Yeah, so I've gone and pre-ordered Halo 3: ODST. Now I know what you're thinking, and you're right to do it: "But Juxtapose, doesn't this make you a hypocritical bastard for pre-ordering a product you've been ranting about being overpriced for months now?" Well, the answer's going to be a yes or a no, depending on your point of view. You see, there's a few different factors involved:
1) I wanted to clear some space off of my game shelf and sell some titles, and while I could get a better amount on private sales, I'm usually too busy/lazy to bother so I tend to sell them to stores. While I often use smaller places, like Deja Vu Discs and take cash, this time I decided to go to EB Games and trade them in towards the pre-order.
2) In all fairness to Bungie, they haven't let me down with a Halo title yet. While Halo 3 wasn't the epic conclusion I was hoping for, it's still an excellent game. Now with Curtis Creamer stating that the Campaign for Halo 3: ODST is the length of any other Halo game's Campaign, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
3) If all my pessimism turns out to be right and Halo 3: ODST is a huge let-down, it's covered by EB Games Gaming Guarantee, which means I have one week to return it for a full in-store credit. This way, I can safely play the expansion and if I love it, there's no major harm done. If I don't, then I get credit for another new game later.
So, let's break it all down. I traded in 3 titles to EB Games. Fable: The Lost Chapters (Xbox), which I bought for about $19.99 new and got $1.75 credit for. Fable II (Xbox 360), which I bought new for $35.99 and got $37.00 credit, and Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Xbox 360) which I bought new for $43.99 and got $27.00 credit for.
This means I've purchased Halo 3: ODST for $4.24 once all the credit is deducted from the $69.99 retail cost. So why do I say there's no major harm done, instead of no harm at all? Well, even though I'm trading titles in and getting the expansion for dirt cheap, I'm still technically purchasing it for full retail price, which I still believe is overpriced, which means I'm contributing to an example that it's alright to overcharge for such items. That's the harm done.
So am I a hypocrite? I've used credit wisely and gotten a solid deal here, but I've also contributed to potential standardized overpricing for the future. You tell me.
On a related topic, as most of you know, I'm not a fan of EB Games, and I did the above to take advantage of the Gaming Guarantee. I've usually found EB Games to conduct their business poorly and to grossly try and take advantage of their customers, so I rarely deal with them. For today's transaction, I first called the one EB Games I've never had any issues with. The rep I spoke to told me they were no longer accepting pre-orders for Halo 3: ODST, however I could certainly trade-in titles on launch day. Buying without a pre-order would not qualify me for the Gaming Guarantee or for the Sgt. Johnson pre-order bonus, but he recommended I try Best Buy or Wal*Mart to see if they offer the same guarantee and if so, to pre-order from them. Based on the actual conversation, I do believe this rep was trying to help me out, and not chase me away, so I just want to give credit where credit is due.
I then called another EB Games I've never shopped at before, and they were still accepting pre-orders, had the Johnson pre-order bonus, and were offering the Gaming Guarantee, so that's where I went. I still refuse to shop at the 3 other EB Games that have tried to rook me and others in the past.
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