Ask Lemmy

I remember this being quite common before digital music was a thing. There'd be a line at the music store for whatever new album would be out for a popular artist. It was great because you got to meet like-minded people that were excited enough about something to line up and wait for it, giving this sense of community that's lost with streaming online. While I appreciate being able to summon any song from any era at an instant on my phone, I do miss those encounters with strangers that otherwise I never would have met.

Husband and I camped out for the Wii when it first came out, at Target, I think it was Black Friday? Somehow everyone in line caught wind of how many were being stocked. So we were like number 16 in line or something and they had something like 20-25. so once everyone knew pretty much where they were, we all just hung out, and occasionally went to our cars for warmth and back in line after a while without any drama. It was a bit hectic once the doors opened but they queued us in kind of separately if I remember right, so it was pretty orderly. Nothing too cutthroat.

We queued, this is, my wife did...

We were hunting for concert tickets, and as the online share was gone within seconds, we had to get tickets from the bands' office. We drove into their area in town rather early, and then we saw a queue. I told my wife: "That must be the ticket queue, you go out and join, I find a place to park, and we meet in the queue or at their office."

Turned out that finding a place to park in that area was basically impossible, and when I finally arrived at the ticket office much later, she had already gotten the tickets. And I had dropped her off just in time - the guys behind her got the very last ones. We did take the bus to get back to the car.

No. I did do pre-orders and stop by to pick up my game on launch day though, but I haven't done that since the 1990s.

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.

I camped out in front of a Blockbuster so I could buy a copy of Modern Warfare 2 on launch. I was one of the first people in the store so I got the special limited edition version that came in the the tin box.

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

Got up bright and early and had my mom drive me to target for the game cube launch

I've done a lot of midnight movie releases, and a couple Harry Potter books releases

It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but I worked late at the time anyway, so when Skyrim came out I just swung by game stop after I got off work to get that at midnight

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.

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

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

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

No.

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

Might not count, but I camped out to buy two Blackberry Storms from Verizon when they came out. Existing subscribers could get them for like $300 each. Turned around and sold them for $800 each.

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.

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.

Waited for 4 or 5 hours for the launch of the original iPhone in 2007.

Waited in line for a Wii which ended up being totally unnecessary, they had plenty to go around at my Best Buy.

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.

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.

Never. Nor will I ever do anything like that.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.