Before calling our advice "crap", perhaps you should remember the problems many people had with their PS2 consoles breaking from playing too many cds and DVDs. We are simply saying "be cautious with your PS3 console". Also, why would the gamestop guy "totally" make it up?
Yes, he totally made it up because he thinks he is being helpful, but he isn't. There is no
proof that playing CDs or BDs or DVDs willl have any effect on the player. I played games for countless hours on my 2 PS2s without issue. That would be like saying "Don't play
games on your new PS3, it might wear it out", because the player doesn't know the difference between a movie and a game - it is all just media to the player. The PS2s that were having issues due to quality control issues and possibly a less robust design early on. My brother's PS2 died and they exchanged it for him for free. In a product's life cycle they do tend to improve on the things that aren't working.
It was already mentioned - the mechanism that manages the laser can develop issues over time, not the laser itself, but that is not so common on any decent player these days.
Blu-ray not BLUE