PS3 Campers

By Matt | November 16, 2006

I decided to head over to the local Wal-Mart tonight and see if I could find any campers waiting for the PS3. Success. There were around 17 people waiting in the area for the PS3 wait and I wanted to hear what they had to say about the PS3 and what their motive for being there was.

Some were there with hopes of purchase for personal use, others wanted to get the console and then get rid of it and get the pay. Yet some were there – well I’m not quite sure why some were there, as they wouldn’t give a clear answer and just appeared to be wandering around. A little after I got there, while talking with the gaming folk, the Wal-Mart workers called us all into the PS3 pick-up area and told us that they had 10 of the 60 Gigs and 2 of the 20 gigs and some people were pissed, but were promised rain checks. Here’s what the PS3 campers had to say:

The first camper I talked to was a woman who said that she really didn’t know anything about PS3 but was picking one up for her nephew and had been there since 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.

One of the first gamers I talked to was Dereck Ballin. Dereck was a teenage kid and was one of the few there who were actually getting the PS3 simply to play. He had been waiting since 7:30 on Wednesday evening and is getting the PS3 because he finds it “totally awesome”. He plans on getting Untold Legends, Ridge Racer 7, and Resistance. Dereck also said he was pumped to play Spyro on his PS3.

I saw some guys I knew from around town there. One of them was Joe. Joe had been there for around 25 hours and had he arrived five minutes earlier he would have walked away with a PS3 instead of a rain check. What’s even more sad is that he wasn’t getting the PS3 for himself but he was waiting in line for his little brother so that his mom wouldn’t have to.

I also talked with the ever mysterious, local music legend, Skyler Hawkins. According to my sources Hawkins checks PS3land.com around 8 times a day and after asking for over a year for PS3 donations, only managed to receive $1.98. Hawkins doesn’t deny these claims. When I asked Skyler what he plans to do with his PS3 he wouldn’t really answer me. I believe he was afraid of something. What it was, I don’t know but it sure stopped me from getting anything even close to a clear answer. In fact, I’m not even sure he was there to pick up a PS3, extremely mysterious.

Next I sat down with Shayne Pruett (who had a great sweater on) and Nate Carr, two guys from my town who I’d never met before but ended up having a great time with just talking about games and gaming past, present, and future. Shayne was one of the ones who can proudly claim they are unbiased when it comes to gaming and will play anything they want, regardless of any brand loyalty (Brandon Oily, inside joke). Shayne and Nate were there to pick up a PS3 for one main reason: get the pay. Shayne was going to take the 40 hour line wait while Nate laid down the $600 for the console. They were ecstatic to hear that PS3’s were hitting the $3000 mark on eBay. Nate himself was a big Nintendo fan and is more than ready for Wii, so you’ll be hearing his Wii impressions in just a few days.

After having a great chat with Nate and Shayne I moved down the line to ask Joel “ASS” Patterson why he was there. His answer, he was here for the social experience and a chance to nab a PS3. He himself was indecisive about keeping it or selling it.

Then, out of nowhere, came one they simply call “Takizzle”, the local Gundam FANATIC . Takizzle had made a sly, yet evil, move by having his grandma wait there for hours upon hours in order to snag himself a PS3. When I asked Takizzle what games he was ready for he replied with NBA Live ‘08, Madden ‘08, and of course Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire. After he mentioned sports games from next year I decided to move on to the next and last person I would talk to.

That person was one that goes by “Lopeman”. Lopeman and I had previous history from when I once got into a slight altercation at his place of employment over a game that I wanted to return but was getting fooled around with. Lopeman was getting a PS3 for the same reason many more were: the dough. Lopeman and a friend went half and half on a PS3 and will split whatever profits that they make.

So there are some reasons that people were in pursuit of a PS3. I met some great people and I asked a few to email me with what they thought of their PS3 or how much money they made off of it. When I get their responses I’ll let you guys know what they said.

Expect something similar to this in a few days for the Wii launch, it’ll be interesting to see who turns up due to mass quantities and the unlikely chance of profit due to shortages.