Buying Games from Women

Man, Giant Bomb I really hope you guys aren't all sick of me, anyways just finished up tonights articles and will be sharing with all of you. I did some interviews over the past couple days with women who work at video game stores just to get some better insight on what things are like for them. Only asked each of them a couple questions and most of the answers were the same so i shortened em all up. As always, please comment and share your own thoughts and ideas on the subject. 
 

The females of retail: Buying games from ladies

well thanks for that it was what i was expecting. one question for you man... were they hot / attractive girls? 
 
i agree on things. i assume that most of girls at work get hit on by guys. i think with situation with one of the girls having a person just leaving because she was the only one helping, i think he was nervous of her. at my local gamestop that i go to there are some decent girls that work there. the manager is decent looking, she has a dikish/ punk hair. there is another nerdy one who hot. good times man, first time seeing her my two friends went with me. i got a game she went to get the game and my friends were making fun of me.

Your follow-up question to "Have you ever been asked out or hit on by a male customer?" sounds like a proposition to me.  Really weird question, no offense meant though.
 
I think you should probably label the Rileys.  Because sometimes you only have 2 and sometimes you have 3. 

Just get 'em Cooking Mama.

Ummh.... what kindo of customers were they ? Just regular folks or gamers like us? Because I dont care who attends me as long as they can answer my questions , which usually are of the "when will you have x game available"/ " Is it for preorder" "How much" kind of deal . Also were I go the male workers seem more stupid than the females and  at least they can pretend better  to know what the hell Im talking about :P

I usually son't ask questions of ANY Gamestop employee unless it's about availability of a product. I trust my own research over their knowledge on things that actually matter.

As awesome I'm sure your daughter will be, it's really useless to name each person Riley. At least call them Riley 1, Riley 2 to ease legibility.

Man the only actual REAL retail experience I've had with a woman at a games store (I'm not counting the "that'll be 60 dollars, ok thanks have a nice day" interactions, those don't seem important) was when the manager at the local gamestop made fun of me for buying deadly premonition.

I came in here expecting you to honor your name. I was pleasantly suprised. Congratulations you win the not a troll thread award for excellence in the field of not trolling.  
You lose in the field of reposting stories from your website in an attempt to increase traffic.  
As for the thread itself it seems like a confirmation of what we already know, us guys are pathetic douchebags. WE SUCCEED!

I work in games retail and numerous times customers have looked though the girls I work with in order to ask me questions. Its like they assume they dont know anything (which they do, actually)  
 
As for the hitting on them thing. What.The.Fuck.  
 
It's work. Keep it clean. 

Woah, woah woah, when did Gamestop's get kitchens? Jk. I keed, I keed. The joke as gonna be made sooner or later.
 
Conclusion: The majority of guys are losers, and it's pretty sad.

The only time I recall asking a girl in a gamestore about a game it was in CMX, and she was pretty cool, and seemed to know her topic.  I think I was asking her opinion on Batman: Arkham Asylum and I went with it on her reccomendation - and it turned out to be a good game so... I have to say, most of the blokes I've spoken to in games stores just try to flog you something expensive, and it might not be something I want... 
 
I have to say, she was pretty fit, not petit, but dyed hair, glasses, facial piercings - I think she'd have been fun to go out with.  I was already married by that the time so it didn't really cross my mind to 'hit on her'.  It would probably have been futile anyway - I suspect any remotely fit girls who work in game stores get hit on by 95% of single customers - because let's face it what guy doesn't want a gaming partner they can have sex with after? 

" Just get 'em Cooking Mama. "

" @KaosAngel said:

" Just get 'em Cooking Mama. "

Sometimes I think you try too hard to be a twat. Just slow down, don't force it. It'll come. 
 
 
I was pretty impressed with the OP, I was expecting a "Girls don't play videogames lol" thread but this is actually very interesting. It makes me feel kinda guilty for trying it on with the girl working at my local Gamestation :S  "

In general I don't trust the 'knowledge' or opinions of anyone employed at a game store because they usually have no clue and are just trying too sell you pointless shit.

I'm a girl and I don't trust girls at gamestores.
 
So I just talk to them a lil bit and find out if she knows her stuff or just stands there attracting more sales.
Most of em know the basics tho, I wouldn't expect otherwise if they work at such a store.

i giggled :D how entertaining thanks!

I don't go to gamestop for gameinfo,I have the internet for that and as for the sex of the rep selling me stuff;I could care less but a pretty girl never hurts :P.

I've hung out with a girl that worked at a Gamestop. I don't see how that makes me a pathetic loser, since she was extremely attractive. 
 
The worst part? She had a boyfriend, but the two of them were completely cool with each of them fooling around with other people. I did not partake.

Alright, guys ask girls out on dates.  Well that's not news or particularly interesting.

Guys tend to want the opinion of other guys on what to play.  Women want the opinion of other women.  Nothing noteworthy there either.  I think that's fairly natural.  People of the same sex share more common experiences and have a closer frame of reference than those of the opposite sex.
 
Of the 2 times I've bought something from a Gamestop one of them was from a female retailer.  I picked up a copy of Dead Space for cheeeeap.  She said, "that's a good game."  I didn't say anything because I was pissed off as I'd just noticed she had taken the game DVD out of a sleave in a drawer and loaded it into an already opened game case.  That was the second and last time I ever went to a Gamestop.

