Ask Lemmy

I'll keep this brief, but me and my buddies are down in Philly just smoking a lot of weed and having some beers, as we tended to do. Our friend who's going to school at John Jay in the city (which is New York where we're from) tells us they're going to be giving out PS3s on TRL. So this is sometime around November 2006. So me and my friends drive to Trenton and hop on a train to Manhattan, get in around 5am, stumble out into Times Square with all the degenerates on a Friday morning, get to the MTV building, meet our friends, and do this thing. There's a decent enough line but nothing crazy.

Hours go by, and we just wait. We hang out til showtime, which is like 2 or 3pm, I can't remember. Needless to say, they eventually come out and say it was all a rumor and there are no PS3s. Depressed, we hop back on a train back to Trenton, because we are seeing Brand New open for Dashboard Confessional in Camden that night. We are exhausted. We meet a friend in Ewing, smoke some blunts, get uncomfortably high, but head to the show anyway. On the way in we watch this girl trip on a sidewalk and land on her face. Her friends help her up. I want to help, but I am too high and so we ask if she's okay, get nods, and we continue in.

Brand New is already on. We hear one song. Dashboard comes on. Lead singer starts crying almost immediately. A woman who's at least 10-15 years older than us (we are 19-20) keeps hitting on my one friend, and eventually says "This guy's a bigger pussy than me, and I've got one!" We go home.

It was one failure after another for us. That was my one and only.

When I was a child my parents took me to a midnight release reading of probably the fourth Harry Potter book. After some woman read aloud the first chapter, at midnight, everyone was allowed to buy the book. It was very fun for little me back then.

These days it's a complicated feeling, tainted by Rowling's behaviour.

Context:

In cologne Germany there is a huge carnival culture, historically carnival is sorta anti establishment, but for a variety of reasons in post ww2 cologne carnival is the establishment. So the Karnevalsvereine have shows/plena called Karnevals_Sitzung. Because these events had lost their anti establishment air, at some point a reaction formed called the Stunk_Sitzung (roughly grievance session as opposed to carnival sessions) which re focused on anti establishment satire, both satirizing main stream carnival and broad local to global politics. This event then became the de facto cultural institution in terms of carnival satirical stage show running several shows weekly throughout the entire season (Nov-Feb/March).

Story:

Getting tickets for this show for a weekend close to the end of the carnival season (the season ends with the main parades and festivities)requires ordering tickets in person on the day the tickets go on sale, with the ticket offices opening 9am lining up at 10pm isn't uncommon, and I have been part of such a line. Although it is also common for the spot in line to be transferable, so I did a shift roughly midnight to 5am at which point I went home to bed and someone else did the last 4h shift and bought tickets.

My usual MO is getting things when they are discontinued. And cheap. Turbografx, Sega Saturn, Virtual Boy, Game.Com. I have them all. Virtual Boy was $20 at Target.

The only time I got something when it came out was the Gameboy Advance. But I pre-ordered it. No camping, just went in and picked it up.

I got the PS2 for Christmas the year it came out, but it was out for almost 2 months at that point, plus it was a gift, so I didn't have to camp for that either. I still love that thing.

Went for the midnight release of Death Stranding. I wasn't really interested in the game, but Hideo Kojima was there signing games, so I went and got his signature and a picture.

It's not really my type of game and I never finished it, but I love Kojima and I'm happy I got the signature.

PS2 release day when I was 16 at best buy. I'm 42 and still have it, works great. Just tried it last month with some Twisted Metal, sat hiding as Spectre just doing my special like a bitch. Actually it's under my TV, a bit dusty but all the og cords and controllers.

My dad took my friends and I out to queue up for the.midnight launch of black ops 1. He had to go in and buy copies for us cause we were to young. But it was super fun, just a bunch of excited kids talking about the new game. I normally dont talk to strangers but we were all just so hyped. I dont think ive ever been more excited about a game than that release it was my entire life at the time.

Just once for GTA 4 midnight launch. Only took 2 hours, mild weather.

Nearly did for the PS3 launch but managed to snag one on a digital storefront same day.

I worked the midnight release of the PSP. nobody came. like...nobody.

so I bought one after my shift ended. played it for a week and returned it.

it really was a trash system at first launch, though playing twisted metal online was pretty fun, until the Japanese players came on (if there be gaming gods, the Japanese are it).

last Sony system I ever bought.

edit: I just remembered staying in line for a Wii. I was the first person in line. then some other folks showed up and put up a tent since it was winter.

they were totally banging in that tent...it was fun 🤣

I went to the midnight release for Portal 2. My GameStop had more people there for Mortal Kombat though. And by more I mean I was the only one there for Portal 2 and all 7 other guys were there for MK.

I went to the midnight releases of Call of Duty Black Ops, MW3 and Pokemon Black and White 2. I was in college at the time so had a lot more time to play video games on release back then.

I did not camp out myself, but I did work a register when some early World of Warcraft expansions came out. People went crazy for them.

I remember one evening we had some Wrath of the Lich King collector’s editions available for the release event and there was a huge rush to get in when they opened the doors. I had this sweet old lady come through my line with one of the big boxes. She was very excited because she bought it for her grandson and she wanted to give him a special gift. She was all smiles.

A few minutes later, I had a guy come through my line. He looked a little flustered and had a regular edition in his hand. He said some old lady ran up, pushed him out of the way, hit him with her purse, then grabbed the last collector’s edition and ran to the front.

Pretty sure my sweet old lady customer was the same one that hit him with her purse lol. It was a weird night.

I waited in line for 3 hours to get tickets to The Phantom Menace. I’d like those 3 hours back.

