall score: 6/10

[advrik]

The Switch Era

So I just finished watching Arlo's latest video about the Switch. You know, the console that not only helped him but also several other personalities get off the ground over the past six years?

I watched this, and I was reminiscing about my time not only with the console itself but that nigh unbearable level of hype that led up to the console's release on March 3rd, 2017.

I recall getting up at 6am the day after the first Nintendo Switch presentation to go hang out outside of the local Gamestop to wait to be the first inside to get a pre-order on the basic grey console. But only after I had stayed up 'til 3am the night before to also pre-order a console on Amazon, along with the Breath of the Wild special edition and the Zelda amiibo (along with a few accessories).

Now at the time, I owned a Wii U and a PS4 but seldom touched either one for reasons of their main purpose. I wasn't playing games on them. I had grown to dislike playing games on my television at the time. I was focused heavily on playing my 3DS while I played a movie on my PS4 or had Youtube going on the Wii U. I was having a falling out with console gaming, and boy was it a hard fall. The Switch was the final straw for me to grasp and hold onto the one hobby that had been with me all my life.

And then launch day came. I took the weekend off from work and just played Zelda and Bomberman the whole entire time, entirely in handheld mode.

And you know what? I was revolutionary. To have something that looked and played like Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the palm of my hand was H-U-G-E at the time. Especially stepping up from the 3DS.

Combined with just the general overall hype surrounding the console and the increasing resurgence of Nintendo in the general gaming space, it seemed at the time that gaming might have been saved for me, and that handheld may have been the trick.

Over the span of the console's biggest years, I amassed close to 100 physical games for the Switch and well over 100 in digital form. I collected all kinds of accessories from grips to an assortment of Joy-Con colors, carry cases, and decals. You name it, I probably had. I even managed to snag the New York Nintendo World Store launch press goodies like the pin and lanyard.

I played primarily in handheld mode because it allowed for comfort and didn't strain my eyes like playing on my TV would, as it was pretty far away from my bed.

Now I have always said that the sole reason I buy Nintendo consoles is always - ALWAYS - for Animal Crossing and that everything else was just extra, and that was especially true.

For the span of time between the launch of Animal Crossing New Horizons(and the beginning of the ongoing pandemic), my Switch was an Animal Crossing machine only. I played nothing else. Amassing 100 hours in the first week alone, and I also took an unpaid week off work for, which was probably one of the best weeks in recent memory. (Well, up until this past month when I flat out told the abusive manager at that same job that I was quitting this past month, but that's a different story for another time)

I went on to document my first year with New Horizons in my 'Welcome to Brickhedge' video series on Youtube, something I plan to rewatch and reminisce over very soon.

So now here we are, the day after the Switch officially went over the hill as far as console lifespans go and the world is eagerly awaiting to see what Nintendo plans to do next and if a more powerful version of the system is in the cards or not.

Where do I currently stand?

Well, I no longer stan the Switch like I used to. Over the past month, I sold off the majority of my non-first-party titles. Several sets of Joy-Cons, the Pro Controller, and even my Animal Crossing-themed console. As Arlo said in his video, the excitement just isn't there anymore. The Switch isn't as exciting as it once was, not because the novelty of a portable console has worn off, oh no. Having that kind of power in your hands is not going to be exciting to me and is what ultimately saves the hobby for me.

The Switch feels extremely outdated now in its capabilities, and with the recent rise of the Steam Deck and other portable PCs, outside of first-party stuff, playing my Switch just isn't as enticing as it once was.

Enter: The Deck

I picked up a Steam Deck last month because I was simply tired of not getting to play major third party releases. Cloud versions were not acceptable, and the often time longer wait time one had to endure for a Switch version to drop (coughFinalFantasyPixelRemasterscough) was no longer cutting it.

The Steam Deck feels, for me at least, every bit as exciting as the Switch was when it launched. Being able to play current releases like the Resident Evil 2 remake and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order in proper handheld form is so amazing.

