Tags
final fantasy, final fantasy XI, final fantasy XIV, gay, mmorpg, retail, rogue, shoplifting, theft, thief, World of Warcraft
I have to admit that since I’m a person who was quite fond of reading fantasy novels in my prime book-reading years, I held a soft spot for the sneaky characters that always existed within the stories. The ones who could sneakily enter into a room and easily escape without being noticed and a bit richer for it. The grace and daring at which these things were achieved left me envious for the same kind of abilities. I would sneak around the house pretending to skirt around the house without anyone knowing or noticing.
My love for these social misfits has even crossed over into the MMORPGs I’ve played. In Final Fantasy XI, I was a career thief and loved every part of playing that class. Both times I’ve played World of Warcraft (and I’ll probably pick it up again), I was a Rogue main and loved the stealthiness of the jobs. Being able to move quickly and sneak up on things, unleashing big damage while completing certain requirements and having advantages when it came to making money and acquiring items came in real handy when I needed it. Plus I just loved how my characters looked in the lightweight leather gear, quite hot and form-fitting. I hated how heavier damage jobs had to wear clunky gear…like being in a sardine can. I’ll take my evasiveness over that any day.
Even in it’s current state, I’d probably still be playing Final Fantasy XIV if they were to add a thief-type job to job list. None of the current jobs really speak to me. Tried playing a pugilist for a while but could never really get into the feel.
Now I told you all that to tell you this. Even though I love the concept of thievery in a fantasy world far, far away from my current life…the idea of it in the real world just appalls me quite frankly. Now, I’m not talking about the steal-a-piece-of-bread-to-feed-your-family, Jean Valjean kind of way. I’m talking in it’s very simplest, shoplifting.
I’ve been in the retail clothing world for almost 9 years now and it still amazes me the things some lifters will do to attempt to take something as temporary and materialistic as clothing. Or better yet, to take something that materialistic and then use it against us at another location against our return policies in order to get cash. It takes a skewed view of life and a distorted view of what’s right and wrong to actually take these items and stuff them into places unknown. Despite video cameras, the constant threat of a loss prevention agent around the corner, or even the presence of fellow shoppers and employees of these stores are not enough to deter these people from what they believe is an entitlement or worthy venture.
Image via Wikipedia
It is crazy how they are able to look our employees in the face and pretend that they haven’t done anything wrong while making a stalwart walk through the doors with buzzers blaring. I thought I had seen it all until a few nights ago when we received a call from an individual pretending to be our Regional Manager, calling to tell our closing manager to allow a “past customer” in a “inter-state transition” to return 20 pair of jeans without a receipt, bypass our current return policies and give a full cash refund (which would amount to probably well over $500). The caller didn’t even know the current time the store closes (we close at 9, and the caller said the customer would be in at 9:30, yeah). So a quick call to our store manager, our district manager and our regional loss prevention guy uncovered everything we needed to know.
We ended up not seeing the person and having to deal with that situation, but it still baffles me the audacity of the things folks will try to do in the realm of thievery. It hurts my soul just a little bit everytime I’m ringing up hard-working and honest customers’ purchases and I see folks trying to make it out of the store with items stuffed anywhere from purses, bags, to sweatpants. I’d be embarrassed.
I know that they are quite the minority, and I would like to thank each and every person out there who makes their purchases everyday the honest way. Thank you for helping me maintain a job.
A Bit of Ste - Revisited 
I tried out FFXIV Recently, If they bring back the XI jobs I’ll definitely be more interested as well. 🙂
Yay! If it comes out for the ps3 at some point, I’ll def be playing it more too but until then I’m more of a console guy than a computer player. blah. Only reason i played WoW is because I can put it on my laptop and sit on my nice comfy couch. Couldn’t do that with XIV with it’s crazy specs. ><
Couch gaming is definitely the way to go. Besides, no one can sit next to you and watch you play if you’re on a computer.
I played WoW a lot during it’s early days, but quit after the first expansion.
lol yeah noone will have the quad stamina to keep squatted next to you at the computer lol. One of the things I did like about my ex was that he would watch me play Final Fantasy games all the time. He hated playing games, but loved watching me do it.
My boyfriend is a PC gamer. I’ve lost count of the times he’s quit WoW just to renew his account 2 months later. I know more about Azeroth than any non gamer should! I’ve played a priest a few times but lost interest after about level 25. You can only kill a murloc so many times.
Shoplifters used to piss me off when I worked in retail too. The store I worked at did not allow us to pursue them once they made it out of the store (and they knew it). Most of the women would go into the dressing room, put the new clothing on, and leave their old clothes on the hanger. One woman even had the nerve to put her old shorts back on the rack!
OMG yes, I’m sure I’ll be back in azeroth soon myself. Already been thinking about it actually lol. Probably gonna wait till it gets too cold to get out though 😛
Yeah our store is the same way, only LP can do anything. It’s crap ><.
Oh and my second character is a priest, what a coincidence lol
I’m actually STILL a FFXI player, and I really enjoy it. I’ve never really played with Thief a lot though (level 14, ehhh), but I think I might have to give it a try. (I’ll say that I’ve always been into the Mage-type jobs, but have been branching out lately.)
All that said, I worked in a convenience store for a few years while I was in high school. Only once did I ever catch a shoplifter during one of my shifts, but it was a new experience. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, and probably could’ve handled the situation a lot better.
Again though, learning experiences!
Very nice! I’ve actually been thinking off and on about coming back to XI I really miss it, just my shells were so dead it was kinda lonely. Was on fairy until the merge into Sylph. I also had dark knight and bard up there to fill different roles if need be, really liked them too. Anything cool happening in vanadiel?
Yeah, every lifter is different and dealing with each of them is a new experience. I wish I didn’t have to deal with it.
With the various additions and changes they’ve made over the past year or so, the game has become QUITE different in the way you play it. It’s a lot easier to level now (I took a challenge from my LS to try and get a job to 90 over a weekend–I chose RNG and got to 83 before I decided to call it quits and go to sleep, hah.) but it’s still fun.
That said, Sylph! I started off on Phoenix, and when I rejoined the game a few years back, I shifted to Sylph. I think that was right after the merge, actually. Let me know if you DO decide to return though! 😀
I think you have just sparked a fire back in me concerning xi. :D. I’m thinking alot harder about it just for fun.
Awesome! If you do come back, be sure to drop me a line, since it seems we’d be on the same server… I’m Codex in there. 😛
Hey just letting you know I’ve reactivated my account tonight and was hoping to still drop you that line ^^ updating right now but i may be on soonish, just wanted to give a heads up 😀
Oh, very cool! 😀 My linkshell is actually doing a Divine Might run tomorrow (Sunday) so I’ll definitely be on then, but I’ll log in sometime today as well, cause I haven’t in at least a week, heh. I should drop in.
What’s your character name?
Troiboi is the name. I’ll keep an eye out for ya too 🙂