Christmas Market Economies
Hello, I hope you’ve all suitably recovered from my exciting performance at the Blue Posts last week. Something that probably takes a bit of getting over I’m sure. Though if you fancy reliving the experience, you can videos of it here http://youtube.com/user/DerekFME (Thanks to Charlie Miller for filming it for me) (I would have embedded the videos but can’t work out how).
Anyway I’m mainly here to update you all with the final part of my A Christmas Carol Market Economy trilogy. Many of you at the party were eager to know how it all ended.
And if you need a recap, here’s the earlier parts:
Download part 2 here
Download part 1 here
And as a special Christmas bonus, here’s a couple of other Christmas related FME productions. The second one being a particular favourite of mine.
Download the first Christmas Market Economy here
Download Christmas Market Economy 2 here
And remember any unwanted games I’ll be happy to take off your hands for free. Oh and to any of you who wanted details of buying CDs of my music just email me at derek at onelifeleft.com for details.
Merry christmas!
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Chart Market Economy 30th January 2009
I’m feeling a bit Fifa. Or perhaps Pro Evo. Same thing with minor updates each time. I’m thinking I’m totally stuck in a rut right now. Could this possibly point to why I never went for any kind of life in writing. I’m not going anywhere with my FME productions either. So what can be done to revitalise what is already becoming a bit stale? I know I’ll cut my hair a funny shape and go and sulk in a corner for a bit! That’s got it! Commence the Chart Market Emoconomy!
10. Competitions Involving Dungeons and Dragons Stormreach
Hardly anyone bothered entering. This further proves I’m worthless and unwanted. No one understands me. I’m probably the least liked feature of OLL. I’m going to go cut myself.
09. Splinter Cell – Xbox £2.99
I like this game lots. It’s all about hiding in dark places. It reminds me of all the dark places within my soul. You can feel Sam Fisher’s inner despair at killing all those terrorists. He has to kill them, it’s his job but you know he has to feel sad that someone has died.
08. Need For Speed Underground - PS2 £4.99
Takes place all at night. Vampires come out at night too. It would be totally cool to be a vampire. To stay forever young and live outside of society’s rules. You’d get to be totally free and it wouldn’t matter that everyone hates you because you’re like so much more awesome. Though you live forever and stuff. But that might make life a bit poring. You’d probably get depressed and probably drive a stake through your own heart after a while.
07. Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge – PS2 £6.99
Never mind hot wheels. Hot Topic is what you want. Have you seen the awesome stuff they have on their website? I bet My Bloody Valentine shop there. They have the most awesome lipstick colours too.
06. Medal of Honour European Assault – PS2 £9.99
I’m bored of that whole emo gimmick. It was perhaps not a terribly clever or original idea. Still that’s never stopped me before. All my words are secondhand and useless in the face of this. But I digress. I’m still constantly amazed that the terrible terrible Medal of Honour games sell for so much money. Older gamers tend to like them most but they seem to sell to pretty much everyone anyway. I wonder what I’ll get for Vanguard..
05. Burnout Paradise – Xbox 360 £15
A fine game with lots of fun. A worthy investment considering how much potential fun there is on offer in its online world. Quite a lot of downloadable content to get from first off though. Hence them releasing that updated version. I wonder how many people are now driving around in the Delorean from Back to the Future now..
04. Mirror’s Edge – Xbox 360 £17
I’m still playing myself. I still like it. But I’m still faced with the problem that I can’t play it for that long before it makes me feel very ill. It is incredibly frustrating though when you don’t know where to go and it just points up. Unlike some people, I find it often works best when it’s slow. Taking your time and puzzling it out as to how to get to different places. But then it goes and throws time limits in sometimes. I play it without shooting people because I’m soft.
03. Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts – Xbox 360 £25
It’s not a seller from the stall though I did get asked for it once this week. They wouldn’t have bought it though. I know these things. You get to know your customers and this one was clearly a useless timewaster. I had intended to give this game another go with it being rated so highly. I just found it a bit annoying first time. It’ll come in again in the future when it’s worth less. Or worthless.
02. Left4Dead - Xbox 360 £32.99
An online sale admittedly but it sold fast and I don’t see this around much. And it’s not that new out. I tried playing it last night, not realising that it was an FPS. I can cope with Mirror’s Edge because it’s mostly open spaces and I can often take it slow. This seems to feature fairly faced paced rushing about in enclosed spaces. To start with anyway. This is guaranteed to make me feel very ill very quickly. Why does it take so long to load things though? It took ages to load to the menu. Far longer than a lot of games. It’s unusual to see such progress bars these days. Wish I could play it and see what it is that’s making everyone, including OLL superguests, love it so much.
01. Samurai Warriors 2 Empires – Xbox 360 £9,000
That’s the estimated worth of the game of course. It’s been totally gobbling up my free time. It’s exciting and tactical and just generally brilliant. You should really get it if you know what’s good for you.
So that’s it. You’ve still got time to enter the D&D compo. I’ve got two left! Do I have to start offering money as well or something? PLEASE GET THEM AWAY FROM MY STALL!!
