LFM: Wrath Launch PUG
Nov. 13
It was 04:00AM and I was watching my server go down, as many of us were, the fun over free Season 2 for Priests and Warlocks had come and gone. I had planned to eventually head downtown to San Francisco to GameStop on Powell, but at 04:00AM I made the decision to pack up and just head down early, join the early birds, be part of the fun. I had no idea what I'd be getting myself into. Wrath of the Lich King was upon us, and I wasn't leaving until I had that bitch in hand.
I arrived, a boy and his chair, at 06:00AM. The event would not begin until 08:00PM that evening, and I knew little about the planned events outside of the developers visit. Time started to go by and I spent my morning getting weird looks as I sat wrapped in a grey blanket outside of GameStop. It wasn't until nearly 09:00AM that my solo adventure became a proper pick-up group, as a local couple joined me and ended my loneliness. This pair became a group, and our little roped off area would be dwarfed by a line that stretched around the entire block.
Every time I'd gone to a release like this, I'd always gone too late. I'd meet up with awesome people somewhere towards the end of the line, we'd go back and forth playing Meteos or some equally addictive Nintendo DS game, and it'd be a memorable evening, but sitting at the head of this pack, and being as obnoxious and impatient as I am, was a real trip. I imagine certain GameStop employee's were a bit tired of my constant request for news, but hey, I had to answer sixty questions a minute of the "where do I line up? ", " what is this for?" , and " your wife let you outside like that?" variety.
If you'd told me I'd be walking away with a prize for being first in line, I'd have laughed, but when 08:00PM rolled around and we went in to pay for our games, the GameStop team had a Helm of Arthas from SideShow Collectibles waiting for me. I was ecstatic, and immediately received threats of bodily harm for both my eventual collector's copy of the game and this now sold out Helm of Arthas collectible, only available from BlizzCon (or on eBay for 150 bucks!). I had brought in a few PS3 games to trade in, and only paid five dollars out of pocket to make Wrath mine thanks to a 20% bonus trade-in credit from GameStop.
The night rolled on and GameStop treated us to face painting, photos with Orcs and Blood Elves, and a literal frozen throne to take pictures on. The overall consensus that you and three thousand of your newest closest friends wanted nothing more than to get this game and get out as quickly as possible to explore the new content of Northrend, likely never to hear from each other again!
Midnight arrived, I'd been waiting patiently (mostly) for eighteen hours now, and I was first to pick up my Collector's Edition and walk through the row of developers with faces like lead Designer Alex Afrasiabi. They were nice enough to autograph not just my CE Art Book (which was for a friend and not even for me) AND the base of my new Arthas Helm. The cameras flashed, the interviews continued, and our night had come to a glorious end as I walked to my car with Wrath finally in hand.
So you might laugh me for sitting in line for Eighteen Hours for a video game, and you might laugh at some of the conversations we'd had throughout the day, but I met so many awesome gamers I'd never have had a chance to meet if not for this event, and the generous hosting by GameStop. I'm truly glad I went.
Well worth taking a day off work.
See you in Northrend!
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Comments
That helm of Arthas' is pretty bad ass! I too was impressed by the even last night, the free snow cones were EPIC!!
I was disappointed that there was no Brewfest brew on hand though, that was a real downer.
I really liked the fact that you chronicled the day through both picture and words!!
Welcome Hindsight, it's great to have you aboard!
The event was absolutely a blast, though I had to depart early to pick up my own copy of Wrath that had been pre-ordered at a completely different GameStop. Still, there was much fun to be had, and I have a few ideas on how we can be more prepared for the next WoW expansion event - omgRPG swag, anyone? ^_^
Oh man, that story is great.
Around here the lines for Wrath were apparently pretty short-- apparently it only took about 45 minutes for the pre-orders to get their games. Kind of disappointing, since thus far the buzz on Wrath makes it sound like one of the best MMO expansions... well, pretty much ever.
As I mentioned above, I left the Powell Street launch party a little early - around 10:30 if I recall - and at that time the line was about 5 blocks long. I got down to the Coleman Ave GameStop in San Jose about an hour later and the line there was only around half a block in length, but it wasn't one of the "big launch event" stores. Still, it didn't end up shutting its doors until nearly 1 am. Either way, there is no doubt that this was a huge launch, and I'm eager to find out the final sales numbers. I'm sure they will be posted here as soon as we have them.
@Lynxara,
As I can see it, the 45 minute processing time is less a testament to sales at your particular store and more a sign that they are good at what they do. Granted, I don't know the population of the area or anything like that, but I know that the store we visited second last night processed about 250 transactions in about 45 minutes. For them that's good sales, and speedy service, considering the entire Gamestop credit card network had crashed for the first time in company history due to high volume of sales, so they were working entirely with cash. Color me impressed.
Was that why it went down? Wow, or maybe I should say WoW! I walked the line with the gal in the front of that top photo, it went on in two directions on either side of the door, one path, the original path was people who had yet to pay, and the other direction was people who had yet to pick up their paid game. Each line had grown so long, that it met up on the other side of the BLOCK, to the point where the line had to cross the street, and continued on for that first facing of the next block.
Tried to buzz that GameStop and see if they had an exact number but the number just rings, maybe the staff fell asleep after such a long night, and no one made it in for the day!
I am waiting to get the press releases from either Gamestop, Blizzard or both. I'm sure both companies will be quick to laud what was definitely a record night. I know they were estimated to sell 5 or 6 million copies of Wrath of the Lich king on launch day. Compare that to the 4.6 million sold by Fallout 3 so far, and there is much to be blown away by.
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