Acts of Gord

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The Acts of Gord includes a website, a webcomic, and a book that chronicle the experiences of a former video game store owner named Gord (commonly referred to as 'The Gord' and quoted in italics, his real name is Gordon Haddrell). The above mostly contain vignettes and anecdotes of the author's experiences at his store, particularly those pertaining to shoplifters and unknowledgeable customers. The site also makes some use of ornate, biblical language. Because Gord and his store are Canadian, some of the colloquialisms used can be confusing to non-Canadians. One of the most well known of these is Gord's referring to thieves/annoying customers as "buddy". Such as: "So buddy walks into the store and heads back to the big screen TV. Buddy asks if he can play a game on it."

1 The Books of Gord
2 Webcomic
3 Post-Gamer's Edge
4 External links

[edit] The Books of Gord

The website is divided up into several "books," each of which contains tales of a common theme.

Annoyances

This area includes stories of minor irritations Gord has faced. Consequently, most of the accounts in this section are brief.

Wrath

This contains long stories about Gord's more aggravating problems. At present, there are four; one deals with customers attempting to copy games or sell copied games, and the other three focus on instances in which Gord deliberately leaves defective hardware around his store to be stolen.

Villainy

This includes long stories about shoplifters and vandals.

Vengeance

Similar to the Villainy section, this contains long anecdotes of the methods with which Gord has dealt with shoplifters but mostly pertains to instances involving physical violence.

Propaganda

This section involves lies and exaggerations that Gord has relayed to customers for his own amusement.

Victory

This is a three-part tale of Gord's dealings with a woman on welfare who had harassed him over her inability to rent games.

Proclamations

These are long commentaries written by Gord about the world of video games at large. At present, there are only two on the site; the author apparently intended to publish a third in 2001, but it has not been released.

Chronicles

This section is very similar to Annoyances but includes longer stories that focus on Gord's larger vexations.

Justice

This includes stories about legality-related arguments with customers such as those about members who have had their accounts forwarded to a collections agency due to late fees.

Apocalypse

A hidden book that is only available from the Book of Justice, Chapter 9. This book marks the events leading up to the finale of Gamer's Edge.

[edit] Webcomic

The Acts of Gord was adapted for a webcomic entitled Gamer's Edge at the end of 2003. All of the stories in this comic are fictional (as opposed to the written accounts, which are allegedly based on real-life situations). Thus far, two full stories and an ongoing third story have been made by Ryan Estrada, and a fourth chapter is comprised solely of fan-drawn strips.

The Book of Judgment is about a mother who ends up suing Gord over the supposed mental damage his game rentals have done to her two children. The court rules in Gord's favor.

The Book of Application concerns Gord's new employee, Tom, whose overzealous work ethic causes minor problems for Gord. A group of mobsters steal Gord's big-screen TV, forcing Gord and Tom to try to recover it. However, both Gord and Tom are captured and held hostage by the mobsters in this attempt. Skeet Nosukja (a boy who had previously appeared in Judgment) misconstrues an empty fried chicken bucket for a virtual reality helmet and drives a police car into the mob's warehouse hideout. The Korean mafia soon enters the fracas, which escalates into "an all-out mafia war." In the end, the TV is destroyed, and Tom is fired from his job.

The Book of Substitution starts with Gord taking a vacation but instead tells the stories of the various characters from previous Gamer's Edge stories following Application. The comics in this section are all created by guest artists, including Ryan's own kindergarten students.

The Book of Celebration details Gord loosening his traditional rules in the game store around Boxing Day, starting with accepting a return that should have gone to Microplay and allowing Skeet Nosukja back into the store after being banned for life.

[edit] Post-Gamer's Edge

After Gamer's Edge closed, Gord moved to Korea for approximately 3 years to teach English to Korean students. During this period, he kept a semi-blog on his forum so friends and family members could keep in contact.

Recently, Gord has moved back to Canada, and opened a LAN centre in Kelowna called PC Bang. Unfortunately, there will be no "Acts of Gord II" appearing, to prevent people coming in purely to cause trouble