Chart Market Economy 16th January 2009
Cripes. It’s that time again. I’ve got to do one of them chart thingies. But what games have I sold this week? Barely any. That makes it a bit difficult then. These are hard times. Don’t people know it’s important to spend money with a free market economist for life and not just at christmas? This neglect and disloyalty should not go unpunished. Just as soon as I can figure out some way in which I can punish my customers without punishing myself.
10. X-Files – Playstation £5
It’s one which has often been lurking around just outside the chart. It’s a game that often goes on the old Playstation. I don’t really know why though as it’s quite rubbish. But then there’s not many reviews around for these days now. Playstation is just yet another retro console now. It often gets returned amid claims of it not working but in actual fact it’s just that they’re stuck one of the many ridiculous and obtuse puzzles in the game.
9. Final Fight Streetwise - PS2 £6.99
Why on earth would someone want this disgrace to a once great arcade game? The customer informed me that it has a ‘great story’ too. Fool. Even the original didn’t have a great story. Admittedly you don’t get many walk-along beat em ups these days. But when you do they’re all rubbish. This is a rubbish beat-em-up given made even worse by being made all gangsta/urban/street. Ugh. It disgusts me. So much in fact I decided I didn’t want anyone to actually have it and pretended it got lost. Instead I made him buy..
8. Resident Evil 4 – PS2 £10
Always worth having in. I always buy it when it’s offered but I never seem to have more than two copies in stock at any one time. This version was the special tin edition. Like that makes much difference. I bet the tin is a size just slightly too big to fit in a DVD rack or something. Or maybe slightly too small. Like HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Grrr.
7. The Punisher – PC £10
The game so shockingly violent they had to make the torture scenes black and white. Hmm. Yes well that really helps doesn’t it. So it’s okay to cut people up and twist their arms off and stuff just so long as it’s not in colour. Maybe it hurts less in black & white or something so it’s not so bad. I’ll have to try it next time I get an awkward customer.
6. Surf’s Up – Wii £15
Undoubtedly parent buying for absent child situation. Absent at time of purchase anyway. While I haven’t played it, I’m sure it’s a mixture of tedious ‘party game’ modes and tedious inept platforming which is just enough to keep the kids amused I guess. Lokit da funny pengwins!
5. Tiger Woods 09 – Xbox 360 £22.49
I can’t get rid of them from the stall but it goes online. I’ve had it on the stall at £19.99 for around 6 months now but no interest. They used to be all the rage in the PS2 era. But then if you’ve been playing the same game on the same courses for all this time, it’s bound to lose some appeal. After all, the actual golf courses don’t get yearly updates do they? Or do they? I don’t know I don’t watch golf so don’t ask me.
4. Motorstorm Pacific Rift - PS3 £28.92
Which is a bit odd as I only listed it for sale online at £24.99. Still I’m not complaining. I knew I had to get rid of this quick. It’s not a really major racing game and thus it’s a shelf sitter. Motorstorm didn’t do so well and no one has been asking me for the sequel. Did ANYONE ask for a sequel?
3. Improved Weather
It’s not quite as cold as it was. Therefor my working conditions are less hostile. I’m still haivng several pints of coffee to keep warm though. Sadly my stall can’t support the power requirements of any electric heaters. It just trips the power all time.
2. Samurai Warriors 2 Empires – 360 £2,000
It’s not quite Dynasty Warriors 6 or Samurai Warriors 2 but it’s still pretty great. The extra strategic elements are great stuff but there are certain unfortunate problems with the main battle system. The unreliable nature of base output making it hard to find somewhere to regain health. Most of the time it’s only dropped by defeated officers. Still building up a small force into one that can conquer all of Japan is terribly exciting, especially now there’s added little bits like getting your officers to do a tea ceremony together and.. (Snip! – Ste)
1. Competitions involving Dungeons and Dragons Stormreach!
I have five copies of Dungeons and Dragons Stormreach MMORPG to give away. It’s the deluxe version but without a box and also without any figures. So it’s more a slightly above average version than deluxe. It’s got a pretty map with it and you’ll get 30 days free play but after that it’s going to cost you about £9 a month.
So if you want to get yourself a copy tell me what would be the best competition idea for a Dungeons and Dragons Stormreach giveaway. Best five answers get a copy.
Chart Market Economy 9th January 2009
So it’s time for the first chart of the year. How terribly exciting. I know I have such a great reputation of being the internet’s only truly reliable source of games charts without interference from THE MAN. No big games companies interfere with my chart. This information is direct from source. But will it be a chart of top trade ins or a chart of the biggest games of the previous year? Maybe a chart of the biggest failures last year? There are so many options as to what to do I barely know where to begin (Try the start of the chart – Ed). Hey I’ve got a great idea, why don’t I make it a chart of last week’s sales? Man, what a great idea!
10. Zelda – Link’s Awakening (Gameboy £6.99)
Despite having been re-released about five thousand times with almost as many suffixes as a Street Fighter 2 variant that’s married a Tom Clancy game, it’s still a seller for decent money. I also happen to be pretty much the only person left in Doncaster with any stock of such retro games. As such I can pretty much get away with charging what I want. As I clearly have here. £7 for an ancient black + white gameboy game? Snigger.