And don't even get me started on the crazy emulation capabilities of this beast.

I have maybe picked up my Switch twice since I bought my Deck. But that isn't to say I've completely abandoned my Switch, as I have yet to still pick up and play Bayonetta 3. I also away the launch of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC, but beyond that? There's nothing the Switch is offering that I can't already get on Deck.

Will I get the inevitable Switch successor when it comes out? Absolutely, but I think I will wait until the next Animal Crossing game is announced before I do so. I've been spoiled rotten by all that the Deck can do, and I hardly believe Nintendo would willingly put out anything half as open and capable as this device.

In closing: I loved my Switch and I will always, always look back on the time I spent with it fondly. It was great to see Nintendo on top again after Wii U tanked them and their name, and I hope whatever they do next can recapture the dimming light the current Switch is losing.

[joomju]

John Stewart on the Gamestop thing:

Apparently the US stock market has an entire layer of built in ponzi scheme based on who-knows-who. Which means you cannot estimate the value of a company based on stocks - it isn't an objective open market anymore. Unless you know the players in that "dark market", and are able to sit across the table from them and look them in the eye, you are going to lose.

Micheal Burry, a hedge fund manager of Scion Capital, was featured in The Big Short. In the movie he can tell by looking at the numbers that the market is overinflated and due for a crash. In the movie, he had to shut down Scion Capital because people were withdrawing all their funds. He knew the market was overinflated, but he did not know when that crash was going to come. The numbers alone did not provide that information. (Wikipedia says Burry sold subprime mortgage bonds in 2005 - a full two years before the crash.)

In George Soros: A Life in Full, one of the essays tells the story of Soros sitting at a dinner in New York. It was in August of 2006. Everyone at the table was loudly talking about how great everything was - how the markets were up and were going to continue to be up. Everyone was laughing and smiling. And Soros could tell: They were all afraid. He changed his portfolio strategy that fall, and in November 2006 Swiss Banks sounded the alarm about the impending crash. February 2007 is when the US stock market fell. He was able to time the market not by looking at the numbers, but by looking at the faces of the people in Wall Street.

The markets are not objective, don't let anyone tell you they are. They're based on humans, like any other industry.

contender for all time 4chan post is the /biz/ one "what do you mean someone has to buy for me to sell?"

[stepphase]

Hamster Kombat authors reveal game's origins, plans for a second airdrop

QUICK TAKE:- Hamster Kombat’s anonymous authors said their platoon has been working in crypto since 2013. And were inspired by Notcoin when creating the Telegram “ clicker ” game.

The authors also said that after the first airdrop slated for this month. Also they're planning for a alternate airdrop.

Claiming over 250 million druggies, Hamster Kombat appears to be the reigning king of Telegram- grounded" clicker" games.

still, little is known about the game's origins or its generators as people throughout. The crypto world presume about what is coming for Hamster Kombat. Especially with the game's first airdrop slated for eventually this month.

In an posted response to questions posed by The Block. Hamster Kombat's authors bandied the game's origins and gave hints of what the future could hold for the valve- to- earn crypto game.

Hamster Kombat is further than just a game. It’s a worldwide family, and we believe in the long- term power of the community. The authors told The Block.

Not Notcoin

Hamster Kombat's generators' view that they're erecting commodity enduring contrasts with those of other design inventors. Who now part themselves from earlier duplications of their own games.

In a recent interview with The Block, Sasha, author of Notcoin. Considered the first Telegram crypto game to colonist the clicker model. Expressed mistrustfulness about the life of clicker games.

I don't anticipate it'll have any sustainability, Sasha said. From my perspective, only the games that have sustainable models will survive. As with the first replication of Notcoin. The thing in Hamster Kombat is to accumulate prices through clicking.

Assuming the part of CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange. Hamster Kombat players essay to rack up in- game coins as they manage their fictitious, virtual business.

