The ScooterBlog

Due to our huge success earlier this year at Ikasucon, we’ve been able to set things up to be at SugoiCon this weekend! You will see all of your favorite Game Junkies helping in the game room being the fun and excitement that you already know about to a whole new group of people, and we will also have our great selection of import and domestic video games, as well as anime-themed items, for purchase there too.

We will be there for Friday and Saturday but unfortunately not Sunday, so make sure to get your purchases in as soon as possible. There is even an outside chance that we will have the new Naruto 3 game in stock for Gamecube (and if not, we will of course take pre-orders).

What I’d like to hear from you, (and I asked people on the SugoiCon board to look too) is to let me know what you want to play in the game room. I’m sure we will be bringing all of the standard classics (Super Smash Bros. Melee, Halo and Halo 2, Naruto games), but if there is something a little bit more off-the-norm that we may have that you would like us to bring, just let me know here in the comments and we’ll make it happen.

Hope to see you there!

For parents and kids alike, this season is hectic. Lots to think about, lots to try and remember, and lots of people to shop for! We want to make it a little bit asier for you, and in return, also save you or another family member some money in the process. Sounds good? Keep reading!

For the second straight holiday season, Game Junkie is bringing back our Wish Lists for holiday shopping. They help us keep the games you want in stock, and help you and the family to have a “registry” of games that your kids (and big kids too!) want, so that everyone doesn’t buy duplicates, or games that they won’t like. Here’s what you do:

FOR THE KIDS: Just come in and fill one out, that’s it! Let us know what cool new stuff you want for the holidays, and we’ll keep it on file for your parents and family. We even recommend filling it out and returning it before you leave, just so you don’t forget!

FOR THE PARENTS: If you want to buy a game, just let us know whom you are buying the game for, we will pull out their wish list, and you can purchase a game for them, which we’ll scratch off the list, so that it is not duplicated.

We also have holiday postcards to give to extended family so that everyone knows where your gift registry is, and we can even ring up games by phone, and hold them in the store for you for out-of-town extended family! Just ask us, we’ll be happy to give you some postcards!

As an added bonus for all sides, as long as the Wish List is returned by the stamped date (currently this Sunday), the first family member or friend to buy an item for you on your list, gets a $10 discount as long as it’s a $20 purchase. This is a one-time, first come first serve discount, so there is no guarantee that another family member won’t beat you to the punch, so don’t be late!

If you have more questions about the program, feel free to e-mail the store with any questions you may have. We hope to see you soon, and (albeit early), Happy Holidays!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who came in and bought Halo 2 during our first week of the game’s release. It’s been the biggest release in entertainment history, and it’s been our biggest selling game since our opening as well, so thank you!!

Thank you also to everyone whom signed up and entered our tournmanent yesterday afternoon, evening, and night too. It went a lot longer then we thought, and there we some bumps in the road, but all in all, it was still quite a bit of fun, and we had a very good turnout.

Keep on the lookout, there will be Game Junkie XBox Live tournaments as well. If you have ideas on the rules, and on the types of things you want to see on future events, offline and online, just e-mail me with those ideas!

Also, an important reminder … if you are like me and have had your XBox Live since it first came out, it’s the 2 year anniversary of the service this week. Meaning, if you use the yearly subscription method, your subscription may be about to run out. You can let it recharge by your credit card automatically, or, you can buy one of our 12-month subscription cards. They are the same price, $49.99, but you can then pay with cash and support the store with your love for XBox Live. We have plenty in stock, so just come on in and grab one.

Hope you see you in here soon, and thanks again!

A quick addendum to the story: If you do not have Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge yet, you can also purchase a brand new starter kit as a way to renew your account. It’s $20 more then the 12-month card by itself, but you get the full Crimson Skies game and a new XBox Communicator. Give it to a friend, keep it in case yours breaks, or just trade it back to us and save a few bucks. Any way you do it, you may find it more economical and a way to get a great Live game!

Dear Dogbert,

Lots of people write blogs, but I’ve never heard of anyone who actually reads them. What’s up with that?

Kurt

Dear Skirt,

Blogs exist to fill the important market niche of writing that is so dull that your eyes will burrow out of the back of your head to escape. People do read blogs, usually by accident, sometimes on a dare, but those readers are later mistaken for Mafia victims with what appears to be two holes in the back of their heads. On closer inspection, you might find their eyeballs clinging to the drapes directly behind them. Unless the cat gets them first.

Sincerely,

Dogbert

So Halo 2 night was awesome …. controlled mayhem (and sometimes uncontrolled mayhem), 100 people waiting outside our doors for the game, and I rang up 72 transactions (mostly Halo 2 buys) in one hour, realistically, 50 minutes’ time! We did our biggest day at the store ever.

More later. Shoulda posted this on the 9th!

Most of our regulars already know about a couple of the things that we offer:

• Our great imported game selection.
• Our ability to pre-order any upcoming game
• Our love for Naruto!

Well, these loves are once again combining for the newest in the extremely popular GameCube Naruto series, Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3. The game will be shipping from Japan on November 20th, and we expect to have the game in house just a few days later.

The second game in this series has become a cult classic at Game Junkie and is one of our most popular games ever, much less imported from Japan, and that means there will be big demand for the third game in the series. The good news is, you can pre-order it now!

