I've been out of gaming for a while and...

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

... I start working a week from today.

Weird thread title but here goes. My Uni exams finish on Thursday, I'm home on Saturday and I start work in GAME on Monday for the Christmas / New Year period to make some cashola for next semester.

My problem is that I haven't worked in there for over 2 years and my knowledge of anything other than rave review games is very limited. Where you guys come in is to fill me in on what the latest news is, the top games on all formats, potential problems / questions I will be asked by customers and anything else you can think of that will be useful.

I missed the launches of the DS, PSP, 360 and Wii so I'm pretty out of touch with those to be honest, my gaming is pretty much none existant beyond Pro Evo 6 these days!

Ok I'm off to cram for these last two exams so it's over to you...

Do tell o wise ones

[kalniel]

So basically you're asking us to train you and then you'll get paid for passing the information on eh?

Well my consultation rates are...

[capt_cornflake]

Well from what I can tell, if you are just working over christmas, you'll probably be mainly answering the question: "Do you have any Wii's in stock?"

[Odc]

Well from what I can tell, if you are just working over christmas, you'll probably be mainly answering the question: "Do you have any Wii's in stock?"

Don't forget that the non-learned will also be asking 'Where are the PS3's???"

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

So basically you're asking us to train you and then you'll get paid for passing the information on eh?

I'd imagine I couldn't afford you

Not really looking for anything special here, as far as they care as long as I can work a till and talk the leg off a stool to sell something that's all the training I need!

I can guess that the Wii's and PS3s will feature pretty heavily in questioning but to be honest from experience the best sellers are EA's various production line games with brand tie ins.

[zulander]

and do i need the internet? for a mmrpg

tbh if u have decent hardware knowledge of pc kit and can figure out if The Sims: Fall Asleep works on x pc then u should be fine, other than that ull probably just be checking release dates and stuff and they have a book for that me thinks.

[kalniel]

Well then seeing as I'm feeling generous

I think most of what you'll need to know is found within the shop floor already. The distributors will already by buying the games that they think are the 'top games' for each platform, infact even if they aren't, your job will be to sell those - saying 'well I think the best game is X, but you can't buy that here' never goes down well with managment.

So keep up to date with your own stores chart rankings. Keep looking at the system requirements for games and make sure you always check with customers that they meet them - strongly suggest that they meet the required specs as well. The number of people who've come onto various forums complaining that the game is buggy when actually the're trying to run Oblivion on an integrated graphics chip is astonishing.

Have one or two genres of games that you prefer yourself - so sports simulations might be a good match in your case. You'll get known for that and people may ask you for advice on them.

[zulander]

I actually heard one of the managers of game in manchester telling someone to have a look in HMV or WH Smiths on sunday for something as he said u cant buy it here - might have been a Wii but not sure

[Dooms]

Heh well your best bet to pick up on whats on gamers minds is... Read the last month or so of posts in the gaming section, MMO section and Gaming News Section here on Hexus... We are gamers and this is what we talk about

[kalniel]

Right, if the customer asks for something you don't sell (and don't have a satisfactory alternative). But you don't recommend something you don't sell straight off

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Heh well your best bet to pick up on whats on gamers minds is... Read the last month or so of posts in the gaming section, MMO section and Gaming News Section here on Hexus... We are gamers and this is what we talk about

The average GAME customer won't be talking about WoW, BF2142 or the intricacies of the NVidia Ati debate...

[Dooms]

Meh i dont know, I used to work at Gamestation (about 3 years ago now) and questions were either really simple and in that case you wouldnt need to ask what would i need to know becuase its obvious or they were gamers that like to know whats coming out, your opinion on things, like to have a bit of an argument about a new console etc etc... which is more or less what we do on here

People are v. much interested in whats coming out aswell as whats just come out

[directhex]

retail is about being confident, not about being right

especially at places like GAME

hence the "the DS Lite uses LCDs, the regular DS uses CRTS" assurances from a staffer last time I overheard advice being dished out

make it up on the spot - knowledge isn't important

[Stevo]

Don't forget that the non-learned will also be asking 'Where are the PS3's???"

Actually the answer to that one in RoGuE|SaBeR's case is "over there in the Cex shop".
A cash for electronics and games shop opened in the Tower Center in Ballymena, for some reason they called it CEX. Somehow they have got their hands on a Playstation 3 which you can try out so chances are there will be countless numptys coming into Game looking to buy them.

[MadduckUK]

for some reason they called it CEX

Computer EXchange. rubbish i know. but they've been around forever. remember there ads in the back of comp and console mags (used to be a little comic strip.. anyone else?)