Unlike utmost crypto- grounded games, with Hamster Kombat and Notcoin. Playing is as easy as downloading the Telegram messaging app. Which is presently used by nearly 1 billion people worldwide.

And from the aesthetics of it. Millions of druggies appear to be playing Hamster Kombat in the expedients of ultimately turning their in- game prices into factual cash. After the game eventually airdrops commemoratives to players.

hamster kombat in Billions?

Notcoin airdropped further than 80 billion NOT commemoratives in May. Worth about$ 1 billion at the time. What Notcoin has fulfilled and its fashionability played a part in the creation of Hamster Kombat.

We were inspired by the success of Notcoin and the fashionability of social media games in the 2010s. So we kind of took the stylish of both and added our gospel of concinnity and a lot of educational content. Hamster Kombat's authors told The Block.

Curiously, the game's authors also said they drew alleviation from meme stocks and social media when creating Hamster Kombat. We were largely inspired by the GameStop and Reddit story. Where retail investors showed their power over Wall Street.

While they choose to remain anonymous, the game's authors said the Hamster Kombat platoon has experience in both gaming and blockchain development and has been active in crypto since 2013.

Second airdrop

When asked about the game's chances of survival after the first airdrop set for latterly this month. Hamster Kombat's authors waxed optimistically. They said they're formerly planning for a alternate airdrop. " The game will go on. And there will be a alternate season with the alternate airdrop in the coming two times.

We suppose that the commemorative, which will belong to millions of druggies throughout the world. Holds a huge value in itself. Like its Telegram- grounded rivals Notcoin and Catizen. Hamster Kombat uses the TON blockchain. Given the games' rising fashionability, exertion on the blockchain has surged lately.

In recent months, the number of deals and diurnal active holdalls on the network have both risen mainly. Contemporaneously, the blockchain's toncoin has come the world's ninth largest commemorative. As measured by request capitalization. Toncoin's request cap is presently over$ 18 billion, according to The Block Price Page.

Bot control

To help cover the integrity of the game. Hamster Kombat's authors said they ultimately plan to deal with bot deployment. We see everyone who's trying to submerge bots. And we will be drawing them up before the table. Notcoin was suitable to ban around 20 of bot accounts. We’ll try to do the same. Using bots and referral infidelity will be penalized. It's uncertain how numerous bots help make up the over 250 million druggies the design has said are playing Hamster Kombat.

Independently from dealing with bots. Hamster Kombat's platoon also there are no plans to help druggies from playing on multiple bias.

Mission to reach 1 billion people

While only time will tell how serious and sincere they are. Hamster Kombat's authors appear committed to a rather romantic docket for now. We're an edutainment design created with the thing of mass relinquishment.

And our charge is to reach 1 billion people worldwide who'll be a part of this whole design. And will be learning about the blockchain and web3 worlds, they said. We also watch about fiscal knowledge and universal introductory income. And it looks like we ’re getting one of the biggest systems in this area."

#Stepphase #technologies #technology #tech #technews #techworld #techtrends #smartphone #apple #techupdates #futuretechnology #newtech #techgeek #technologynews #technologythesedays #smarttechnology #technologylover #technologytrends #technologyblog #gadgets #smartphone #gadget #marketing #digital #india #technologyisawesome #amazing #repost

[ndragoon]

Just ranting

Got a call from a friend (who I sometimes hesitate to call a friend because they can make it difficult sometimes) and it was mostly a "hey, what have you been up to, haven't talked to you in a while" sorts of deals and an invite to a halloween party they were doing.

But part of it was about how he's been having difficulty dating because the women he talks to are either really cryptic, intentionally confusing, or misleading in general. And he says that he feels bad for me because of how much worse I must have it because men can be so much worse.

And I wanted to get mad and chew him out for that comment because I don't really WANT to go dating anymore. Specifically because of comments he and an ex-friend of ours had said over the past few years (among some comments from other friends as well, on top of personal experiences these past few years, but it was largely those two).

