I love going to events! It’s a new experience for me. I get to meet other bloggers, and get information about different companies to share with all of you.
GameStop is the world’s largest multichannel video game retailer. 42% of shoppers plan to purchase video game related items for the children this holiday season. GameStop will be the shopping spot.
The Navigate The Holidays With GameStop Event was an interesting one. I didn’t know what to expect coming to this function. I was told that we were to meet at a restaurant called II Fornaio in Palo Alto. I walked in and right away, I was greeted with a hand shake and a smile. Beth from TechMamas and Suzanne from Techlicious were hosting the event.
Other bloggers kept trickling in. One by one, they came, sat down, and chatted away.
After everyone got seated and comfortable, Suzanne stood up and started to speak to us about statistics and other information in regards to gaming for families. Most to which I didn’t know anything about.
Suzanne stated that games are introduced to kids a quite any early age. On average, game consoles are are introduced at the age of 8. Where as the online games are introduced at the age of 10. In some case kids are exposed to games much younger now a days due to parents handing off their phone or other devices to their kids occupied while out and about. Statistically, 49% of parents “sometimes” give a handheld video games to their child. 17% said they “often” do.
I know in our home, gaming was introduced early. Hubby is a gamer and tech geek. For as long as the kids can remember we have had electronic games in the household. Just in the last few years we have put a TV in their rooms. I was informed that 46% of 5-8 year olds have a tv in their room. I don’t mind that mines have a tv in their room. I am strict about how many hours they spend on it anyway. No games until the weekends and even then they are limited. Tv watching during the week is limited to just the evens after responsibilities around the house are done. They get maybe, an hour to two hours before bed.
Suzanne went on to talk about whether or not gaming is bad for children, as most suggest that they are. Did you know there is a study conducted that has proven that video games introduced to kids as young as 5, have no effect on the child’s attention, behavior, or emotional health. Many studies have suggested that video games have help improved hand-eye coordination, and memory formation. Games are also know to be able to help dyslexic children to read better.
Statistics on good family material:
• Games are social
• 16% play with parents
• 40% play with friends
• 17% play with their spouse or significant other
• 34% play with other family members
• Video games are a family activity
• 40% of parents play video games with their children at least weekly
• Most video games being sold are not inappropriate for kids
• 73% of the 245.6 million video games sold in 2011 were rated Everyone (E), Teen (T) or Everyone 10+ (E10+)
• 91% of games rated by ESRB in 2012 are E, T or E10+ From Entertainment Software Association
*Want to know more about the ESRB ratings? Check out this ESRB guide.
As parents, we should work to stay on top of what our children are exposed to. Whether it is with games, movies, or on tv. It’s our job to know what is appropriate, and what is not. Below are the names of two websites that are dedicated to providing you with this type of information. Reviews of all things entertainment in the technical that can helps us parents to be able to make informed decisions for our children.
After Susanne was done speaking we had another speaker by the name of Steven from a GameStop store in the bay area. He had a lot of great things to say about the company he represents, and this holiday shopping season.
I didn’t know, and was informed, that you could trade other electronics devices. Not only can you trade in your consoles and games, but you can also trade in Apple products, cell phones, and even tablets. Want to know something else cool about trade-ins? You can trade-in your game console even if it doesn’t work. If you have all of the cords that you will be good to go. GameStop has the best trade in rate on apple products which that have been trading in for the last 2 1/2 years or so.
Trade-in your old games & gear for credit:
• Get instant in-store credit for the old games and consumer electronics you bring in
• For current titles get up to 50% back in credit
• Game systems earn between $80-$110 in credit
• For trade-ins, the disc must be in working order, but the manual and case are not required
• Nearly 20% of gifters plan to use trade-ins to help defer gift costs*
GameStop also has a 7 day policy for returns. You can buy a pre-owned game, take it home, try it out and if it was not what your little gamer wanted, you have up to 7 days to return it. You get the full value for the pre-owned game that you paid for. Once you open up a new game that you have purchased, it’s yours. However, you can trade them in just not get the full value back.
When trading in your Nintendo DS game, you can do so without their game cases.
Suggestive buys that GameStop offers:
Other bloggers I met while I was at the event:
All in all, I had a great time. I mingled, ate good, and learned a few things the I didn’t know before about GameStop and what they offer.