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[superNESjoe]

First thread, wish me luck.

What's your best/favorite midnight launch memory? It doesn't have to involve GameStop, but usually the worst

Spoiler

best

stories do. Here's mine.

It's 2007, and the entire world is excited for Halo 3. I'm at a Gamestop in a strip mall located just across the parking lot from both a Best Buy and an actual mall (that contained an additional Gamestop, of all things), both of which are holding their own Halo 3 midnight events.

My group of friends, arriving at noon, are the first people in line. A friend of mine, we'll call him V, was #2 specifically. He arrive with a cooler full of beverages, as well as a hidden layer of adult beverages. Throughout the afternoon/evening V got considerably destroyed. Enough so that his judgment became basically non-existent.

I'll skip the tiny details and go straight to the two best. V hates energy drinks, but didn't pass up the chance for a free Red Bull when a promotional car stopped in to dispense free drinks to the crowd of hundreds of anxious Halo fans. The drinks were being handed out by an attractive woman barely older than us, so V decided to slam a Red Bull in front of her, lean against her car and try to impress her by being #2 in line.

Not long after that he was in an argument with some guy that he didn't realize was an argument. Randomly throughout the dispute he pulled out a huge knife because he wanted to tell some story about it. After a momentary freakout everything calmed down and nothing happened. The next morning I'm playing Halo 3 with a friend who was at the midnight release in the mall's Gamestop across the street. He informs me that at some point a few hours before midnight, the guy behind him in line got a phone call that someone was attacking another person with a knife at my Gamestop. I had the great honor of informing him that it was a mutual friend of ours.

TL;DR? Halo 3 midnight launch with terrible pick-up lines and unintentional knife threats.

What are your memories?

 

[Astro Racer]

I went to a midnight launch of Modern Warfare 2.

I've never seen so many chavs in my life. It was like a burberry convention.

I saw a group of them spitting on PS3 game cases in the store.

 

[TommyTosser]

MW3 launch.

My friend played the "how fast can you do the training" contest thingy they had set up outside the store in the back of a jeep and ended up winning the mega edition of the game.
I still stood in line to buy the standard copy but it was a good night....

Worst would probably be GTA5

Stood behind the grimmest family as the parents were getting copies for their children and their childrens friends.
They were in school uniform too.
Bluergh

 

[RiggyRob]

My first and only midnight launch was going to a Tesco in Bolton to get a Wii. it was fookin' packed like, I was surprised at the time at how many people went to a supermarket in an obscure place to buy a games console on a Thursday night. I had a mock exam the next day and my dad told me that if it had been a real exam, we wouldn't have gone and bought one. Screw that.

Best early Christmas present ever.

 

[superNESjoe]

Worst would probably be GTA5

Stood behind the grimmest family as the parents were getting copies for their children and their childrens friends.
They were in school uniform too.
Bluergh

That's funny, I had a similar experience. In fact, I saw more adults at the Pokemon X/Y launch than I expected and almost nothing but teenagers and early 20s at the GTA 5. Even at 25 I was one of the oldest people there.

 

[sixteen-bit]

only midnight launch i think i did was super street fighter 4 with my friend b/c the thirst was 2 real
we played a matches at his place into the wee morning hours

 

[That Wont Fit In There]

The Xbox 360 launch was fun. I was a freshman in highschool and got a call from mom during thanksgiving break that Walmart was having a midnight launch since gamestop decided to push my pre order to the falling year. Waiting 12 hours to get it and these two dudes were going to fight each other with chairs for a 360 HDD since they were getting the arcade console. The employee stopped them and informed them that they had two left lol. Good times.

 

[TheHall]

It was the PS4 launch in Canada.

I drove up to the EB Games (eh), and saw two lines in front.
The people in the long line well behaved, while the people in the short line were rowdy as hell.

I asked the last dude, if "this was the pre-order line" and he confirmed.
I only had to stand in line for 45 minutes before the doors opened and after that the line slowly but surely shuffled along.
I noticed that only my line was moving and that the short rowdy line was being held back.
My natural assumption was that the short line were people showing up at midnight in the hopes of getting their hands on leftovers. Sucks to be them, it was cold as balls.

Another 45 minutes later, i make it to the door, where i see a small sign by the entrance...

