PS3 Shipments Halved.

[TheDruid]

I?m annoyed by the system bashers (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo alike) that don?t even attempt to enter into those conversations with a constructive approach respecting what each system/company has over the other. Often im met with ignorance and biased opinions. Really, when my relatives ask me which system they should buy for their kids i feed them the facts, and try to first understand what they need and how each system might fill that need. And yes i have told them from time to time that a Playstation might be what they need.

[Adams]

Don't get me wrong. Sony can be a good company... Discman, walkman... countless others. But when new formats that they create are in the mix; it seems that they get this crazy look in there eyes. Anyways for people who are die hard Playstation people I would suggest waiting it out... but while they wait they should pick up a Wii to pass the time.

"I don't have any opinions anymore. All I know is that no one gaming system is better than any other gaming system, and every gaming system, is the best at everything."
-- "Principal Skinner," the Simpsons, Ah-la-Adam

[Thorin]

I amused myself by visiting the Southgate "Sony Store". Walked up to young man in suit, said

me: "I HAVE $250.00, I WANT TO BUY A PS3."

Dead air. Paused for about 5 seconds.

me: "Haha, you must get that a lot."

He rolls his eyes.

me: "But it must be worth 600 bucks, after all it makes Rubik's Cubes float and fix themselves..."

He says something half-witty about the string of commercials.

"Cool marketing is great and all, but do you have any videos showing any PS3 games actually being played?"

He says no, laughs -- *suggests I visit GAMESPOT to see Actual Gameplay Footage*

me: "But this is the SONY STORE -- you'd think you guys would have a DVD playing on your cool flat screens, getting people perhaps almost actually willing to plop down $600 bucks..."

He says that the first issue will sell out no prob, doesn't make a comment about how MANY will actually be shipped. I say something about how, I guess, word of mouth will determine how well the PS3 sells in early 2007. (I think, but don't say, that maybe that's WHY they keep shrinking the first shipment )

He then goes on a 3 minute diatribe about how Blu Ray is supported by everybody but Universal, and it's not just Sony who copies instead of being innovative, and of course, how the Xbox totally sux and is losing money and is gonna be "Number 3" once November 19th rolls around...

I leave the store, a permanently converted Sony fanboy

Wow, you're kind of a dick.  You've got nothing better to do than annoy a salesperson that you don't plan to buy anything from?  Excellent example of real-life-trolling, though.

And don't tell me you weren't trying to harass him; your opening statement was in direct opposition to the facts you know - a PS3 will not sell for $250.  If you were some redneck hick that hasn't been keeping up with these forums, or gaming news in general, okay, it's possible you don't know the PS3's approximate price point.  But you *do* keep up with gaming news, and you *do* know the approximate price point and yet you *specifically chose* to be a dick from the start.

If anything, it was *he* that was prejudiced/presumptuous -- there were electronics and media in there that caught my eye but his unwillingness to be open-minded (and honest) made me wander over to The Source and HMV instead :p

Seriously, why spend your time making someone else's day miserable?  Don't you have *anything* better to do?  If you were really interested in other media (a claim I highly doubt), why didn't you ask him about that instead?

[Shayne]

Wow, you're kind of a dick.  You've got nothing better to do than annoy a salesperson that you don't plan to buy anything from?  Excellent example of real-life-trolling, though.....Seriously, why spend your time making someone else's day miserable?  Don't you have *anything* better to do?  If you were really interested in other media (a claim I highly doubt), why didn't you ask him about that instead?

Thanks for saying it Thorin i was thinking it the last few times i saw this post.  Working a retail gig is a lot of work and you get a lot of asshole "actual" customers. There is no need for people who have no intension of buying anything to come into a store and harass the guy who is just trying to earn a buck.

Get a hobby

[Adams]

As being someone who worked for RadioShack I can tell you, people that do that probably make the sales person's day a bit less boring.
It gives people something to bitch/talk about for a while. That is all.

