Grand Theft Auto IV

[Lord Ludicrous]

Well, as many know GTAIV was released a couple of days back. Needless to say its been very busy, and the shop I work in has taken a lot of money.
Now for the benefit of people not in the UK such as any americans here, the UK has two rating systems for games. PEGI which is voluntary, and BBFC which is a legal restriction. All retailers have agreed to treat the PEGIs as legal ratings to fall in line with the BBFC, and to prevent any confusion.

Grand Theft Auto is an 18. Grand Theft Auto is also very popular with children.
Oh my.

Suprisingly, most young looking people were old enough and had ID to show.

Anyway, the way it went was we had taken our preorders, and had some surplus to sell. I'd say overall, we had about 60 copies spare on the Xbox 360, and 30 or so on the PS3. We held the preorders until closing time yesterday, afterwhich they were free to sell. As for today, we sold out of the spare 360 copies (we had about 20 left) and sold out the PS3 copies through the day.
Most of stuff happening was just annoying, being constantly asked if we had copies. Not their fault, not mine either, but just really gets on your tits after a while. There were a few issues of suckiness however, like this amusing gem today.

Chav: Do you have GTA on the PS3 in at all?
Coworker: Yes we do.
Chav: Can I have one?
Coworker: Sure, can I ask how old you are?
Chav: 16
Coworker: Sorry, but I cant sell this to you. You need to be 18.
Chav: What?
Coworker: GTA is an 18 rated game. You need to be over 18 years old and have proof of ID.
Chav: But Ive come all the way from Hothfield! Cant you just fuckin sell it to me?
Coworker: Nope.
Chav: Aw fucking hell! *storms out*

SC: *brings copy of GTA to the counter*
Me: Allo, okay then. How old are you mate?
SC: Im 18.
Me: Okay thats cool. You got any photo ID on you at all?
SC: What do I need ID for?
Me: GTA is rated 18.
SC: Ive just told you Im 18.
Me: You probably are. However I need to see proof of this before I can sell it to you.
SC: Well I havent got any on me.
Me: Sorry, but I cant sell this to you.
SC: Ugh. *walks off swearing under his breath*

This wasnt sucky as such, just annoying.

C: So how much is this bundle?
Me: This is £219.99
C: Woolworths does it for £209.99
Me: Erm...well they probably do yeah.
C: Do you pricematch.
Me: We dont price match Im afraid.
C: So you wont do me this for £209.99?
Me: Im afraid not.
C: Cant you ask your manager if he can price match?
Me: He'd just say no. Prices are set by headoffice and bundles locked into the tills, we cant go changing them.
C: Aw ok. So you wont price match.
Me: No, we wont.
C: But I dont want to walk all the way back to Woolworths!

(note, woolworths is about 200 metres away tops. Takes about 2 minutes to get there.)

Me: Im sorry, but the bundle there is hte best I can do for you.

She did buy some other stuff and was overall fairly nice. Just very irritating.
Id post more suckiness, but its mostly variations around being asked for ID.
Anyone get any related stories?

[marty]

We had about 350 preorders for the 360, and we got sent about 370 copies. So, there were people bitching and moaning because they didn't preorder it and we ran out of extra copies at the midnight launch.

On average, we do about $400 in trade every day. Monday we did about $2,000 because people were using it to pay for GTA. Which would be great if about half of them hadn't come in 30 minutes before close to do their trades.

And, of course, the angry 12 year olds, haha.

[Lord Ludicrous]

Heh yeah. With some people I do feel a little bit sorry for, as they look like they are probably old enough. However as you know, if theres the slightest hint of doubt in your mind, youve gotta ask. However most of the time people old enough will be able to prove it, and ones who know they are too young throw a tantrum.

[pssorens]

here at my store no ID, no game. we have mystery shoppers that check to see if we check.

[TinyWaitress]

The EB Games in the mall near my house was printing out "If you're 17 or under you need an ADULT with you to buy this game" the day before the fact. Of course it probably didn't stop the SCs from complaning, but it made me giggle.

I remember when I used to work at a movie theatre, and the Hills Have Eyes 2 came out. (Rated 18A, for GOOD reason) A whole group of kids that looked about 18 all came in with tickets for it.

Me: *checks 1st one* Oh, you're seeing the hills have eyes? *looks* Are all of you seeing it?
SCs: *muttered agreement*
Me: Well I'm gonna needto see ID from someone, as long as someone's 18 it's all good.
SC: *points to girl* It's her birthday, she's 18 today
Me: And does she have her ID to prove that?

Of course she didn't, silly me for asking for something like that.

They raised a stink about it, and I just put my best "smiling even though I would love to throttle you" face on and told them they could go downstairs and get their tickets refunded. Which they did, grumbling and stomping the whole way.

And I won't even get started on all the pre tweens who think they can bring their one friend who's 14 and get into 14A movies.

[Kyree]

Do all of the game stores in the UK have the "You have to be 18 to trade games in" law as well? I know that makes some fun SC's here in the US. (Used to work at Game Stop.)

[Lord Ludicrous]

Do all of the game stores in the UK have the "You have to be 18 to trade games in" law as well? I know that makes some fun SC's here in the US. (Used to work at Game Stop.)

The policy is (at least at my company) is that they have to be old enough with ID if needed to satisfy the age rating on the game being traded in. I've refused a fair few kids trying to stuff like GTA, Halo 3 and other games like that. For cash trade ins, they need to be at least 16 and have photographic proof of ID and address. That can be fun

[greensinestro]

Me: Okay thats cool. You got any photo ID on you at all?
SC: What do I need ID for?

See, when that question is asked, it always sends up a message that this person is not telling the truth about their age. Most kids in the US are thrilled and proud to carry around and show off their ID when they turn 16, except when it comes to making illegal purchases.

[Hotfoot]

I remember once I was buying a game for some friends so that they could have a copy for a lan party (the game was cheap, but required individual CDkeys even for LAN play, lame policy, but it was a fun game). The game was rated M, for blood, violence, etc. Now, this was hardly a splatterfest, the blood, at best, came from the people you killed in a pool under their bodies. The violence, of course, was that you shot up Nazi Terrorists and rescued hostages (No, I'm serious, Nazi Terrorists, technically Neo-Nazi, but hey).

Same shop, same game, same buyer, two different days, two different clerks. First day, I'm asked for ID. I'm actually pleased, since it meant that they were checking. I showed it and moved on. Next day I go in, and the guy at the counter was nowhere in the shop the day before, and didn't ask me. I was sad, but oh well. I rarely get asked for ID these days, but I think part of that is that I dress in a more mature fashion (button-down collared shirts, slacks or jeans that fit appropriately, etc.) than the fact that I look old.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Edit: As an addendum, I wince a little when I go online for a spell in GTA 4 and hear the voices of kids way too young to be playing such a game. I mean, sure, I know that when I was a kid, I sometimes played things that I had no business playing, but really, the difference between the original DOOM and GTA4 is pretty damn huge. Yes, it's just a game, but really. The fact that I know I'll be hearing about it for weeks from students doesn't help either.