09. Need For Speed Pro Street (PS2 £8)
Was up for £9.99 but the customer only had £8 on them. It was another brutal cold start to the day and it looks like it was going to be pretty quiet. It had sat on the shelf a while. Why not take the £8 that was all he had on him. So he said. To me it looked like he had much more on him. Like clothes and stuff! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
08. Something (on a console probably £ and Pence undoubtedly)
I really should have done this chart at work where I have it actually there in front of me what I’ve sold rather than doing it from memory. But I was busy with things this morning and the internet was playing up. So I’m having to do all this from home. Right now I’m just waiting for QI to come on at 9. I like QI. It is most amusing. There’s an interactive DVD game of it. I bet it’s rubbish.
07. Three Dreamcast Games – Racing Simulation/MSR/Tomb Raider Last Revelation £10
Technically it shouldn’t be this high in the charts but I remembered selling them earlier today and selling Dreamcast games always gives you that warm feeling inside. To know there’s still someone out there cherishing that lovely little console, poor thing. How could people not see the delights of that beautiful little machine. So what if the up to 10 billion players claim wasn’t exactly true. It would have been true if everyone had bought a Dreamcast. And everyone had an internet connection for it. And there was an infinite amount of money around to pay for the immense phone bills. These games aren’t exactly the best example of quality on the machine but consider it an entry level to get onto bigger and better things (Isn’t that what Escom said about putting Whizz and Pinball Magic in with the Amiga except that only served to kill it? – Amiga Power). Actually maybe I’m just like some dodgy drug dealer selling ecstacy mixed with rat poison or something. Shame on me.
06. Cooking Mama – Wii £15
The Wii has continued to sell a few games reasonably well since Christmas. It’s still doing vastly better than the PS3. I sold at least two Wii games for over £15 with customers just asking to buy said game. Maybe a Wii is for life and not just to be left abandonned in a dark cupboard until your gran comes round to beat you at Wii Bowling again and you to then sulk in a corner all afternoon moaning about how it’s obviously geared to compensate for people with lower skill so it was obviously much harder for you.
05. Zelda Twilight Princess – Wii £25
It’s typical Nintendo sales patterns again. Zelda/Mario/Pokemon. That stuff just never seems to drop in price. I might have only sold one copy of this but I could probably have sold 15 or more. It’s supposed to be one of the weakest of the Zelda series despite looking more realistically pretty than the cartoony Wind Waker which angered all the fanboys because they didn’t want to be seen playing a game that was for kids. Oh the irony..
04. Grand Theft Auto Ivy - Xbox 360 £?
Must be a new release or something as it’s here on requests alone. If I’ve been asked for it once today then I’ve er.. been asked for it once today but it was actually about 3 times this morning I was asked for it. Might be Rockstar’s biggest hit yet considering the number of people after it. Strange thing is, the only new GTA I know if is supposed to be the Mail Bait that is Chinatown Wars on the DS. The internet doesn’t seem to know anything about it either. Very odd.
03. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (Xbox £15)
Sold two in about an hour. It’s always pretty bankable. You have to wait a bit sometimes but you can guarantee at least £15 for it. It’s pretty rare after all. And it works on the 360. I wonder if the people who are buying it are ones who had it but hated IV or they bought IV and wanted more. No I don’t. All I care is I get their money from them. Who am I kidding?
02. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360 £32.99)
I had this for about two weeks before christmas but no one was interested. I swapped it in for something like Far Cry 2 I think. I didn’t want to do a free swap on it but the custmer demanded it and eventually I decided that this one would be the better seller. Could have been FIFA 09 actually. Does it really matter? WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT TO YOU?? LEAVE ME ALONE!! IT WAS AGES AGO!!
01. Rock Band 2 - Xbox 360 £Varies depending on if you buy instruments with it or not
Dynasty Warriors is on holiday. I miss it. Rock Band 2 has made many improvements over the first one in terms of its organisation and allowing for more party fun but it can’t fill that void that Dynasty Warriors leaves. Come back soon!
And that’s it for this week, a little later than usual perhaps but it’s here. Hopefully I’ll be a little bit less busy next friday morning and can give you what you want. And I’ll do another chart run down. Oh ho!
Christmas Chart Market Economy 24th December 2008
I’m sure you’ve all been there one way or another. Be it the night of christmas, boxing day, new years day.. in hospital having your stomach pumped. Obviously. Ste’s evil victorian mill owner sweatshop director mentality driving a poor sickly man to desperate measures to hold onto the tiny bit of fame that he’s built up over the last few years. How many is it now? Three? April 2005 was when I first received the call to arms with the brief of ‘talk about selling games over some noodling electronic music’. Thus was created the first Free Market Economy in a couple of hours in a morning following a very sleepless night of fevered ideas and panic over creating something terrible. It was a bit like the anticipation we’re all feeling now waiting for Santa to come down the chimney (if you catch my drift) (or something). So it’s with one eye open and eye shut, peeking over the bed covers that I bring you the final Chart of the year.
