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Gamestop Events: Why Are They Serial Codes Now?

ShinyLinoone

Internet Memes Specialist
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Something I have noticed with the event distributions in Generation VI is that most of the local distributions (in the US of A at least) involve going into thegame store, getting a card with a serial code on it from clerk, and entering it on your 3DS later. But why? This is a dumb idea for multiple reasons. First of all, it is a big step back in technological advancement. In Gens IV and V you just had to go in the store and use Mystery Gift -> receive from local wireless and BOOM! you had it. But now this current method is less convenient than even the distributions that were done in Gens I-III, where you plugged your Gameboy into a machine that would give it to you. Also, giving away serial codes means that they will run out of them. In Gens IV and V, it was a distribution game card emitting a wireless signal, so you could pop in at any time between the start and the endof the distribution period and get it no problem, but now you have to get in there ASAP or else they'll run out. This will especially be a proble when the Diancie distribution begins. What are your thoughts on this? And if you happen to know WHY they are doing this now, please tell me.
 
I wonder if it's to discourage people from gaming the system (e.g. having a disposable save file to reset & hoard event 'Mons with). Though if that is a concern I would rather see them limited to one per system...
 
I wonder if it's to discourage people from gaming the system (e.g. having a disposable save file to reset & hoard event 'Mons with). Though if that is a concern I would rather see them limited to one per system...

Although that could also pose problems to people who share a system and have one copy each.
 
Its because employees were stealing the distribution cartridges and selling them on Ebay.
 
Its because employees were stealing the distribution cartridges and selling them on Ebay.
That makes sense. It also didn't help when you really didn't have to get out of your car in order to download the event, therefore you weren't forced to walk into the store and possibly spend money. And oh, hey: got more than one cart? No prob, just switch it out. You can't do that with a one time use code.
 
And oh, hey: got more than one cart? No prob, just switch it out. You can't do that with a one time use code.

Does that mean they wouldn't give you 2 codes if you claim to own both games? (I hoped to get the upcoming Gamestop codes from people who would grab an extra code for me... I hope that's possible)
 
And oh, hey: got more than one cart? No prob, just switch it out. You can't do that with a one time use code.

Does that mean they wouldn't give you 2 codes if you claim to own both games? (I hoped to get the upcoming Gamestop codes from people who would grab an extra code for me... I hope that's possible)

I'm really curious about this too :(
What's the point in me owning more than one game if I might not be allowed to get more than one event per cart I have?
 
Some other people have gotten multiple codes for owning two games, plus one for a friend so you guys should be fine.
 
And oh, hey: got more than one cart? No prob, just switch it out. You can't do that with a one time use code.

Does that mean they wouldn't give you 2 codes if you claim to own both games? (I hoped to get the upcoming Gamestop codes from people who would grab an extra code for me... I hope that's possible)
It depends on the employee and the management. We have three GameStops where I live, and I visited two of them for the Heracronite/Pinsirite giveaway.* I asked the clerk at the first store if I could have extra. He said he'd let me have one extra (one per game) but no more than that. I thanked him and left with two cards. Visiting the second store, I asked the guy if I could have two cards, one for each game. He gave me two cards, no objections.

Note that these GameStop employees didn't just give me two cards each: they also gave me zero hassle. No nonsense about pre-ordering ORAS, no requiring me to make an in-store purchase of some kind first ... I just walked in, asked for the cards, received the cards, thanked them, and walked out. So what I'm saying is, it should come as no surprise to you that Nice Guy GameStop will do one thing while Scumbag GameStop may do something different. If you live in an area where GameStop refused to give you any of those cards last time for free, then I can hardly imagine them being willing to give you more than one card this time. But if you live somewhere like I do, where the stores have more cards than they know what to do with* and the employees are nice, then you should probably be able to get up to two cards easily (one per cartridge), and you may even be able to get more than that.

* I live in an area with population less than 200,000. Each GameStop had a pile of cards that was literally hundreds of cards thick. I'd place the conservative estimate at 300 and the liberal estimate at 1,000. Between the three stores in the area, I would therefore put their total at 1,000 cards easy. And I went to the event eight days after it began. So no, I am preeeeeeeetty darn certain that I didn't inconvenience any local kids, if that's what you were thinking. :p I asked for extras specifically to help out friends and strangers on the Internet who had been screwed over by immoral GameStops in their own local areas. And I did so over one week after the event had begun. I'd never have asked for extras if a) I had seen that the piles were really thin or b) it was Day One and I had no way to know how high demand would become later on.
 
I'm very curious about this, too. I live in a very small city in Michigan and with only one Gamestop there, I highly doubt they give away these cards. That's why I have such a problem with these kind of events, because I just don't think my Gamestop would do these. I don't blame them if they did, because where I live, nobody hardly even KNOWS about Pokemon. I've only witnessed/seen about 5-10 people, whether in stores, etc, actually have an interest in Pokemon. I know I could go easily check to see if they do, but I just...bleh, I dunno. D: That's why I just prefer these kind of things being over Wi-fi, so that I can just get them without hassle. =/ And if my Gamestop doesn't distribute them, then the next one is in Ohio, and I'm not begging my mom to go 45 minutes into Ohio just so I can go see if I can get 2 cards to get exclusive digital creatures to put into my digital game. =/ *sigh* Poke problems, I swear. xDD.
I'm not trying to be a whiner, either, I just don't like these kind of events, because I can't participate in them as easily as I'd like. But I guess I'll just have to drop by my Gamestop and just see...Doesn't mean it still don't bug me, though. :p
 
I don't live within 30 miles of any GameStop, so whether it's via wi-fi or printed serial code makes no difference to me :(
 
And oh, hey: got more than one cart? No prob, just switch it out. You can't do that with a one time use code.

