Feature: US Got Wiis: One Gamer's Ordeal
Posted 24 Nov 2006 at 20:15 by guest
Our report from the field
American went a little bit crazy over the Wii: we Europeans will be a little more subdued I expect. American gamers had to queue, sometimes for days, and sometimes in the company of dozens, or hundreds of fellow enthusiasts. N-Europe reader Chris K. traversed through the depths of boredom in his 27-hour Wal-Mart experience, here's his report and some video footage.
Wii is Near: Friday, November 17th, around 10pm
I have been waiting eagerly for the Wii Launch for days now. Even though I had three exams scheduled this week, the only big thing on my mind was getting my Wii on Sunday. For a few days, I have been strategizing to determine which store would be getting my $250. However, as was the case with most people, I had a hard time getting console numbers and the like. After learning that Wal-Mart would allow its line to form inside the store, choosing that store as my plan A was not difficult. This is Pennsylvania, which isn't exactly warm in mid-November. I heard 28 units for one of the Wal-Marts here a couple of days ago, which sounded nice. By Thursday or so, my final plan of Wal-Mart, then Best Buy/Circuit City/Target, and finally Sears was set.
The only obstacle left was my physics exam from 6:30-7something. I went from the exam back to my apartment to pick up my things. While I was there, I called the other Wal-Mart in the city, just to check their status. I was told only six or seven people were there and they were already allowing a line to form. (The other store, with 28 units, was not allowing a line to form until midnight Saturday morning.) As soon as I heard six or seven people were there for a store with 20 Wii consoles, I changed my plans immediately. In fact, I called a taxi rather than waiting for the bus to get me there. Sure enough, I got to the Wal-Mart and was the ninth person there. My day was made... no, my week.
The Wait Begins: Friday, around 10pm
I ended up in the Lawn and Garden department around 8:40pm Friday, which is in a separate room from the rest of the store. It is the perfect place, by the way. Since it's out of the way, there haven't been many people bothering us, it's fairly quiet (except for our own noise), and we're not crammed in! Upon entering, eight people around a table and various chairs informed me I was #9, just about guaranteeing me a Wii. After a bit of walking back and forth, I found my own chair (conveniently borrowed from the store floor). Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for a lot of DS's to emerge from people's bags. Within a short time, we had an 8-player Mario Kart game... which lasted about an hour. I won. More and more people came as the night progressed (including a number of friends people already there were calling), although, it wasn't nearly as fast of a line fill-up as I expected. By 11-something, we got a game of poker going with six of us (yes, I brought my chips). I got a full house, four of a kind, and straight flush within 15 minutes of each other. That was insane.
The Wait Continues: Saturday, November 18th, 5:57am
We dream of Wii
Well, our line has filled at 20 people. The 20th person came by sometime around 4:20am, so we're now letting anyone else know they may very well not get one. At this point, a lot of people are finally realizing they will indeed need sleep, and maybe half of the group is unconscious right now, or attempting to be. I do have to say that we are being treated extraordinarily well by the staff here. Not only are we inside the store (and not outside freezing), but they are letting us use their table, a lot of chairs (even ones we pull off the shelves), they have given us a power source, a garbage can, and an employee comes by every so often to talk with us. One of the assistant managers, Jim, is especially awesome. He truly wants us to have a good time, and he'll be working again when it's actually launch time. This means there won't be any challenge to our line order. I am absolutely pleased with my choice to come here. We've even got a line "constitution" and everything is organized very well. So far while waiting here, I've had a can of Coke and about a liter of Mountain Dew, which is quite possibly the reason I'm still awake at 6am. I'll try to get some more pictures and interviews when more people wake up.
Morning Rolls Around: Saturday, 8:05am
No, I still haven't slept at all... at this point, I've been awake at least 16 hours straight... Nothing much exciting has been happening. The sun isn't out, but it definitely is light outside. Many of the people sleeping are back up and wandering around. Almost halfway through my wait... After being here all night, "almost halfway" is not what I want to hear. I suppose it could be worse though... I could be waiting outside in the cold at Best Buy or somewhere else.
Damn, This Wait Is Long: Saturday, 1:34pm
I finally got a bit of sleep... about 15 minutes' worth. Don't ask me how I'm running on that little sleep in about 21 hours, but I am. Boredom has reached a new high in the Lawn and Garden kingdom. None of my DS games are keeping me entertained and there isn't a whole lot else to do. My poker chips saw some more use around noon... Currently, I'm just trying to keep from losing my sanity (or what's left of it � after all, I came to Wal-Mart over 27 hours before launch). A little earlier, maybe around 1, an employee came back here holding some stickers and did a call of our numbers to hand them out. I almost got my hopes up that she would be giving out Wii tickets ensuring you one at midnight, but no, we still have to wait until 10 tonight for that. Yay!