10. Loco Roco 2 – PSP £19.99
Golly gosh, I know it’s the season of goodwill and all that but when you’re faced with utter cretins like this customer it’s hard to keep it up. Firstly they weren’t entirely sure of the difference between a game and a console and certainly not much clue as to which they already owned. So I had some form an identity parade to see if they could spot the likely suspects. Seemingly they had a few ds machines and a wii. They decided they quite fancied a PSP though. Clearly they were not just cretins but the typical overindulgent ones who would rather spend money on frivolities than well anything else really. But I digress. Frequently. Not only did they want a PSP but they wanted a game for it appropriate for their daughter of age eleven. A quick rummage through the waste bin in the stall later I found Loco Roco 2 among the miriad football and driving simulators. “Looks a bit too kiddy-like.” Good grief. It’s bloody marvelous game and what’s more it’s going to appeal to an eleven year old girl especially! It’s cute! It’s got platforms! It’s got singing things! It’s looks lovely and it plays great. Buy it you cretins! So I beat them over the head with it so they took it to make me stop. Thankfully though they won’t regret it. What the hell would be more appropriate for their daughter? Oh sorry I forgot, this is Doncaster so obvious GTA is more the sort of thing. Sigh..
9. Far Cry 2 – Xbox 360 £25
I’ve got plenty of these in on the PS3. But like most PS3 games they serve more as decoration than actually saleable items. However I can’t seem to keep it in stock on the 360. There’s clearly problems for the PS3 market if I can’t even shift the games at christmas. It’s funny though they do seem to come in a lot. I’m often buying PS3 games in. I just don’t sell them. Sure I have a fairly low selection but I’ve plenty of ‘top’ titles. Quantum of Solace, Far Cry 2, GTA IV. They just won’t move. Sorry that’s not true. I’m running out of space a bit so I tend to overlap them on the shelf then when I happen to knock the shelf they all come tumbling down like things which come tumbling down because they’ve been unsteadily overlapped on a shelf.
8. DS Lite Consoles £80
Yes they are selling but not for so much money as was expected. Those who invested heavily in them at the start of the year will undoubtedly be a bit sad they don’t have the fortune they anticipated. I’ve still got a few in stock but they seem pretty plentiful everywhere. Same with the Wii. Maybe it’s the ‘credit crunch christmas’ that means people haven’t got much money to spend. Maybe it’s just greater availablility and greater market saturation now. I don’t know. But what I do know is I’m fully in control, on a roll, fat as rolypoly and on the whole you think that I’m a threat cause I never make a teacher’s pet.. sorry came over all Betty Boo for a moment there. Must be all that rapping I’ve done lately.
7. Need for Speed Underground 2 - PS2 £4.99
One of the most successful of the NFS series. Most wanted would probably take that crown though. This one has sat at around £5-8 for a long long time. I’ve had lots of them in stock but I’m down to my last one. I quite liked the first of the series in a way but this sequel never attracted my attention. I think it’s something to do with the combination of colours on the cover being less pretty. I think there was some more free roaming elements to this one which is what customers say they like about it. I think Midnight Club got there first but the first couple of installments of that game seem particularly shocking. That is to say they’re rubbish. They improved it a bit with the third one apart from the whole setting it at night so you can’t actually see where you’re driving and can never tell where the corners are. Which is never a good thing. In real life too.
6. Call of Duty 3 - Xbox 360 £12.99
These days if your game says Call of Duty anywhere on the box, it’s going to sell lots. It’s COD4 which did it. They were always consistent sellers on the PS2 though. But now they seem to have become the ‘industry standard’ even more than Medal of Honour. Speaking of which, MOH has been absent for quite a while now. COD is managing yearly updates but MOH seems to have vanished since Airborne. Airborne never saw the success of the earlier games. I’ve sold countless copies of Frontline and Rising Sun. Mainly to old men who were either in the war or like to pretend they were. I can just imagine them playing them with their grandchildren “Ahh it’s just like I remember it. We were dug in just outside Lyon fighting off those Nazi scum. Hard times..” “But Grandad weren’t you just 8 years old at the time?”
5. Fifa 08 - PS2 £7.99
Still selling. Just. Actually it’s selling better than I thought it was. I’m down to my last copy in stock. And turned one away the other day thinking I’d got loads of them in stock. Silly. One great thing about the old product is that you can get it in really cheap so your profit margin can be even more obscene than a Jonathan Ross phone call! Ah Ah ah! Satire! (Well it might have been a couple of months ago – Everyone)
4. Fifa 02 - PS2 £2.99
It’s funny in a way but when they start to get really old they suddenly become collector’s items. At this point they were little more than glorified PS1 games and hadn’t started to utilise more PS2 specific er things. Whatever they might be. People do like to collect the older versions though. It’s amazing how dated the cover looks now. It’s 7 years since release and it looks positively ancient. But then as I recall things changed for 2003 which was widely reported as one of the first good FIFAs. For the first time it gave the player a bit of a challenge. But then 04 returned to bog standard FIFA. The cover style remained pretty much the same from 03 to 05 but 06 looked quite different so that’s probably going to look dated in time. 07 probably has some of the ugliest cover art a FIFA has ever seen. I hate that one.
3. Battle of Europe Add-On for IL2 Sturmovik - PC CD £29.99
I sold a PC game! Even better I sold a PC Game Expansion Pack! FOR MORE THAN THE FULL GAME! Incredible. On Amazon of course. But who would have thought a PC expansion pack could achieve so much money. I’ve always heard good reports about IL2. Isn’t it coming to 360 soon or something? The last combat flight game I played at length was the spiffy Secret Weapons Over Normandy on the Xbox. Sure it wasn’t realistic but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Neeeeroooowwnnng dakka dakkka dakka boom! Shame the lead character was called Jack Chase. Might as well call him Brett Hero or something.
