Hello All,

I don’t want to stop working on the review essay, because I want to get it finished.  Still, my brain hurts, and the quality of my work is suffering as a result.  So, I decided to finish up some blogs in the meantime.

I ordered the now infamous Grand Theft Auto IV on Sunday night, the 27th, thinking I was cool, and that it would enable me to get it on Tuesday.  I also didn’t want to spend any length of time driving around the state of New Jersey trying to find a copy because I didn’t pre-order it.  If anyone doesn’t know, this videogame is one of the more engaging ever made.  I haven’t touched my Xbox in three or four weeks because I’ve been so busy with schoolwork, and I still work 30-34 hours a week.

Btw, I didn’t pre-order the game from Gamestop, the evil empire because I am tired of being an enabler and letting them rip people off.  The problem with them is that they have a huge resale business.  If you buy a game for $50 or $60, and play it for a few weeks and return it, you will get $30 of credit at best.  There may be some exceptions, but the best trade-in value you can get for the game is about half of what it retails for, new.  After that time, the amount of credit you will receive will begin to drop, and drop quickly.  I am a big believer in market value.

Clearly $60 is a fair price for a videogame if people are willing to pay for it.  After a game releases, you can go on ebay, and see what it’s going for.  While there are a number of factors than can affect the price, including whether it is a special edition or not, whether it’s unopened, or whether it’s missing the instruction manual, you can usually gage what the going rate is.  Gamestop ignores the market, and because they offer a more convenient model than ebay for many people, they can gauge the consumer.  Recently, I bought 3 year old game for the Nintendo DS that was kinda hard to find.  At Gamestop, they had one copy, without the proper case or manual.  They charged me $17.99.  They probably gave the poor kid 2 bucks for the trade-in for that, and even then, it was just credit.  The consumers they gauge the worst are their most loyal.  While I am suffering a bit because I refused to order the GTA from Gamestop, and I refuse to deal with the circus that is Best Buy, I have to wait.  I could have probably gone to Target or Wal-Mart, but I hate Wal-Mart too.  So, I decided to just order the game, and hope for the best.

But that’s okay.  I was hoping to have most of my work complete before Tuesday, and to enjoy my day off today to unwind.  No such luck.  My review essay isn’t complete, nor is my Learning Record, or my final article for Advanced Feature Writing.  That’s okay, as I’ve been working hard on that stuff.  Perhaps when I finally get my copy of GTA, I will actually have time to play it.  I did work on my essay for about 7 or 8 hours yesterday, and I sure could have used a break.  I watched Family Guy instead.  That was great.  Maybe when I’m finished my finals stuff, I can finally get back in the gym.  That will be nice.

Sorry to make you hear my rant why Gamestop is the evil empire, but it had to be done.  I’m going to have some coffee now.