Like how that'd sit there making comments about every even-mildly-overweight girl who walked by. Remarking how "nobody would want to hit that" or how gross they are, or whatever other comment they felt like making at the time.

Or how he was talking about how he wanted to lean more into his bi side, and said he'd ask me, but "I'm way too fat for him". Only to tell me about this guy he was hooking up with who was "as fat as I was, but at least he had a big enough dick to make up for it".

Or how they would just randomly start talking about "pencil dicks", or how they wondered how guys with thin or short dicks ever got laid since nobody wants that. And then made fun of me when I said that I actually draw the line at average because anything larger is too big for my liking. He told me a story about a guy who was more endowed than I was "ruined men for him" because it was just too small to want to do anything with as he topped the guy.

Or the fairly recent comments about how they wish they "had the free time I did, getting paid to sit around and play video games all day instead of working".

Meanwhile, when I start up any dating app, it's just a wall or line of guys whose profiles talk about how they've been SO SUCCESSFUL since they were 22-25. This one is a manager at a bank! This one runs a Gamestop! This one's a ceo of a local small business! They all have their own houses or apartments and their own cars and live on their own comfortably!

And so I have to constantly endure this barrage of constant reminders that I'm too fat for most people, not fat enough for fat fetishists/feeders/gainers. My dick is too small to even be a bottom, because even those who exclusively bottom need to be incredibly hung. Can't top, can't bottom because doctors won't help, can't give hand jobs because my forearms can't handle the strain of getting someone off, can't give blowjobs because my jaw is the same way.

My life isn't established like it should be at 32, and I'll likely never be able to work - and even if I do get forced into it, it'll never be a job with any promise beyond slightly more than minimum wage with hours that make it impossible to have a life to go dating outside of coworkers.

So I sit here, feeling lonely as those who I call friends remind me of all the reasons I'll always feel that way.

[bearcreekhq]

MEET GABE

Full Name → Gabriel Lucas Cohen-Chang

Age → 33

Birthday → January 10th, 1991

Order & Type → first, solo (adopted)

Gender & Pronouns → cis man, he/him

Sexuality → heterosexual

Occupation → manager at GameStop

THEIR STORY

Gabe's story starts with a couple that struggled to get pregnant, no matter how hard they tried. though they couldn’t have one of their own, they had so much love to give. They were lead to an adoption agency, and that’s where they first met the child that would soon be known as Gabriel Lucas Cohen-Chang. To be honest, Gabe doesn’t remember much about his life before the Cohen-Changs; he was barely preschool age when they adopted him. But his origins never really bothered him. He knew all he needed to know – he was loved, and they never gave him any reason to look back at the family that had given him up.

Once he’d gotten older, he found a love for all things nerdy. Pokemon was his favorite obsession; he had played every single game that had come out and could name just about every Pokemon in existence. Beyond that he enjoyed trading card games and other platformer games like Mario and Crash Bandicoot. The love of games never went away and eventually led to a full time career at GameStop. Gabe started working there shortly after graduating high school…

…and he’s still there. but he’s at least gone up the chain from a lowly store associate to store manager. It has its challenges, sure, but Gabe is passionate about games and wants to help others find enjoyment in them as well. But gaming isn’t his only passion; he’s a humanitarian at heart and spends any and all free time he has volunteering at soup kitchens and homeless shelters. He’s even used his position as manager to hold a few blanket drives at his store during the winter months to make sure anyone living on the streets wasn’t without some way to keep warm. He’s the type of person that is always there when you need a friend, although that hasn’t always worked out the best for him. He’s been taken advantage of before, but even still, he sees the good in people.

