Of course.
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Of course.
Also you have twice as many female ancestors as you do male ancestors. Just as a point of reference that almost all generations of men have faced a loneliness.
I don't think I said men invented loneliness back in 1986. Or that it is new. Or a binary. Or whatever silly nonsense you're pushing in an effort to make this about you.
Btw, it's not about you.
You're literally the only one saying this now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
That's an awful lot of incest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewbacca
Weird interpretation. You’re just wrong in stating that men are lonelier than ever. It’s not new, and dare I say much less of a problem with more distributed communication methods now at our disposal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
Feel free to continue the pity party though.
Yum
Can't rep but god damn.Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
big if true
you're an idiotQuote:
Originally Posted by Drewbacca
Yet correct. But lets move on. SSJN's parade store freaks was interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
How old do you think they were?Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
late teen/early 20s?
I don't think I've personally ever interacted with a Jersey Shore type human before. Curious. We have an italian subculture up here in Toronto called ginos that's a bit similar. (riced up cars, an exaggerated consumerist lifestyle, etc.). I'm wondering if the end of January see's a lot of weirdo's hit malls because it's a depressing time of year.
Whoa wait how much is that MonHun PSP?
What I paid for it. $130.
Did I get into how effing mint the thing is? I think I did. If not, it’s stupid effing mint.
Don't tempt me like that.
You're not correct either. You're too fucking stupid to even know what is being said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewbacca
What is being said?
drew is stupid.
Thanks for your posts about the store. It makes me feel a lot better about dropping my plans to open up my own shop. Although it's not like I've done anything else worth while but at least I'm not in debt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
It really sucks but I just don't see a future for small time game shops unless it's like a couple I know of around here who make enough to keep the doors open but no way they'd still be around if the owner's spouses didn't bring home the bacon.
I think a cool arcade with a liquor license in a nice part of town is about the only video game business I would want to run. There are a few esports places that do well too, but that crowd brings its own problems.
There's one about 30 minutes from me that has been in business for ages, and seems to be doing well. They seem pretty well known though, had their own forums for awhile. Digital Press is it's name. They do all kinds of shit too, tournaments pretty regularly for all kinds of games, and the last weekend in every month they do a thing called NAVA. Basically they have some kind of tournament, and let people bring in shit to set up little stands if you will to sell. It seems to keep traffic coming in the door. Though again they're in Northern NJ which has a pretty high population density so that could be helping them, combined with how long they've been around and shit. I don't know, maybe they're the exception to the rule kind of thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timber
Your mom eats dick sauce.Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
My, what a thoughtful, supportive post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timber
I moved to NJ 6 years ago and have never been to DP. I need to stop by one of these days.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv
I've seen that too. Having game nights etc. It's all about getting the foot traffic and making people feel like the store is part of their life again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv
I checked recently, and DP forums are still online, but they've died down a lot.
Similar to TNL then.
While I wouldn't pose my bad business as the inevitable outcome for ALL game stores, it's certainly more likely to end up like this than not. Hindsight being what it is, there are many factors I should have taken into consideration.
1) Location.
There are 3 other Game Craze locations within 25 minutes of me. One to the North, one South, one North East. It's too congested already.
As I've said before, I'm right on the dividing line of more well to do people on the West, and more poor to the East. The Westerners don't come East to shop. The Easterners don't have any money to shop with. I just had a girl in here wanting to buy GTA V, but she was $10 short. She must have mentioned how badly she wanted that game, but $10 short about a dozen times. As if maybe if she said it enough I'd just let her have it for what she had. I'm in a plaza that's been dead since Walmart opened less than a mile up the road.
2) Name.
My partner opened his first store 22 years ago. At that time, on top of the nationals like Electronics Boutique, Babbages, and Software Etc (we never had any funco's around here) that were in each of the three leading malls in the area, there were 3 or 4 indy shops. The largest one was HO/RC Hobbies. The dude that owned that place was the scumbaggiest Simpsons comic book guy archtype you could imagine. Paid you nothing for your stuff, charged almost as much for used shit (no matter how awful the condition) as he did new, and if you bought a defective item good luck arguing that you didn't break it. Also, he didn't seem to care much about games. His passion was RC stuff, he just got into games because of how popular they got in the NES era. So then this 21 year old kid opens a store called Game Craze. He's a acne pock marked face nerd. You walk into his shop and everything is orderly. He talks about what he likes passionately. His prices on both sides of a transaction are fair. I start dropping by on my lunch hour just to chill and talk. He eventually opens another store. And another. Then his used car salesman (realtor actually, but that doesn't paint the type of personality he is as well as used car salesman does) uncle, who's about to lose everything because reasons, talks him into doing a franchise like deal. He opens some stores in the outer Rochester area. Two of the three stores near me are his. This is the early 2000s. PS2 era is strong. It's almost impossible to not be making money in the games business right now. Which is great because this dick knows nothing about games or its business. His stores are always the ones at the bottom of the list of 'what game craze stores do you like?" His shitty business practices have tainted the brand in this area. I should never have let my partner back down from his promise of letting me choose the name.
