Where's the Game of Virtual Waiting In Line?

[eggwards]

Last night Chris and I went out half-hartedly looking for a Wii. Really, i wasn't too into it, even though I liked the test that we did at the Game Stop in the mall. The controller really is quite different, and really, it's the stupid, complicated controller that keeps me away from a lot of games.

We checked out Best Buy twice. It seemed like they were going to do a midnight special, so we went and grabbed a coupon Chris has had for the newest Zelda game since March of last year. Apparently people have been waiting for a year and a half for this game to come out, and when it does, it's on a totally different system than it was before.

When we got back to Best Buy we noticed that all the employees were gone and what was left was a line of folding chairs with some 20 people in them. We asked when they would be giving the Wiis out, and they replied "9am" Uhm, no. I certainly wasn't going to camp out all night, and Chris wasn't either.

We ran over to Wal*Mart, which already is a place I hate, and there's a line of 40 people already, snaked outside of the garden center. Chris decided to give it a go, so I went into the store to shop. Twenty minutes later, about ten minutes to midnight, Chris comes over and said they had already pulled the twenty people who would actually be getting the console. I was disappointed for him, and maybe a little sad myself, because I was kind of interested, but I was sure as hell ready to get out of Wal*Mart.

I really am not much of a gamer. About the only game I play online is Soduko, and that's a one person deal. Games became much to complicated for me many, many years ago, and I've never had the co-ordination to really make all of those buttons, keypads and joysticks work together. Really, the last game i actually enjoyed was Katamari Damancy, and I wasn't that good at that.

A favorite game of mine was Yar's Revenge, which used the single joystick and one fire button. That's good Atari 2600 stuff. Somewhere I have an Activision Classics disk for the Playstation 2 that I guess I should try, but I'm not sure I could play Kaboom! without a paddle controller.

Chris is a good gamer. He can do all these things, and come up with these combinations and such. I think it's crazy. I end up watching him play games, just because some have a decent storyline. I've seen most of Kameo, Kingdom Hearts II and Legend of Zelda:Windwalker. Some are better than others. I look forward to seeing more of Dead Rising because the zombies bite it in such unusual ways.

Still, Chris is trying to involve me more. What he really wants is for me to start playing World of Warcraft. look, he says, it's available for Mac, and it's already installed on your system! Still, I watch him play and I can't think of a more pointless thing than this game. I just don't understand why people think this is any fun.

I used to like Sim City, but then it got far, far to complicated. All I want to do is build a city. I don't want to have to figure out taxes and budgets and other realistic details that take away from the feeling that you have a cool set of Legos. Perhaps they just need a Lego town set - build, destroy, and still have time to watch Ugly Betty.

Seriously, i'll pass on Warcraft, but the truck game for the Wii was kind of fun, and some of the sports games look interesting as well. it's all about that controller, though, and the different possibilities. I'll be happy if we get a Wii in the house. If Chris wants to get a Playstation 3 sometime, he's all on his own there.

Comments

[bendawg.livejournal.com]

Man, y'all would've had it easy out here. Even the Fred Meyer Marketplace across the street from my apartment had 9 Wii's in its electronics department (but several signs emphasizing NO PS3's). There were several stores that had a 12:01 am special opening party too.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, had we had the fortitude to go out to one of the smaller towns, I'm pretty sure we would have picked one up, but we weren't that serious about getting it.

Seriously, it's a lot of hype for machines that will be much easier to get over the next 4-5 years.

[winbear.livejournal.com]

This has been a very interesting week for serious gamers. I didn't even realize the PS3 was shipping until I heard a friend of mine was camping out at a Target for one. He was #6 in line 36 hours in advance and it turned out they only had 4 units. His buddies were #4 and #5 and decided to team up to buy to the "ultimate bundle" of every controller and a select set of games for an eBay auction.

I would be more interested in the Wii, I imagine. I enjoyed the GameCube a few years ago, mainly for a couple of games that were not too action oriented. Without realizing a new console was coming out, Harry decided to pursue various emulators for old games and ended up hooked on a Nintendo 64 game, Ms Pac-Man Maze Madness. Unfortunately, the emulator hung up on a certain level around 80% completion of the entire game, so we bought a used console and cartridge on eBay. The N64 is right at the edge of the level of 3D complexity and motion that Harry can handle comfortably and some games are less vertigo-inducing.

Have you checked out any of the $20-50 old-school consoles that were out a couple of years ago? They would have a number of games for a particular console all preprogrammed into a device the size of the original controller. We tried a couple of those and were happy with them. If they made one with Yar's Revenge, I think it must have been buried on a list of 20+ games for a unit.