[town-darling]

oh my god this is EXACTLY my experience with gamestop circa April - October of this year. quit despite having high numbers because the conditions were so horrible.

some background: got this job to support me and my partner as we went through a big life transition which would leave me effectively jobless (i had another source of income, but hours for the summer were cut down to like. 12 a week at most). gamestop seemed like a pretty cool thing at first! generally fine and fun to talk to people about stuff i love!

nope! here's my big list, inspired by yours. thank you for giving me the motivation to share how fucking atrocious this experience was

customers

my store leader lied about what my wage would be when i got hired. she called a supervisor during my setup who said that i needed to be hired for $1/hr less than was agreed upon in the interview. because that was a verbal agreement, i don't have legal action on this

mall customers in a conservative college town are not the people that should be going to gamestop. constant misgendering, glares from parents down at my name badge with my pronouns while they shuffle their kids out, and so much more. god.

when you get a job in gaming retail, you expect a high number of people that you'll have to explain things to (i had to explain the 3 different switch models about 30000 times). what you *don't* expect are the number of people that are CONFIDENTLY wrong about what you know. "no bro i know that game's on the switch"

mall teens. when we got slow during the summer, we'd have kids that'd do nothing around the mall except heckle me for my pronouns and throw merchandise on the floor. i have never wanted to punch someone so bad.

the kids are adorable. they sometimes had promotional pokemon cards when new sets came out, and i would purposely avoid telling collectors we had them so i could give them to more kids, who were always so happy about them. best part of the job :P

MOST of the time, people didn't smell. but sometimes #gamers would come in and you'd be able to tell *immediately* that they don't regularly shower. one guy came in and just being next to him literally made my nose get inflamed and my sinuses to be set on fucking fire. I've never had that reaction to literally any smell, but had to keep going into the back to have coughing fits. dude was trading in a console and buying another one, so i had to deal with him for like half an hour.

metrics

your manager not getting you into the system proper was a *blessing in fucking disguise*. the moment you have to start ringing people up is the moment you have to start selling:

PRO MEMBERSHIPS: this fucking membership. bane of my fucking existence. when i started, it was pretty okay: $15/year, but you get a $5 credit every month, more trade credit, and $10 for signing up. most people used it to get a bunch of gift cards throughout the year, which makes sense bc you only have to come back a couple times to get your money back. they raised it to $25/yr, rolled back the benefits, and INCREASED THE NUMBER we had to hit per day. i cannot tell you the amount of times my manager wrote "10 PRO" on the metrics pad for me. laughed every time.

WARRANTIES: $3-5 on games, $12-30 on hardware. not insanely bad policies (though IIRC they did change it to require employees to replace new products with preowned products last month so it's worse now) but the fact that you're asking people this after asking them for $25 makes people unbelievably annoyed at you

HARDWARE ATTACH: if i didn't sell at least 2 other things with a console, my manager would get upset with me. idk man sometimes people just want to buy a console, trying to sell them on another controller ("nah this is just for me, nobody else will play it") or a gift card ("can't i just hook up my credit card to this thing?") or a game ("i'm all digital now") is impossible if they didn't come up to the register with it. obviously.

there's a bunch of other metrics but i didn't even bother. did i mention that we literally don't get paid differently if we hit these metrics? it's a sales job without incentives. i started to have panic attacks and nightmares about this job, mostly because of how i had to keep asking people questions that they obviously didn't care about. that's hell on my "please everyone" autism brain

a bunch of other shit (some good some bad)

my manager went to a conference and got a then-unannounced sonic switch controller, then gave it to me. this was the best day at the job.

the employee discount was not bad, and combined with some ridiculous trade offers going on at the same time as some employee offers, i got my ps5 for $60 after trading in like 6 games, 2 weeks after getting hired. i should've quit right there lol

i successfully stole the resident evil 4 remake by forgetting to return it after my employee rental ended. nice

old guy came in every week to buy $300 in steam cards (the maximum we can sell in one day) for his "grandkids". obviously he was being scammed but my manager told me to ring him up no matter what

days that weren't of the "fri" or sat" variety never had more than one person scheduled at any given moment. crowds, however, were mostly the same regardless during my timeslot, so i consistently had to deal with lines of people without any help.

