Recently, I went to my local videogame chain retailer (ironically one I have worked for in the past), and in trying to purchase a fine piece of hardware, I received loads of shit from the jerk that sold it to me. Have you ever walked into a game store and for no reason whatsoever, even when making a worthy purchase, were given shit treatment as a customer? In the same setting have you even been talked down to by know-it-all assholes who actually don't know shit about shit? Ever been unfortunate enough to be in a game store when the "specialists" working there are talking about how hardcore they are, only to hear later that they are scrambling like idiots to get their filthy hands on anything pre-PlayStation (most-likely because they shit on all the old stuff back then because games weren't "cool")? Have you ever been scanning contently the racks of your local videogame retailer, looking for someting important, when out of nowhere comes that shit-breath employee who won't stop badgering you about buying a big budget title? Ever been approached by similalry annoying "specilaists" who, when asked a question, any question, can only reply with a recommendation for a Final Fantasy game? We all have. And by all, I mean everyone who has ever walked into a game store using their rights as a customer, looking for games or hardware that are not popular. Videogame retailer employees have gotten out-of-hand in this hardcore casual gamer day and age. In the past, at game stores all over the globe, I have had several run-ins with the kind of jerks I have just mentioned, but recently I ran into one that pulled the last fucking straw of my patience.

Finally able to get my own GameCube hardware (instead of using everyone else's), I recently took a trip to my local chain videogame retailer, and came out furious. Forced to buy my hardware at the chain store due to a combination of many factors (mostly due to greedy Hawaii bus drivers), I thought I would try to walk into the store, pick what I wanted to buy, exchange money for goods, and then get the fuck out. I was wrong. I was first greeted by a manager figure of the store, who after failing in his many pleads to get me to buy things that I didn't want, finally came out of the back of the store with the GameCube that I asked for. After arguing with this fucker over shit that I didn't want to buy, I had almost instantly become wary of the transaction to follow, but had proceeded anyway based simply on the fact that I had been waiting long enough already to buy a GameCube of my own. What was to follow was not only unacceptable in any clerk-to-customer setting, but also an absolute disgrace to the scene of videogames in general.

Upon starting the transaction for the hardware I was about to buy, the manager figure noticed that in front of me (and next to the GameCube) was the display box for Megaman Network Transmission. He saw it, asked me if I was going to get the game also, and when I confirmed, he looked at me and said "you're buying a GameCube for Megaman?" Everything froze. Time stopped. The blood in my veins started to boil. I walk into a videogame retailer, minding my own business, only to be talked down to (and looked down on) by some gutless piece of fucking shit? No. Fuck no. At that time, the only reaction in my brain to such stimulus was only the vivid imagery of bloodying my fists (just based on principle alone). What the fuck was I supposed to buy a GameCube for? For something that was of his lack-of-taste preference? When I buy hardware, I don't buy it for bullshit like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, or Madden football. Am I supposed to buy titles like these with my hardware purchases just so I can play them with garbage like him? To such an experienced critic like him, maybe a good reason to buy a GameCube would have been for the bore-fest of Metroid Prime, Medal Of Honor, or for the tried-and-truly-boring Mario Sunshine. I buy hardware for real games from developers (like Capcom and SNK, among many others) that put real effort into games to make them works of art (literally). Of course, he had no way of knowing that in addition to Megaman Network Transmission, I had also bought a GameCube for Capcom VS SNK 2 EO (which I had already bought at another store), but for someone of his level of intellect, making uneducated assumptions was so much easier. I've seen his kind so many times before, and their ignorance comes as no surprise. The absolute lowest not only of gamers, but of humans. I play videogames, but I will never, ever, be a fucking rat like him.

My purchase of Megaman Network Transmission for Nintendo's hardware was completely justified by my preference, which leads me to ask who the fuck he is to condemn or question legitimate purchases of customers? What kind of a dirty bastard sits behind a fucking counter (like a coward) and in bad taste questions the legitimate purchases of customers, anyways? Customers who actually buy merchandise get treated like this? Something is horribly amiss when the customer (again, the kind that actually buy things) cannot make a purchase without being under false scrutiny. The whole point to working at a store is to let the customer buy what they want to buy (in opposition to what the pudgy fat-faced manager wants them to buy). Is the preference of the casual gamer so hollow that they can't stand to see someone else like something that is genuine? Fucking bottom-feeders.

I came (and probably many others before me) into that store just wanting to buy a system to take home and enjoy playing games on, but no, it couldn't be; this lowlife wouldn't let anyone who actually had the balls to support non-mainstream products exit through the fucking doors of that store without due criticism. In a more lenient setting (anywhere outside of the store, say, maybe in a parking garage), things would've turned out differently. A lot differently. But in my situation, I had just decided to calmly inform him that I wasn't a casual gamer, and that I have been playing games for quite some time (longer than he has). We (yeah, the ones who buy the "crap" games) are the ones who built games into what they are today, not the casual "gamers." Simply by his ignorance, I am convinced that I have supported the industry more than he ever has. I don't expect any special treatment or "little badge" that puts me above anyone else; however, a certain respect should be shown to those who still support the very genres and series that built the foundation on which the industry currently sits. But then again, how can we expect those of such hollow intentions to understand at all what devotion to anything is? Now, it's still me who gets in the last word.