"Platinum members line up here"

I am not a platinum member....

With only 15 people in front of me in the comfortably warm store, i decide to..."fuck it" and put on my P-P-P-Pokerface and stay in line. (The alternative being going in the back of the non-platinum peasant line).

Another 20 minutes in, i make it to the registry and the guy asks for my platinum membership card.

Me: "I didn't bring it, you should have mentioned that when you called me this afternoon"
Him: No problem. what is your phone number?
Me: (703) 482-0623
Him: Ok....

At that point he just stares at his screen and sees that i am not a platinum member, but i do have a fully payed PS4 pre-ordered.

He looks at the people behind me...i can see the conflict in his eyes....

His mind: "Do i just give him his shit, or am i going to risk a hassle?"

So i look the poor guy in the eye and say "I'll also have a camera and killzone please"....

I wished the poor peasants good luck on my way out and drove home with my brand new PS4

AND THEN I SAW A FOX GUYS, IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME, HE WAS LIKE, RIGHT THERE!!

Picture of a Fox that looks just like the one i saw:

 

[Noaloha]

Went to a midnight launch - my first ever - on my own to pick up an xbox360. I hadn't pre-ordered and had called the store earlier that day to check on the midnight launch ("Yep! Get here early!") and if they had unallocated stock ("Sure do, but only a dozen or so!"). It was a 90 minute walk to get there. Arrived at around 10pm-ish and thought it was awesome (and a little odd) that there wasn't a queue yet, nor any lights on in the store. I thought it was very odd that there was no queue nor any lights on in the store at 11:55pm.

Well, at least I was first in the queue when the store opened at 8am.

 

[Seanspeed]

Went to the midnight launch of GTAIV at my local Gamestop.

Long line of somewhat embarrassing video gamer stereotype sorts. A few assholes behind me that were obviously drunk and hollering at girls.

I didn't like being there and I wont do that again.

 

[superNESjoe]

Went to a midnight launch - my first ever - on my own to pick up an xbox360. I hadn't pre-ordered and had called the store earlier that day to check on the midnight launch ("Yep! Get here early!") and if they had unallocated stock ("Sure do, but only a dozen or so!"). It was a 90 minute walk to get there. Arrived at around 10pm-ish and thought it was awesome (and a little odd) that there wasn't a queue yet, nor any lights on in the store. I thought it was very odd that there was no queue nor any lights on in the store at 11:55pm.

Well, at least I was first in the queue when the store opened at 8am.

I am a fan of this story.

 

[onken]

I meant to go to a midnight launch but I got drunk at a house party, slept with some random woman, staggered into a store and bought it the next afternoon. Good times.

 

[Astro Racer]

My last midnight launch was GT5. It was pretty quiet and laid back compared to all the GTA and COD lunches I went to. A very different kind of people were there.

Picture of a Fox that looks just like the one i saw:

I didn't know what a Fox looked like until you posted the picture

 

[Kid Ska]

The only midnight launches I've been to were for BioShock Infinite and Pokemon X/Y. Both were fairly uneventful.

 

[Laconic]

My best midnight launch stories all involve a good night's sleep.

 

[Captainbojanglesiii]

I went to a midnight launch for the 3DS. No one was there so I left. Turns out no one cared enough. Picked it up the next morning and realized ot had no games besides Street Fighter IV. Played it for 6 hours. It was okay.

 

[Azzurri]

2001 Xbox Launch.

The day before around 7pm I decided that I wanted a Xbox. I was 17 at the time so and had school the next day at 8am. So at 3am I woke up and drove to Bestbuy, bu the line was too long, but right next to the BB was Walmart with like 6 people in line, so I went there and waited with a bunch of older people. I think they had 9 and I was 7th in line. They opened at 7am, but I was too tired to go to school, so I just told my mom I didn't feel well. The next day one of my teachers was like 'where were you'? I told em I was waiting inline for the Xbox and was too tired to come in, and he started laughing.

The next week me and a friend did the mid-night launch of the Gamecube at Mejier's and they were doing a raffle and had 15. There was some foreign lady who had no idea what we were doing so she decided to enter w/o knowing what was being raffled. Anyways, she won, but found out what it was and didn't want it and gave it to my friend who didn't

There was the Dreamcast launch, but I had pre ordered one from EB like 6 months before so I didn't have to wait or anything.

