hypercoyote

@Dee123 Okay? I wasn't saying the world should listen to the US, I was saying, speaking for the US, as in, this is what's happening in the US.

@KingMike Yeah, I think based on the comment you made before this one, you understood what I was saying.

@SteveDaSteve Most people don't want to accept that this situation is good for their business and it's not necessarily in their best interest to fix it right now. A lot of people think printing more cards = making more money, but sometimes the hype that shortages generate drives even more profits in other areas of their business.

@Pillowpants There was another person included in my reply, so the part you're referring to was probably addressing their message.

@Pillowpants @solarwolf07
Might as well just answer both in one post.

I have to be real with you and say that waiting 2hrs in-person for such a high-demand product is a laughably small amount of time. I've known some people to camp overnight and still miss out. If you think 2hrs is a long time to wait, you are in for some heartbreak down the road. When you know a product is in high-demand, you have to expect it's not going to be easy to get and if you don't get it, it's not someone else's fault, you were just late to the game.

I've been collecting for YEARS. Back in 2000, I had to camp out in the store for 6hrs when the PS2 came out because stores were only getting a handful of stock and people were upselling the systems even back then. Supply and demand is nothing new to the world. When a product is in high demand and the manufacturer doesn't increase supply to meet it, there will always be people who take advantage of the situation to make money. That's just life and you just have to know what you're getting into. Is it sad that it has to be this way for some cards or whatever? Absolutely. But it's better that it's something we don't need rather than something we do need, like food.

The real problem I see is a two-fold issue, with the use bots to hammer online sites and online sites terribly handling product releases. Most of the time, the people considered "scalpers" aren't causing the problem. The real problem is organized automated systems allowing a small number of people to buy THOUSANDS of a product. A person walking out of the store with 3 ETBs they plan to sell is a drop in the bucket compared to that. I've found that buying in person has been a much smoother and easier experience compared to chasing online alert accounts and fighting broken online checkouts. Investing a few hours of my time to stand outside a store is way better than the FOMO of online buying.

To close the essay, it's most likely a much smaller number of people creating the scalping problems than people realize, but regardless of the number, complaining and hating scalpers isn't going to change anything. People need to be writing real complaints directed at the retailers who don't care how miserable the experience is for their online buyers since they are making the same amount of money whether it goes to bots or real buyers. And those retailers are most likely not reading comments on Twitter or NintendoLife.

@kfflscnt Yeah, after I typed that, I was thinking it through more. There's actually a group that hits all the major cities around me and I guess they share the profits within the group. One of the people claiming they needed the money was in that group. So maybe with that kind of coverage, they turn a good profit. If the local jobs aren't paying well or just not available at all, then I guess it would truly be their only option, but man would I hate living a life where my income was entirely dependent on snagging product and upselling it to other people.

@Pillowpants that type of question would generally be considered a sarcastic one. You are saying you were late to buy it and then blaming scalpers for it.

@MTMike87 Speaking for the US, it's because some people are using this as income. I heard one person trying to tell people it was their only way to pay the bills. I'm like 20% sympathetic because I do understand times are hard for a lot of people in the US, but 80% of me is like, if you have the gas money and time to run around all the places and buy up all the stock, I feel like you could also just work a job. They aren't picking up that much at each stop, so they can't be making that much money off of it.

Other people I've heard just rip packs and go sell them at card shows. I'm just shaking my head listening to them rattle off card prices and what they pulled, but I bet they couldn't tell me a single thing about the actual Pokemon series. It really is an unhealthy market here for mixed reasons, but mostly it just boils down to greed I think.

@Pillowpants Did scalpers physically force you to be late buying the product?

@Monad I was literally thinking the same thing lol. Like, we know nobody expected a sequel but just so you know, there won't be a sequel.

@LinktotheFuture I'm critiquing a corporate sales tactic; you're critiquing my mindset. Since we aren't even talking about the same thing anymore, I think we've reached the end of this side quest. Enjoy the game. 👍

@LinktotheFuture My fault, I thought you were actually trying to understand it.

@LinktotheFuture A person may not be "afraid" of missing out, but if you're like me, if I feel like content is being intentionally held hostage through events, it makes me feel a bit robbed of the experience. So FOMO is a marketing tactic to prey on people's fears, but even for people who aren't sucked into it, it detracts from their experience by what they are missing.

@LinktotheFuture FOMO is used as a marketing technique by urging people to buy the game Day 1 or risk losing out on exclusive content. It's extremely common with Pokemon games, like Legend ZA's online-only Mega Stones or Scarlet Violet's 7-star Tera Raids.

@RupeeClock You're right. Given their history of doing this, any reasonable person would've taken it the same way, that it was an online initiated limited time event and not a scheduled (and repeatable via time travel) in-game event. That's a huge relief for me because I really didn't want to feel forced to play this every day, that kills the fun for me.

@RupeeClock so it's like Animal Crossing where time triggers the events, not like ScarletViolet where Nintendo controls the timing online?

