PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
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This year in my usual meanderings I stumbled upon something that struck me as rather bizarre. While this is, for sure, not out of the ordinary on the Internet, indeed it happens more times per day than I load up a browser, in this particular instance the activity struck me as particularly mindboggling. I was browsing the Red Flag Deals forums and several times I came across terms that I had no idea what they meant. Again, not an entirely uncommon occurance on the Internet, but that coupled together with me being in the Computers and Video Gaming forum, the situation became almost unnerving.

What I soon discovered was that there exists an entire subculture around the trading of merchandise, price-matching, and scouting bargains. They even have their own slang, acronyms, and methods, and, I dare say, rituals of employee manipulation. (Granted, when fighting big business and the MAN this sounds far less abhorrent than how I’ve stated it). Naturally bargain hunters have been enabled by the Internet, but this is taking it to a new level. There are now sites like TIVs.ca, a site featuring current information about the value you would receive should you trade in your video games to specific stores. I completely understand wanting to get the most value for your game once you are done with it, and by all means make the most educated choice. The impression I got from reading the forums was that it was not uncommon for people to actually buy video games for the sake of trading them in for higher credit elsewhere.

I’m probably just cynical about this whole deal, but the relative gain that you could receive from this seems to be far outweighed by the effort put in. There were many reports of purchases of a certain game, where people go to the extent to get the flyer and price-match at a different store halfway across the city for the sake of gaining 10% off, which, in many cases since the item was on sale to begin with, amounts to a dollar or two. It’s like an entirely new stock market, fueled by the ease of sharing of social knowledge and hindered by the annoying reality that in order to partake you actually have to get up out of your chair and spend more money in gas, more time in travel, and more social graces with irritated, minimum-wage employees just so that you can get your sweet, sweet bargain. Sign me up.

If you are still reading after that you obviously have nothing better to do, which probably describes most of my readership anyway. At least we’re starting from common ground.

In all reality, though, I have no idea what direction this blog will take, and so it seems foolish to start off with preconceptions about it. We all look for so-called ‘new beginnings’, but I feel like that in itself is a misnomer; we cannot possibly hope to leave everything behind, as what we are today is irrevocably formed by our dispositions and experiences in the past. My only hope is that, like myself as a person, this blog will continuously evolve and change to reflect or rebuke what is going on around it.

There we go, existentialism out of the way. There’s a lot happening in the Internet and new media, and I hope to reflect on some of the social and technological situations that surround that rather broad definition of a topic. But to do so in a fun, “let’s play video games” type of way.

Oh, and some sports. Because, well, I like them.

I’m gradually moving all my old stuff over, so stay tuned. Comments will always be welcome, so sound off!