 

[Daffy Duck]

Call of Duty Ghosts: GAME - S-o-A;

I consider myself a fairly normal looking person, with good hygiene levels, whilst I was waiting in-store for 30 minutes prior to getting my copy I managed to see what can only be described as the great unwashed, there were people there who were clearly soap dodgers as they had the atypical slick back greased hair that comes from not washing for many weeks (possibly months). The smell was quite awful as well, very stale and full of BO.

There were a couple of people who thought they were cool buying the cans of Mountain Dew Energy drinks and shouting out loudly so the other patrons in the store heard how nice this stuff is.

There were also a few people who (god knows how) bought along their girlfriends (complete with fake Ugg boots, walking on their ankles) in their black velvet joggers stinking to high heaven of Channel Number 5.

All this was sprinkled with these guys playing Ghosts SP on the demo units behind the counters and everyone of these 'pros' offering advice to the guys playing who were dreadful but were obviously under the impression they were a member of Optic gaming.

Then the worst of them all came along and stood next to me, he was a right greasy oik, who tried to strike up conversation with about what level prestige I was on Black Ops II, this guy had food stuck in his teeth which looked (and by the smell of his breath) and probably has been there for weeks, he also had some the worst fingers I've seen (under each nail was thick with black dirt) he then as I turned away after giving him a friendly acknowledgement proceeded to pick out with his fingernails some of the food he was obviously saving in his teeth and then sucked it out of his fingernails, I'm not going to lie, I nearly vomited there and and then!

Luckily it had just turned midnight and I was able to hand over my receipt to get my copy and get the hell out of there, I was pretty traumatised by my experience.

I may go along to AW midnight launch this year to get my copy to see if these people are still alive.

I love midnight launches.

Then there is the time I went for a FIFA launch at the local Asda as they were doing it for £25. Listening to all the budding Alex Ferguson's talking about how wonderful there online career is and the toppers with the "Oh, I've won 5,000,000,000 online games yadda yadda" to be eclipsed by the fact spotty guy saying I have won 6,000,000,000 online games.

 

[frankie_baby]

The only one I've ever done was for the Wii U, a few days before launch there was a Fuck up with my card and sainsburys cancelled the pre-order I'd done and couldn't sort another online order anywhere so I thought Fuck it and hopped on a train to London over 24 hours in advance and went to queue up at HMV for the national launch event cos at least I knew they had stock, took a big thick dressing gown so I didn't freeze (well didn't freeze as much) arrived in London and as I walked to Oxford street was annoyed to find no shops selling any booze so this was gonna be a long night

Arrived at HMV and was rather confused to find no queue, eventually found about 15 people down an alley at the side, got chatting to some random people, at something like 4am some random premier league footballer (can't remember who now) came out of the nightclub opposite and asked us what we were doing and then called us mental, carried on freezing through the morning, eventually the pub opposite opened so managed to get some alcoholic refreshment finally which helped, at some point some photographer from a newspaper turned up and took some photos (the next day found myself on page 30 something of The Sun, great why did it have to be that piece of Shit rag), as the queue got bigger and more organised into the evening guys came round and fed us all tonnes of pizza, eventually they let us in the store and it got a bit blurry but got my Wii U and got a big bag of free swag and free copies of New super Mario bros U and Mass effect 3

 

[Reishiki]

I'm reminded of this old Bash quote.

silic0nsilence: So it's black friday at CompUSA.
Slider: Yea
silic0nsilence: We were to open up at 12am. It's 11:58pm and there is a HUGE line of blood-thirsty, hard drive-wanting, maniacs. So my friend dares me to scream we have one xbox360.
Slider: Holy shit.
silic0nsilence: So he gives me $20. I go up to the gate and scream, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE JUST RECIEVED ONE XBOX360!!" Immediatly people are storming the gate, passing me money through the cage to get it. They were screaming and knocked over this old lady. My boss just looks at me with these red eyes. In them, I saw fear and rage.
Slider: Omg you dumb shit!
Slider: Wait a second, it's 12:46A, and it's black Friday. What did this happen minutes ago? Shouldn't you be at work?
silic0nsilence: Yeah..
silic0nsilence: Pretty sure I don't work at CompUSA any more..