Whenever I've seen girls working at Gamestop, as awful as this is to say, you can usually tell by looking at them, or listening to them, whether they're true gamer or not.  They'll often give themselves up as a fellow geek.  And I've never come across one who was hired just for looks or anything.  Also, as a female I don't care who I get in the game store.  As long as it's someone who knows WTF they're talking about, even just when it comes to availability.  Also, if it's a store I frequent, I prefer to go with someone at the store who might recognize me as a regular customer.
 
That being said, I think there should have been more than three females interviewed.  But meh, whatever.

I don't trust any game retail employee's opinions. Also, the guys hitting on and asking girls out at work is not cool.

I can't imagine how awkward it would be to ask a date to come back to your place for some... Halo

Sex.

Funny, I bought a game from a female clerk today actually. She commented that she hadn't heard of the game before (Sin & Punishment: Successor of the skies), I dunno maybe the cover looked interesting or something. I briefly filled her in on what I knew about the series, that it was a sequel to a N64 game that was basically only released in Japan, but had been released on the VC console where I'd played it, and that it was sort of an on-rails shooter. 
 
It doesn't happen often that employees comment on a game I pick up, but I enjoy it when it does since I don't get a lot of face time with other gamers normally.

I pretty much don't trust anyone in retail who doesn't get paid enough to go home and do homework on what they sell to tell me anything I don't know.  All they are there for is for me to ask if they have something in stock or where I can find what I am looking for.

I read "the third Riley" and stopped reading. Holy shit.

" I can't imagine how awkward it would be to ask a date to come back to your place for some... Halo "

also, can you guys help me out here. I think RIley is a great name but my gf is upset because i want it spelled R-I-L-E-Y and she wants it R-Y-L-I-E am i just being crazy or does that seem off?

I automatically assume anybody, male or female, working at a gamestop knows shit all about games. Honestly though it doesn't matter to me since I've never gone in there and needed assistance with anything. You find what you want and you buy it, what's to assist with, ya know? My gf once had some dude at gamestop tell her the wrong order for the sands of time trilogy and she wound up playing two thrones after sands of time and she was very confused until I told her what was up. 

If I were to look aside from the fact that I buy most of my games on Steam, I have a very simple stance on buying games: 
 
I look them up myself. Reviews online (not the score, but the context, Giantbomb is great for this as an example), trailers, official homepage, company game history etc. It's very damn simple to find what you like out there without the assistance of someone behind a counter. Then, assuming you don't buy it over the lovable Steam, you shop like a man would in a store: You walk in with a firm goal of what you want in mind, you navigate your way past everything else, grab the item, walk to the cashier, pay up, and walk out. Without queves it takes less than 5 minutes, and you won't even have to open your goddamn mouth. 
 
Aside from that, we've actually got a girl working at our local GAME store, and she's damn knowledgable about games. Knows them release dates (and rumors of) in her head, and stays updated. Great source of information, and despite being an employee she's strangely upright about what games she detests and whatnot, even if they're on the shelves.
 
But ah yes, the power of the Internet.

Wow, that was very interesting! :D

I live in Norway, and I can't recall seeing any woman selling a game, EVER! I don't think there's very few female gamers/game sellers in Norway.

While I severely doubt that most females who work in games retail are treated equal to males, I don't think that we can take this sample of testimonies and consider them representative of all females that work in game retail. That being said this was still an interesting read, good work.

It's also worth considering, how women are actually represented in games and in the games industry.  In many games women are overly sexualised, with disproportionate bodies, yet we're rarely shown the sensitive feminine side to them.  Within the industry there have been some major players who were women - the immediate one that springs to mind is the girl who was responsible for 'Singstar' but I suppose that sort of typifies the female gamer - casual games, motion games etc... Some all girl development team should step up to the plate and churn out a Gears of War'esque cert 18 TPS adventure - so we could see what it was like. 

I remember buying a playstation when I was like 13 and the fairly young and cute ginger girl with freckles at EB offered to give me her phone number if I bought an extended warranty.  To my credit, even at that hormone fuelled age, I found the idea sleazy as all hell and got out of there fast.  Looking back I bet she winked at all the young boys and gave them the number for the local pizza place but I can't help imagining her whoring herself, letting some greasy nerd bang her out back against a wheely bin on the promise that he would make 5 pre-orders and take that Steel Battalions controller off her hands - the commission on those must have been huge.

" It's also worth considering, how women are actually represented in games and in the games industry.  In many games women are overly sexualised, with disproportionate bodies, yet we're rarely shown the sensitive feminine side to them.  Within the industry there have been some major players who were women - the immediate one that springs to mind is the girl who was responsible for 'Singstar' but I suppose that sort of typifies the female gamer - casual games, motion games etc... Some all girl development team should step up to the plate and churn out a Gears of War'esque cert 18 TPS adventure - so we could see what it was like.  "

I don't trust anybody at game stores to know more than I do. Guy or gal.  In fact, I don't go browse game stores. No point, really. Games are funny in that the physical store is the least significant place to actually browse for a game to buy. Much easier to watch videos on the internet or play a demo at home. I always go into a store with clear intentions of buying certain games.  
 
I was actually hit on once by a girl working at a game store, but that's only because we ended up talking about things OTHER than games (we geeked out over photography), and I was looking for a job, not shopping.