Ask Lemmy

Not "camping out" as much as "stalking". My work colleagues and I staked out different stores, looking for a PS2 on release. Then, for the PS5, I followed a Twitter account that monitored availability until I scored one.

11/11/11

I haven't personally done it, but I was working nights in HMV on the restocking crew when Skyrim launched. We had a midnight opening and laid on a bunch of extra staff to cover the heaving masses desperate to lay their hands on Bethesda's latest masterpiece.

Six people turned up.

The only ones that come to mind are a midnight release for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008 and one for Skyrim in 2011. I was working the graveyard shift in 2011 and went to work late to pick up the game so my wife could play it.

Just once, for GTAV.

They released just after midnight. There was a decent line as I recall, probably less than 50 people. People cracked jokes about the series, and quoted favorite dialogue. The first guy in line strode victoriously to his car, his copy held high, then burned rubber when he hit asphalt. Immediately a cop tore after him out of the darkness. The rest of us went "ooooooo". Somebody said, "No that's just one star. He can do this!"

Just once for GTA 4 midnight launch. Only took 2 hours, mild weather.

Nearly did for the PS3 launch but managed to snag one on a digital storefront same day.

At 11:30PM, I remembered that Borderlands 2 would be releasing in half an hour, and I had a little time and money to spare, so I headed down to GameStop.

I didn't really camp out, but I got there a little early and waited in line for a bit.

The closest I ever came was Black ops 2, I went to the midnight release and then played with my cousin all night long on it. but it wasnt really camping, it was showing up an hour early and waiting for our pre-order copy.

During that time when the LOTR movies were first coming to cinemas, people were camping outside to get premiere tickets. While we were all in the target demographic for said movies, having read rhe book and all, we found it a bit laughable considering how important it was to some people to see the movies on the premiere rather than just waiting a day or two...

Well, a couple of friends and I decided to ensure we got premiere tickets as well, so we brought sleeping bags and beer for our overnight adventure.

Except we weren't there for LOTR. We got premiere tickets for Shrek 2, just because why not. We were the only ones there. 10/10, would recommend.

Closest I ever got was seeing opening night of Tron: Legacy. I went two weeks in advance to pick up midnight showing tickets and they had already been sold out.

I’m not much for FOMO

No, not really. The closest I'd have gotten to that is waiting in line for a movie, for which I had a reservation already. Anything you might want to camp out for will likely be available like, a week or a month later.

My dad took my friends and I out to queue up for the.midnight launch of black ops 1. He had to go in and buy copies for us cause we were to young. But it was super fun, just a bunch of excited kids talking about the new game. I normally dont talk to strangers but we were all just so hyped. I dont think ive ever been more excited about a game than that release it was my entire life at the time.

Never camped over night or anything. But I did go to the midnight release of Smash Brawl, Gears of War 3, a few Pokémon games, and most recently the Switch 2. Switch 2 was the most fun, as everyone in line was in the same boat. Everyone missed release day pre-orders so we were all commiserating about the process. Everyone had their Switch with them and people were playing all sorts of things.

Gears 3 was probably a close second. The Gamestop I went to absolutely broke street date with one single copy, and had it set up on a 360 outside the store with 4 controllers, so you could play it before it even came out. As soon as they opened the doors to let people in the store, I went up to that TV, quit out of multiplayer, and played a round of Beast mode for the first time ever, a few hours before official launch. It was great.

I do it once in a while for stuff I'm excited about. Not really to "get it first," but more to have an experience I can remember and hype myself up about it.

In high school, I worked at Walmart, and I got a pretty nice (I think 10%) employee discount on everything including electronics, so when I heard we were getting a shipment of Xbox 360's that night, I decided to wait for it. Some friends joined me while I waited and everyone else waiting was very friendly. We all talked about what we were excited to play and how cool the features were (at the time). They just told us to hang out around the electronics section, so as people showed up we all kind of knew who had been waiting. Around 11:30 they told us to form up a line and a guy who showed up about 15 minutes earlier tried to get in towards the front. I had never seen a group Walmart customers work together before, but everyone ran the guy off haha.