 

[Zaku]

Probably the PS4 midnight launch at my local EBGames. There was a huge lineup, and like an idiot I'd fallen asleep until about 11:30pm that night, so when I got there fifteen minutes later I was about 100 people back.

Then one of the employees came out, and started asking for people to line up in a second line if they'd already pre-ordered their consoles. Having pre-ordered pretty much as soon as I could, I was now 30th in line instead of 100th, which I was pretty happy about.

Then the store manager started calling for people with the Edge Platinum memberships. Myself and maybe six other people raised our hands, and we were told we'd be getting served first.

I was there for maybe fifteen minutes, and while chatting with the cashier I was told they'd gotten just eighty units, so there would be some people outside who weren't getting a PS4 tonight.

I took it home and didn't even open the box for four days.

 

[PseudoViper]

I've been to a few and I gotta say the best was Destiny's at my local GameStop. There were a total of 12 or 13 people waiting in line -- I was the first customer! It was a very pleasant experience and shocking considering midnight releases at that store are crazy.

 

[Spwn]

Bravely Default

Decided to pick it up immediately on midnight since the store happened to be open. The clerk just kept telling us how he wanted Final Fantasy VII to be remade. Made me and my friend feel uncomfortable.

 

[TheWorthyEdge]

It was the PS4 launch in Canada.

I drove up to the EB Games (eh), and saw two lines in front.
The people in the long line well behaved, while the people in the short line were rowdy as hell.

I asked the last dude, if "this was the pre-order line" and he confirmed.
I only had to stand in line for 45 minutes before the doors opened and after that the line slowly but surely shuffled along.
I noticed that only my line was moving and that the short rowdy line was being held back.
My natural assumption was that the short line were people showing up at midnight in the hopes of getting their hands on leftovers. Sucks to be them, it was cold as balls.

Another 45 minutes later, i make it to the door, where i see a small sign by the entrance...

"Platinum members line up here"

I am not a platinum member....

With only 15 people in front of me in the comfortably warm store, i decide to..."fuck it" and put on my P-P-P-Pokerface and stay in line. (The alternative being going in the back of the non-platinum peasant line).

Another 20 minutes in, i make it to the registry and the guy asks for my platinum membership card.

Me: "I didn't bring it, you should have mentioned that when you called me this afternoon"
Him: No problem. what is your phone number?
Me: (703) 482-0623
Him: Ok....

At that point he just stares at his screen and sees that i am not a platinum member, but i do have a fully payed PS4 pre-ordered.

He looks at the people behind me...i can see the conflict in his eyes....

His mind: "Do i just give him his shit, or am i going to risk a hassle?"

So i look the poor guy in the eye and say "I'll also have a camera and killzone please"....

I wished the poor peasants good luck on my way out and drove home with my brand new PS4

AND THEN I SAW A FOX GUYS, IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME, HE WAS LIKE, RIGHT THERE!!

Picture of a Fox that looks just like the one i saw:

Go home. You're drunk.

Spoiler

Hilarious Story. it was awesome.

 

[Stormus]

Waited two hours outside of Best Buy on a school night to get the Collector's Edition of Diablo III. Got home, installed, and spent the next three hours throwing a tantrum over "Error 37". . . Pretty cool Blizzard, pretty fucking cool.

 

[KernelPanic]

Midnight Launch for Burning Crusade for me, my GF and my brother. It's January so it's freezing and work the next day.

Already a couple hundred people in line when we show up so we take our place and wait. After what felt like forever my brother goes to the front of the line and finds out from someone that they something like 4000 copies(not sure that's the number but way way more than there are people in line).

We end up going to Tim Horton's for hot chocolate. Amusingly we got massively boo'd by the people in line since it looked like we were giving up.

We show up 45 minutes later, most of the line is now gone so we pretty much walk in and buy our copies and walk out. Plenty left.

First and last time I ever go to a midnight launch.

 

[Placktor]

2 Kids on the ground of Gamestop crying when they touched Smash Bros. Brawl.

 

[keeblerdrow]

I'm at a Gamestop in a strip mall located just across the parking lot from both a Best Buy and an actual mall (that contained an additional Gamestop, of all things), both of which are holding their own Halo 3 own.

This sounds like Grandville, MI. But I also realize this set up is probably pretty common.