[Lazybones]

As being someone who worked for RadioShack I can tell you, people that do that probably make the sales person's day a bit less boring.
It gives people something to bitch/talk about for a while. That is all.

Hmm, maybe this is a bitter RadioShack employee thing than.. Dirt man worked there for a while. I worked computer retail for about 2 years and never had anyone be that much of a dick.

[Darren Dirt]

Ummm...

There was a lot more said between me and the guy behind the counter -- it wasn't just me "pretending" anything, or attacking him or Sony or whatever. I didn't transcribe the conversation, sorry. And my motive was, actually, to seriously hoping to strike up a real conversation and learn stuff. I was walking through the mall, and on the way to my destination I noticed the Sony Store mostly empty, I think there was 1 other customer who was being attended to by one of the 2 remaining employees... And I did not spend a half hour there or anything, it was a pretty productive conversation actually, considering how inherently biased you'd expect the clerk to be. And I did not, nor was I tempted to, pull a Bill O'Reilley on him, shouting him down, interupting or arguing, or saying "Why do you hate customers!?" or similar. :p He knew I was skeptical of some of his claims, but he didn't make it a personal mission to "convert" me, nor did he ask me to leave if I wasn't buying nothing. The impression I gave is that I knew some stuff, and was maybe thinking of buying in the new year when the price goes down and/or the first-release wrinkles are ironed out.



Look, those who apparently didn't have enough sleep or something -- I watch The Daily Show and Colbert a *lot*, so sometimes when I summarize the events of a communication I use... colourful metaphors... and slight exaggerations for HUMOUROUS EFFECT. I was no BORAT or anything! In a way I was playing a persona, in a way -- Do you think the Penny Arcade guys are really the same personalities as depicted in their 'toons? But I did not try to stir up conflict. I wanted to see what the guy had to say before he knew how informed I was.



Oh, and I said that there was other stuff *in the store* that I would have had a closer look at, IF the employee was a bit more upfront and open-minded. But I made a choice to instead leave the store. And that employee knew I was "gathering info", right off the bat -- he chuckled when I said my "$250.00" bit (sorry, my Official Transcript didn't mention every detail like that). And he was the main one who kept the ball rolling in terms of speculations and nuggets of info. about the PS3. I didn't insult Sony or sonyfanboys, but he insulted XBox fans, even knocking down Live (which has been, from what I have heard, pretty damn successful and does what folks want it to do).

And the whole time he didn't even try to ask me about purchasing anything -- if anything, he seemed *bored* and enjoyed a conversation with someone closer to his generation rather than a know-nothing elderly couple or something. Who knows?

He was friendly when I left, he didn't "suddenly pretend to be too busy to talk to me anymore", any of the stuff that a retail worker knows to do when he is being obviously "trolled". I didn't tell him that I thought he was some mindless Sony parrot or anything, nope, I smiled when I left. I am actually a friendly customer.

Not a dick.

Geez.




But I guess instead of putting shoe leather to my curiosity, I should have just read news releases and fanboy posts from/about Sony? (And Nintendo and MS, for that matter...)

Yeesh, a guy tries to get some "from the source" info, posts a slightly-silly summary of it on a board with some "friends" and it's dogpile time

[Lazybones]

Yeesh, a guy tries to get some "from the source" info, posts a slightly-silly summary of it on a board with some "friends" and it's dogpile time

Didn't mean to start a dog pile on you, but the way your summary of the events was worded it made you sound like a dick. It was the only way I could imagine the scenario as you described it.

[Darren Dirt]

Sorry to hear that your imagination didn't allow for any other sequence events other than someone you have known for almost a decade being "a dick".


Oh, btw: "Never presume malice when [ignorance or something else] is a possible explanation."

[Lazybones]

Sorry to hear that your imagination didn't allow for any other sequence events other than someone you have known for almost a decade being "a dick".


Oh, btw: "Never presume malice when [ignorance or something else] is a possible explanation."

Didn't say you ARE a dick, but everyone is capable of ACTING like one from time to time, even if it is not intentional.

