On a Week-End Round-Up

Let’s review some of the things I’ve written about this week.

On Sunday I wrote about the tenures of Doctor Who actors in the role. The more I think about it, the more it occurs to me that the ninth Doctor was never intended to be a long-term role, that Russell T. Davies needed an actor of stature and heft to launch the series and get the curious non-fan in Britain to tune in, so that he could replace the actor with the actor he really wanted in the role. Personally, I expect current Doctor David Tennant to stay with the role through the 2010 season.

Monday I talked about the nonsense words used in Blackadder the Third‘s “Ink and Incapacity.” Damn, I love Blackadder the Third. 😆

Tuesday I took a look at what people were searching for when they reached this fine establishment, and I had people quizzing Google about GameStop pre-orders. Given the emphasis that GameStop puts on the practice — it really is a matter of being employed or being fired — it’s no wonder there are websites like Pre-Order Pushers decrying some of the more underhanded tactics the company is using, and I’ve received e-mails from several readers in the days since who feel they’ve been abused in pre-orders.

I should note that in the comments, my friend De made a very good point — it does seem underhanded and immoral for a store like GameStop to hold a game a customer has placed a deposit on for only two days if they’ve not picked up. If it wasn’t entirely clear, I should point out that even though a held game is placed back into the general population of the store’s backstock after forty-eight hours, the customer’s deposit does remain logged in the system, and if they pick the game up later the deposit is still applied. Or if the customer wishes to cancel the pre-order, that should be done (though I am told by readers that this is not always the case).

I did find this comment on a gaming blog from a GameStop employee about a pilot program to increase pre-sell deposits from five dollars to ten, ostensibly to improve the pick-up percentage on games:

as an employee I can say we have over 300 preorders not picked up at our store because 5 bucks was not enough to remind a customer to come get it. If we make it ten then there is more incentive to coming and picking up their game.

To that, the only thing I can really say is — call your customers and let them know your games are in stock. If you’re assuming that your customers remember they ordered a game six months ago, then it’s no wonder you have 300 unpicked-up pre-orders. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are GameStop stores now that have 300 outstanding pre-orders on Halo 3 alone. My advice to you, random GameStop employee — don’t assume that your customers remember, and don’t assume that the company’s automated system works. Have an actual employee make an actual phone call and talk to an actual person. You will see your pick-up rate improve dramatically.

On Wednesday I created a Beatles meme. There’s memes for all sorts of other random junk in the blogosphere. I thought the Fab Four needed a meme. And I’ve been in a Fab Four mood with some recent bootleg acquisitions — from Anthology Plus to the multi-track masters for Sgt. Pepper to the “Purple Chick” remasters of A Hard Day’s Night. One of these days, the Beatles back catalogue will be remastered, and that will be a very good day. A very good day indeed.

Thursday I mused on the need for a Rogue-like game based on Fritz Leiber’s fantasy stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. I’ve always loved those stories. I think the Howard Chaykin/Mike Mignola adaptations from Epic Comics nearly twenty years ago were sensational. “Lean Times in Lankhmar” is my favorite short story ever. So, why not an ASCII-based dungeon crawl? Isn’t the world Tolkien-ed out? :cheers:

Yesterday, it was random musings on Daniel Craig and James Bond.

Then I found an interesting story about a British man who built a castle and hid it for several years behind bales of hay. I hope that the man is able to convince the Planning Commision to keep his castle, and I’ve written a letter to the Reigate & Banstead Borough Council asking them to allow such a thing. My feeling is that they’ll have a public relations nightmare on their hands if they force him to tear the castle down. Indeed, I’d hope he’d go all Civil Disobedience on their asses if they do.

Why revisit the posts of the week? No reason, except for updates and various things.

Also, word count at work this week — twenty-three thousand words. :party: