Month: November 2006

So I had been enjoying all the hype of the Nintendo Wii for a year or so now interested that it can play all kinds of games from the past via download. The controller I was a little worried about since it was totally wireless but the whole thing was just an amazing idea to change gaming. The Playstation 3 looked really cool until I saw the price tag of $499 and $599 sorry No Thank You. But I am not really a hardcore gamer and haven’t played many games since the High School Era. I bought a Playstation 2 a year or so after it came out to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I enjoyed that and got to play some old memories of Playstation 1 games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid but got all these awesome new games. But I was more of a PC Gamer with Diablo and Starcraft and the Half Life Series. I was a total nerd and loved LAN parties but I have just phased out gaming and got more into creation and more about how computers did things and I like a game on occasion.

So I am not a fan of preorders because you get locked into something and not my thing. So for the Wii I needed to find a location that actually had them. The only place in the area that had a Midnight Launch was Wal-Mart so I went to go check out the line around 4pm PST and walked to the back and was roaming around the electronics department and find a clerk after about 10 mins of searching. He came up with a punk ass attitude.

“What Did You Want?”
“Yeah how many Wii’s are you getting and where does the line start?”
“We are only getting 20 and there are 23 people in line. Take your business elsewhere”
“Umm, Okay”

So I was going to buy a game to play for my Nintendo DS Lite to find another line if that didn’t work out. But this guy was such a prick I decided to go elsewhere. So I drive down the road about a mile to GameCrazy. I walk in and the manager just hands me the Wii-Mote and was like “Here Try out ExciteTruck” and check it out and it’s rather interesting. Holding the controller and actually steering it like a Wheel. Took a bit of a learning curve but I was excited by this concept. We chat and then Sean and Ben walk in. I hadn’t seen them in a long while and we chatted about how Awesome the Wii is going to be.

The thing about Geeks is that we can gather and we are all passionate about something and can chat for a great deal of time about anything and breaking down the figures and concepts and all this stuff and most people tend to think “What the fuck are you talking about” a mother and her child came in and wanted to try out Brain Age for the DS. Which is an interesting game and Sudoku came up and we got into strategy about that. When you have a 9×9 square and need to have the numbers 1-9 in each box and across each direction. Now I play this game a lot in the morning paper on the ferry or on my DS it calms me down relaxes my brain and any problem I really have Sudoku can solve if not just to take my mind off things. So we had a geek mom in the chat with us after this. So GameCrazy was only getting 9 Wii’s so I picked up Yoshi’s Island DS to have something to play while I am in line.

So I drive out to Target because I heard a rumor from Digg that the local one here was getting 60 Wii’s. So I walk back to electronics and ask the clerk how many they would be getting. He told me “30-40” now I start to think. How the hell can you not know the store inventory. But whatever so I go walk around trying to find a line since they open at 8am and was unable to find any kind of line. So I go outside and think well this is going to be a very long night so I go home and take a nap. I get up about 11pm and take a shower and packup my car with chairs, sleeping bags, umbrella, iPod, Nintendo DS, Games, Red Bull and go out to Target again. There are 13 people in line and I get number 14 and the last one to be under the cover and everyone else has to wait in the rain.

Now being a geek and waiting hours and hours for a device that you interact with most people would think it’s stupid or not want to wait. So while in line a guy drives up. Shows us the box for the Wii and says “$650 it’s yours” We all say no and continue to sit. So the people that tend to wait in this type of line are very dedicated. Very Chill. Very Friendly because we are all there to accomplish the same goal of being the first ones to get a hold of this device. The general line before me was this cool Asian Dude named Ed and a Black Guy and his friend in front of him. Before them was a group of Marines that were not taking any crap from anyone. They were pretty much the line managers.

They were regulating where people were and keeping people from cutting. Now nothing sucks more then some idiot coming and trying to cut in line with his friends. Well the Marines were pretty much preventing this from happening. They were there to get the Wii and didn’t want anyone to have special privileges.

So while in line I bust out my DS and was like anyone down for some Mario Kart. Everyone said yeah so 5 of us started up a wireless game and were racing and talking what games we were going to buy and which we would play first. I was picking up the Nintendo Wii, and Zelda: Twilight Princess. I was saying how I am going to play Wii Sports first to get used to the controller which isn’t really a game just more of a training on how to use the controller like playing Baseball and swinging the controller like a baseball. Really cool concept. So Mario Kart sucked up about 2hrs of time and it was about 1am around then. So we were all talking about who we were and what we did. The guy behind me was a Pizza Delivery Guy. Him and his Buddy were there playing Chess and Checkers and then we got to playing Poker and all that jazz.