2. Need for Speed Undercover – Xbox 360 £27.50
Despite being available for £20 online it sells well from the stall. I’ve actually sold two and averaged the price there. First one I sold for £25. But it went too fast so I put the price up for the next one I got in. Though the customer did actually ask me for Los Angeles Undercover. Managing to cunningly combine the suffixes of both major street racing game franchise releases into one delightfully incorrect whole. There’s going to be tears this christmas when these games are played. By all accounts Undercover is a horrible horrible mess of a game. The TV advert shows graphics that are ‘representative of game footage’. Well yes. Of the cut scenes maybe. There’s no way you can possibly control your car appropriately from the angles displayed. Nor will the action ever be that exciting. Nor will it move so smoothly. It’ll serve them right of course for wanting something so terrible in the first place. Just because it’s christmas doesn’t mean it’s not a time to learn harsh lessons.
1. Dynasty Band (Preview release)
In which you take down the evil yellow turban rebellion then restore the Han Dynasty by forming a ancient Chinese band. Features Flute, zither and shamisen controllers. Also features Xbox Vision/Playstation Eye functionality to rate your dancing to Diao Chan’s instructions.
So there we have it. That’s it for this year. And what a year it has been. It’s been er.. well. Pretty much like every other year actually. Nothing particularly remarkable. It’s been all right. Most of my gaming fun was on the DS personally. Though Rock Band was particularly good. GTAIV failed to really ignite things though it’s been hard to get this christmas and shot up from £15 second hand to £25. The biggest seller of the year has still been COD4. That game has legs. As they say. So the saying goes. But I’ve seen more broken hearts Than you can count the bullets in gears of war, o h what do I know,
there’s gotta be so much I don’t know. I wanna do great things, I don’t wanna compromise…
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Chart Market Economy 20th December 2008
From: ste@onelifeleft
To: derek@onelifeleft
Subject: where’s the chart?
it’s saturday and there’s still no chart up on the site. what’s going off?
s.
—
From: derek@onelifeleft
To: ste@onelieft
Subject: Re: where’s the chart?
Yeah sorr y sste. Im rrelly not v well rright now. In bed last ffew days withfflu and still shhaking quite alot due to temp.Nnot been at wwork eithr soicn’t say whats beennse lling.
-Derr ek
—
From: ste@onelifeleft
To: derek@oneliefleft
Subject: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
oh wouldn’t it be nice if we all could just quit working as soon as we got the sniffles. how about you get that chart up on the site now. remember we’ve got new features coming next year.
s.
—
From: derek@onelifeleft
To: ste@oneliefleft
Subject: Re: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
Ouhch. I thoughtt you wweer meantt to be bbbe the nnice one Ste. Givve mme aaabb break while I’mm iilll ll yyyes? Iit’s chcristms aftter all.
—
From: ste@onelifeleft
To: derek@onelifeleft
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
just in case I didn’t make myself clear, find a way to write this week’s chart or the NEW FEATURES next year will mean there is not enough time for old features, specifically yours.
s.
—
From: derek@onelifeleft
To: ste@onelifeleft
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
IT’S OKAY STE. I FOUND THE MEDICINE CABINET I TOOK A COUPLE OF PILLS THEY MADE ME FEEL A BIT BETTER SO I TOOK THEM ALL AND NOW I FEEL A LOT BETTER IN FACT I THINK IM FLOATING AND AND IM REALLY LIKE HAPPY AND COOL AND STUFF AND ITS GREAT AND THAT SO HERES THAT CHARGGT THEN
10 SORE THROAT – STARTS EARLY AND LINGERS BUT DOESNT DO THAT MUCH DAMAGE SO IS REALLY ANNOYING
9. VOMITING – ITS SUCH A PHYSICAL STRAIN AND SO MESSY
8. DRY WRETCHING – ITS LIKE VOMITING BUT NOT AS MESSY SO BETTER
7. SLEEPLESS NIGHTS – SO TIRED NEXT DAY BUT AT LEAST BED IS COMFY
6. DIZZY SPELLS – FALLING OVER IS RUBBISH BUT SPINNING ROOMS SOMETIMES FUNNY
5. FEVER – HORRIBLE STATES OF MINDS ARE BADS BUT HALUCINATIONS HAVE INTERESTING GRAFIXXX
4. RUNNING NOSE – GIVES NOSE NICE CHEERY RED GLOW LIEK RUDOLPH LOL
3. DOTING NURSES – HELLLOOOO NURSE
2. MEDICINE CABINETS – MANY PILLS = HAPPY+++
1. GOING TOWARDS THE LIGHT – HELLO GRANDMA AND GRANDAD I HAVENT SeEEN YOou INaageES
Chart Market Economy 12th December 2008
“It will be lonely this christmas… without a handheld..” Mud would sing if they were creating that song now. And interested in video games. And fancied singing about them. Which they probably wouldn’t to be honest to that completely ruins any point I was trying to make there. Damn. Best get on with it then.
