Hello. My name is Matt Burnett and I live in Astoria, Queens. This is my blog, and this is the first entry. It’s about getting Wii Fit.
8:30 AM – I leave my girlfriend’s place because she is going to work and I am a bum. It’s very nice out, and I wish I had my sunglasses. I decide that I’m going to go find a copy of Wii Fit today.
8:40 AM – I pass by Steinway Street and considering turning down it to treat myself to a McGriddle sandwich or something else from McDonalds. I realize how completely counter that idea is to the whole second part of the product title I have set my eyes on this morning, and just pick up some milk to take home for cereal.
8:55 AM – Home. I eat a bowl of Berry Berry Kix while listening to the last bit of a podcast I started last night and browsing Kotaku. Wii Fit’s are already on eBay for $50 above retail. I take that as my cue to drink the purple milk left in my cereal bowl and head out.
9:10 AM – There are already 5 people in line at the Best Buy two long avenue blocks away from my place, on Northern Boulevard. I walk up, pull out my DS, and starting grinding through more of The World Ends With You as I wait for the doors to open.
9:12 AM – The doors open and a Best Buy employee asks if everyone here is waiting for the “Wii Mat.” He seems surprised that there are already people waiting for this $90 hunk of plastic.
9:20 AM – The line is growing fast. Immediately behind me is a crackly voiced kid, maybe in his late teens or early 20s, who has struck up a conversation with the middle aged man behind him. This kid is yammering on about how he has a preorder, and he plans to buy another one, and eBay them both, because you can totally make like $50 off each one! I don’t know if I’m madder that he is running such a scam, or that there are people out there who buy from these first day eBay jackals.
9:53 AM – The line is 30 people deep now, according to the count of the Best Buy manager, who comes out take a head count. He checks to see if everyone is still just here for the Wii Fit. . . seven people get out of line and head into the store, just here to make returns. The jackhole behind me is getting physically excited, the thrill of the hunt taking a hold of him. His voice cracks more and more as he asks the manager if he can buy two, since he has a preorder. The manager laughs at him.
10:00 AM – Doors open to us, we queue up inside for the one Wii Fit dedicated register island. As the first couple of people in front of me check out, an employee wheels over an entire metal display of Wii Fits to the register, and they start pulling copies off to stash under the counter for easy access. I feel bad. Someone went through all the trouble last night or early this morning to set up a nice Wii Fit display, and it’s not even seen for a second. Did they really not know this thing was going to sell out immediately? I realize, for the first time in a long time, that perhaps not everyone reads video game blogs every 30 minutes like I do.
10:05 AM – Guy behind me still thinks he’ll be able to get a second one. He claims he knows someone who works here, and through that hook up got three of the new iPods on the first day (is the demand for iPods still so high that new models sell out on the first day?). I want to rat him out to an employee, tell them he’s trying to screw some of the people in line behind him out of their copy. I trust that he won’t be able to pull it off anyways.
10:05 AM – I get my copy of Wii Fit. It’s heavier than I expected. I watch $97.53 disappear into the ether.
10:06 AM – The guy behind me asks if he can get one, and then also pick up his preordered one. Again, he is laughed at. I feel relieved. I see the first four people in line standing outside with their purchases. Turns out it’s an entire family. . . they each bought one. Probably to eBay. Sigh.
10:10 AM – I walk by the high school in my neighborhood on my way home. There are a bunch of kids playing soccer and tennis for gym class. They’re having fun outside, and with each other. I’m walking home with my plastic board and video game to pretend to head soccer balls into a net, inside, by myself. There’s probably something really interesting to be said about this, but I’m not willing to make that jump. I already hate myself enough.
May 21, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Don’t feel bad.
When DDR came to the US, my friend became a DDR freak. As a soft pudgy gamer, he decided to get into shape. Instead of exercise and dieting, he decide to play DDR for four hours a day. He thought it was the prefect workout program. After the novelty wore off, he never played it again.
May 21, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Despite having at least 20 games I’ve yet to start (that’s counting the most recent generation of consoles only; don’t get me started on DS/PSP let alone PC and older stuff), I was slightly starting to feel like I was in the wrong for not having purchased Wii Fit or really bothering to give it much consideration.
Then I saw this post revealing that it costs NINETY DOLLARS. Ah, the sweet smell of vindication.