Crossing town yesterday was rare treat. I’d forgotten just how much I’d missed normalcy. There was one passenger on the bus shouting at his reflection but the trip went without a hitch, was dirt cheap and my twelve year old car passed its MOT without a hitch! Even with a mirror that I bolted on and a large dent where a bollard jumped out and hit me; I was in a good mood. Then I passed through the city centre…….
There are so many question marks looming over our centres. We hated clone stores, the same old retailers in any town any where. We thought pedestrianisation would make shopping safe and then we discovered tents setting up in shop doorways. We hate ourselves for buying everything on Amazon but miss bricks and mortar. Even the girl in Greggs this morning confided in me that she prefers Macdonalds Mc Muffin meals and they are only available from the net!
My regular reader will know I distrust change. Over the last thirty years I have fallen out of love with going to town. As a twelve year old it was an adventure, space invader taxi rank arcades and the smell of Wimpy fried onions. Then it became a place to visit under duress, the endless hours stood outside shops waiting for an important other to finish deliberating. Now it’s just a chore but I do like and value the personal touch of meeting people face to face. In terms of gaming, our hobby can be quite insular and having a place to congregate with like minded individuals was a real boon.
Whilst not vending tabletop gaming, Game and the American GameStop were both worth a visit. I’m old enough to remember Blockbuster fondly. Blockbuster failed to see the writing on the wall and the result was tragic. Empty shops are so depressing and what’s more they weren’t going to be replaced anytime soon by the next wave. GameStop had to deal with gamers not purchasing physical product anymore. What does a music shop or Gamestore sell if there is no product? What will local gamestores sell when we are all home printing miniatures and downloading PDFs?
Gaming has a knack for standing up to bullies. Gamergate saw the “community” stand up to “woke” heroines being parachuted into games. Geeks who live with their mums may fantasise about being dominated by a kickass double armed Croft vixen but real femminists don’t! The average male will still have more upper body strength that the average female; dream on basement dweller! Women can carry another life inside them, they don’t need to compete with males on battlefield; real or imaginary. 2020 was a year when “peaceful protesters” , immune to Covid, rioted and set fires. The Corporate world saw the writing on the wall and suddenly earnest representatives came forward to confess their “guilt” and contrition for events they were never a part of, at a time they were often not even alive. Gamers cried foul and the corporations were made to look foolish at best and cowardly at worst. Orcs ( or ORKZ) are not representations of minorities and you can’t understand history without appreciating the pivotal role that women have always played. The meme that “the Steward of Gondor is not the true King ” does unnerve the Biden camp though!
The third time the IT crowd have stepped up concerns GameStop of course. New board members were elected and the plan was to shed over 400 stores and move online. The US stock market had their doubts. They sensed a killing and an ailing business means profits for the short market. Short investors borrowed shares in Gamestock, sold them and promised to give them back once the market price had fallen and a profit had been made. However, this is 2021 and not 2008. Steward Biden’s apparatchiks may have been paid handsomely for their undoubtedly marvellous after dinner speeches ( allegedly 800, 000 dollars US per yearfor one speaker) but, the retail market was not going to be rolled over. By buying GameStop shares the price went up and up and a lot of unhappy short investors were feeling the pressure. As the price goes ever higher, for a so called ailing business, the Stock Market called foul and called for their friends in the Adminiatration to help…..
Will the Stock Market once again be saved by the Swamp? Who can guess but once again, the Reddit resistance has reminded us all that we don’t have to accept one rule for them and another for us! Would I hold on to my stock or take a windfall? Don’t ask me I play with toy soldiers but sometimes I just love the watch things turn out!
Miguel Sanchez
All rights reserved. Stocks may go up as well as down, but if they keep going up, our enemies may cease wrecking our countries!
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