The last midnight release I attended was Wrath of the Lich King. It was the last WoW expansion before digital releases became a preferable thing. I also got a Wii U the night of release but it was more me and the girlfriend cruising around checking Meijer stores.

I get no enjoyment from midnight queueing.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

I've been to countless midnight launches. Probably near 100.

Spent 18 hours in the freezing cold for a Xbox 360 at launch.

Waited 45 hours inside a Walmart for the PS3.

Was twelfth in line for the GameCube.

Remember getting the GameBoy Advance a couple days early.

...... But best of all? Halo 2. The actual Gamerush event was kind of ho-hum. But I didn't win the Halo 2 baseball cap, and was kind of disappointed. While I'm in line, the winner is checking out. And my mom approached him without even mentioning anything to me, and offers him $20 for the hat. He says absolutely, and my mom gifts me the swag.

I was, what, maybe 15? Was awesome knowing I had the coolest mom there. It's the little things...

 

[BrickArmour]

I am going to break the rules and discuss my PS2 launch story which actually occurred in the morning. I had decided to skip the PS2 launch and get it later. But I was on my way to work and saw this enormous line wrapping around Best Buy. I instantly became obsessed with the idea of having one too. But I had no desire to wait in that line. A little while down the road was a Circuit City and only about 15 people were in line there. I decided to be late for work and drop in this line. When I arrived at the back of the line, someone told me I might as well leave because some guy had come out at 6:00AM and said they had 15 systems. Since there were 15 people in line, they were all spoken for. I decided to wait it out anyway.

Around 8:00AM, the doors opened and the guy reappeared saying that they did not open till 10:00AM but he would hand out tickets to people now so they could leave and then return to get their systems. I was surprised when it turned out he had 16 tickets and I got the last one!

I went to work and came back two hours later to find an enormous line had formed in front of the store. To my surprise, many of them started laughing at my late arrival and boasting that they had been there since 8:30AM and I would never get one, showing up at 10:00AM.

I whipped out my ticket and said, "Oh yeah? You guys get one of these?" The look on so many faces was just priceless. Utterly priceless. I walked into the store a few mins later, bought my system and they all left with nothing.

 

[phanphare]

midnight launch for the Wii at Wal-Mart. they passed out numbers as midnight approached and we were about 3 or 4 people out from getting one, but we decided to hang around anyway. the family in front of us gets into some kind of a fight or something, I wasn't really paying attention. next thing I knew we had the last number that the store was giving out. get to the counter, pick up my shiny new Wii and Twilight Princess. good times.

 

[Chopper]

I was stood outside my local Game with a few others just before midnight, waiting for the doors to open so I could finally grab my preordered Wii. Very exciting stuff.

A drunk girl stumbles down the pavement clutching her boyfriend's arm, and as she passes us she points and shouts "YOU'RE A BUNCH OF FUCKING NERDS!"

Good times.

 

[Vlade]

I was working at a Gamestop in a mall during the Halo 2 launch, and folks lines up outside the mall, and at midnight I was heading out to open the door and give some instructions on what line to be in when THEY broke through the doors and stampeded down the hallway. It was a bit intense with the mob headed my way, but I managed to scream over them and have folks line up.

I have been lined up for every console launch and its always been a great time.

I was at a St Patricks day party when Smash Brawl released, and was completely smashed myself (yukyukyuk). My wife asked me if I wanted to go pick up the game, and I assume I said something like "WOOOOOOOOOOOO". I passed out in the car and she lined up and got the game.

memories

 

[BiggNife]

Camping out for the Wii will always stick out in my mind. My friends and I went to a Target nearby because someone online had figured out how much stock each store was going to get and the one near me had ~70 systems so we figured we had a good shot at it. The Target didn't open until 7am so we decided to pull an overnight.

Honestly, the thing I remember the most is how nice everyone was. Everyone else in line was very chill and friendly, and there were zero incidents. Between midnight and 4AM no one else was lining up, so my friends and I decided to stop by a nearby Taco Bell and the guys next to us had no problem saving our spot and looking after our stuff, probably because there were only 20-30 people in line at the time so it was clear we'd all get systems.

In the morning the line got a lot bigger but it never got particularly rowdy. One dude even gave out donuts to people in line just because. The line that led from the front of the Target to the games department in the back was shockingly organized, and everyone got a system first-come first-serve.