Does that mean they wouldn't give you 2 codes if you claim to own both games? (I hoped to get the upcoming Gamestop codes from people who would grab an extra code for me... I hope that's possible)
It depends on the employee and the management. We have three GameStops where I live, and I visited two of them for the Heracronite/Pinsirite giveaway.* I asked the clerk at the first store if I could have extra. He said he'd let me have one extra (one per game) but no more than that. I thanked him and left with two cards. Visiting the second store, I asked the guy if I could have two cards, one for each game. He gave me two cards, no objections.

Note that these GameStop employees didn't just give me two cards each: they also gave me zero hassle. No nonsense about pre-ordering ORAS, no requiring me to make an in-store purchase of some kind first ... I just walked in, asked for the cards, received the cards, thanked them, and walked out. So what I'm saying is, it should come as no surprise to you that Nice Guy GameStop will do one thing while Scumbag GameStop may do something different. If you live in an area where GameStop refused to give you any of those cards last time for free, then I can hardly imagine them being willing to give you more than one card this time. But if you live somewhere like I do, where the stores have more cards than they know what to do with* and the employees are nice, then you should probably be able to get up to two cards easily (one per cartridge), and you may even be able to get more than that.

* I live in an area with population less than 200,000. Each GameStop had a pile of cards that was literally hundreds of cards thick. I'd place the conservative estimate at 300 and the liberal estimate at 1,000. Between the three stores in the area, I would therefore put their total at 1,000 cards easy. And I went to the event eight days after it began. So no, I am preeeeeeeetty darn certain that I didn't inconvenience any local kids, if that's what you were thinking. :p I asked for extras specifically to help out friends and strangers on the Internet who had been screwed over by immoral GameStops in their own local areas. And I did so over one week after the event had begun. I'd never have asked for extras if a) I had seen that the piles were really thin or b) it was Day One and I had no way to know how high demand would become later on.
Wow they had that many cards at your local stores?!? The district I work in only got like one packet of those cards per store. :(
 
And oh, hey: got more than one cart? No prob, just switch it out. You can't do that with a one time use code.

Does that mean they wouldn't give you 2 codes if you claim to own both games? (I hoped to get the upcoming Gamestop codes from people who would grab an extra code for me... I hope that's possible)
It depends on the employee and the management. We have three GameStops where I live, and I visited two of them for the Heracronite/Pinsirite giveaway.* I asked the clerk at the first store if I could have extra. He said he'd let me have one extra (one per game) but no more than that. I thanked him and left with two cards. Visiting the second store, I asked the guy if I could have two cards, one for each game. He gave me two cards, no objections.

Note that these GameStop employees didn't just give me two cards each: they also gave me zero hassle. No nonsense about pre-ordering ORAS, no requiring me to make an in-store purchase of some kind first ... I just walked in, asked for the cards, received the cards, thanked them, and walked out. So what I'm saying is, it should come as no surprise to you that Nice Guy GameStop will do one thing while Scumbag GameStop may do something different. If you live in an area where GameStop refused to give you any of those cards last time for free, then I can hardly imagine them being willing to give you more than one card this time. But if you live somewhere like I do, where the stores have more cards than they know what to do with* and the employees are nice, then you should probably be able to get up to two cards easily (one per cartridge), and you may even be able to get more than that.

* I live in an area with population less than 200,000. Each GameStop had a pile of cards that was literally hundreds of cards thick. I'd place the conservative estimate at 300 and the liberal estimate at 1,000. Between the three stores in the area, I would therefore put their total at 1,000 cards easy. And I went to the event eight days after it began. So no, I am preeeeeeeetty darn certain that I didn't inconvenience any local kids, if that's what you were thinking. :p I asked for extras specifically to help out friends and strangers on the Internet who had been screwed over by immoral GameStops in their own local areas. And I did so over one week after the event had begun. I'd never have asked for extras if a) I had seen that the piles were really thin or b) it was Day One and I had no way to know how high demand would become later on.
Wow they had that many cards at your local stores?!? The district I work in only got like one packet of those cards per store. :(
That's what it looked like to me. The piles were as thick as multiple Pokémon decks stacked on top of one another. If that constitutes a single "packet," then sure, they may have only gotten a packet or two. But to me a packet sounds like it'd contain no more than thirty cards. And they had way, way way more than thirty from the look of it.
 
That's what it looked like to me. The piles were as thick as multiple Pokémon decks stacked on top of one another. If that constitutes a single "packet," then sure, they may have only gotten a packet or two. But to me a packet sounds like it'd contain no more than thirty cards. And they had way, way way more than thirty from the look of it.
There were only 40 cards in a packet so that's crazy impressive! That's great that you had didn't have any trouble getting two cards at least.
 
Well, if anyone gets lucky and feels generous... I'd love getting one or two of your extra codes (I don't live in the US so visiting Gamestop is impossible for me... I do own the American 3DS tho so the codes would work... and I know at least one friend who's same as me so if I manage to get two codes one would go to him)
 
Sigh... anyone betting that there'll be a thread around here for the giveaways of extra serial codes soon? For some people (like me) who can't go to Gamestop often (and all the ones around the area are closing), getting a code off of someone else might be the only option for obtaining events. Which kind of backfires on Gamestop's "make them come into the store" idea. Come on...
 
Yes that would be gaming the system, definitely frowned upon. (Though if they decide to do Gamestop serial code distributions for the ORAS demo I'm very tempted to ask someone -- but only because I gave them one of my serial codes for the Smash Bros. demo....)
 
I recieved a code from someone, so just letting you all know I don't need a code anymore... so if anyone got extras maybe it can go to other people here who need it :)
Now let's hope I can manage to get the Diancie code later on too (and the ORAS demo, but who knows what method will be needed for that...)
 
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