3)Timing
When I was at the flea market, I was working 4 days a week in a store somewhere. That gave me 3 days to travel from Buffalo to Syracuse hitting every game store, thrift, consignment, department store clearance, whatever, to find product to flip. I mentioned it before, but I didn't get too many trades at the Flea. It was an indoor flea, housed inside an old Ames department store. My store was at the back of it. Anyone that had stuff to sell had to pass several hundred other vendors maybe willing to buy the stuff before the person even got to where I was. Most of my stock came from whatever I could find in those three days, and thankfully I never had too much trouble finding shit.
All of a sudden it's August 2014 and I'm opening a legit store. The writing for indy brick and mortar has already been on the wall for a few years. New sales are trending downward and though vintage has seen a huge boom, the trades just aren't coming in like they used to. It doesn't matter how much NES TAITO GAME sells for when you never get any in anymore.
The initial idea was that I'd work the store to get it on its feet (a few months at most), then find some employees. It didn't take long to figure out that this place wasn't going to be able to support ANY employees, let alone turn enough of a profit for me to live. Or any profit. Not only do I have very few trade ins, I also don't have the time to go hunting like I used to. And since smartphones and places like CAG and Slickdeals are far more prevalent these days, by all indications, there's not much left to find anyway. Everyone is into the game reselling cottage industry. That's the final, and most important issue.
4) Turnover of Inventory
Or, lack of it. People lose interest in stopping by when they're met with the same 40 or so titles that they looked at the last three times they stopped. I don't get the trade ins, I can't find stuff outside of here because I'm stuck here 24/7, and even if I were, there's nothing to find. My inventory is pathetic. Yet I hear from several travelling nerds that it's one of the most diverse in the Rochester area. This city is just run dry of product. It's all either sitting on people's $20 Walmart shelves or being put on eBay.
A lot of the stores that I hear are doing well are doing so because they've been around for a while already. Or they have diversified into table top. And novelties. And licensed merch. If you don't already have a steady stream of trade ins, it's about impossible to create one at this point in time. It's too easy for people to flip their stuff themselves. But if you've been around for a while, grown a loyal customer base that doesn't mind getting a little less for their stuff by trading it to you because they're using it to get stuff they want from you anyway, then you're probably doing fine.
Dunlap said something in chat something like I needed something to draw people in here. This entire time I thought I had that something. Me.
Aside from how you may feel about me on the internet, I offer something no other game store in the area does. My stupid OCD-like attention to detail.
I don't exaggerate when I say I'll spend 30 minutes taking an NES controller apart, scrubbing all its components, putting it back together, and fully testing it (again) before putting it out for sale. All for a price equal to or (usually) less than what the other guys are charging for it. My systems are always less expensive, and in far greater condition than what anyone else around here sells. I don't sell discs in generic cases. I don't put out scratched discs. I don't put price stickers on labels or cardboard boxes. I test every system and accessory before it goes out for sale. I replace worn thumbsticks with new ones. I replace analogs that are getting loose. I replace microswitches that don't feel right.
I SHOULD be charging a premium for this shit. But I don't. I can't! Even though I do so much more for my customers than anyone else and charge less for it, I still can't get the $40 an hour sales I need to fucking break even.
I thought there'd be enough people in the area that once they found a place like mine existed, I'd have their total loyalty. When I first stepped into Game Craze 21 years ago, I never seriously shopped at another game store again. I had no need to.
I thought I could replicate that, and improve on it, and become a phenomenon.
I was wrong. People don't care about higher quality for less. They just care about the less. There's a piece of shit second hand store that will take PS2s that are beat to shit, have generic controllers, and don't read blue discs and sell them all day long for $40 as is. Takes forever for my $50 one that has been professionally manicured and comes with official accessories and three month warranty.
Anyway. That's that.
With all the QA you do to make your products work well and look nice do you ever use any of that as a marketing hook?