It's weird. I imagine a lot of stories in this thread are memorable to people because of how crazy they were, but the Wii launch is memorable to me because of how NOT-crazy it was. I was expecting chaos but instead I got friendly people and a well-organized line.

 

[Fattony12000]

I was the manager of a video game retailer when the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 launched.

Nothing crazy happened.

 

[McBradders]

Went to the store. Picked up Halo 2. Went home. Went to bed.

 

[Storm360]

Best? Halo 3, I have no isea why I even went, I was only 13 or so if I remember, but it was awesome, the store basically played the soundtracks of the first two games the entire time, and passed a controller around in a contest, ended up winning a free comic and controllers.

Worst?
GTA V, was full of obnoxious kids who were drunk, cursing at us standing in the PS3 line etc and got declined at the register when the clock eventually hit 0.

 

[Radec]

It was the PS4 launch in Canada.

I drove up to the EB Games (eh), and saw two lines in front.
The people in the long line well behaved, while the people in the short line were rowdy as hell.

I asked the last dude, if "this was the pre-order line" and he confirmed.
I only had to stand in line for 45 minutes before the doors opened and after that the line slowly but surely shuffled along.
I noticed that only my line was moving and that the short rowdy line was being held back.
My natural assumption was that the short line were people showing up at midnight in the hopes of getting their hands on leftovers. Sucks to be them, it was cold as balls.

Another 45 minutes later, i make it to the door, where i see a small sign by the entrance...

"Platinum members line up here"

I am not a platinum member....

With only 15 people in front of me in the comfortably warm store, i decide to..."fuck it" and put on my P-P-P-Pokerface and stay in line. (The alternative being going in the back of the non-platinum peasant line).

Another 20 minutes in, i make it to the registry and the guy asks for my platinum membership card.

Me: "I didn't bring it, you should have mentioned that when you called me this afternoon"
Him: No problem. what is your phone number?
Me: (703) 482-0623
Him: Ok....

At that point he just stares at his screen and sees that i am not a platinum member, but i do have a fully payed PS4 pre-ordered.

He looks at the people behind me...i can see the conflict in his eyes....

His mind: "Do i just give him his shit, or am i going to risk a hassle?"

So i look the poor guy in the eye and say "I'll also have a camera and killzone please"....

I wished the poor peasants good luck on my way out and drove home with my brand new PS4

AND THEN I SAW A FOX GUYS, IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME, HE WAS LIKE, RIGHT THERE!!

Picture of a Fox that looks just like the one i saw:

I imagine this is your face before they hand the PS4 to you:

 

[ReBurn]

My best midnight launch story is sleeping through the midnight launch and picking my preorder up in the morning. Most of the events I've been through haven't really been fun for me, and I've been too tired to play the game when I got home.

The last one I went to was GTA V because I really liked the game. They split everyone up into tiers so they could manage the large crowd better. Your tier was assigned by writing a number on your receipt when you went to the checkout and paid for your order or confirmed that you were there (if you had fully prepaid).

There was this particularly obnoxious guy there who was berating people for not knowing useless trivia about the game, such as the name of the dog or which radio stations were in the game. Going as far as telling people to deserve to play it if they didn't know everything about the story that had been released so far.

Since the guy arrived a bit later he was in a later tier. When they started handing out copies of the game, he decided to try to jump the line because he assumed that the people inside wouldn't care which tier he was in after he reached the counter at the back of the store. It was pretty funny to watch him fuming as he made the walk of shame back to the pool waiting outside when he was turned away for cutting the line. His buddies ragged on him pretty hard.

 

[superNESjoe]

This sounds like Grandville, MI. But I also realize this set up is probably pretty common.


The last midnight release I attended was Wrath of the Lich King. It was the last WoW expansion before digital releases became a preferable thing. I also got a Wii U the night of release but it was more me and the girlfriend cruising around checking Meijer stores.

I get no enjoyment from midnight queueing.

Ding Ding, we have a winner. Nice guess, we were at the Gamestop across from Rivertown Crossings.

 

[TDLink]

Last year I went to the midnight launch of the XBONE to buy A Link Between Worlds and Mario 3D World. The gamestop clerk looked at me like I was crazy and actually mocked me for wanting Nintendo games over a Xbox.

