The Holiday Headache Pt 1 – Getting What You Want
December 15th, 2008 | Written by Anthony Perez | Topic: Industry News
The holiday season is a time of joy, celebration, and, of course, gift giving. While receiving gifts should be a straight forward exchange between gracious givers and grateful receivers, it is instead a toll on everyone: you, me, and “them.” This is the first of a three-part special about the “Holiday Headache,” a winter time ailment far more common than the annually feared flu. In this edition, we’re going to be focusing on you, the receiver.
Buying gifts for others is not an easy task, especially in today’s economy. With the looming fear of job cuts in every industry, everyone has been reeling in their extra costs and being a bit more cautious about how much they charge up on their credit cards. That is probably the biggest concern for everyone – consumers, game publishers, and retailers – about this holiday season. Plus, they have to contend with the yearly anxiety that hits gift givers in the gut.
James Radack of the National Mental Health Association has this to say of holiday shopping anxiety:
“Many factors help make the holidays so stressful: fatigue, unrealistic expectations, commercialization, financial constraints, and the inability to be with one’s family and friends.”
If you’re reading this you are most likely a well-informed gamer. You have a good idea of what you want to buy and you’re likely letting your friends and family know what games you would like as gifts. Unfortunately, there are often a few barriers that those people have to hurdle before you get what you want.
Since people often have to buy way more presents than they would like to, they often have to trim back how much they spend on each gift. While that works pretty well for a toaster, it doesn’t quite work so well for games. So there is often the chance that family members may substitute games you want with games that look of similar quality at a lower price. Example?
Dead Space | Gamer 2.0 Score: 9.1 | Price: $59.99
By just looking at the images, someone not in the know would say the games look quite similar. There’s shooting, monsters, and apparently good graphics. But the two games couldn’t be any further apart in terms of quality, but many gamers may get stuck with games such as Legendary instead of Dead Space because it saved the gift giver a whopping $30.
Wise receivers will ask if there was a receipt and return the game for store credit, but others would rather not offend and pop the damn game into their systems and bask in its infinite suckage. That is the worry come this holiday season for gamers like you, and why you have to make sure to be particularly clear with your wish lists.
If you don’t think this could happen to you then remember this: Over 400 unique – we did not count multiplatform games more than once – have been or will be released from October 1 through Christmas. There is a lot of opportunity for some disappointment come December 25.
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Comment by JayTee on the December 15th, 2008 at 1:02 am
You bring up a great point, I never even thought about it that way. From now on everyone I know is getting informed so I don't end up with Legendary.
Comment by Amadeo on the December 15th, 2008 at 3:36 am
That's why I don't rely on people to get me games. I'd rather just buy them myself. I've gotten extremely picky of the years when it comes to my games, so I'd rather just get store credit, or ask someone very specifically for a game.
Comment by Edward on the December 15th, 2008 at 7:13 am
At least you didn't have to play legendary
Comment by JacobS on the December 15th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I think I negotiate a lot of my gifts: trying to find a lot of good deals so that I can get what's on my list. There aren't many things I care to get anyway, but people usually insist on giving gifts.
Comment by Danreb on the December 17th, 2008 at 6:56 am
I wish I still got games for Christmas.