Sunday, November 19, 2006
Nick: It's tough to top the giving of weapons as gifts.

Very true. How very true.

The Sony Playstation 3 came out this weekend, for like $800 or something insane like this. Perhaps almost as ridiculous as the price tag was the lengths people have been going to to get one of these systems. We're talking paying hobos $100/day to stand in line for them, a pregnant woman trying to ignore her contractions because she was in line, following people home from Best Buy and breaking into their cars to try to get one, ski mask-wearing robbers terrorizing and shooting people in line (and other miscellaneous beatings, stabbings, and thuggery), full scale riots in Boston (requiring 12 police cars) and drive-by shootings at the people lining up.

And now, my personal fave. One Wal-Mart in Wisconsin had 50 people line up outside, but the store only had 10 systems. So what did they do? The assistant manager lined up ten chairs and had the group race to see who would get a seat (and PS3). The results? Tramplings, chaos, hospital injuries, and unbridled anarchy. One guy got shoved as he was running and ran facefirst into a metal pole. (Video link)

Quite a contrast from the Wii, which is a third of the PS3's price. Like this story about a guy who was given an extra Wii claim ticket so he wouldn't have to go all around town. Oh, and this story about a calm lineup with people tagging along with friends just to keep them company while they waited. One group was even playing Risk! Quite a difference.


||