this was compounded when people came in to trade games and *especially* consoles. consoles require you to test every component, and it consistently took ~20 minutes and held up the store no matter what.

people also have no perception of value. yes, you bought madden 17 for $60. no, we will not give you $60 for it. we will give you $2.50.

online orders were the bane of my existence. gamestop only has a couple real warehouses - most of the games shipped when you buy them from the website are packaged by a minimum wage employee at a retail store.

my coworkers did not care about my pronouns but used me to call themselves a diverse workplace

i think that's most of it. i lasted a few months - i needed that money - but it was horrendous from day 1. IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW ARE CONSIDERING WORKING FOR GAMESTOP, RUN. IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW CURRENTLY WORK AT GAMESTOP, RUN FASTER. Gamestop will chew you up and spit you out summarily.

local grocery stores usually pay quite well (comparatively) and can give you positions that don't require you to sell people on things. gamestop preys on people thinking "oh i like talking about games" to completely destroy their mental health. anyways don't work there

My Day at GameStop ~(Black Friday Edition!)~

(Part 1)

I had to work on the sales floor all day, the manager still has not put me in the system so I still can't ring customers up

A kid like a decade younger than me haughtily explained the PlayStation Portal to me because I got confused when someone asked me about the "Portal PlayStation" (I thought they were talking about the video game "Portal")

A wide-eyed white woman tried to give me tips on managing the sales lines like I was a toddler

A different wide-eyed white woman lurked outside the store while her children shopped, often by peering through the glass or staring at the doorway from a distance. She talked to her kids through the windows

My manager and a separate higher up openly talked about how Best Buy has better deals than us, right in front of the door, potentially scaring off customers by accident

I was asked how much controllers cost by a third wide-eyed white woman. When I said I didn't know she asked again.

A delivery man jumpscared me on purpose for no reason

I didn't clock out for my lunch break and everyone was too busy to notice

I found out my charger was unplugged so my phone did not charge overnight, it was at 21%

I bought a portable charger during my lunch break out of hope to charge phone. Was charged $60 for the tiny charger and a USB-C cable. I was probably scammed

I found out that the portable charger has no battery. Fuck.

The mall had ports I could plug the USB-C into while I ate, crisis averted

But now I'm certain I wasted $60

[hagfenharpies]



i got quite a few gift cards for christmas that i could use to buy crowns, so i finally got a LOT of things on my ESO wishlist. i'm so excited to finally own the snowglobe home... i started playing last year during the new life festival and fell in love with this little house, but didn't know it was only available for a limited time, so i've been waiting all year for it to come back. and it's finally mine!

of course, decorating is still a work in progress (and will be for a long time) but i'm happy with what i've managed to do in the past couple days. the front room is all cozy and decorated for christmas, even if it is a little short notice. the basement "bedchamber" has three little nooks, and one is the perfect size for my aquarium setup. doesn't falling asleep to the view of fishies sound so calming and pleasant? and, because i'm me, there's also a little reading nook complete with a fireplace. okay, it's not complete yet (books are missing, for starters), but the concept is there.

i was also able to get the pantherfang chapel... i really wanted this, but thought i wouldn't be able to swing it (until i unexpectedly got gamestop gift cards from my godmother today). i bought it unfurnished, because i thought the furniture it came with wasn't worth the 3,000 extra crowns, but... it's BIG so it's going to be a loooong time before it's fully decorated. still, i'm very excited about it!

[glitterandmoondustofficial]

So I worked my shift for Black Friday today.

I work at GameStop (and have for a year now) and my shift was 5a-1:30p.

Somethings I’ve noticed on this joyous of all days.

Multiple people saw the “tap to pay” option and placed their card on the screen. Like just on it. Even after I said tap to pay is for apple/google pay you have to insert then card.