10. EA Rugby - Ps2 £1
Gets a special mention just because I never thought I’d ever sell one ever again. Even at £1. I pity anyone who has to pretend they were happy to receive this. Even if they were the most ardent rugby fan in the world. I assume the lady who bought it thought it would be a nice stocking filler for her boyfriend or something.(Insert some smutty joke about filling stockings here)
9. Tony Hawk’s Underground – Xbox £2.99
Or ‘Thu’ as I like to called it. Not thug, as some people say. That would be wrong. There’s only three words. Tony Hawk’s Under Ground might be a more interesting title. Tony Hawk has been murdered and it’s up to you to find out where his body is and who it was who murdered him and why. If they had murdered him it would probably be for putting his name to a game with driving sectiosn as bad as in this one.
8. Mark Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure Xbox £6.99
I recall an EDGE interview with Mr Ecko where he was saying how much he understood what the modern Yoof gamer would want. His game was to ‘reprazent’ for them or something. Well sadly for him it proved that he wasn’t quite as down wiv da kidz as he thought as his game was a terrible flop. Of course that hasn’t stopped it retaining a reasonable amount of value because it’s still a little bit gangsta but thankfully its failure has made him shut up and go away again. Hopefully to never return.
7. Fifa Street 2 – Xbox £7.99
It’s been a great seller this one. It’s been consistent for a long long time. I just wish people wouldn’t refer to it like it’s a place name such as Coronation Street. It’s all in the intonation. Not allowing a pause after FIFA. It bugs me and I wish people would stop it. Again I think it goes to show how the producers of these games aren’t really quite as in touch as they think. The people playing it aren’t necessarily that aware that it’s meant to represent street football. Still Urban Freestyle Soccer was a lot more fun.
6. Vice City Stories – PSP £9.99
It’s another game where I’ve not really dropped the price in around a year. It just seems to happily go at a fairly steady pace at this price point. It’s pretty rare I sell a PSP game though. They just sit there taking up space on the shelves. I often forget I have them.
5. Grand Theft Auto IV – 360 £19.99
I did drop this to about £16.99 as I had a lot of them not so long ago. I’ve put them up for christmas as I ran out. Still got plenty on the PS3 though. It still feels though that this GTA has been the worst selling of the lot. Perhaps it was just that bit too intellectual for the usual audience. Maybe it’s actually been the best selling and it’s just that EVERYONE has played it.
4. High School Musical 1+2 – DS £34.98
Is it cheating to have them both on the same one? And also to add the prices together? Probably. But I’m sure it’s cheating to release the same game reskinned and add a 2 on the end. I’ve not played the game but I’m sure what I say is true. That’s proper games journalism right? If you want to know the individual prices, No. 2 was £19.99. You can work the other one out. Derek Williams’ Brain Training coming to a blog near you..er now actually.
3. Halo 3 – 360 £14.99
I’m including online sales here for the first time. I think. I’ve only been doing this a few weeks and already I can’t remember back to the start. I must be getting old or something. Where was I? I forgot the point that I was making. Ah yes. I’m including them mainly because it’s significant that Halo 3 is selling for more money on Amazon than it is in HMV. Down to just £12.99 new in HMV and Amazon it sells for £14.99 second hand. I’d built up four of them on the stall and I’ve sold three online today just in this evening. Why the sudden demand for Halo 3? Aren’t there a million copies in your local game shop Amazon people?
2. FIFA 08 – WII £13.99
I know I’ve taken less money from this than Halo 3 but selling two copies of this on Amazon in the same day seems even more Amazing because it’s a Wii game and a numbered product. Usually anything that has a year on it is worth nothing when the next one comes out. FIFA 08 360 is worth about 10p by now but oddly this still has some value and I can’t quite work out why. Thus it fully deserves its number one spot.
1. Samurai Warriors 2 – PS2 £299
Sometimes I think I prefer this to Dynasty Warriors 6.
So there we have it. Only two weeks left until the day after christmas and people are still largely rejecting the current generation of consoles in favour of older ones. The Xbox is selling considerably more than the PS3. That’s not just 360 either. The original Xbox has had quite the resurgence lately. It’s undoubtedly that they’re a cheap machine that’s pretty sturdy and has lots of cheap games available. Makes a greatcheap console in these times where credit is crunchy.
I’m Derek Williams and I’m actually signing off properly this time.
Chart Market Economy 5th December
Being the super megastar celebrity that I have become since the CD launch, I’ve had to take time out from running the stall to keep up with the sheer number of personal appearances, radio talk shows and CD signings. This unfortunately means that I’ve not really had much chance to monitor how things have been going sales wise. Considering I’m supposed to post once a week (nearly wrote ‘blog’ there but remembered I detest the word) about how sales are going, perhaps I should have been paying more attention. I guess I’ll just have to make it up. I can’t be far off the truth, I’m sure. I did sell a few games today after all so that’ll help.
10. Formula 1 2003 PS2 £4.99
They’re interesting sleeper games the formula one er.. ones. Anything after 2001 lingers but retains a reasonable amount of value. I usually get about £7 for the likes of 05. You just get the occasional fan that’s really after one and you finally cash them in. There’s great potential for profit on them as the customers selling them are happy to accept a pittance for them.
9. The Darkness 360 £4.99
I got rid of a couple on Amazon a while ago as I’d got lots in stock. Even at the £4.99 price tag it’s not really something you can easily shift. Is it really that bad a game? A friend tells me it’s largely pretty good and has a great atmosphere until some stupid eee wibble narg comedy demon sidekick comes in who has a machine gun and oversized army helmet. I think. Or was that a different game?