Super nerd QA guarantee etc etc
You really should, it's got a surprisingly decent inventory. Though they can be weird on their pricing. Sometimes common ass shit is like 10 - 15 bucks higher than it's going for on ebay, and then rare shit will be half the price. I do not get it.Quote:
Originally Posted by kingoffighters
I totally get what you're saying SSJN about turnover and people who loyally do. DP has a really strong following in that sense, it seems like anyone in the area who ends up say selling off their huge NeoGeo collection, goes to them instead of ebay. I see it a lot on their facebook page, people trading in huge collections to them all the time. It's not like they pay much either. What you said too at the end (about taking the time take shit apart and clean it right) is one thing they do as well, which makes me, and I'm sure others, feel better about buying used accessories or consoles from them. I'm really sorry you're having such a hard time man. It sucks shit, you deserve to be doing better.
Hey, the next time I want a game, I'll message you directly about it, because I see your care in our interactions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
Those are all good points you bring up. People don't care about higher quality until they are done caring about less. Sitting in the middle of poor town with a toxic name is a rough situation that you really can't fix without rebuilding everything. I appreciate that you have been willing to share your experience so openly. I've always wondered how running a game store would be like since I was young.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Some Stupid Japanese Name again.
Jesus Christ, I can't even get the rep I deserve! :p
Dunlap accidentally gave me kof's rep for SSJN, I tried to rep SSJN in return but I have to spread my rep around first.
Oh you'll get what you deserve alright.Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
Oh, I'll never catch up to Josh at this rate...
Never.
Also, if any of you buy your games from anywhere other than SSJN’s store you’re straight gutter trash. I mean this as much as I’ve ever meant anything.
I would, but I only buy digital now.
Do you make any money off of PSN codes, SSJN?
I’d be happy to work that out if it nets you a couple bucks.
I make 5%, so not really no.
Anything new is pretty much pure shit for indie stores, the markup is honestly ridiculous.
Back in my mid-20s, I was vacillating between what I wanted to do with my life, and I was trying to convince my dad to loan me the money to start up a brick and mortar vintage clothing/punk/novelty shop. He declined, and I was butthurt as hell, but that's when I started up my etsy instead. Nearly a decade later and I'm satisfied that I never went into the the storefront route. I still toy with the idea now and then, because I think it's insanely respectable that there are people out there who are so devoted to a niche that they will have a store about it. I really, really miss the 90s boutiques and game stores, fun places you could waste time and browse and learn about cool new things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
However, as things evolve and change over time, our exposure to new media (games included) is just a totally different experience than it was 20 years ago. We don't need to wander downtown to find a new game to play or new band to listen to, because the internet and tech availability has changed our entire entertainment trajectory. I love where we've gone tech-wise (which is why I pivoted to getting my education) BUT I do miss the idyllic niche marketplaces we used to have access to, and could disappear in from time to time.
I mean, I love clothing more than anything - I could yammer on about vintage or new trends for hours. I would love to share that knowledge and that passion with people, while still making *some* money. I've been lucky in the sense that the internet has given me a pretty good spot to do that. Sometimes I'll get a message or a picture from someone who bought a beloved item and it makes it worth it. It's not the same as being a cultural hub for a local downtown or whatever. BUT...I don't miss the face to face aspects I faced when I was younger and working retail. If someone is bugging me about an item and they are being weird and unreasonable online, I stop responding. Problems are usually solved quickly and with partial refunds. Most people are happy customers. So, I dunno. I give you a lot of credit for sticking it out irl but I know if I personally made the plunge from online to brick and mortar, I'd hate everything and everyone about clothing and fashion. I guess I don't want to ruin it for myself, it's the one hobby I covet, the one I can let myself disappear into. So, I'm overall thankful my dad didn't ever give me the go ahead for a shop, because I learned more about myself and how the world works this way. But....I still kind of have that daydream about a some punk kid coming in to my fantasy vintage shop and finding that perfect jacket that changed their life. Because, hey, I was that kid. And I remember that jacket, I can still feel it in my hands when I think about it.
So, I dunno. I can see all sides of it. But yeah, props for hanging in there.
house renovations fucking suck and I can't believe there's people that get off on this shit
I am so not looking forward to that shit
When I was younger a friend of my brother gave me a zippo for my birthday. My dad found out a few days later. Took it and said he lost it. Now 10 years later I'm looking for a screwdriver and guess what I found near them. That zippo. >:/ I asked him about it two months ago and he told me the same story. I'm a little upset honestly.
He's been lighting joints with it for 10 years. Happy birthday, kid.
I think it was out of fuel when I got it
There's a simple life hack that can fix that.
one weird trick
and Bic HATES it!
Homeowners over 35 are doing this.
Only 90's kids remember!
