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PS3 Lines Already Forming In America
Wowzer writes "Nine days until Sony's PlayStation 3 launches in America, and lines are already forming. From the article: "Someone went to Best Buy this morning and saw about 7 people waiting outside. He went inside and one of the workers told him that they had been there since Monday. It must be a tough job being such big PS3 fans and being the butt of many passer-by jokes like 'Where is the line for PS4? Is it on the other side?'"
It must be a tough job being such big PS3 fans and being the bud of many passer-by jokes like 'Where is the line for PS4? Is it on the other side?'
I'm not a fan of the PS3, and I'd find it tough to listen to a 'joke' like that.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
... How the hell can you afford to stand in a line for over a week?? Are you taking vacation time from work? Are you unemployed? Unemployable? And why the hell would you stand in a line for a week even if you had the time? Stupid kids and their rock music.
Why can't Sony just sell the first 200,000 straight from the factory doors. They'll be plenty of demand and it'll save on overheads.
Says the Slashdot editor...
Donate free food here
I went to eat with a bunch of friends at a mall food court and noticed an optimization problem. All the seats were full. Some people who were carrying food were forced to walk around looking for tables while others were 'holding' tables waiting for other members of their party to buy and bring back food.
By essentially creating a semaphore on the tables, the 'holders' were forcing a backlog of 'eaters'. By taking the resource and not using it, they blocked other users who would be ready to use the table immediately. With more 'eaters' coming out of line, the more crowded and backed up the general flow of customers got.
By sitting in line for a PS3, you're perhaps creating a slight advantage for yourself, but you are unoptimizing the situation for everyone else. You don't smell nice either, and you look like vagrants standing around in front of Best Buy.
I'm pretty sure this is astroturf. Just like for movies, publishers pay people to form queues and get on the TV news.
Anyone who really wants a PS3 that badly would have pre-ordered.
I'm getting a Wii on Euro launch day, and I fully expect to queue for no more than 5 minutes, wave my preorder receipt at the attendant, and walk out with a Wii.
So, Sony sells CDs full of malware, sues grandmothers and kids, sends checks to various US Congressmen stapled to drafts of anti-consumer laws to be introduced by them, and I'm supposed to line up at 4 AM to give them money.
...?
Cool stuff you can do for $600:
- Buy a bike
- Rent a decent sports car for a couple of days
- Take a plane trip to just about anywhere
- All-day shopping spree at a huge bookstore
- Adopt a starving Brungarian refugee
- Join a health club
- Take professional-development classes
- Many things involving girls
Dumbass stuff you can do with $600:
- Donate to the Cowboy Neal Retirement Fund
- Give it to Sony
-
If they're such diehard fans that they're willing to wait in line for over a week to buy a goddamn games console, why the hell didn't they just preorder it instead?!
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Only people lining up are those that really want to for the "fun" of it or because they're gonna flip the thing on eBay. Sucks that most of the initial units are going straight to the secondary market. Hell with that - http://www.playstationfinder.com/ FTW.
Will someone honestly answer me this. Do they put 2 weeks of food in a cooler? Do they sit with their best pal and take turns waiting in line? Does Best Buy obligate me to respect their encampment and let them buy first? What if I just waltz in on the appropriate day and put my tent in front of theirs? Can they be arrested for sleeping on the sidewalk? Can Best Buy kick them out? How does this work?
The society seems to have closen a circle when you can afford to line up for a product designed to waste time.