The hovel of the mad
Seven Hours To Go: Saturday, 5:01pm
I've been here for 20 hours and 20 minutes, and it really is dragging on... The end is in sight, but in and of itself, waiting seven hours is still bad. I'm getting really hungry and everyone seems to be overall bored despite the swarm of DS's and a few laptops. I've realized I'm getting up and walking around the store far more often now... Let's hope the last hours don't drag on and on...
The Home Stretch: Saturday, 7:31pm
After intense boredom this afternoon, we played some Uno and it appears as though the nearness to the launch is making some people less agitated and bored. Not too long ago, one of the employees came by and gave the official number of units for consoles, controllers, etc. I'm not getting anything extra from Wal-Mart, at least not right away. Zelda is coming from my EB preorder and I'm going to hold off on another controller for the moment. Right now, we're hoping for a pizza delivery by someone's parents, as most of us are pretty hungry. We're supposedly still getting tickets around 10pm, officially allowing us to get our consoles at 12. Again, I'm surprised at the fact that I'm not unconscious right now. I'm at about 15 minutes of sleep in the last 28 hours or so. Anyway, yeah, I probably should have been taking more pictures and video, but there wasn't too much of a perfect time.
Success: A few lays post-launch
The last few hours waiting were the most challenging of the whole 27 hours I spent there. Typically, you would expect someone who just spent an entire day waiting for a Wii to be greatly excited about it and ready to tear the box open. However, by Saturday night, I was extremely tired, even to the point of fighting to stay upright. I had to decide between more caffeine (by that point, I'd already had way too much) or passing out. Of course, I went with more caffeine, but it was getting really hard to stay awake. It felt almost as though I was dreaming, watching myself moving around and talking. For whatever reason, I think that counts as sleep deprivation. Anyway, pizza eventually came sometime around 8 or so, and we were all over it. Even though we just spent the last day in a Wal-Mart Supercenter (with all the food you could need), pizza was a very welcome sight to this starving group of people.
We decided that we should restore the place to its prior condition sometime by 11 or so, but we'd wait until after being given tickets to do so... By 10, it was starting to get pretty loud again, as launch was just about upon us. There was music, games, everything. A little after 11, after we had cleaned up, we were finally relocated, this time to descend upon the Electronics department. I'm not totally sure why we moved there that early... maybe everyone was just tired of being in Lawn and Garden. We got lined up around the register maybe 15 minutes before midnight and everyone was keeping an eye on the clock. Finally, when midnight hit, they were able to hand the first person his Wii and accessories and then came the applause. We finally made it. It took them a while to get the whole line checked out, but I was done by 12:30 or so. I got a ride back to my apartment from the sister (friend, maybe) of one of the people who waited in line and then opened the box up to get pictures of my shiny new Wii.
The prize
Looking Back
I really cannot compliment the staff at our Wal-Mart enough. They went out of their way to make sure our wait went the best it could. This surprised me largely because no matter what, they would have sold out: they didn't have to be this accommodating. Allowing us to avoid the just-above-freezing temperatures outside alone was generous, but giving us electricity, giving us a trash can, allowing us to use all those chairs... wow. I'm truly impressed on that end. Also, they really did respect us. Not once did they come back to Lawn and Garden and impose some kind of rules. It was mutual respect. They trusted us to keep our order and agree on any rules, and it really did work very well. As long as you had a nametag with your name and number on it, everything was fine. Since we weren't in an actual line, we could leave whenever we wanted to walk around the store, pick up some food, or go outside for some fresh air whenever we wanted, as long as it didn't take too long or anything. Having food available throughout the day was another major plus.
Overall, I am extremely glad I chose Wal-Mart instead of Best Buy... I can't imagine how bad the wait would have been if I were outside that whole time. As of right now, I've played Wii Sports and will be starting Zelda shortly. I'm definitely impressed with the console as of yet, and I fully recommend it to everyone. The controls work quite well and the graphics are fairly impressive too. Considering graphics were supposed to be the weak point of the Wii, I think it's pretty safe. Thanks for reading my launch report!
Thanks to reader Chris K. for the report! We're pleased his sanity held up, though we're not sure if ours can stand the current wait. If you're a US reader, feel free to comment with your own experience. We'd love to hear them. In the meantime, check out some interviews Chris got with other people in the queue in the video below. Apologies for the less than stellar picture quality.