8. Beowulf 360 £6.99
Again a slow game. It’s never really done anything and no one has ever even cared about its existence. Cashing in on a fairly niche movie is probably not the best idea, especially when movie tie-ins generally don’t sell these days. Unless they’re Spide-rman and have just been released.
7. Lost Planet 360 £7.99
An excellently pretty game with an excessively high difficulty level which is probably what has put people off it for so long. If you can manage to get past the first five minutes of the game without dying about a thousand times you’re doing well. It also suffered from a release close to Gears of War. I think.
6. Dark Sector £9.99
I really don’t have much to say about this. I don’t know a lot about it, I’ve not had many copies in. In fact just this one. Which started at £20 but eventually sold for what I bought it for. Don’t really know what it’s about. Is it like aliens or something?
5. Warcraft Battlechest PC £12.99
A classic bit of RTS strategy. The battlechest contains Warcraft 3 and some expansion pack or other. Cunningly the cover depicts each title twice to make it look like there’s more to it. Clever people these artwork designer types.
4. Medal of Hono(“u”)r Airborne £14.99
I was quite astonished that I sold it for so much. The M.O.H. games are always pretty bankable. They’ve always been a hardy perennial on PS1 and 2 (though I’m not entirely sure that’s an appropriate term). The old ones hover around the £5-7 mark. They’re often bought by old men. Presumably to re-live their glory days or something. Old men just love shooting Nazis. And Japeanese. Fact.
3. Juiced 2 360 £7.99
Selling an incredible two copies in one day gives this load of old rubbish a high place this week. Juiced has always been a steady game though. I have to commend the artists for the first game on PSP and PS2, very good eye catching desirable covers. Particularly Juiced Eliminator on PSP. It even has blue sky! Almost Outrun esque. But anyway, yes, the first one on PS2 sold for ages at £7.99. It lasted at higher prices longer than Need For Speed Underground. I reckon it will still sell for around £6.99. It’s looking like Juiced 2 might manage the same.
2. Dynasty Warriors 6 360 £5000
What’s this? It’s been knocked off the number one spot. It must be something a bit special to do that.
1. One Life Left Presents… Music to Play Games By.. All Formats £6.99
Ahh obviously. That really IS that something a bit special. Without a doubt the best CD compilation available this Christmas, no wonder it’s selling so well. I hear that track 8 is definitely something a bit special indeed. But there’s definitely no christmas turkeys on this one! (You’re fired! – Everyone). You know what, I reckon you’d be well advised to go and buy it over at Amazon right now. It’s the perfect gift. For anyone.
Why not have a listen to some samples from the CD over at Chewing Pixels.
(I would have done it here but I can’t quite work out how)
Chart Market Economy 28th November 2008
Welcome once again to another exciting round up of a week in video game sales. It’s been quite the busy week and you certainly hear those christmas jingle bells just around the corner and while I’m not in my late 40s the christmas period certainly does often make me feel that way. Woolworths had the right idea in giving up, it’s too much like hard work lately. Still, serves them right for trying to push down the price of the Wii. £150 indeed. Crazy fools.
Right, let’s get busy with the fizzy and detail those sale(s).
10. R-Type Final £5.99
It’s nice to sell a good game sometimes. It’s quite rare it happens. It always comes as something of a shock as well. It had sat there for a very long time. I hope it’s not doing more on Amazon..
9. The Sims Superstar PC £5
Still going strong after all these years. I never got as far as installing Superstar myself before finally getting bored with it. Last one I played was Unleashed where the residents of my house were terribly upset about animals urinating outside their house. I have to say, that town really needed some kind of dog catcher or something as there an awful lot of them wandering around outside.
8. Mario Kart / Super Mario World Super Nintendo £10 each
What better time for nostalgia than the christmas period? Though I’m sure it will all end in tears when he discovers that Mario Kart isn’t actually as good a game as everyone remembers. Not that it’s ever been a good game. On any format.
7. PDC World Darts 2008 Wii £15
I’ve sold several Wii games lately. Could it be the christmas period is when I’ll get rid of all that rubbish that’s been cluttering up the shelves? Though have you seen how much FIFA 08 Wii is on Amazon? £40! Amazing. I’m sure it must be particularly good or something and not to do with no one bothering to list it. Or that no one bought it in the first place.
6. ATV 2 Playstation 2 £9.99
The offroad games are always popular around here. Something that puzzles me though is why these games feature lots of loud rock music when the people who buy them are the sort that have that awful dz-e-dz-e-dz-e stuff playing on their mobile phones all the time. Add some happy-hardcore-trance-gabba-wibba-wobba-whatever to the soundtrack and I’m sure you’d have an even bigger selling game.
5. Spyro 2 - Playstation £12.99
Again, this is pretty much always a christmas piece. It sits there all year then at christmas you can get up to £15 for it if you’re lucky. It’s been pretty much like this from the start. The prices usually get up pretty high online as well.
4. Midnight Club Los Angeles £24.99
Or Los Angeles Undercover as the customer requested. When I explained that they’d basically asked for two games there, they weren’t entirely sure which one they were really after. I told them that it was clearly Midnight Club as I didn’t have the other one in stock. So how could they want something that I didn’t have? My incredible logic clearly had them convinced.