Bitcoin miners are really ruining it for everyone who wants to buy a new GPU. Some 1080 & 1080 Ti cards now are being sold for more than $1000. A 1070 is supposed to be under $400 but it's going for $700+. NVIDIA & AMD aren't too happy about it.
Fuck those Bitcoin miners, let their market crash. GPU makers should be trying to find some way to limit the use of their products to graphics only.
They should be trying to meet demand and sell to whoever wants them. They're just leaving money on the table by not cranking out enough product.
I do have a GTX 1080 but am resentful that others who would like a similar/better card for a fair price are getting screwed.
Here's a related story at PCGamesN. Problem. There are potentially enough actual GPUs to go around but not enough memory chips to drop onto those boards. Some of the stuff they say here is highly depressing.
I had no idea that btc was driving the prices of GPUs up, and that is really fascinating. I wonder if we're going to see high end desktops skyrocket in price, 90s style. Advertising them as "perfect btc miners!" or whatever.
They’re mining Etherium. Not Bitcoin.
And stop getting mad at users because a company can’t meet demand. You can get mad at the resellers if you have to, but I don’t think you get to decide how people choose to use their graphics cards.
I wouldn't be surprised if there ends up being a surplus of these cards on the market in the near future. Mining cryptocurrency can become unprofitable very quickly if energy costs go up or the currency value goes down.
And that's why the companies aren't ramping up production, they don't want to have a glut of 1080s on the market when they decide to launch the 1180
Oh serious? I know next to nothing about etherium, what makes the GPUs in demand for that versus btc? Different mining style?Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
I've not looked in a bit, but last I heard ASICs made GPU mining for BTC a waste of time and electricity back in 2014-ish. That's when everyone switched over to mining shitcoins, and trading against BTC.
a haaaaa! makes sense.
Homegrown GPU miners don't have a fast enough hashrate to make sense financially anymore. Custom miners like Antminer S9 are how people can enter in to bit mining now. They're really expensive. You can join a pool (thanks Josh!) with shittier GPU based miners that update mandates and scripts to automatically switch to whichever cryptos are in demand (this, to me, reeks of pump and dumping). Those blocks then get sold off against bitcoin. In theory any coin that gets as popular as bitcoin would run in to the same problem, eventually.
As a hobby mining cryptos has been fun. But any money I've made in bitcoin was a few years back when you could buy them as novelty joke investments.
Newegg's 1080 Ti prices are $1000-1500, mostly. Really cray.
Then there's what Error said- maybe NVIDIA doesn't want so many 1080 cards out when it's time for the 1180 (actually, I am sure it will be called the 2080). When the 20 series is out, hopefully NVIDIA (and their chip supplier TSMC) will kick up production to fix the supply problem. Here's hoping 2080 Ti is not much more than $700-800.
Right now the Titan V (the first Volta) is $4249-5300 at Amazon for a $2999 MSRP card.
Anyway NVIDIA is selling it at their own shop for $2999, at a limit of 2 per customer. Their shop prices are all MSRP (so, the 1080 Ti would be $700). Screw the resellers.
If you’re cool spending 3k on a graphics card, you deserve all this inflation.
yeah, what the fuck are you guys playing that you have to have this card now?
VR Chat probably
Can I be hentai girls yet? Like, could I have boobs that float around like High school of the dead?
This isn't so much a first-world problem as it is a 'monocle fell in champagne glass' problem.
I'm pretty sure I could get a $300 graphics card to run any game I want to play at a steady frame rate.
I sure as hell am not. A Titan is overkill unless you absolutely must run every game at 4K resolution, & IMO not worth that extra $2,200 (like I said, anything over $800 can GTFO). It's not like the jump from 2.5K to 4K resolution is THAT important. And 60 FPS is plenty. Who really needs 120 or higher?Quote:
Originally Posted by icarusfall
Maybe, just maybe, they’re making this ridiculous shit because MINERS BUY THEM.
fucking snifling nerd arjuing with me over whether my pocket monsters are legit or not.
Well, are they?
of course.
I took the fucking things apart and showed him the boards even.
He’s saying leaf green and fire read should have marking that are only on ruby/sapphire/ emerald. I’m like, no, but cant argue with a fucking nerd.
Yeah you can, this is TNL
I've had a nerd tell me that new games I was selling were sketchy because the shrink wrap was the wrong type or some such shit.
My response was something along the lines of "Yeah, you got me. I just tracked down ten mint used copies of the exact same game and had them professionally sealed so I can sell them for an extra $5 apiece."
Shit like that makes me glad I don't work anywhere that sells nerd stuff.
lol That's just a level of autism you can't compete with my man. I had a guy seriously tell me Nintendo only made 1000 NES 2 units in the U.S. so it was a very super rare item. <_>Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
I had to see the any given Sunday video again
LOL I'm surprised we haven't had to watch it more lately.
