RPGamer is ten years young today. I can't believe it's been ten years already. I hope today is a special day. I wonder how many people knew was the birthday until this post. *shrug*
I'm actually impressed with GameStop. Take note.
Last night was the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I expected twenty, maybe thirty people reserving the game, and the majority, but not all, picking it up at midnight. I don't know how many people actually reserved it at my local store, but there had to be at least sixty people there when I arrived ... at 11:30.
I don't do a lot of midnight launches where I actually am buying the item in question. I have gone to midnight events for RPGs and consoles/handhelds, but either already had the game, or didn't reserve/purchase at the store in question. From what I have seen, what usually happens is everyone mills around until midnight, and then they start opening the cash registers and selling you the item. Each person has to go through a complete transaction, taking roughly one to two minutes. Imagine my thought of how long we're going to be when there's already sixty people in front of me. I remember waiting until well after 1am for the Harry Potter book, and I was more than 30 minutes early for that.
But, this night was different. GameStop had a plan. Before midnight, they did all the transactions. We were given a receipt and sent back outside to wait in line. When the clock stuck 12, we were let in by groups of ten or so. They would take the receipt, mark it used, hand over the game, and move onto the next person. I was out of there in no more than ten minutes. Good thing, too, because there was nearly thirty more people the time it was midnight.
Kudos to GameStop for making a midnight launch speedy.