Coincidentally ALBW was the last 3DS game I bought physically.

 

[altez]

I was at the midnight release for Starcraft 2 with a friend of mine. We had gotten there pretty early around 9pm to wait in line, we came with food and just intended to hang out.

This had been the second actual midnight release that I'd gone too and both times the stereotype of a gamers look like came into play. A bunch of greasy haired guys, in dirty hoodies with multiple 2 liters of mountain dew showed up in the line behind my friend and me. Ridiculous beards that were only growing from their neck up to their chins. Grown dudes getting dropped off by their moms & etc.

Whatever right, i'm not here to judge everyone lives their own lives. The group behind me has a bunch of guys making up random facts about the starcraft universe, like Jim Raynor is actually a Xel'naga but hides it. One guy was in direct contact with Blizzard and decided last minute on a great deal of unit changes. One guy said he convinced Blizzard to increase Nova's bust before release and just going back and forth making up stories to one up another. Queue the token girl in the group who is laughing really hard at every joke, these guys are building up her confidence a ton by constantly telling her they could've modeled Nova/Kerrigan after her and etc.

It was really cringy and uncomfortable sitting so close to them, not to mention they smelled horrible. This girl is eating up the compliments from all these guys and starts going on about how she should have wore her kerrigan body suit that she made. She told us many times it was skin tight and would fully compliment her body. TThe guys were loving it and going on with it, "Oh god girl you'd look so good!" To give you an image of this girl she was pretty large, 280+ lbs if I'd have to give you a ballpark estimate. Long greasy hair, dirty hoody, mountain dew bottles hanging out of the front hoody pouch. She was flirting up all these guys around her. She had apparently made her way up from the back of the line of around 100 people by chatting these guys up.

Finally she directs her attention to me and my friend at the front of the line. She starts talking to him and being flirtatious, going on and on about how much she loves starcraft 2 and the body suit story we had just heard minutes ago as we were at best a foot away. "You should let me get to the front of the line, I mean it'd be really nice of you and i'm the biggest starcraft 2 fan ever." My buddy has a hard time telling people no so he just kind of awkwardly shifted around and I finally replied, "Nope."

"Why not? You're being really mean!" she exclaimed.

"No I'm not, we've been waiting here long before you, you should have came earlier." I replied.

"I can't believe you're acting like this, are you guys that obsessed with this game? what are you? losers?" she went on insulting us and the guys behind her joined in saying how we were assholes for not letting her cut. Guys are supposed to be nice to girls, it's chivalrous to let her cut.

It was like a weird episode of the twilight zone. All of these dirty grease guys calling me and my buddy out. I'm not the best looking guy in the world but I do shower on a regular basis, keep my hair clean cut, buy nice clothes, exercise and etc, I just happen to also love gaming. They were like, "why are you dressed so faggy anyways?" I had a button down shirt with jeans and some nicer shoes on. It evolved from me not being chivalrous to being a homosexual, to being a pedophile to all these other horrible things because of this girl chanting with these guys that I'm the devil for not letting her cut.

I was sitting there with my mind blown, this couldn't be real life. It was so stupid. So finally a guy comes up to me, really heavy I'd say somewhere around 300+ when it comes to his weight. He tells me if I don't move for the lady he is going to force me to move. I tell him to get away from me and then he pushes me against the wall outside of the gamestop and I promptly punch him in the face causing him to fall down.

When they saw this behemoth of a man collapse after I punched him in the face the crowd of people dispersed that were surrounding us, nobody was telling him to kick my ass anymore. He was just laying on the ground holding his nose sobbing. So somebody had called the police and the officer comes up to me and everyone says I attacked this guy and we were causing a huge scene in front of this game stop.

So the cops sitting there and getting ready to cuff me despite me and my friend trying to explain what happened until finally a gamestop employee comes out to find out what's going on. They were in the back getting all the stock ready and heard the commotion. One of the girls working there said she had seen everything happen through the window and that I was defending myself. The cop listened to her because she wasn't ranting and raving and losing her mind like the horde of people around us. The cop then tells everyone to calm down and its about midnight at this point anyways.