3. Fable 2 Xbox 360 £29.99
I was really annoyed when I sold this. As I explained to the customer. I was hoping to take it home and play with it for a bit but oh no. Just an hour after I had taken it in some annoying customer requests it. I had it specially hidden behind the counter as well. I can’t resist money being waved in my face though.
2. DS Flash Cards
I don’t sell them but I get asked for them a lot. Apparently you can get them for £50 at the car boot with about 1000 games on them. Which is quite an achievement. So why should people bother buying the genuine article? Fascinating how well word has spread on these things. I try to tell people they’ll break their machine but they don’t believe me. So who’s looking forward to the region locked DSi? Anyone?
1. Dynasty Warriors 6 Extreme Christmas Empires Xbox 360 £???
Here in the hope that they release a special christmas patch where you can play a Free Market Economist slashing his way through all the annoying christmas shoppers asking for stupid things.
Overall it’s starting to become pretty obvious we’re in the christmas period. Everything is starting to fly off the shelves. And not just through poltergeist activity. Jethro DVDs proved rather popular as well as I sold five of them in one day, thus eliminating my entire stock.
I’m Derek Williams and through various hard disk crashes and so on, I’ve really not had enough time to prepare for tomorrow. Hope to see you all there though!
Chart Market Economy 21st November 2008
At the stall, freezing whilst typing up the week's chart
With just over one week to go until my live performance of Free Market Economy things takes the world by storm once again and barely a month until christmas, you can really tell things are really hotting up. Will Need for Speed Undercover make an exciting chart entry despite its shockingly poor quality? Will Mirror’s Edge’s demo quality reflect in quality sales? Will the world be at war over the new Call of Duty? Will.. (Just stop the rubbish puns and get on with it – Ste)
Okay then without further ado here are the results of this week’s games sales. In no particular order (It’s hardly a chart if you don’t do it in any particular order, now do a proper chart or else – Ste)
Grump.
10. Transformers (movie version) PS2 £10
Selling for good money, despite being a horribly boring and clunky game. It had actually sat on my shelf forgotten about for a good six months and I’d forgotten to reprice it. Naturally it was a case of a mum buying for her son. Gosh I love clueless parents.
Sometimes.
9. Fight Night 2004 PS2 £5
Initially this customer wanted a straight swap for his Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Simulator but that’s only worth £3. He came back later with £5 as he’d just sold his game for the money to ’some random bloke in a games shop’. See, every game tells a story. Probably.
8. Deal or No Deal DS £10
Random number picking is in this week. My cosmic ordering of wanting with all my heart to be rid of this game finally paid off after around 6 months of it gathering dust. I think this proves Noel is right. About everything. Ever.
7. Dogz Wii £10
Dogs wii. Snigger.
6. Grand Theft Auto IV 360 £17.50
It’s really not selling like it was but then it’s not really been as big as previous ones. I still get more requests for San Andreas. Many people are complaining it’s too short. I thought the whole point was you could play and mess around after doing the main game or even as you play through the main story. I still recall my unsuccessful first date in the game where we drove straight into the pond in the crazy golf course.
5. Guitar Hero III – Legends of Rock (game only) £17.50
It’s been here a while but only dropped £2.50. I’d have probably let it go for £15 really but only if absolutely necessary. They were going on to buy Guitar Hero World Tour afterwards which is why they didn’t need the guitar. I told them they should go out and buy Ro(CENSORED – Simon)
4. 50 Cent Bulletproof PS2 £5
True to form for the Doncaster public. They just love stabbing people in the eyes to rap music whilst wading through the floor. Or something. I’ve still got plenty in stock but this is a regular seller. Sadly.
3. Canis Canem Edit PS2 £5
Only slightly less objectionable than the 50 cent game. Did they really have to make the main character that ugly? It’s like staring at my customers all the time. The customer in question was particularly excited about the prospect of firing a catapult at people and beating people up. I’m sure he’ll be quite disappointed when he has to protect some nerds rather than kill them. As violence is the only thing these people understand I promptly beat him over the head with my chair until I’d knocked some sense into him.
2. Stranglehold 360 £7
Selling an astonishing two copies in one week elevates this to the number 2 position from nowhere. It’s normally a very poor seller. I try to convince people it’s really amazing, which it is, a bit. I tell them it’s like being in a Hong Kong action movie like say A Better Tomorrow or Hard Boiled. At which point I get a ‘huh?’ and it’s given back to me.
1. Dynasty Warriors 6 360 £5000
Pro Evolution 2009 was going to take the top spot via a comedy public vote but it kindly stepped aside to make way for games which truly deserve it.
So it’s over for another week. The Doncaster public ignoring my new release stock of Saints Row 2, Far Cry 2, Sontum of Qualace and Banjo Nuts and Bolts and Call of Duty 5. Are times that hard that people can’t afford £30 for a game? Hopefully things are going to improve in the next few weeks but right now, times are rather hard. Please help me not be homeless this christmas and send some money via paypal to (Snip! – That’s quite enough of that – Ste)
I’m Derek Williams and hopefully next week the computer won’t crash as I type this up, losing an hour’s work