The Geeks OUT Podcast: GameStop Saga: The Snyder Cut

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s episode super-sized episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Fwee Carter, as they discuss the epic battle of new GameStop investors vs. hedge fund companies, get excited for the new Godzilla vs. Kong trailer, and celebrate the nominees of the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards in This Week in Queer. 

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN:  Redditors support GameStop by taking on Wall Street
FWEE: Netflix is developing the queer webcomic Heartstopper

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Palmer, The Hardy Boys, Fate: The Winx Saga
FWEE: WandaVision, Digimon 2020

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Netflix developing anime Tomb Raider series 

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Nominations for the GLAAD Media Awards announced

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

• Warner Bros. promotes all the movies premiering on HBO Max this year
• HBO Max announces the Snyder Cut is coming March 18
• Netflix developing animated musical based on The Witch Boy
• New trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon
• Kevin Hart joins Cate Blanchett in Borderlands movie
• Luke Evans joins the live-action Pinocchio movie

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TV

• Canadian/CW series Trickster canceled due to fake indigenous co-creator
• New trailer for the final season of Black Lightning
• Tim Drake has been added to season 3 of Titans
• New trailer for It’s a Sin
• New teaser for The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
• New trailer for The Snoopy Show
• Main cast for The Sandman announced

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VIDEO GAMES

• You can no longer have sex with Keanu in Cyberpunk 2077
• According to Activision Blizzard, policies to hire diverse workers is too hard
• Konami shutters all 3 production divisions in restructure

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Monica/Geraldine
• FWEE: Darcy 

GameStop the Insanity

During these trying times we’ve all come to rely, more than ever, on the essential services that keep us fed and healthy.  Supermarkets.  Pharmacies.  Laundromats.  …GameStop?

 If you’re hearing a chorus of “One of these things is not like the others…” right now, you’re not alone.  Employees and customers alike have been confounded by GameStop’s stubborn refusal to close even amidst the escalating COVID-19 crisis and the shuttering of virtually all retail stores outside of groceries and pharmacies and stores that offer similar product.  Video game site Kotaku has done excellent reporting on this subject, from fears that corporate wasn’t doing enough to safeguard in the early days of the outbreak, to the doublespeak insistence that by providing equipment for remote work and learning, GameStop can be considered “essential” and not mandated to close– never mind that their high-end keyboards and accessories are hardly what someone would pick up for basic needs, or that midnight launch parties for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal were ill-advised in light of restrictions on large gatherings.  Employees were even provided with a letter to show law authorities in case they tried to enforce closure; in Athens, Georgia, police officers countered that letter with one of their own, which did not include the store on its list of essential businesses. A popular reddit thread started by an employee shed further light on the company’s misguided and potentially dangerous approach to the pandemic.

Police officers in Athens, Georgia, forced a local GameStop to close.

This past weekend, GameStop finally switched to a door delivery model and closed stores to customers—those that remain open or have not been forced to close by local ordinances—and officially discontinued video game trade-ins and in-store events.  Calls to a number of NYC area GameStop locations on Tuesday were either not answered, busy, or resulted in a perky message explaining that some stores have been closed in response to COVID-19  concerns.  This is clearly the right move, but as the reddit poster observed, it should not have taken this long for the company to do so.  When we come out of this pandemic, and begin to shop at retail stores, we should think carefully about where our dollars go.  GameStop failed both its employees and the buying public by disregarding their safety in a serious situation, and I, for one, will not be supporting them in the future.