[Darren Dirt]

Sorry, I got mixed up. You presumed I was "harassing" the poor helpless clerk. I believe it was Thorin who made a statement about the actor instead of the action.

I got nothing else to say -- I don't get why you guys will laugh at certain things, sometimes low-brow, pretty offensive stuff (even mean stuff at the expense of others) but I try to make my "adventure" a little more interesting and all of a sudden I need hobbies otherwise I'm a deceitful, harassing curmudgeon

[Thorin]

In other words, when you used the grammatical construct of quotation marks in your original post to indicate actual words you and the salesperson spoke to each other you were in fact lying and making up a story to summarize the general feeling you had after having talked to said salesperson.

Why do we have to guess at what you mean or what you *really* said when you use friggin' quotation marks?

We didn't presume you were harassing the poor helpless clerk, we read your post in which you specifically stated what you and the clerk said to each other.  I'm sure most RW forum readers wouldn't have thought you really acted like a dick if you had mentioned that you were summarizing or paraphrasing.  But you didn't, so we took your post at face value, assumed that it was grammatically correct, and therefore took the text within quotation marks as actual spoken words.  I'm sure that if you re-read your post and take the words at face value, you'll understand other readers' reaction to it.

Now, one of two things happened when you were writing the first post about your discussion with the salesperson
1. You didn't realize that you misused the quotation marks
2. You purposefully misused quotation marks to elicit a reaction

I consider you too smart to misuse quotation marks that blatantly, therefore I assume you did it on purpose.

[Mr. Analog]

DD, I just saw your post and I'll explain my reaction to it and hopefully give you some insight into why people thought you were being a dick.

me: "I HAVE $250.00, I WANT TO BUY A PS3."

Dead air. Paused for about 5 seconds.

me: "Haha, you must get that a lot."

He rolls his eyes.

Yeah, I've been in the Sony store and when I asked them about non-PSX games I got the same reaction, at this point though we assume you've begun to annoy the clerk (eye rolling is not something happy people usually do).

me: "But it must be worth 600 bucks, after all it makes Rubik's Cubes float and fix themselves..."

He says something half-witty about the string of commercials.

"Cool marketing is great and all, but do you have any videos showing any PS3 games actually being played?"

The logic of whether or not Sony would have a "demo reel" playing in their store is questionable but your last line there makes it sound like you were trying to say that "advertising is pointless and why don't you have a demo in the store?"

He says no, laughs -- *suggests I visit GAMESPOT to see Actual Gameplay Footage*

me: "But this is the SONY STORE -- you'd think you guys would have a DVD playing on your cool flat screens, getting people perhaps almost actually willing to plop down $600 bucks..."

He just explained to you that Sony Computers mailed out demo reels and probably prototype games and PS3s to all the major geek sources, where they will deliver themselves to the target demographic.

He says that the first issue will sell out no prob, doesn't make a comment about how MANY will actually be shipped. I say something about how, I guess, word of mouth will determine how well the PS3 sells in early 2007. (I think, but don't say, that maybe that's WHY they keep shrinking the first shipment Wink )

He says they're going to sell out, here you were trying to be funny for our benefit here because as we all know Sony is only releasing a handful of consoles (for a variety of unfathomable reasons) at a time of year that normally makes a lot of fiscal sense (to us consumers) to release hardware. Rather than being comedic in your story it now makes the clerk seem like a dolt who is spouting the obvious at you while you enjoy a clever internal aside. Immediately afterwards the story says you mention that with such limited numbers that word of mouth will shape 2007 sales. This comes back to the theme of Sony's existing advertising to be a wasted venture and that their only hope is that the puny user base they establish had better evangelize Sony as hard as we expect the stereotype Sony fanboy to do.

He then goes on a 3 minute diatribe about how Blu Ray is supported by everybody but Universal, and it's not just Sony who copies instead of being innovative, and of course, how the Xbox totally sux and is losing money and is gonna be "Number 3" once November 19th rolls around...

