I did once.
It was Black Friday of 2006, a week after the release of the Wii. My friend had to work at a store in the mall in the wee hours of the morning, and he dropped me off to wait at GameStop so I could test my luck. Nintendo has always been infamous for engineered scarcity, and the Wii was no exception, so I was fully prepared to leave with nothing but an interesting story to tell. I had never seen the horrors of Black Friday, and was morbidly curious to experience it for myself at least once.
The experience was pretty tame. At first I waited outside the mall. I had my guide dog with me, and I allowed other people in line to give her pets and scritches as we waited. Not gonna lie, me bringing her was a bit of social engineering. Who’s gonna hit a blind guy? We got to chatting about what the line was for, and I discovered it was for an unrelated promotion. I asked if I could be let in to wait in front of the GameStop in the food court out of the cold, and they let me enter.
I can’t remember if others in the same line came in with me, or if they had already been there, but I ended up behind a dad and his two kids, and they were both getting a Wii. There were only three in stock, so I ended up getting lucky. I even got a copy of Twilight Princess, as well as FF XII on the PS2 as a Christmas gift for my sister.
tl;dr: veni vidi wiici
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.
I camped out overnight! Met new people, shared stories, and it was like regular camping but in a parking lot and no fire.
The campout was a lot more fun than the movie.
Another overnight camper here. We brought a long utility extension cord and got permission from the theater to use an external power outlet. We had laptops and set up a LAN. Keep in mind those days laptop screens (passive matrix LCD) couldn’t do high motion FPS like games so we were limited to RTS games time Warcraft 2 and Command and Conquer.
Did I mention there were traintracks and a road crossing right next to the theater so that every 3 hours or so a giant long freight train would go by, and wake everyone up?
I had that exact same thoughts on the movie when finally seeing it as @wjrii@lemmy.world. We all talked about how cool the duel was and all pretended not to be disappointed by the senate scenes and JarJar existing.
The campout was a lot more fun than the movie.
My thoughts exactly.
That Naboo duel + podracing makes me think that movie is better than it really is.
Similarly, I feel the updated CGI really elevates The Force Awakens, but it’s just such a safe rehash of Star Wars, that I really hated every moment of it.
Joss WhedonAbram’s really did a number on the series, or maybe I just dislike that mystery box style of writing so much.JJ Abrams, but yes. I will give TPM credit for production design and world building and for a few of the veteran actors’ performances.
TFA gave us a cast of characters you could do something with, and apart from sounding a bit too much like a Joss Whedon movie, performances that were at least not delivered by cardboard cutouts. I didn’t completely mind the plot being a rehash, but the contortions they went through to make the state of the galaxy exactly fit a rehash doomed the entire trilogy.
maybe I just dislike that mystery box style of writing so much.
I felt like TFA was pretty straightforward but THIS, great description btw, “mystery box” style writing got SO BAD after that.
Their whole nonsense about “SuBvErTiNg ExPeCtATiOnS” was like watching perpetually disappointing YouTube unboxing videos. Maybe it’s great internet engagement bait, but it sucks for cinematic storytelling. It felt like the writers themselves had no idea where anything was going behind all the random “subversion.”
I liked the art direction tho…
BUT…Even if nothing else made much sense:
-
Turning Luke into a cynical burnout ruined his character. That nonsense was a crime against storytelling.
-
Finn should have been a Jedi. He got narratively robbed so brazenly after being set up to be an enduring, unexpected hero, and it pisses me off.
I’ll additionally add that Poe and Finn absolutely have insane levels of on screen chemistry.
It was a crime that they didn’t end up together.
I will say the Last Jedi is my favorite of the sequel trilogy. But what is done to Luke is really my only dislike of that section of the film. I’m actually fine with Ben Solo destroying the Jedi academy and stuff, but I don’t think Luke would wallow in despair like that.
-
I mean the Naboo duel is pretty cool though.
But yeah I’d be highly annoyed if I had to wait three hours in line for that movie.
It was so much worse than that. People had been waiting 16 years to see a proper cinematic continuation of Star Wars. There were some pulp novels, a couple of very weak kids cartoons, a pretty decent tabletop RPG with source materials, a few video games, and that was about it. For a franchise that was still iconic and incredibly popular despite lying fallow like that.
We got a more distilled version of George’s vision, and hoo-boy it just simply wasn’t very good. I still saw that movie six fuckin’ times (the last three at the dollar theater), but while there was plenty to digest and feed my nerdery, the story and acting just never got better.
Surely they were just getting warmed up though, and episode two would be better…
I’m not as much of a SW nerd as my friend, but according to him SW fans are eating good with the massive expansion of the Clone Wars in the past decade.
So the prequel trilogy is really mediocre to be very nice. But seems to me the shows after the Disney acquisition made gold out of that turd.
Far before the Disney acquisition, the Clone Wars tv series was actually really impressive and fleshed out the world SO MUCH. “Rebels” did the same for the original trilogy, but that might have been post-Disney.
