• waitmarks@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Idk why everyone is making fun of this. Sony made it very clear that games are going all digital. Gamestop has to take it seriously and they have been pivoting to collectables for a while now, so they are clearly on top of this. Maybe the pivot works, maybe it doesn’t, but they aren’t just sticking their head in the sand and pretending everything is fine.

    • tmyakal@infosec.pub
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      7 days ago

      GameStop is currently making a serious effort to buy eBay, which would also give them TCGPlayer and station them as a pretty big fish in the collectible card gaming space.

      • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        It’s funny to me that the same crowd of people that rail against the continued fucking over of the public by manipulative corporations are the same people who fork over hundreds of dollars for the artificial scarcity and manufactured demmand of collectible cards.

        Every time I think of getting into that hobby, I get the same feeling I get when I go to the casino… like I’m just a mark.

        • tmyakal@infosec.pub
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          7 days ago

          Oh, yeah. My playgroup all gave up on buying official products years ago for that reason. Now we just buy cardstock and toner.

          • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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            7 days ago

            How long do your homebrew cards last? It’s hard enough to make good cards at home that I think CardsAgainst Humanity has them publically available since it’s still cheaper for them to print than you would spend for a small batch.

            And how do you keep your decks from being overpowered?

            • tmyakal@infosec.pub
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              7 days ago

              It’s tough to comment on how long they last, because it’s going to depend on how often you play. So I started proxying 4 years ago and haven’t had any problems yet, but I also sleeve them as though they were genuine, and only play maybe one game a week.

              As for avoiding overpowered decks, I’ve been playing with the same group of guys for nearly 25 years. We’ve worked out where we like to be, and self-balance for fun. It helps that I’m a total Johnny, so I can whiff a game completely and still have fun as long as I “did the thing.”

            • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              If you’re just asking how to avoid overpowered decks just because of the ability to print proxies, people with big budgets (or a long history of playing) can get all those actual cards already and there’s banned and restricted lists for each format (and the formats themselves also help, as they limit which sets are legal, so standard doesn’t have to worry about interactions between new cards and every single card made in history).

              And for more casual games (that ignore ban lists or allow custom cards), there’s the whole dynamic of “if I always play my deck that just stomps everyone by turn 2, eventually no one will want to play with me, other than to throw their overpowered decks at it, so I’ll save the extreme ones for special occasions”.

              • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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                7 days ago

                Dogs do the same! When big dogs play tug, there’s a certain percentages of times they have to lose if they want to keep playing, no matter how much bigger or stronger they are.

        • Krudler@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          It’s such a controversial opinion, but outside of playable games etc… people are basically buying (with ‘collectibles’) the equivalent of bacon and eggs arranged in a happy face to make a kid giggle. What the fuck are people doing with their lives where they need to have a picture of some cartoon character or a bobblehead of it?

        • SalamiDommie@lemmus.org
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          7 days ago

          Listening to a lady named Freya India who is talking about this exact same kind of cognitive dissonance.

          The left hammers the points of anti-capitalism but go into debt for regular Disney vacations or high end brands, Taylor Swift Tickets, and more.

          • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            I don’t think most people on “the left” are doing those things in the numbers you think they are.

            • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              6 days ago

              Yeah that doesn’t sound like the left lmao. The American left, whom the whole news-enjoying slice of the population believes to be the left? But which other countries consider right-of-center? Yeah, must be that “left”.

              • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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                6 days ago

                Young people don’t watch the news anymore because they either don’t want to hear about politics or they don’t trust the news for politics. I don’t even know any old left wing people that watch the news anymore.

                • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  6 days ago

                  Yeah, my point is really that all those news media convince everyone that liberals and Democrats are left wing, but they are far from it. Hard to imagine why any actual politically left (I.e. not “American left”) person would watch that stuff, it’s all propaganda.

          • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 days ago

            I don’t know that name, certainly not their content, but this sure sounds like the perennial “avocado toast” non-argument to somehow associate young people being (predictably) broke and foolish with, ya know, caring equally for human beings and wanting our society to make that a primary goal.

            It sounds like hateful trash, is what I mean. What “left” is this person describing, I wonder?

            • SalamiDommie@lemmus.org
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              6 days ago

              The interview was not a financial discussion and was not about the debt itself but lack self reflection that the things they like most contradict the values they grandstand. That they mouth one set of values but live out another set of values that are less likely the ones they will give up, push come to shove.

          • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            I watched some of her videos on Newpipe, where it seems like Freya India is an EXTREMELY popular men among older conservative men that want women to get married and start bearing children (preferably Christian children).

