I must confess, I preordered a Wii…
October 16th, 2006 -
Posted by: Jeff Rivera in Nintendo Wii, Personal
Oh how weak I am. I didn’t plan on preordering a Wii at Gamestop. If fact, I was stomping around all day on Thursday claiming that nothing could make me do so. Well, by Friday morning I found myself standing out front of my nearest Gamestop with a co-worker and my mom (she went to go get one for my brother). So why did I do it? Am I simply a weak-willed fool, or did I have valid reasons for dealing with the devil (of gaming)? Well, before getting into that, I’ll detail everything I ended up preordering.
The list:
- Nintendo Wii console
- Wii Remote
- Nunchuck attachment
- Classic controller
- Rayman Raving Rabbids
- Red Steel
- Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
- Trauma Center: Second Opinion
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Metal Slug Anthology
- Excite Truck
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Still to preorder or pick up in a non-gaming store:
- 2GB SD card
- Elebits
- Madden NFL 2007
- Wii carrying case of some sorts (I plan on moving it around often)
So, what’s my list of excuses for going to Gamestop and comprimising my stand against the retailer? Well, here’s another bulleted list.
- My co-worker and mom were already heading over there and begging for the company
- My Amazon.com preorder may not arrive before I head out of town for the holidays (2 days after launch) and I’m taking my Wii with me
- I’ll be camping out for the PS3 two nights earlier and I’d rather not be out there again in the Utah winter (sub-freezing temps)
- Once I have my console and preorder games I can ignore them for the rest of the generation. I’m done with used games (buy or sell) at Gamestop/EB
- Peace of mind. I like to know that a month before launch I have my console purchase secured.
It’s a pretty weak argument for why I ended up heading over to Gamestop just after ranting against them for a couple of days, but I think I’ll be able to live with myself for now. Check out my preorder story below (copied and pasted from a forum response I made on Friday):
HOLY CRAP! That was insane.
I showed up at 8:20 and was #22 out of 27. My co-worker (who rode over there with me) was #26; that’s how quickly people were showing up. My mom had gotten there a few minutes ahead of me and was #20. The crazy thing is that the line got to over 100 on the sign up list. It wasn’t until the manager stepped out and said that he only had 27 to go around that everybody left. People kept showing up for a long time afterwards and were turned away. All in all I’d say it was around 150 people that showed up by the time I got out of there (11:20).
Parents showing up late were throwing fits too. I felt bad for them, but they didn’t have a chance when people’s names were on the list as early as 5:00pm yesterday (7 before midnight).
Anyway, I got my preorder (but I wouldn’t have if I was 30 seconds later) and I’m happy. I still hate Gamestop though.
Come November 19, it will be mine.
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October 19th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
[...] One month from today, on November 19, 2006, the Nintendo Wii will officially be on store shelves. I already have mine preordered along with a whole bunch of games. To all of those that tried to get a preorder and failed, Toys ‘R Us will be taking preorders on October 29th, so you have one more chance. For those of you that miss out a second time but still want to get one at launch, make sure to come back soon for my camping guide. [...]