Screw it, this site will only receive updates when I'm bored and feel like spell checking.

First of all, the website that I was going to host that new blog, which was going to really just be this blog on a different site was kinda ugly, and kind of hard to manage, so screw it. I'll do that once I hit it big, so keep plugging people! That is if you like what I write about, if not, tell me and I'll see what I can do,.

Second of all, I've been noticing lots of Gamestop in the news, and how they're reporting record profits this last quarter, and then I noticed this article, which interviews Dan DeMatteo, the CEO of GameStop, on game re-sales, and it got me thinking about the whole used games racket.

It really is true, that used-game sales are not good for a publisher or developer. They receive no profit from the sale, often very near to the retail value, despite the retailer buying said game for less then 50% retail value, and re-selling for more then 200% of that price. A prime example would be LittleBigPlanet, found here, for now at least, as the page rotates to change with what is popular. I can sell my copy(if I had one) for $25.00, seems like a good deal, doesn't it? Except the used price is $54.99, five dollars less then actual retail price. How can Gamestop NOT report record profits with sickening profit margins like that?

But, developers and publishers are making a strike at second-hand sales, with things such as Gears of War 2, where each new copy has a key you enter, to receive five maps for multiplayer, which they say they won't ever make for sale. I believe that this is an acceptable counter. I can pay five dollars for a new copy, which is the average price of a map pack, or five dollars less if I have no plans to ever play online. On the other end of the battle against used-game-sales, we have Nintendo bundling with the WiiSpeak peripheral, where the same thing happens. Buy new, get slip, put in a code and get the WiiSpeak channel. But as this isn't released, nobody knows if ALL Wii voice chat will have to be done through this or just for fun chatting. Nintendo has so much money, it isn't just burning a hole in their pockets, it is burning right through the floor, the building, and right to the center of the god damned Earth.

So are they worried that they might go bankrupt if this peripheral doesn't make it big? Or are they worried about losing even the tiniest bit to resellers? Either way, this is the wrong course of action, as they have said that they will never make the channel available. Now think about that for a second. There is a chance that if you don't buy this new, then you won't be able to use voice chat with your Wii, ever. Am I the only one who thinks that is so absolutely bat-shit insane? This is not optional maps, this is not a stupid re-skinned weapon. This is a base functionality that even systems of the previous generation supported. Would everybody enjoy it if you had to buy a brand new hard drive every time, because you have to feed a website a one-time use code to receive the driver? This will either not make any difference because no games will utilize it, or dash Gamestop's re-selling of the accessory except if someone happens to break it. But, is all of this right? Is re-selling games the right thing to do, because as stated in the earlier interview, he could have a point, that game re-sales are mostly from after the game's life is over, or the game is out of production.

So, as an argument FOR re-selling, the following:

• It's your property, do what you want with it with no regard for wishes of developer or publisher. You bought it, who are they to tell you what to do with it?

• Most used-sales are long after the game has died and been forgotten, not harming anybody as most of the staff has probably moved on.

• It supports Gamestop, being a country spanning company, they have many employees, all of which have families and need the income.

• Restrictions enacted by publisher/developer only hurt the consumer in the end, restricting the lending of games, sharing of games, or trading of games with friends or any other people.

But, against reselling:

• Hurts the developer and publisher, keeping money out of their hands, and keeping them from making another game. This can be equated to piracy you pay for, as both methods keep money away from the people who deserve it.

• Have you seen how much they resell those games for? You would be better to save it for twenty years for when it's a collector's item.

• You can keep the game, and enjoy any DLC that is released down the line, less so with console games though. Games such as Team Fortress 2 has had regular content updates at least bi-monthly, changing, tweaking, and adding things, keeping people in the game.

• Keep on coming back...you never know when you'll have a strange craving to go crawling back to a game you've already dedicated dozens of hours of your life to, and just want to give it another play through. I myself today suddenly felt like beating portal again, it being a vastly superior, resale resistant Steam game, I was able to fire it up in a matter of minutes and play.

So either way, decide on your own what you would rather do. Support the developer, buy new, and ensure they keep making games. Or support your local Gamestop, save some cash, maybe earn some cash selling a copy of your game.