Actually it was with a group of friends so it was actually kinda fun.

Waited in a three-hour-ish line for The Phantom Menace. 100 minutes of "I'm sure it will get better" followed by the Naboo duel tricking my fanboy brain into thinking it was a good movie.

Well, not camped but went to a midnight sale of a WoW expansion and there was a bit of a queue.

Not for a game, but for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Waiting outside in downtown Boston with a bunch of other Star Wars nerds who had waited their entire adult lives for this moment was a better experience than the film itself, by a longshot.

edit - there are a few of us in this thread with the same experience. If you weren’t there, you really can’t imagine what it was like growing up with the original trilogy and the hope that someday maybe there would be more. It’s hard to express how disappointing TPM was. In hindsight, it was probably impossible for the studio to satisfy us, but I wish they could have tried just a little bit harder.

Went to a midnight release of Halo 3. Then it was a 2.5 hour walk home because no buses. So much excitement on such a tedious walk. Cant be good for the nervous system.

2012 I think Diablo 3 midnight launch.

Total disaster of a launch from blizzards server/network teams

iPhone 4. First and last time.

My friend and I camped out for the original Xbox launch (I was only going to pick up Metal Gear Solid 2 which launched the same night). he had saved up his money from his job to buy the system, 2 controllers and 1 game. Now you're assuming it's Halo...no...he wanted Cel Damage. The game was a cel shaded twisted metal style game. That's all he wanted. I convinced him to also pick up Halo because I had read good things about it in some gaming mag. I said I would go halves on it with him and call it an early birthday present.

We go back to his place and we play like one round of Cel Damage and then stay up the entire night playing Halo.

I camped overnight for The Phantom Menace tickets. We were not allowed in theater property until 6am release day, but we were allowed on the sidewalk loading up to their property at 6pm the day before release.

When they let us move up to the door we figured someone would walk over to us and lead us to the door... nope the manager stood at the doors and yelled across the parking lot and beckoned us. It turned into a mad dash.

The sidewalk turned and went up a hill, those of us nearer the end of the line were closer to the entrance than the front of the line. We just ran down the steep hill and moved way up in the queue. I was wearing a kilt, I felt like Mel Gibson in Braveheart as I ran towards the door.

The people that had been near the front were complaining we cheated, but they were the ones that started running first. If they had walked up nice and orderly like we learned in kindergarten they would still have been first.

Anyways, I saw TPM 9 times in the first 48 hours.

The two longest and most memorable waits I've done were for the Wii and Wii U.

The Wii was great. Was a very social, collaborative experience.

Got to the store probably at 6 or 7 am. Two people were in front of me in line. The first would show up in my circle of friends years later, and I didn't even realize until going back and looking at the pictures. The other was an older gentleman getting in line for his son, and when his son did show up later it turned out to be a friend of mine. I just hadn't met his dad before.

At first we were in the lobby, then moved to the garden center, eventually to outside the front entrance before noon. Employees didn't really know to expect us or what to do with us.

Everyone had their DSes and we spent most of the day playing something or other. Toward the end of the night, when the crowd got bigger, I remember doing 8-person Bomberman battles.

It was a cold November day. By the evening, I was freezing and hungry. My parents and some friends swung by at different times to bring blankets, snacks, etc, and those felt like such exciting moments.

Fast forward to the Wii U. I got a preorder, but they said there weren't enough preorders to do a midnight launch. Stubbornly wanting to relive the great time I had waiting for the Wii, that was enough to make me drive over to the next big town and wait at a different store.

For a long time, I think I'm the only one in line? Or maybe someone was before me. Idk. But the line didn't build up until like, an hour before midnight. I talked to people, but didn't really connect with anyone strongly.

The cold was bitter this time. I was layered up way more, but felt as tho I was barely hanging in by the end of it. Folks in line kept asking if I was alright, offering to hold my place in line if I wanted to go take a break and warm up in the car.

I don't know that we did any multiplayer sessions, but it was cool at least to get 3DS streetpass hits all day.

After all of it, I could just as easily have walked into a store the next weeks and bought one.

So yeah, the Wii was a moment for me, the U was a failed attempt to revisit that moment (a lot like the systems themsleves, kinda). Then there's the difference between being in high school, hanging out with friends in your home town, and being in college keeping to yourself.

No, not really. The closest I'd have gotten to that is waiting in line for a movie, for which I had a reservation already. Anything you might want to camp out for will likely be available like, a week or a month later.

I did go to the midnight release of Black Ops II, at the insistence of my friend who was very excited about it. I remember seeing the huge line and thinking “Really? For this?” They had about 1000 extra copies.

Pretty decent game. I’m a sucker for anything co-op.

Yup! Waited in a three hour line at GameStop to pick up my pre-order of Tears of the Kingdom. I was close to the front (10 people back) and they had extras of the Amiibo of Link, and the collectors edition and said they would be selling them first come first serve. I got the last of each, besides my pre-order. Was pretty cool!

In highschool a few friends of mine waited to get the final Harry Potter book when it was released. We all got a copy and then I think I finished it that night so I talked with one of my friends about it the next day at work. Great fun but a little embarrassing to admit now. Fuck J.K. Rowling

The only ones that come to mind are a midnight release for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008 and one for Skyrim in 2011. I was working the graveyard shift in 2011 and went to work late to pick up the game so my wife could play it.

Never.

I'm thinking of queueing up for the Steam controller. Does that count?

No, but I worked at the Apple 5th Avenue store for the launches of both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, where people camped out, and there were lines around the block both times

What an absolute nightmare that was