This game however, unlike most of our pre-order games, does have a very limited pre-order availability. We’ve been assured 14 games from our supplier, and there are only 9 slots left for pre-orders for the game. Once those are out, we’ll have to wait until the restock of the game, and we can’t promise how quickly that will be..

The expected price will either be $64.99 or $69.99, and while compatibility with the Free Loader has not been tested, it is expected to work. If it does not, we will be offering our GameCube Region Switch installations. These are normally $59.99, but if you have us install one with your Naruto 3 pre-order and purchase, you’ll get $10 off! Just mention that you saw the discount in the JunkieBlog.

We’ll also be having tournaments for the game as soon as it comes out at Friday Night Live, and very likely an entry fee tou rnament come early 2005, so you can even WIN prizes by getting the game!

If you have any questions or pre-order interest, feel free to throw me a quick message.

Ok, everyone knows we’re going to have our huge Halo 2 Midnight Madness party starting at 9 PM in just four short days! But, we’ve decided to extend the fun. The logic is simple:

If we’re going to be open after midnight to sell the game, and if we’ll be open from 9 PM to Midnight to party for the game, why not be open all night to party playing the game!

Yep, that’s right …. Game Junkie won’t close between Monday Night and Tuesday Morning, and the whole time, we’ll be playing Halo 1, and after midnight, Halo 2! There will be tournaments both before and after Midnight, tons of energy drinks (if you’re like me, you’ll need them), and Halo on as many battle stations as we can get our hands on. We figure that as many as *32* people can be playing at one given time at our store, and we’ll have room for far more people then that.

So far, we’re closing in on 200 people whom have pre-ordered Halo 2, and we appreciate every one of you whom have done so!

So I saw this coming a mile away, and so it was.

I’m diverted (and rightfully so, not like for hours, but for minutes) to the computer project, out in the plant talking to our general manager, and Larry ends up getting worried to the point of screaming over the Intercom for me to come in the office and si all flustered ad bothered about something I did … right! Anyways, this was the case on Wednesday too.

Oh yes, and now it’s Wednesday …. and it’s worse. He’s in “unapproachable” form right now. But, he did get a lot better, so it ended up being ok.

But all that said, this is going to be a continuing theme … so if I bitch about it here, you know it’s coming!

So I understand the need to close schools for presidential elections: you need more polling booths, and what more neutral place to put polling booths then schools. Of course, let’s throw out the notion of neutrality immediately, considering each party has “challengers” at the polling stations .. great, so you can go to vote and get bullied to see if your registration is valid.

So anyways, it’s occurred to be that kids get school off on a day that the adults have to do all the work. This is totally wrong so it seems. The way it SHOULD be is that we lock the kids into schools to learn all day (and learn how to vote), and then the adults take a day off! Stock markets shut down, banks close, post offices close, yes, even video game stores close …. it would be like Christmas, so I’m sorry, Ameristop, you have to stay open.

Now, that brings up the thought of WHERE these votes would be cast …. simple. EMPTY K-MART STORES! I mean, there’s hundreds of them, and in towns without these, I’m sure there’s an Ames, or a Zayre, or a Wal-Mart that moved across the street. For smaller towns, you can use the buildings that were emptied when Wal-Mart moved in, you all have them!

Now for those downtowners, we’ll also be opening all the major sports stadiums for nice big places to play. I mean, the NHL’ s not using them, and I WISH the NBA wasn’t going to start, the NFL only plays on Sundays, and baseball is done with. Perfect! There are some extra things we’ll allow to aphease certain municipalities:

* Boston fans will be able to vote at Fenway Park … what better place to start a new curse then at a place where a curse just ended! (Oh! Yeah! There’s my political “dig” this year, enjoy it!) Republicans who feel pressured here can vote at the Fleet Center, cause no good sports team will be using it this season.

* Chicago fans will be able to take their pets to the voting booths at stadiums for an extra ballot! Cause remember: In Chicago, if you can’t vote once, vote twice!

* Cincinnati voters at Paul Brown Stadium will not have their votes recounted if the need arises, due to the thought that the voters “were not aligned correctly, could not read the ballots, and did not excecute properly.” This will be waived should the Bengals lose a night game, or have a winning season … so in other words, never.

I’m Scott Vieth, and I approve this satire!

Nothing like a decent work day, things moving forward, and good conversation (which of course was not started by me, the bitter soul I can tend to be sometimes) to get a day going better.

As I type thing, I think me and Larry have just been chatting about one of our previous workers jumping ship and doing something else (I’ll leave it there unless someone asks privately), and applying one’s self, and more progressive conversations, and it’s good …. the scary thing is, Larry’s been sick this past week! Not that I want a guy to be sick to feel more relaxed himself, but I think he does. Maybe it’s the kind of thing where you’re so busy being worried about not feeling well, you don’t worry about a lot of other things that would getcha down.

For those who don’t know co-worker Larry (I have roommate Larry too), he is one of the most knowledgeable people that I know but also can be very moody, and that drives me up a wall at times. So there’s this weird parallel between liking him and not being able to tolerate him either.

Thankfully, right now, it’s on the side of things are good. Hope it stays that way.