Back in 2022, I was at a retail chain looking for a copy of “Pokémon Legends: Arceus”. Upon reaching the games section and asking an employee to open the game case, I was told that they were actually holding copies at the electronics counter since it was release day! Great!

I started to head to the counter, only to be approached by a strange man. I am a small, young-looking woman.

Man: “I heard you were looking for Legend Of Zelda? Just so you know, Zelda is actually the princess, and the hero is Link.”

Me: *Uncomfortable* “I was actually looking for the Pokémon game…”

Man: “Oh.”

And he walked off. I went to get my game and got the heck out of that store, lest I see that man again that day!

Our fast food place does kids’ meals that come with a toy. A father is getting a meal for himself and his son.

Customer: “And a kids’ meal for my son. Make sure the toy is for boys.”

Me: “Actually, the toys aren’t grouped like that. They’re all for all children.”

Customer: “So, like gender-neutral? Is this that woke s***?”

Me: “Uh… no, sir. It’s just toys.”

Customer: “Toys come for boys or for girls! If you’re selling that any-boy-can-be-a-girl s***, then we’re gonna have a problem!”

Me: “If you think Pokémon trading cards need to be assigned a gender identity, then I think you’re the one with a problem, sir.”

The customer’s kid finally looks up from playing his Nintendo; coincidentally, the game he’s playing is Pokémon.

Customer’s Son: “Dad, the Pikachu isn’t going to make me want to wear a dress. You have a hard enough time getting me to put on pants.”

The father grumbled but got his son his gender-neutral Pokémon children’s meal.

I work in a video game store that does trades. A young boy, maybe around twelve or so, comes in with a stack of old games.

Boy: “How much can I get for these? I’m trying to get the new Mario game.”

Me: “Well, the Pokémon game here might get you something, but all these others I can only give a few cents for. If you had the boxes, I might be able to offer more.”

Boy: “Oh… I see. Thank you for your time.”

The boy politely stacks up his games and is about to leave when an older gentleman, maybe late sixties at a guess, comes rushing over.

Old Man: *Excitedly* “Is that Pokémon HeartGold?

Boy: “Uh… yeah.”

Old Man: “Excellent! I have SoulSilver! I needed that to pair with it!”

Boy: “Is it for your grandson?”

Old Man: *Mock-offended* “No, my young friend! It’s for me!“

Boy: “You play Pokémon?!”

Old Man: “Since 1996!”

Boy: “Whoooooa! But… you didn’t stop when you got… old?”

Old Man: “Let me give you some advice that has served me well. You don’t stop playing because you get old; you get old because you stop playing.”

Boy: “Whoooooa!”

Old Man: “Play forever, young man!” *To me* “How much is the Mario game he wants?”

Me: “It’s $59.99.”

Old Man: *To the boy* “I’ll give you sixty for the game.”

The old man handed over the cash (after I had tested that the game worked), and the boy excitedly got his new game. I will never forget that man’s amazing advice, from one generation of gamer to another.

The company I work for is pretty hard to get into, even if you have an impressive resume or an awesome reference. Unfortunately, we had a new client. In one quarter, his business would keep our lights on for about ten years. He asked if his cousin or “little nephew” could have an entry-level position at our company, and we reluctantly said yes.

[Nephew] surfed the web all day looking at cars to buy. Whenever we’d ask him if he had completed a task, he’d either lie to us and say he had or say he didn’t know how to do it and didn’t want to bother any of us for help. Then, [Nephew] brought all of his gaming systems into the conference room, saying that clients could play them while they waited. That would have been nice, but [Nephew] played games in the conference room all day.

So, it came to a point where we gave him the least amount of work to do — ordering paper, delivering lunch, etc.

Two years later, the client came to us.

Client: “I’m going to have [Nephew] handle the work I was giving you. It’s to help him start his own consulting firm.”

Apparently, the kid had lied like no other, making his uncle believe that he was helping run our company.

Three months later, the client came back to us for our business.

Client: “That a** tried hiring a consulting firm to the side to do his work so he could play Sonic The Hedgehog all day!”

Client: “We want you to design an online strategy game for us. You know, one of those ‘build your empire online’ types.”

Me: “Okay, well, I’ll need some information from you first, but I can tell you up front that it will need at least a team of four to six people working for at least six months to deliver a beta, which will also require testing and further development.”

Client: “We don’t want to commit to anything, so no contracts or specifications. You just create a game, and if our general manager likes it, he will buy it for lots of money.”