As for WoW, like any other MMORPG, the social interaction is a big part of the experience. It's not just about the adventure, it's about playing it with other people. Of course, you wouldn't get to play with your real serious gamer friends until you were upto speed on the controls and your character was of sufficient level. It can be a catch 22, but there are ways to deal with it from the noob side as well as the leet side.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Sony I think really rushed to get this in the marketplace this year...after being a year late. Still, I think they are going to see the Wii triump this year. That's got to be a big problem for them as they are having a lot of trouble selling their non-gaming products these days. The PS3 also seems to be overpriced (I'm sure the components are expensive) when you look at the competition, and that's a big problem.

Sony probably could have made more units, but getting the hype of being the impossible to find toy is really more of what they wanted, I think.

I've seen some of the retro consoles, and the trouble is, they don't have a great selection of games - most likely because they only come from one group - generally Atari. What made the 2600 great was games from Namco, Activision, etc. I'm almost thinking about getting on ebay and finding an old 2600.

[cubziz.livejournal.com]

Honestly, wait a week and there will be more Wii consoles available.

Nintendo made a BIG gamble by intentionally releasing their console just two days after Sony. What they were gambling on was that the PS3 would sell out (there were only 400,000 units) and that as a result of the shortage that it would cause their unit to even sell more and possibly (and successfully) sell out as well (all 1 million units).

Sony expects to get another 300,000-600,000 out by the end of the year... Maybe.

Nintendo's already confirmed 1 million more and up to 3 million more before the end of the year.

So... guess who won Round 1. ;)

I too have no interest in a PS3. However, I would love to have a Wii here. It just looks different and fun to play.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I don't think Nintendo did themselves a disservice, really. They will find that there are a lot more Wii's under the tree this year than PS3's, and that can make for a lot of customer good will. I think a lot of peopel will think the PS3 is overhyped, and expensive. it will also be a year before there's enough games for it to give it much attention.

I think that's the thing, it isn't the graphics with the Wii, it's just a different spin on gameplay. At least they tried something new.

[cubziz.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Nintendo gambled, but they won.

[geisel.livejournal.com]

It's worth finding. I'm sure the second shipments will be much calmer... Keep up looking!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yes. I suspect we'll come across one in the next week or so. Of course, we found out that our local Target got 100 Wii's on launch date, but when we found out on Tuesday, they were already gone.

Now if we would have driven out past Denton or somewhere, I'm sure the getting would have been easier.

[dedos.livejournal.com]

I waited for several hours for one. :)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

And in the cold too! Crazy Chicago boys!

So how are you liking it?

[polomex.livejournal.com]

I've never been too great with games either. I remember when all I had to do was stay alive and occasionally look for a power-up. Even then, my video game skills were lacking. Now, video games require me to take on a whole new life, a fantasy life that genuinely requires me to give up my REAL life just to keep track of it. It's not just about my health meter anymore, now I have to worry about how much "special ability" life I have, my location on a map more complicated and expansive than anything in real life, my clothing, my weapons, my spells, my skills, 12 different elements ("thunder" is an element?), and umpteen quests. And I'm expected to keep track of all these things for at least 5 different characters.

What.the.Fuck.

Whenever I'm given a game to try, I go straight for the online walkthroughs and/or cheat codes. Otherwise, I find video games to be more of a source of stress rather than a release.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I so agree. Chris has one game that the main character has 12 sub-characters that she becomes, and you can choose them at different times because they all have different abilities, and are used for specific tasks. of course, each one has several different controller combos that you have to know to be able to have them preform their special tricks. I can't keep up.

heck...Defender Stargate came out and there was an extra button - more than any other game I was playing, that's when the downfall occured in my book.

[mikiedoggie.livejournal.com]

I loved Yars Revenge. One of my favorite Atari games of all time. It is amazing how much games have changed since back then.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah...notice that you don't see that many arcade games anymore because the power that's in an Xbox is just as good or better than anything that would be at the arcade.

Still, as Margret Cho's mom would say "it's not special!".

[starzcub.livejournal.com]

Yar's Revenge was great....OH mY Gawd... I didn't remember it until now.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's a good one. there were a lot of games that were just fine without all the fancy graphics and crap.

[jerrycakes.livejournal.com]

I'm still playing SNES games on an emulator on my PC.

Screw Nintendo. Screw Sony. Screw Microsoft.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, SNES games are still old Nintendo stuff.

I did see that there was an emulator for Atari games for the Mac, but I never really got into it.

No school like the old school.

[jerrycakes.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. I just feel rebellious 'cause people are scrambling for a $250 video game system (or 2x that, if you want a PS3 badly enough).