His counter argument, in your story, is a bitter lament about how Blu Ray is a great under appreciated format, that Sony is not the only copycat innovator and that the rival product is doo-doo. Again, the way you put this here make it sound like the guy is bemoaning past Sony bashing and retorting with a generalized hatred of Microsoft. This characterizes the Sony guy as an impotent whiner with nothing of interest to say.

I leave the store, a permanently converted Sony fanboy Wink Roll Eyes

So to recap:

• Asked a rhetorical question, made it seem like the Sony guy was annoyed
• Make mention of the advertising to get the Sony guy talking about it and then tell him in so many words that it is useless and where's the hands on demo or demo video.
• He explains that if you want to see more go to where Sony has actually deployed "marketing for nerds" (i.e. teh interwebs)
• Sony Guy makes mention of a truth that is fully dependent on point of view (and in this case it seems that we are to believe that his answer is guided by philosophy installed in him at the Sony factory)
• Sony Guy's defensive strategy (again, leads us simple readers to believe Sony Guy is annoyed) is to counterpoint many anti-Sony comments, though in a nonsensical way punctuated with a negative comment about a competitor.
• And the last part of the story, our protagonist leaves the store with a sense of triumph in that he has not been converted to the obviously backward thinking of Sony Guy

Remember, this is just what I read in it and as we all know it is sometimes difficult to portray thoughts well on the web because it is a text medium and we aren't all good writers (or readers). I did enjoy the story somewhat as I've had many similar experiences at the Sony store (which is why I never go there anymore) and there are some days I would have liked to give them the gears about hiring stupid people and giving them enough information to simulate actual knowledge which only results in pissing me off.

Darren, I like reading most of your posts and you often find great links but a lot of times your views are polar on things which are open for interpretation and you often make it seem like any other deviant response is wrong. In a community our size, I would call this trolling because it provokes predictable responses which illicit heated debates over opinions instead of facts.

I mean, on other larger forums I could post:

"The only true religion, is the television."

And get some laughs, I wouldn't dare post this here because I would probably rub someone the wrong way and if it were left unlocked after the initial salvo of posts it would lead into a potentially endless and certainly pointless discussion about any number of polarizing arguments leading to someone getting angry and wanting to leave.

I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about divisive issues here but we really should consider the audience and be mentally prepared for all sorts of conflicting responses.

[Darren Dirt]

Now, one of two things happened when you were writing the first post about your discussion with the salesperson
1. You didn't realize that you misused the quotation marks
2. You purposefully misused quotation marks to elicit a reaction

3. NEITHER -- Look above and you will see that I only "quoted" my own "words" -- and did, indeed, *summarize* the clerk's reactions and responses. And I didn't know there are some Internet Forum Posting Rules that say that when "quoting" yourself you are including everything said and excluding nothing of substance...


Trust me, in the future, I will be wary of posting anything that might "elicit a reaction" since the kind of reaction I received her was nothing like what I had expected, certainly outside what I had "imagined" it would be.

And btw, in general, whether communicating on the Net or in a newspaper or novel, heck even verbally face-to-face, isn't expressing *anything* through words intended to get some kind of "reaction" from your audience? :-\


Oh, and PS: "I amused myself by visiting..." were the words I chose to begin my little experience-sharing.

I did not say "I wanted to amuse myself so I visited..." although apparently that was the way a few of you folks interpreted my introduction. I apologize for using wording that could be interpreted two ways. "For The Record", "I ended up being amused by my visit to..." is a more accurate wording. That, and the way I concluded -- plus all the and -- should tell you it was meant to be a light-hearted *summary* of a first-hand experience that I thought might be... oh, um, *amusing*, to others who care about the "console wars". My mistake. <-- please note the and thanks bye.

[Melbosa]

Alright, opinions shared, and well thought out.  Now off-line please if wish to debate the above last couple more.  Back on topic on this thread or will be locked.

Thanks for understanding,