We at State Controlled Media are all about new experiences. Our motto is we try everything once. So when the opportunity came about to go to midnight release of a video game we decided we had to be there. The Perpetual Supreme Benevolent Editor has been saving his coins since the spring in order to purchase the game. When entering the gaming establishment we were surprised. We expected lots of eager youth to be piled around waiting breathlessly for the release at midnight, instead there were 20 and 30 somethings waiting. The air was thick and smelled of BO, tobacco and a mix of incense and marijuana. The only reason any of the people there were breathless, we suspect, was because of the smoking. The Perpetual Supreme Benevolent Editor was pleased that for once he was the most in shape person in a room. An odd thought went through our heads that this group of genial, amiable riff raff were in line to buy one of the most violent games you can buy. The store manager then began to hand out high end fast food, giant burritos from Chipotle. This was met with scorn and disdain from the group around us. “Too fancy, what are they trying to prove?” The McDonald’s Sweet tea was consumed in mass quantities though. The excitement was palpable, outside the store. The inside was strangely quiet. When we asked the manager if it was ok to wait inside he said yes, confused, we asked for further clarification. “Why” we asked, “If its ok to wait inside why is everyone outside?” “you can’t smoke in here,” he replied. Apparently tobacco, nicotine , and caffeine are an critical part of a hard-core gamers life. A contributing editor suggested that they were only smoking so much to keep from eating. From the look of the crowd we suspected that this was not the case. This could have been a gathering for the group “before” photo for the Biggest Looser. Then a strange anomaly, one of them had a girlfriend. He proved it by constantly making out with her while in line to buy a game that would prevent him from making out with her. We were like, ok dude we get it you have a girl with you but some of us are all about the game! The PDA continued despite our protests. We finally achieved gamage. It was however after midnight and we have a week constitution so we went home with our new game and slept the sleep of the employed.
UPDATE: EA's Severs...they really suckUPDATE 2: A big thanks to GameStop and the fine staff there. They made the whole experience enjoyable.
