Sunday, November 19, 2006
Short story: I have a Wii - hooray!
Long story: Aside from the occasional round with Mario Party, Halo, or a handful of other titles, I've barely played a video game over the past two or three years. It's not that I don't enjoy them anymore, or that I feel I've outgrown them. I know I could spend hours playing them without a second thought. But that's exactly the problem - I mostly stopped because I knew it was just too easy for me to get sucked in for weeks at a time. Either that, or writing semi-professionally about them took all the fun out of it. I'm really not sure.
Either way, up until yesterday, I certainly didn't expect to find myself heading out at five-something AM this morning to wait in line for a Wii. I guess I got caught up in the positive pre-launch hype for the company that got me hooked in the first place. Then they threw in a true Zelda sequel, and I was sold.
I should have woken up a half hour earlier, though. I chose Target since they seemed to be off the "videogame retailer" beaten path, and they promised to hand out line tickets an hour before opening. But by the time I arrived, I was already about 70th in line, with only 60 systems available. I stuck it out, but only a few people ahead of me gave up hope, and an hour before opening, I was still only at spot 65. I was starting to lose hope that I would walk away with a system.
But then some kid came to the back of the line, and announced that he was selling his 11th place spot for $50. Fifty bucks! Intending to spend at least $450 on the system, games, and accessories, it seemed like a trivial markup. Others thought so too. But I took him up on it, and jumped to 11th. Turns out that he had been there since 2pm the previous day, and had camped out overnight. And for his trouble, for his whole 17 hours spent outside in the cold, he gave it up for $50, or less than $3 an hour. I think the sleep deprivation got to him, and I actually felt a little guilty afterwards, even though he was the one to make the offer.
Anyway, I should run - I need to waste a few weeks now.