I sent out a text message around 1am saying I was in line. Because all my friends said they were going to bring coffee and food and see what was up. I didn’t get any response from anyone until about 11am when I was already home enjoying the Wii. Curse you “friends” lol But other people had girlfriends and so forth bringing them coffee and breakfasts. I got to thinking I don’t know any women that would really support this cause. I didn’t know any that were down for waiting in line for 8hrs to see Star Wars. I remember when I was in Indiana and going to see Episode II at Midnight. She decided to stay home because only idiots would wait to see that movie.

I guess it’s hard to explain the concept of being the first to do something. But I guess it’s more of a bragging right. I was the first. You were not. Ha Ha. Sucks to be You. I guess it’s the urge to be better then everyone inside of you. But most people don’t care about such geek things. But being first and being around people that want the same you get to meet some really interesting people and you all already have something in common. You really want something. You know something about it. So you have something to talk about while you are waiting in the cold.

The temperature was not to bad. When I sent a text message to Google asking for the weather a few times it was holding around 50F and rain. So we were not freezing but not warm and most people in line were wet. So it wasn’t ideal conditions but when WA has broken the 1Foot of Rain mark and growing everyday for the wettest November in many years you are growing rather bitter of the rain. But as the night went on with lack of sleep and bitter about the rain you are getting some rather cranky people outside. Especially the ones in the rain. So as the night went on and more and more people got in line. The conversation switched to the morons coming before the store opened and how we would be pissed if they got one and we had been out here all night when we could have stayed home and slept.

When your in the line and chatting with everyone you are always seeking something new to talk about. The one topic geeks tend to avoid is women. This topic never came up other then some girl trying to cut in line and we found the topic of how the marines were going to give her a bunch of shit. Then I made the joke about a picture I saw about getting punched in the vagina and we all had a good chuckle about it. So then any woman that tried to cut it we were all making comments about her getting punched in the vagina.

Not having a Vagina I am not sure if getting punched in the Vagina would be nearly as painful as getting nailed in penis region on the man. But it was good for a few laughs and letting the boy immaturity come across the line. But when you are in such a line it’s amazing what will amuse you in the Wii (I love the pun) hours of the morning.

So then I tried to sleep so I jammed the ear buds from the iPod in my ear and was sitting there with Dudes on either side of me and we all tried to take a nap around 3am. But it just wasn’t working out. We were Wet and Cold and shivering and sleep was just not possible. The silence was killing us all waiting there.

So it’s getting to be like 4am and the doors open at 7am to pass out tickets so it’s pretty much the same thing. More talking, more chatting and most about how what we are going to do afterwards. We were all thinking about going to the 24hr diner of Hell down the road to get some breakfast. But that didn’t pan out because most of us just wanted to go home.

So pretty much at this point it was a rotation of trying to sleep, playing on the DS, Chatting about gaming and bragging and boasting.

7am rolls around this funkadelic woman comes out “We have 30 Wii’s that is all” and they start passing out tickets. I was #14 and the people I was around were all happy. For waiting in line and being a loyal Target Customer we get Popcorn and Soda. None of us were really into it. We just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. So we finally get into the store. But we have to wait in another line. But it was funny watching all these soccer mom’s come up trying to get the hottest gift of the season and getting denied and then bitching that they were sold out.

I will never understand why people bitch to Retail Stores for being out of something. It’s not the stores fault for being out of something. They should call Nintendo and bitch at them for not making enough. Or calling IBM for not having enough processors to supply the chip to run the units. But I think these tools bitch at Target because well they want to bitch at someone and ruin somebody else’s day because theres was ruined and didn’t want to be the only one.

So I get the unit and Zelda and get escorted up to the check out. Hand them my American Express Credit Gift Card I had received and the total balance I had to pay was $26.11. Paid that and went on my way. I held the bag under my arm and ran to my car. Got in and drove home. It was really raining like hardcore rain. I was hydro planing all the way home. Get home and I hook up the unit. Then I just pass out.

But my phone was ringing. “How awesome is it?” “When Can I play it” But lets say I didn’t sleep much all weekend. Monday I was so drained I didn’t get a whole lot of work done. But it’s Tuesday. I am rested. Heroes last night was awesome. I have been working on this post a little to long.

But anyways Review of the Wii and Zelda coming later. But that is all good and done. Anyways Happy Thanksgiving and Turkey Day will be coming up for a post tomorrow.

Cheers!