Things We’ll Miss When Retail is Gone

Ask yourself: how much do the staff down at your local video game shop know about you? Is the answer: not much? Not one thing? Thought so.

Don’t worry: this isn’t magic or mindreading or anything.

When was the last time they recommended a game to you that you’d never heard of – something they thought you’d like because they know what you like? Never?

There was a time, believe it or not, when people had actual relationships with the folks down at their local game shop. Not relationships, but you know, relationships.

You would have recognised each other if you passed in the street and known each other’s name. You would have stopped and talked. This was because you were down at that shop not just after school or on your lunch break, but on the weekend too. Holidays? You barely left. Sometimes you’d hang at the counter for hours as you looked at games you couldn’t afford and talked about Goldeneye’s famous nude mode (that totally exists*). If someone had a girlfriend (almost never) you’d talk about her, too.