Pardon the interruption

Last night, just like every weekend night, I was listening to ESPN Radio. I'm sort of in an entertainment-less environment on the weekends, so the radio is really all I have. As with all forms of entertainment, I have an opinion on it, and my opinion is that I generally don't like the weekend's night programming. The V Show is a bit old-fashioned for me, Ryen Russillo left for the earlier (and better, good for him) Scott Van Pelt Show, Amy Lawrence just drives me insane when she fills in for everyone at night, and I rarely hear Freddie Coleman's steady, composed voice anymore.

Plus, I'm stuck with John Seibel. Yet, I've come to love GameNight because I am starting to kind of love rooting against him. I don't hate him, but his opinions are generally a bit...half assed. He's the kind of person that would say, “I'm not racist, but...”, so I love it when he's forced to eat his own words. Of course, he's a radio personality put on the air entirely for one purpose: to incite people, to stimulate, and to poke at sensitive topics. Now, if he's really trying to be neutral, then he's a complete failure. So, naturally, when I heard him open his mouth about Madden 2010 and gamers altogether, I smirked the victorious smirk when listeners hammered him for making a stupid mistake.

First, I hate football, so I was tempted to turn the radio off for about the twentieth time this baseball season when 90% of the show was devoted to football (half of that was Favre/Vick talk, I should mention). Once he said “Madden”, I let it go for a bit to see where he was going. He spoke about how he didn't understand the people that waited in line to get these new games, nor people who do Black Friday or things like movies on opening night. After saying this, he turned it up a notch and started bashing these fans. He then proceeded to stick his foot in his mouth by saying that these people wasted their time since Michael Vick just signed with the Eagles, and therefore these people are stuck with an absolete version of the game. Clearly, in his opinion, EA would be at fault if they did not offer a refund to these people and recall every copy currently on the shelves.

Now, “Sportsnation” went on to throw insults at him to do his homework and get with the times, because all of those people wasting their time in line would have to do is download the free roster update. On top of that, sports is his field of “study”. Go figure.

Finally, he gave credit to someone who more politely messaged him this info, but not before calling the “facepalm/WTF” crowd that blitzed his text box a bunch of basement dwelling losers who don't have lives and clearly need to get out and experience the sunlight and reality. Basically, gamers are jobless, useless losers, in his words. Simmer on that, “GameNation”.

Regardless of what his opinion may be, the topic of midnight releases was brought up, and I gotta say, it's not hard to figure out the allure. Ever since Diablo 2, pre-ordering games has been pretty commonplace for me. If there is a game that I am completely sold on before it's released, I'll go ahead and slap down $5 to get on the “will get” list. Diablo 2, the Wii, Super Smash Bros, Fallout 3, Persona 4, Ghostbusters...those are things that I wanted when they were released because it was an experience. Games are so glutted these days, just like movies, that it's hard to get truly excited about a game even if you do buy it brand new off the shelves. It's fun, yeah, but that itchy feeling you get when you're the first in line to try out something you've been waiting a year for...it's different.

Midnight releases is just the natural extension of that. It's exactly the same as a midnight release of a blockbuster movie. Yes, you're wasting a few hours of a good night's sleep to go out and experience something that will be waiting for you the next day in your free time, but it is simply not the same. Just like in the movies, when you go to a midnight release, you are surrounded by people just as excited about their gaming/game as you are. The vibe is better. It makes you more twitchy about having the game in your hand. There's people around to chat with about the game or to collectively bash the exact store you're standing in, tournaments going on for applicable games, and old friends bumping into you. It's all about the game, but it's also about the experience. I've never regretted going to a midnight release of a game or movie (except Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). It seems that Mr. Seibel forgot the social part of these gatherings.

Clearly, however, this is just the sentiment of a pale reject still living in his mother's basement: a gamer. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit