Wii story
Mood: excited
Posted on 2006-12-08 15:57:00
Tags: wii
Words: 860

Our story begins earlier in the week. In my usual calls to local stores, two different EB Games said they were scheduled to get more Wii's in Thursday or Friday. This was exciting news! Yesterday I drove out to a few of them around noon (which is when they said their shipments usually come in) and neither one of them had gotten them. So today was to be the day!

Anyway, I figured I'd take some time off to be sure I was there. I arrived at the closest EB Games at 11:30 and there were the Wiis! And people standing around, buying them! It took me a few minutes to realize that they all had numbers, and the store guy confirmed that they had received nine, and nine numbers had been given out, so I was out of luck.

Well, crap. I was pretty unhappy at this, what with the excitement of driving there and then the letdown. I called the other EB Games I had talked to earlier in the week, and they had gotten a shipment but it had sold out. (I later heard people at that store were waiting in line at 8 AM to get their number...)

So, I decided to head up to Arundel Mills (very large mall), since I knew there were an EB Games and a Gamestop around there somewhere. Stopped by a Circuit City on the way, no dice.

Decided that the most likely places for these stores would be in the mall proper (there are lots of strip malls surrounding the actual mall, but I had driven by those before and not seen either of them), so I parked and went in. Only been there once before, and that was for a movie, so I didn't really know where I was going. Pretty quickly I stumbled across the EB Games. They had received a shipment today, but they too had sold out of them.

I was feeling angry now about this whole affair. Not that it was anyone's fault, but man it was frustrating. So I grabbed a map and found where the Gamestop was. The mall is set up like a big racetrack and I decided to take the long way around to walk off some anger (and to see the rest of the mall). Lots of stores there - stopped in the Best Buy on the way, but no Wii.

Well, I finally arrive at the Gamestop and they haven't received their daily shipment yet! The guy said it usually came in around noon, and it was like 11:50 now so I decided to hang around. Gamestop and EB Games are now owned by the same company, so the odds of there being Wii's on the shipment seemed pretty good. While I waited, I deposited my driver's license and credit card to get a Wii controller to play with the demo unit. The demo unit had a demo of Zelda, which I hadn't seen before so I thought I'd give it a shot. When I walked up to the unit, the guy next to me (at the PS3 demo unit) expressed surprise that I got the controller. (I guess he didn't realize you could ask for it at the counter) He said he was waiting for a Wii as well, and he had gotten a number earlier.

Oh. Crap. That's not a good sign. So I went back up to the counter, and (after the counter guy got off the phone) asked if they were giving out numbers for Wii's. He gave me a bit of a furtive glance and said that they were, but to keep it to myself. (I guess he didn't want a big rush of people or something) And he hands me the number 8! Since the last place had nine, I thought my odds were good.

Anyway, to pass the time I played some Zelda. Took me a minute or so to get used to the controls, but man they're pretty cool. Was still figuring things out when the UPS guy came in with a big dolly of stuff. My excitement level is through the roof at this point! So a line forms for the counter and after a minute I figure I should get in it, just in case. Talked with the woman in front of me (who had number 1! She said she had gotten there when it opened at 9 to get it...) while we waited, and lo and behold, when I got to the front I got my very own Wii! (they had gotten in 15 units, I think)

So, I can't wait to play it tonight. And I'll post my friend code so people can friend me and share their Miis and stuff. Woohoo!


Sidenote: it is very cold here. There were supposed to be isolated snow flurries last night but I didn't see any when I checked a few times. The low tonight is 20 degrees! A few days ago I noticed that, even after we got in the car (parked in a parking garage!) to go to work, djedi and I could still see our breaths. Yikes!

9 comments

Comment from spchampion:
2006-12-08T15:06:22+00:00
I think it was 20F here in Ithaca when I walked to class around noon today. Then again, our low last night was 8F and we have an inch of snow on the ground.

Comment from cifarelli:
2006-12-08T15:08:22+00:00
Grats on the loot.

We played with a friends over the weekend. A bit of bowling on the sports and some Zelda. The controls was definately different and interesting.

Comment from wildrice13:
2006-12-08T15:12:10+00:00
Glad you finally got one! I've been looking halfassedly... very halfassedly. I guess I need to really get on it if I actually want to pick one up.

Comment from onefishclappin:
2006-12-08T15:14:12+00:00
Was it worth the wait?
Are you going to bring it down for New Year's??

Comment from gregstoll:
2006-12-08T15:18:30+00:00
I don't know; I haven't played it yet! The manual is kinda neat, I guess, but not worth the wait by itself. And I'll definitely bring it down for New Year's :-)

Comment from tehfanboi:
2006-12-08T15:21:02+00:00
And SO Ahab got his White Wii-le!

Gratz. Nothing like getting a goal accomplished.

Comment from djedi:
2006-12-08T18:19:07+00:00
lol!

Comment from omega697:
2006-12-08T16:08:48+00:00
Rock! I'll friend you as soon as I get your code!

Comment from gregstoll:
2006-12-08T18:15:32+00:00
My Wii code is 1068 6382 4200 0480.

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