This One Time, At Gamestop...

After a lot of waffling back and forth, I've finally decided to just get PS4 and Xbox One at some point. The only question, of course, was which to choose first.

PS4 has a lot of great single player offerings that I'm excited about, while Xbox One has a few multiplayer games I'm interested in. After talking with a buddy about it, he said something that made a lot of sense. The PS4 games I'm interested in are all single player, and they'll still just as enjoyable in a few years.

But Xbox One, while having a smaller exclusive library that interests me, does have a few multiplayer games I'm interested in. And if my history with Gotham City Impostors, Ghost Recon, Left 4 Dead 2 has taught me anything, it's that you don't want to wait to play a multiplayer game because everyone who bought the game either A) has moved on to greener pastures, or B) is very well versed in the game. That makes for a very difficult beginner's experience because everyone knows the maps, has all the best gear, and generally "knows" how the game should be played and has 0 tolerance for beginning players.

With that long-term view, my choice became pretty clear. Multiplayer games tend to require fast reflexes, and years on the Xbox has left me feeble when it comes to fast-paced moments on the Playstation. So if I were to play Call of Duty, Battlefield, The Division, and all the other good multiplayer games on PS4 I'd be frustrated simply because I don't have that speed and accuracy (such as it is) that I do on the Xbox. So I'll be playing all the awesome PS4 exclusives, just not right away.

Now then, to the purpose of this post.

With that newfound knowledge I finally got a chance to stop by Gamestop and cancel my PS4 preorder. I knew they wouldn't have any XBO preorders left, but such is life. As I handed the worker my card and said "I'd like to cancel my preorder," the entire store erupted in a collective "Why?!"

Explaining my decision was met with the two most incredulous looks I've ever seen, and I've said some pretty idiotic things in my time. I dared not look around me because I felt like the entire store was waiting for a fight to break out. The store manager just shook his head and outright disagreed with my decision saying that PS4 would have the best multiplayer, hands down. "Unless you like Titanfall I guess." I mean really, isn't that why anyone wants an XBox One? And after they looked at the computer and realized I didn't have an XBO preordered with them, I told them a buddy was giving me one of his preorders at Best Buy.

"Well you know we're the only ones who guarantee your preorder, right? I mean you probably won't even get one from them."

Now it's been several years since I've really thought about taking a swing at someone. I mean I've thought about it, but as a grown man it just seems immature to resort to violence when humor and no assault charges will suffice. The problem was that I'd been nursing a migraine all day long, I wanted to rip out half my brain and vomit on the floor for the past ten minutes, and those lights were really bright in there. So as I sat there and watched two grown men judge me for my decisions in how I chose to spend my gaming time.. I felt like I should have had fireworks during my entrance because I was about to suplex the manager right over that counter and give a Stone Cold Stunner to his underling.

But alas, those assault charges. Things lightened up and they told me that if I preordered an XBO game with them and they had a system cancellation, their system would see who had a game and no system preordered, then give them a chance to take the cancelled system. Groovy. We talked a bit about games we were excited for while they got everything handled, and no wrestling moves were thrown around that day.

But still, the audacity of someone talking to me like I'm an idiot because I prefer one system over another (when I plan to buy both!) was mind-blowing. I mean I've dealt with some arrogance at that location before, but it's usually just some friendly banter. I never thought I'd see a functional adult get offended at the idea of me changing my mind on an entertainment system. I wasn't letting my 5 year old smoke, I didn't just steal an elderly man's oxygen mask... I chose one gaming system over another.

Maybe I'm wrong and I am a terrible person. I'm pretty out of the loop in terms of paying attention to the console wars, but that's mostly because I got tired of arguing with children. Who knows, perhaps there was an update to the Geneva Convention to cover an event like this and I just didn't read the patch notes.

I'm really not going anywhere with this post today. Everyone else has those stories from Gamestop, but so far I've never really had one of those "are you kidding me?" moments. If you have an awful Gamestop story, I'd love to hear it!


See you tomorrow!

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