I did it for the original Switch because the day after I had a flight between the US and Korea, so I figured playing the new Zelda would be a good way to eat through the time. I had a preorder so that kind of killed the excitement around the uncertainty of getting it, but it was still a good time.

I most recently did it for the Switch 2. It was actually pretty difficult to find any local stores selling it without a preorder, and none were doing midnight releases. The only place I could find was Staples that was selling them at opening the day of release. I knew they wouldn't have very many in stock, but I figured I would wake up early, go to the store and if the line looked short enough, I'd camp out until opening. I got to the store at like 3:30 am and there was one guy there... Was cool to get to hang out, talk games, drink coffee, and watch the sun rise.

I used to work in GAME a couple of decades ago in the UK. Did the Halo 3, WiiFit and one of the assassin's creed midnight launches, all crowds were great vibes.

I'd never do it myself, but it looked like good fun for those involved

I went to the midnight release for Skyrim and RDR2, decided to quit while I was ahead haha

Twice. Once for the launch of the GameCube which had a midnight launch. There was essentially no queue for that

Second was in the run up to Christmas. We do one big present for each kid at some point and I had to queue for a very limited number of PS3's in the country from about 3am. We knew there were some coming to a local store but it was very limited.

Nearly got in a fisticuffs with an attempted queue skipper. Prick. He was behind me so it didn't directly affect me and he kept saying as much and telling me to relax but fuck that for a game of soldiers. I wasn't going to let him steal someone else's further back.

No.

I once queued up outside the local Aldi for a PC. Those were the days when they had decent machines at hard to beat prices. There were quite a few people before me when I got there about an hour before the store opened. Luckily, I got my PC because they had plenty of stock. It was a pretty decent machine too. This must have been in the early 2000s. Pretty unspectacular, overall.

Noup, i have enough patience to go on with my life and wait comfortably in my home for a sale or at least when the bigger rush has passed over. Most of those rushes pass in a few weeks and few weeks are almost no time at all.

Queued up?

Not really. When Skyrim came out years and years ago, I was able to reserve a copy with the Alduin statue, and I put 300 hours into that game. One of the best values ever.

Stood in line for like 7 hours for the release of the (I think?) 5th harry potter book, and got it just after midnight

Context:

In cologne Germany there is a huge carnival culture, historically carnival is sorta anti establishment, but for a variety of reasons in post ww2 cologne carnival is the establishment. So the Karnevalsvereine have shows/plena called Karnevals_Sitzung. Because these events had lost their anti establishment air, at some point a reaction formed called the Stunk_Sitzung (roughly grievance session as opposed to carnival sessions) which re focused on anti establishment satire, both satirizing main stream carnival and broad local to global politics. This event then became the de facto cultural institution in terms of carnival satirical stage show running several shows weekly throughout the entire season (Nov-Feb/March).

Story:

Getting tickets for this show for a weekend close to the end of the carnival season (the season ends with the main parades and festivities)requires ordering tickets in person on the day the tickets go on sale, with the ticket offices opening 9am lining up at 10pm isn't uncommon, and I have been part of such a line. Although it is also common for the spot in line to be transferable, so I did a shift roughly midnight to 5am at which point I went home to bed and someone else did the last 4h shift and bought tickets.

I used to see some movies on their Friday evening release. Back when theatres still sucked, but slightly less than now. There'd usually be likes. Generally not huge ones with what I was seeing.

When I worked for a company that made after-market 12volt bluetooth car kits, they made us wait in the line to get the OG iPhone for testing.

Queued for an hour for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Other than that, not really.

I remember a Skyrim release party at the local game stop. We all hung out and got our games and the store ended up giving away a bunch of promotional stuff like cardboard stands and the like. It was a good time. I can't imagine wading through a sea of people anymore for a release like that. Digital has changed a lot.

I waited in a midnight pick-up line for Halo 3. And the game wasn't even for me.

nope never. not for a game, not for concert tickets, not for some black friday thing. I am very much the type where if there is a line I nope out.

Never. Nor will I ever do anything like that.

No, beyond a few discount bin games, I have downloaded all my games since the early 2000s, long before I had money to buy new games myself.