I turned to look at the girl and she had murder in her eyes, she was fuming in anger because she couldn't get to the front of the line. When we were finally single file in line and getting our games handed out to us, it was Me first, my buddy second and that girl third. When the lady gave her a pen to sign for her receipt for her game she purchased she literally ran at me and was stabbing at me in the parking lot. Leaving her newly purchased game on the counter. She was running as fast as she could so I just kinda kept moving at a good speed so she couldnt catch me. Finally she trips over her own feet and falls face first into the pavement. Some guys run from inside to help her up and all of that. But the second she fell down me and my buddy actually ran to my car to get out of there.

I didn't want to go near my car while she was chasing us because I didnt want her to start trying to jab my tires or do whatever a crazy person does to a car. By the time they helped her up we were driving away and just decided to go to a bar and get some drinks that night instead of playing starcraft 2. They were gonna be open for like another hour and half anyways.


TL;DR Really large 'gamer girl' chases me and tries to stab me with a pen out of anger after trying to get a really hefty guy to force me out of line while waiting to buy Starcraft 22.

 

[RedEther]

I was in a long line with some friends to pick SMB Brawl at gamestop. I noticed the guy in front of me looked like exactly like Leon from RE 4 (hairstyle and everything) so I let my friends know and yeah they were pretty amazed.

We actually forgot about the game for about 30 minutes and we would joke about how the Leon look-a-like was here at gamestop to stop an outbreak or something lol.

My friends and I still talk about that moment from time to time lol

 

[Ramza]

I waited in line for three days for a PS3 in front of Best Buy in 25 degree weather. The people in my line, about 20 of us, were really friendly and we all became pretty close. We were all sitting in our line in our lawn chairs, wrapped in blankets, looking miserable, I'm sure. A car full of the most stereotypical looking jocks (mustang, popped collars, etc) drove by yelling at us, calling us nerds, throwing cans. I stood up and shouted a few obscenities at them, thinking nothing of it. They actually stopped, got out of their car, and started walking towards me. There were three of them, pretty big dudes, too. Once they got up to me, almost in unison, all 20 people in my line stood up and just stared at them. They quickly turned around and went back to their car. As we sat down, this huge dude next to me looked right at me and said, "Hey man, they come back we gonna fuck em up, yeah?" and then continued to brofist me.

 

[Nephtes]

Halo 2 midnite launch.
It was freezing cold outside the Esplanade Mall in New Orleans, and the line was FOREVER looooooonnnngggg.
But I happened to show up in line behind a college fraternity buying the game, and they had beer...
Lots of beer. Bonus: They were willing to share!

...
....I don't think I should have been driving home that night...

 

[SeanFloyd]

hate..... Gamestop... with... all... ... my,,,,, heart......

 

[Paskil]

I bought the OG XBox and GTAIV at midnight launches. Neither of them were fun or memorable. Both were cold and miserable.

 

[braves01]

I drove to Best Buy at about 11:45 because I was on vacation, I was bored, and God of War III happened to be coming out that night. There were less than ten people waiting in line, but they still gave out tickets for some reason. I went in at 12:00, got my regular edition of the game, and went home. Played the beginning of the game, which was maybe the best part of the whole thing, then went to bed.

Not sure if this counts, but the Pokemon X/Y digital midnight launch was fun. I remember struggling to get through the eshop menu and actually downloading, since the store was so overwhelmed by traffic I assume. Then waiting patiently for an hour or more to actually finish downloading.

 

[Isotope]

I remember going with my friend to the midnight launch of Halo 4 at Gamestop, and it was pretty cold (Like 20°F or colder I think). Since we were all so cold, some guys decided to try to warm us up and light a fire. Only problem was they had no idea where to put the flames, and it somehow spread onto the grass, and eventually messed up someone's car's paint. The guy was super pissed, but at the end of the night, it's like he didn't even care, because he ended up getting his copy of Halo 4. And also, to fill that "GAMER FUEL" stereotype, the GS guys gave us Mountain Dew and Doritos. I wish i was kidding.

At that same Gamestop, I went with that same friend for the midnight release of Madden (I didn't buy it; I went just for the hell of it), and one guy started throwing punches at another dude because he beat him in a demo at one of the kiosks ( I think they were playing the last year's Madden?). GS had to call the cops on them; shit was hilarious.

 

[khamsinvera]

Hooked up with a chick who was in line too

Picked up the game the next day