@RupeeClock this is spot on

@ShadLink I stopped caring about the Mega Stones because of that fact. I hated ranked online battles

@RupeeClock guess you can sell it if they ever decide to do a real physical release.

For anyone following this guide and wondering why the clown is blocking the TV station entrance: after defeating Roark, go north from Jubilife City and fight the Team Galactic grunts. Then the clown will be gone and you can get into the TV Station.

@Spider-Kev what bad take on this issue.

Some of those cancellations are due to CC companies blocking the charge at ship time. Make sure you check with your CC to see if they have flagged any transactions as fraudulent. Most retailers will let you know when this happens and give you a chance to correct it but not all do.

I couldn't imagine me buying this unless I was somehow forced to, but unless it was a game I absolutely had to play, I still wouldn't buy it.

@Princess_Lilly Yeah, translated. I thought it was Shikata ga nai......

No, no, "we" aren't getting it, Japan is getting it.

@HRdepartment I mean, I understand the frustration. But price gouging has been around as long as commerce has been. Like some others said, you can't gouge people who won't buy, so the only real solution is for people to stop buying this stuff on the second-market. That and retailers taking more responsibility to limit purchases.

@HRdepartment Yeah, it's almost like people have different experiences and opinions 😂

@Pickettfury I actually got it right out of High School 😂 I was pretty disciplined with money and I knew I needed something if I wanted to buy online.

Something to keep in mind as y'all condemn people you don't know to hell. When I was a broke college student, all I had was a credit card and time (yes, I had a job too, that paid almost nothing). I would buy systems and scalp them to fund my game purchases. I wasn't clearing the stock out but I'd preorder a couple extra of things I knew would be rare. When y'all talk about hating scalpers, some people are like I was then. Not everyone is botting their way to 100's of these things.

@BodkinDQ I think most people in here are doing it pretty well, so it's not too idealistic.

@mikejs78 Yeah, I figured it was no small feat. Had no idea of the costs though.

@PharoneTheGnome I've actually had that same question, but I imagine there's currently no factories in the US setup to do that. They'd have to get that in place, which takes time.

@KoopaTheGamer Because console makers often sell consoles at a loss anyway. They didn't cause the situation, but it's also wild to pass the problem onto their customers when they have already hiked the price of games way up.

@PharoneTheGnome Literally. I was looking at my shelf the other day asking "why am I still buying games" 😂 The ONLY reason I want a Switch 2 is playing Pokemon S/V's updated Switch 2 release.

@BodkinDQ You can talk about political events without the topic getting political. Nintendo needs to just take an L on this, maybe they can make the money back with their paid tech demo.

@ElkinFencer10 Because games typically don't follow inflation. If they did, they'd be $180 today. These companies are still making a profit at $60-$70, they are just pricing it higher because they can and they know people will pay it.

Not buying it on principle. It's a slap in the face to even charge for it after you just dropped $450+ for the system. Definitely ashamed of this "New Nintendo" direction of nickle and diming the fan base.

@napabar That's literally the only advantage I see. Money wise, that is a big plus, but I really hope publishers don't opt to ONLY use this method and ignore a full physical release.

@-wc- Right, I was confused how we go from "This is the best Mario game in 33 years" to "nothing to see here" 😂

@EarthboundBenjy I actually think going viral is a very intentional process. Those influencers get paid to promote these products, there's nothing organic about any of it. The only question is how viral something goes.

@Ironcore Sorry, about half the Internet beat you to that comment.

If I was a developer, I'd start moving off the platform immediately. This is just a way to save face and make no mistake they are going to push through what they wanted to somehow.

@Anti-Matter Chief Operating Officer

@PinderSchloss https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nuzlocke_Challenge

You're welcome

@mariomaster96 I agree 100%. I played S/V before Sw/Sh and I was extremely underwhelmed at the content of the latter. S/V immersed me in the Pokemon world (not as much as PLA, but close) and I felt I really went on an adventure. Sw/Sh felt like a spin-off game with how short they were and how little actually happened. I kept expecting there to be a factory off the beaten path or SOMETHING for me to discover and there was almost 0 things that I wasn't forced through as part of the main storyline. The Gen1 game had more surprises than Sw/Sh.

@FirstEmperor Okay, good job, you beat me. Have a great night.

@FirstEmperor "(of an object) not having been given an attractive surface appearance as the final stage of manufacture."

@FirstEmperor I mean, you can Google it and see it's one of the dictionary definitions of it, so I wouldn't call it a stretch. If you have ever worked with furniture, it's a common term to use in the way I described.

@FirstEmperor Depends on how they're using the term "unfinished". You can have a functional kitchen table that's "unfinished" and has a rough texture because it was never sanded to smooth it out. I think that's an appropriate description for the games. I enjoy them but I also recognize the roughness.

I've played through both games and the hate they get for bugs is a bit overblown. I mean, stuff like this definitely could've been avoided with proper testing, but still the games are very much playable AND enjoyable.