            I appreciate that she sees the rot in modern culture, but I think she’s mistaken when she associates it with “the left” and her prescription of returning to the status quo ante of traditional gender roles isn’t going to fly with most people.

            Time for my daily Britt Hartley mention. Remember that scene in Platoon when the new recruits pass the returning veterans on the runway? Well, Britt Hartley is the returning veteran to Freya India’s new recruit. Britt was raised very mormon and inculcated in traditional gender roles and struggled to escape.

            Some of Brtitt’s videos that might be part of this conversation are the one about why women want to become tradwives. I hear Freya validate a lot of what Britt says for she mentions anxiety as a big motivation for her to return to traditional values. Britt’s whole thing is analyzing existential anxiety, and, yeah, the modern age is rife with it, and returning to traditional values is one antidote (though it comes at a cost, obviously).

            But, again, I do appreciate anyone that might validate what I think the core truth of our age is: “Being well in a profoundly sick society is no sign of health.”

            Feel free to link Freya’s video, the one you’re talking about, and ignore the downvotes. Thanks for sharing.

          • SalamiDommie@lemmus.org
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            6 days ago

            To address the posts about what “left” is being described - Freya India is specifically addressing young women who fall into a social progressive category that don’t yet understand the businesses they “like” are not on their side and are taking advantage of them. The types who may say they want “socialism” but as far as they know socialism means things like being against Trump or just nice social sentiments. Not understanding that they really like capitalism and the things it affords them. The kind who have no idea of policy but will watch 30 political tiktok videos and thing they know something now.

      • Lasherz@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Serious as viewed from GameStop’s perspective, and maybe even just one man at the top. eBay has already said their offer is not remotely attractive to them. I think their current CEO unfortunately thinks the only way to run a business is to create controversy. I hope they didn’t take the wrong lesson from the Gamestop stock rally, but it seems at least one person did.

        • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I hope eBay doesn’t get enshitified more as it is. I’m still pissed off with Facebook marketplace replacing Craigslist for buying local second hand shit.

      • Delphia@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        And Ebay has been going to absolute shit for a while now. FB marketplace and Amazon absolutely gutted two of their core profit centers.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Game means more then video games… Table top, board games, card games… Literally they are making bank off card games right now. They are still if not more so right now game stop then ever before.

      They do all game shit now instead of just one category.

      They are still cunts for doing card grading tho stupid ass shit that is

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      They leveraged the market cap to stay in business and become a generic gaming related things retail/scalper hybrid.

    • shiv@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Ceo (who the cult worships) did like 4 huge stock offerings and diluted the float around 300%. Any moass short play is dead but a lot of them are sunk cost fallacy trapped.

      • IPeaceInYourFace@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        The stock is still undervalued, that’s all that matters.

        Moass or not, people are investing in Cohen, and the man is a genius. He’s taking GameStop from strength to strength.

        You can argue with all the data supporting the moass thesis, but you cannot argue with the excellent fundamentals. Especially in this economy.

        Imo, it’s free money regardless.

        Edit: to add aswell, the fact they’re gearing up to acquisition eBay is a huge deal.

      • Cityshrimp@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Its funny how they always say shit like I’m smooth brain, I just buy. And yeah, they continuously buy GME at set intervals, which… is what normal investors do (sans diversify). Full circle

  • melfie@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    This is a sad timeline where used games are becoming irrelevant and you can only pay for games that you don’t actually own and therefore can’t sell. At least the Funko Pop market is alive and well. 🙄

    • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      bro nothing makes me less interested in knowing a person than finding out they have a funko pop collection

      • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Personaly i think that, using “bro” in a comment, not using capitalization or punctuation marks and belittling other peoples hobbies is also good sign that somebody has nothing of value to say in life.

  • IPeaceInYourFace@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    The amount of negativity here is very positive. Somebody somewhere has an agenda to think they’re doing badly as a business 😜

  • catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    The general strategy for GameStop according to all the people in the comments is that they should tell the media that they’re completely screwed and will just give up. How dare the CEO try to make it sound like his company is going to continue being successful. Absolutely appalling

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    6 days ago

    The CEO said that? How insightful! That borders on genius! Give that CEO another grotesquely huge bonus! /s

  • Shelbyeileen@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Since they’ve become a partner with PSA (card grading), they’ve made so much money, it makes sense. PSA has a 10 MILLION backlog and ones submitted through GameStop were less expensive and quicker grading times… They’re making so much money