Is it just me or does the entire video game industry seem to be going down the drain? By the entire industry, I mean everything ranging from the games themselves to the casual gamers to the places where we get our games (or in my case, USED to get our games).

So where shall I begin this airing of grievances against a force so common in our society? I see it most fitting starting with the people that sell this stuff today they call games. I'm talking about employees in places like GameStop, EB Games and the like. I have come many a times to these stores only to laugh silently at the pathetic-ness of some of these employees.

What comprises most of these people are the groups of people at age 28, still single, living with their mom and their only happiness in life is the apparent escaping of reality in video games, their low-paying job and their plethora of tattoos. The only spot where these employess actually have a "say" in this world is behind the tingy counter where they spend the majority of their days. This is where they are, for once in their lives, the vultures perched at the top of the tree. Their most scrumptious prey is the ignorant everyday customers, ranging form 7-year-old kids with their allowances to the loaded-with-cash oblivious mothers.

One of my experiences involves a clerk being asked by a mother: "What's the cheapest console coming this holiday season?" Taking this glamorous opportunity at earning a few dishonest commission dollars, the clerk promptly informed her of the cheapest console being the PS3. The mother vaguely recognized the name as being the beholder of the infamous Grand Theft Auto series and being a responsible mother, asked inquisitively whether or not this series was for the PS consoles or not, having he clerk assure her that those games only lurked in the fiery depths of the Wii realm (which, oddly enough, is the cheapest of the three consoles). Feeling the embers of righteousness burning within me, I untied this damsel in distress's ropes and saved her form the railroad tracks by calmly informing her of the actual truth, having the Wii being the cheapest and the GTA games being a multi-platform series as soon as the draconian employee was out of earshot.

Another one of my unfortunate crossings with these people came when I was in an EB Games store, being infamous as far as I was concerned for their "Trade 80 games and we give you $1 store credit" deals. A blissfully ignorant gamer was being reprimanded for being uneducated about their "deals", repeating loudly and bitterly for the third or so time about the same deal, "Trading 2 games for X amount of store credit". Of course, such a "deal" is really not hard to understand, but I'm sure the gamer was really doubting whether the clerk could have said something so stupid, with such confidence. In my eyes, the customer wanted to know whether this blasphemy of a "deal" the clerk was talking about was actually true, or he was just hallucinating.

In addition, these clerks can annoy the bejesus out of anyone as long as they are breathing down their necks, eager to see if you will spend a fess buck with them so they can scarf it down like a Pitbull on a Poodle. I was browsing the "New Releases" shelf comprising of archaic games when an employee stood behind my back, watching my every move. I'm sure he wanted to make confirm that I was willing to buy his manure before trying to strike a "deal" with me. Being aware of his prescence, I casually said "I'm just browsing" to myself, loud enough so he could hear me from behind. He promply continued walking, pretending he was going to get something out of the back room.

Yet another ordeal that I spotted among my numerous Safari expeditions came from a message board, him telling about a time he was going to purchase a game. The clerk, being the porcine entepreneur he was, was trying to "hook him up" with several "deals", including the game guide, coaxing to preordering something and "encouraging" him about the GameStop member's card among other persuasions. The customer, being fed up with the clerk, bitterly threw the philipic of "Hey, what ****ing difference does it make if I get the card or not, You end up making more money if I don't get the card so stop asking." This went along while the store promptly went silent upon the hearing of "****ing".

So what pulls these "businessmen" to these extremes? Is it the cheap recycled week-old air in the store? Is the prescence of "World of Warcraft" within 20 feet of them? Is it them being forced to stand next to "Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon" all day? I seek to find the answer to this phenomenon….actually I don't. I'd much rather stay away from those stores altogether and zip through the cheaply-built racks only to purchase a game without looking at anyone in the face.

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