“Haha! Glad I’m not working!”

When the manager can’t talk, the assistant (me) is the one who talks

I was talking about how I wanted to get donuts for the team but the donut place in question was closed when I was going to get them and then a customer very intensely said I shouldn’t go to that donut place because it sucks and I should go to this other place and they didn’t seem to understand that my donut place is within walking distance of my house.

GameStop does not keep the actual disks of the games out of the floor, so it’s super gr8 when you walk out onto the floor to find a case (Kingdoms of Amalur (great fuckin game btw)) and open it to not only find a game in the case but the WRONG game (red dead redemption) in the case.

People don’t know how to line

“I’ve stapled the replacement plan sticker to the receipt.” “Is the replacement plan in the computer?” “No we just need the sticker.” “What sticker?”

“You look tired! Haha!” “I’ve been here since five.” “...oh.”

Classic child comes to the counter with GTA5 and gets their not much older friend to say that they’re 17.

In the same GTA5 vein “okay, are we alright with the M rated game? Blood, strong sexual content, profanity.” “It’s just like call of duty, mom.” “It’s not like call of duty, mom.”

“You can turn off the M rated stuff.” “You can’t turn off the M rated stuff.”

More than usual 16 year olds who don’t understand that they can lie on the internet and purchase an M rated game like how we did when we were that young? Like???? You think I was 17 when half life 2 came out? I LIED ON THE INTERNRT FAM.

Children who throw a fit because the demo system is “broken”

“dO yOu HaVe FoRtNiTe”

“it’s free in the system store.” “NOTHNG IN LIFE IS FREE” “well this is”

The same person who got pissed when I handed them a gutted game (a game where we take out the disk and put the case on the wall) because it shouldn’t be considered new anymore got pissed because they couldn’t return a game that they opened because it wasn’t considered new anymore.

“Hi, is there anything I can help you find today?” Literally shoves a hand in my face and walks away.

“I want to get a PS4.” “Okay, and did we want to pick up any games?” “Halo.”

“Can I get 2k for the P4?”

“Why don’t you have x in stock!” “We sold them.” “Why did you sell them?” “Uh”

“I want the best headset for $100” “okay the best you can go are astros or hyperx’s” “nah, I want turtle beaches.” “(•◡•)”

“Why aren’t ps3 games backwards compatible?” “You’ll have to ask Sony.”

UPS arriving with shipment that wasn’t even shit we could sell today making my boss lose his fucking mind.

Someone bought $900 worth of eBay cards. The max amount of money you can put on gift cards is $1000. Both me and my manager hovered around our employee looking scary because that ain’t normal. Money laundering~~~~

The midday deposit didn’t fit in the drop box so I had to go into the bank and watch them count it.

“I’ll have to take a defective fee on the 3DS.” “Why? It works fine!” “The screen is cracked.” “So?”

“Why isn’t Nintendo on sale?” “Because they saw no reason to go on sale since it’s the best selling console and not slowing down.” “But I have to get a Nintendo!” “It’s $300.”

I almost fell asleep in the system closet.

I coughed and my boss said I’m not allowed to do that and shoved cough drops in my hand because the store would start on fire if we were both down for the count.

“Headsets are universal as long as they have a 3.5 jack.” “But I wanted it for the PS4 not the Xbox.” “Headsets are universal as long as they have a 3.5 jack.”

*takes a sip of a milkshake my friend brought to me to make the day not be as bad* “should you really be drinking something when there are people in the store?”

“Thank you for calling x mall Gamestop, how can I help you?” “Are you located in the mall?”

“Thank you for calling x mall Gamestop, how can I help you?” “Is this Gamestop?”

Finally, after calling 11 separate times during one of the busiest hours on the busiest days. “Thanks for calling x mall Gamestop, how can I help you?” “Do you have call of duty?”

Anyway I went home and watched One Piece for the rest of my evening.