I just went to a really interesting seminar featuring a well renowned individual from France who studies the theoretical process behind algorithms for various websites (Netflix, Amazon, etc.) It was pretty academic stuff, not necessarily focusing on the programming itself but the process to DETERMINE the process. At the end where you ask questions, this one totally STEM-y bro asked (completely seriously,) "How can these algorithms work if Alexa won't understand Indian accents? It's a known issue with Amazon, and I can't get Alexa to recommend me any relevant items."
The room was like "....."
The lecturer was like "........"
I was like "........" and trying really hard not to laugh. It was so awkward and the lecturer had to explain that he didn't actually have any input on the data used for different companies, he was just using it for academic purposes and to study the process. I mean, I feel for the guy, but what a strange thing to ask......
A better response would have been "I'm sorry sir, but I couldn't understand a single word you just said."
Can I assume he is foriegn?
And that is an interface or hardware question, it doesn't necessarily have to do with the algorithm.
I guess it could be solved with an algorithm, but it wouldn't be the one used for product recommendation. It would be a different one that recognizes vocal patterns and then translates.
Speak English gooder
Get a recording for Alexa saying "Sorry, I don’t know the answer to that question"Quote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
Also, I don't care how much programming you know, some of those people don't know anything outside of that. So you get irrelevant questions.
I think programmers still benefit from the perception that it's a super hard thing that can only be done by really smart people, which was true decades ago. Today we have programmers who have no idea how a computer actually works, and development environments that can turn garbage code into functional software.
lol fuckQuote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
And yeah, he was East Asian (assuming Indian from the questions asked.) there were a few people that couldn’t get past the non-tech aspects - these people speak in code and the theoretical is really, really hard to grasp for them. I’m the opposite - I don’t know a single line of code but the theoretical process is totally fascinating and very graspable. I kind of wonder how Data Sciences are going to deal with this as the field grows - I know there’s a differentiation between qualitative and quantitative applications but it seems like there are some people who just cannot grasp the other side. Weird, but interesting! And, you know, sometimes hilarious.
That’s exactly it - the lecturer was speaking to the product recommendation algorithm and how this can be applied to other data fields, or like, how Netflix shows you shit you’d be more likely to watch due to how you rated stuff, etc. but this poor guy just wanted to know why his Alexa didn’t work :*(Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
I feel for the guy (even though it was completely the wrong forum to complain about that). I'm in a French Duolingo group with a friend from Sri Lanka. He speaks English quite clear, but his accent causes most of the vocal challenges on Duolingo to mark him as incorrect. Though his pronunciation... c'est tres terriblé.
Netflix-style machine learning is really interesting, and surprisingly not that hard! I went to a forum recently with professors proposing block-chain management of newly published literature. It's an interesting concept because it would make citations and pre-requisite readings traceable almost back to first principles.
Blockchain is the new black.
I feel like some of these comments are needless. The kid might be stupid and not indicative of people that program?Quote:
Originally Posted by Joust Williams
I feel like everyone on TNL that knows how to code anything read Sat's comments and thought the same things I did. "why would he assume the same algorithm would be used?"
I have my doubts that the kid has ever taken a programming class, as breaking down processes into specifics steps that might each do a separate thing is pretty common in coding. In something like Objective C on an apple product, you would have predefined functions that you can use that do completely different things. In C++ you might write your own and then use them later, or use separate libraries.
If they have a traditional 4 year degree in computer science or computer engineering, your comments aren't true.Quote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
They should fire whoever made music play for every show preview you're watching on Netflix. Let me browse in fucking peace!
If they had gills, they'd be fish.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
This. Or put a little preview button on each card.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mzo
Both arguments are true about programmmers btw. It’s easier to get in to coding without knowing the fundamentals and do alright. But generally these people aren’t able to do sophisticated coding challenges and generally code simple REST programs. They won’t be coding the next Shazam or self driving Tesla.
But there are a lot of great comp sci or eng programs pumping out smart little shits that will find a way through or over any problem you give them. Data scientists and mathematicians are usually smarter than either of them btw.
recommendations are something that fascinate me on a technical level, but relatively easy for e-commerce because the data to make the suggestions is pretty much there already (price range, categorization, facet assignment/technical specs, common similar purchases, browsing and purchase history) and what's not there is easy enough to record to build the data set for future up sells
well there's my opinion on that subject
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.1Quote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mzo
Start a chat and let them know your displeasure about the auto-previews. Hopefully enough people will do so for them to update the code.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewbacca