The ScooterBlog

It’s a simple theory really and it shows all the time in the world of digital music players …. the best don’t always sell.

The best device for just regular digital music is the only exception to that in my mind: the iPod does it right, has great software built for it, and comparably is not horribly expensive.

But the two devices that this leads up to, is movie players, and flash devices.

My prediction is simple, and it’s already partially true: the PSP will be the movie player of choice at least for the next couple of years. It’s not the best (no hard drive, Memory Sticks cost a shit-ton, and only MPEG-4 support), but it has “cool” appeal. As nice as the nicer true movie players are like a Creative Zen series, they’re just not quite as hip as a PSP is, and the games on a PSP give it that instant audience (not to mention UMD movies, although they are way overpriced!). It’s gonna end up doing to ultra-portable media what the PS2 did for DVD watching.

And let’s be honest, if you really want good movies on the road now, buy a portable DVD player, they’re extremely affordable, and then encode your own DVD’s. It’s not rocket science anymore.

As far as the iPod Shuffle, this is the ultimate story of how you can be railroaded into something not perfect … it has no screen, and while it also has no battery, it’s small but looks just weird. Nonetheless, cause it does have the backbone of iTunes, I want one (although my better judgment will lead me to the far superior iPod Mini methinks).

I know if it wasn’t for one good (and locked in) piece of software, I’d buy a Sandisk player, or a iRiver and love it, but good for Apple, they’ve managed to make good software sell kinda good hardware … their only hardware i’d say that about.

Typically when one of us Junkies brings up anything involving “strength in numbers”, it’s a take on EB and Gamestop being 600 Lb. Gorillas … But maybe I just haven’t viewed how that strength in numbers helps us, through the loyalty of our customers, and their willingness to pass on the news about us by word of mouth, nothing is stronger. It doesn’t mean that GJ would ever turn into them, it just means we can do even more to make the Game Junkie Experience even better! It breaks down into two things … The everyday stuff, and the special events.

The Everyday Stuff - Ok sure, you could just drive up the street to get that new game, but we always appreciate it when you are willing to maybe drive a few more minutes out of your way to get that game from us. From a business sense, it means that we can get in new and different items and turn over our inventory more and more. That of course means we’re able to make a few bucks and keep the business side of it strong as ever, a strong locally owned business at that too. But it also means that we can better learn what you like and dislike, we can serve you as a customer better, let you try more games, interact more, and become even more a part of Game Junkie.

So while on the surface, it seems like it may not be a big deal that you wanted to get your copy of San Andreas for XBox at Target, for us, it’s huge … We want to serve you as well as possible, and if you’re willing to drive a little farther or wait one day to come get your game, we’re going to give you that service that Target can’t do.

The Special Events - THIS is what makes us Game Junkie! Friday Night Live, our tournaments, our special events, Wi-Fi Wednesday, this is one of the main things that sets us apart from just “Joe Game Store” down the street. We do all we can to make these all fun for both the casual gamer and the hardcore types out there, but it’s not easy to do.

I can totally see how maybe someone who is new to FNL came in and was a bit overwhelmed by that Naruto games everyone is playing, or maybe entered a tournament only to find that the competition was much much better. If you fall in that category, there’s two things I’d love for you to do:

* Let us know!
* Bring a friend!

Ok, the first one makes sense … if there’s something you want to see at FNL, or a tournament you think we could get a group of people to play in, tell us, if we hear people give us ideas, we will react for sure.

The second may seem weird at first, but if everyone brought one friend, maybe with different interests, then that new group of people leaves their mark, and suddenly, maybe we have a Tekken following, or a whole new anime show that people will want to be down with. Conversely, those people will also see how cool DDR is on the big screen, or venture into the Super Smash Bros. games and learn from some of the best players around. Every single person that comes in leaves their mark on our community, the one that we want to include every gamer in town, and be a source for both the everyday stuff, and the events that help define us as gamers.

And for tournaments,we have some cool ideas ahead. New games to compete in, door prizes to give everyone a shot at winning, and of course, Decathlon 2005 will be happening, the best test of gaming skill and fun out there. If you’re not the best, come and see how good you are, and spend a full day at the store … where else could you enjoy gaming with friends for as little as $10 and have a full day of fun? Makes it a pretty good deal, and on top of that, there’s stuff to win!

So that’s my challenge to every gamer here … bring a friend, have them buy one game from us they would’ve bought someone else, and then attend one special event, be it a FNL, a tournament, or even our presence at Ikasucon coming up. And then, have ‘them e-mail me or comment here. Hopefully, your friends will like what they see, and hopefully you will to, cause I speak from experience … the loyal customers here are 10x better then anywhere else I’ve ever been, and the fact that you’re willing to tell friends about it, hey, we appreciate that.

We plan to come through for you and them!

Before I start on this, I’d like to acknowledge that my iBook G3 has reached its limit … streaming music from an AirPort, reading RSS Feeds on Safari, and posting this blog entry, all while checking my mail in the background and instlaling new widgets. Let the record show that G3 is far from defeated! (And right now, it’s looks real good considering it’s the highest native processor an Intel can transcode!)

Anyways, here’s some Engadget goodness for your perusal:

* Our man Ken Kurtagi at Sony is saying that the hard drive? Well, it’ll be an add-on device (bastards!) … why? Cause they can’t determine how big the hard drive should be. Guess our pocket books get to decide this one! Read up at http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000833046205/

* Hope you save your freeware downloads … I don’t, but it may not be too late! A great little program called DVD Decrypter bit the dust because, go figure, some unnamed movie company didn’t like how easy it made decoding DVD’s. There’s a great story posted about it at http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000053046210/ and it talks a lot about how these programs end up in the “Bermuda Triangle” of software. FYI, I’m advising getting your copy of RatDVD and DVD Shrink, these offer good fair use purposes too, but you know they’re on the hit list.

* Ok, no props to these guys, I programmed by calculator a long time ago to include a periodic table, and all the tools I’d need to handle any class in school … and back in 1997, they didn’t care! Check this out at http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000137046163/ and also … can anyone find me a TI-85? I want to reinstall my programs on one, you know, for old time’s sake!

Tomorrow, I talk about why I think the iPod will succeed as the PMP of choice, much like how the iPod Shuffle is the best flash player going now … not cause it’s best, but because it has “cool”!