The animators used filmmaking prowess with things like animating camera shots as if they were on a real film set, which lent a so-far unseen level of professionalism and production quality for a CG television series.
I felt so stupid avoiding it when it first got big, because I thought it was a kiddie “franchise show.” It blew me away and still inspires me as a 3D artist. The visual style definitely grew on me as well. :)
One of my first memories of being disillusioned with media, having my hopes up and being let down was TPM. I went and saw it, kinda convinced myself it was cool…
Then a couple days later, someone was asking me about, and they asked what happened. I took a moment to think and finally had to come back and say ‘idk, I guess nothing really’.
I tried so hard, but poor Jake Lloyd was never given anything to work with, and Natalie Portman and Samuel L Jackson and any other actors who were hoping for some competent direction were hung out to dry too. Some of the worst line readings I’ve ever heard from professional actors.
Then there was JarJar… and watto… and the neimoidians… oh, and the utter lack of a compelling story…
Like you, though, I convinced myself that the bones were good, and then also that they were just getting warmed up and episode two would be a banger. Spoiler alert: it was not, though it had a few isolated moments as well.
Well, not camped but went to a midnight sale of a WoW expansion and there was a bit of a queue.
Did something similar for Doom 4, but never camp out.
Same. The only time I have ever waited in line for a game release was the midnight launch of The Burning Crusade expansion for WoW and I can’t say it was worth it. Certainly never did it again if that tells you anything.
Same here. I had been playing World of Warcraft for over a year and still hadn’t reached max level with my main character, so I spent a whole day grinding to finish off the last few levels. Then I walked down the street to my local Walmart and went to hang out in the electronics section until midnight.
This was back when Walmart was open 24/7. I asked an employee where they would be releasing the Burning Crusade Collectors Edition and they said they’d bring them to the electronics register exactly at midnight. So I started a queue next to their sole register. By the time midnight struck, there were about a dozen people behind me in the line.
It was the first and last time I showed up for a midnight release of anything. I personally thought it was worth it, but I never did it again. The next WoW expansion released while I was stationed overseas with the US military, so I had to order it online.
Friend and I did this and setup a lan party. Not realizing we’d be spending most of the night updating the game….
This was me as well. Which expansion did you do that for? For me, it was wotlk and it was really fun at the time but looking back, nothing particularly memorable happened. Except that I went home and had to install the game so I didn’t get to play till the next day anyways.
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.
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.
In hindsight, it was probably impossible for the studio to satisfy us, but I wish they could have tried just a little bit harder.
Imaging in if in 1999, instead of TPM, we were given Rogue One. I could even see a really cool alternate history where all us saw the releases in reverse order. As in Rogue One, Episode 3, Episode 2, Episode 1. Each time get a little bit further back into the history while the origin remains a mystery until the end.
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
Same! Though I was a bit older. Wanted to finish it right away so that it wasn’t spoiled for me. And these days I feel the same as you do.
Nothing wrong with liking it then because you didn’t know. If you never have anything you cringe / regret / embarrassed about when you are younger you either have done nothing or learned nothing.
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
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.
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.
I was going to comment this was my first one, too. But I got to go with my big sister and her friends, so it was really cool for me. Hanging in line in retrospect was way cooler of an experience than seeing the movie.
I camped out in front of a Blockbuster so I could buy a copy of Modern Warfare 2 on launch. I was one of the first people in the store so I got the special limited edition version that came in the the tin box.
I’m thinking of queueing up for the Steam controller. Does that count?
I can top that.
I queued for steam. the software. over night.
Back in 2003 when steam launched, hosting was still a bit tricky, and serving software to a ton of people at once, was not as easy as it is today.
When steam launched, you could download just the steam client like today, and install stuff via steam. But it was very slow and buggy as hell
So a couple days after launch, they started to release steam bundled with CS 1.6, so you didn’t need to install it via steam.
But that was of course a much bigger download. And a TON of people wanted it.
So they published it via a download service that integrated a queue, so they could still provide some reasonable bandwith to the people downloading.
I remember that I joined the queue in the evening before bed, let the family computer run over night, started the download before school, and the download was roughly finished when I came back home.
fun times
I remember this being quite common before digital music was a thing. There’d be a line at the music store for whatever new album would be out for a popular artist. It was great because you got to meet like-minded people that were excited enough about something to line up and wait for it, giving this sense of community that’s lost with streaming online. While I appreciate being able to summon any song from any era at an instant on my phone, I do miss those encounters with strangers that otherwise I never would have met.
That sounds pretty great, what a sad loss to society
Never.
I lined up to get the Wii on it’s release date. I went to Walmart at around 11 am to wait on the midnight launch. We were put in the garden center, and it was pretty chill. The guy at the front kept a list so people could go to the bathroom or to grab food without losing their spot. One guy brought a portable TV with a PlayStation and guitar hero, so we spent a lot of time playing that. I brought my DS, but not many people in line had one. It turned out to be a fun and memorable experience, but I’ve never waited in line like that again.
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.
iPhone 4. First and last time.
