Today I went downtown to check out some hardware / software. There are 3 big technology store chains downtown (Saturn, Media Markt, ProMarkt). I used to enjoy simply browsing through their stuff. Recently, I realized that they grow more and more redundant up to the point where I don’t see a reason to go there anymore.
I was interested in good deals on a TV Displays for CGL. I also wanted to see a 27″ Dell display in action. I accomplished neither. None of the stores had any kind of 27″ computer display. As for the TVs – yes there were many. But every time I typed a “special deal” model name in my iPhone, I found them considerably cheaper on-line. And I wasn’t even looking! They were even cheaper right there on Amazon!
It’s getting even worse with games. I still check out the shelves, going through the motions. But in the end, it’s completely irrational. I will hardly ever purchase any of the games. They are more expensive than on-line. They are often cut due to German regulations. But the worst is that most of them are translated into German. I recently popped in Mass Effect 2 to see how it looks. It is completely re-dubbed in German language and you can’t switch. Both delivery and translation are unbearable. Even the audio quality is bad with volume being poorly adjusted to sound effects. I was struggling to get trough the tutorial.
When I was in San Francisco I was surprised how there were no large tech stores downtown anymore. But I figure it is a logical evolution of the market.
I also realized that visiting Media Markt is completetly redundant as I don’t feel any need to buy games localized to German anymore. Usually I get angry about the quality of the localization or just think that the original voice-overs just sound well… not “better” but definitely “more correct”. All that stuff with lip-sync and so on just fits better.
The question is: How long will we even need those anymore? In the small town in Austria where I used to live there originally were a lot of shops that used to sell games. Nowadays it’s exactly one small store, one big Austrian chain and during the last few years a Media Markt popped up here too.