Far, far away from the madness of Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the launch of Halo 3 in Tulsa, Oklahoma was a comparatively muted affair. But only comparatively, because it was definitely noisy. Trust us. Also, forgive us for the crappy cell phone images; it's all we had on hand. The night began at 9:00, when GameStop asked patrons to arrive. Once there, we were told by some of the folks already in line that we had to go to GameStop, pay for the game in full, grab a receipt, and get back in line. Easy enough, right? Nope. It seems the mall security was only paid for the time between 11:00 and midnight. When we reached the foyer door, telling the security guard that we must procure a receipt, he replied that he wasn't letting anyone inside. Fortunately, the GameStop manager eventually got wind of this and managed to get receipts to all those who didn't have one, but the rest of the evening still remained an interesting affair. Let's just say that Halo fans run the gamut from geek to jock, with a little bit more of the latter in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Looking upon the mass gathered at the mall, it became apparent Halo has definitely expanded the gaming audience. Whether or not the results of the expansion represent a good thing is up for interpretation. There were plenty of gamers in attendance who likely play little more than Madden and the occasional movie tie-in or FPS. Of course, there were also a few geeky gamers of the highest order. Hell, a Monopoly match broke out while we were all waiting to be let into the mall proper (we were all trapped in the foyer until about 11:00). We were more than a little disappointed that we seemed to possess the only DS in the crowd, our dreams of multiplayer Puzzle Quest crushed. There was one PSP though.
After we were let into the mall, things got a little more frenzied as people began shouting how many minutes were left until midnight. This might have been charming if it had been done in fifteen minute intervals instead of every single minute, but we digress. We heard a few snippets of WoW talk in line behind us as well as some exhaustive conversation between a pair of war history buffs. It was the college sect that drew most of our attention though. If you've ever been absolutely infuriated by the behavior of someone frequenting an online match of Halo 2, it was probably one of these guys.
These aren't the people who have been following every bit of Halo 3 information for months. No, these guys got all their info from G4. At one point, two of the guys directly in front of us got bored, so they decided to play a "game." Sitting about five feet away from each other, legs splayed apart, they began tossing a half-full bottle of soda back and forth. The object of the game was to "try and hit each other's balls." We tried to look away, but were strangely fixated on the spectacle, as were a number of other people in line. We watched for several minutes, but we're still not quite sure who "won."
Eventually, the GameStop manager quieted the crowd down and told us that there were three lines for the game, each corresponding to a different edition. Those who wanted the Legendary Edition would have to go into the "back room" to claim their prize. Exactly what sort of prostrations they had to go through in that room, we may never know. Rest assured though, when they left the store with their big box in tow, they all wore the same wide grin.
Once the line began to move (after the "countdown" guys counted down every second of the last two minutes before midnight), it was actually a pretty painless process. Ten people were allowed in the store at a time, with a new one shuffled in for every one that left. A carousel of joy, if you will. We walked in, handed over the receipt, and received our copy of the (scratch-tastic) Limited Edition. Pretty uneventful really. Loud, certainly, but uneventful. Apart from the three hours of waiting for the store to open, the whole process took less than five minutes.
Now all we have to do is play it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-25-2007 @ 3:14PM
bigmac375 said...
god, im skipping school tomm to play, me and 3 others are having all a day party at my house.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:18PM
Jeramy said...
yeah i went to the new stillwater, ok walmart at 11 and i was probably the 8th person there for 150 coppies. they did have free halo 3 cake and orange and green hawaian punch, though.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:19PM
vanhelsingh said...
nice article
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9-25-2007 @ 3:20PM
Jason said...
fun read, guys - thanks for sharing.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:25PM
Mauricio said...
Yeah, I was contemplating whether or not to drive thru rush hour traffic (at least 50min) to get to Universal City. Then wait in line for 3 hours until the clock struck 12am. Have to wait another 1 to 1.5 hrs to get to the front of the line to buy my copy. Only to discover that Zac Who The Fuck Give a Shit About him Efron is handing out fucking Halo3 instead of someone waaaaaaaaaaay fucking cooler like Tracy Morgan, who is constantly playing Halo2 on the TV show 30Rock, which is a great show btw so watch it. Then drive home for about a 20-25min drive. Look at my watch and see that’s its 2:30am. Realize I used up about a quarter of my gas tank. Then sigh as I ponder into my empty wallet because i also paid for 15 dollars parking and come to the sad conclusion that I only have 3 hours to play online because I got to go to work all because I wanted to go to the Halo 3 L.A. Event.
Fuck that.
I went to the local GameStop. Made it home at 12:10. Played until 6am.
The things I do for my Xbox.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:29PM
Boyo said...
One good thing about that soda ball is most players can't breed. Starting to recall why i left asluT.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:30PM
toddmiller said...
NoHo, NYC was so quiet.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:47PM
iBEHOLDER said...
I hit up the wally world on 81st. When I got there just before midnight, there were maybe 15 people in line. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes and even picked up some granola bars to boot.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:54PM
grigdog said...
Well I preordered my copy on Best Buy's site yesterday so I could get the 4.99 MS points card, but didn't want to wait until Friday so I picked up a copy today, where a guy tried to sell me a $5 protection plan (eyes rolling). Then when I get my copy in the mail I'll just return it. :)
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9-25-2007 @ 4:01PM
Mauricio said...
Good read Sense. Kind of how my night went. There was about 25-30 people in line. I live in a small suburb of L.A. so instead of "geeks to jocks" it was "gangsters to emokids".
Instead of a well lit mall, we stood in line in a nearly dark, except for a few light poles, outdoor plaza type place.
There were no DS's in line as i, sadly, still dont own one. There were about 5 PSP's. Go figure. One guy did bring his "Rugged" laptop. What he was watching, I couldn't tell.
A lot of people thought it was really nice of them to smoke in line which made the night lots of fun for my asthmatic g/f.
I also noticed about 4 parents in line with their Teen-year old sons. Which boggles my mind because if i asked my parents to buy me a videogame growing up they would have looked at me like I was nuts. Much less wait in line in the cold until 12am to buy said game. They would have also grounded me for asking such a thing. I keed, I keed.
The Cops made a cameo, probably because they didn’t know what the hell was going on and saw a bunch of people outside at 11:30.
The GameStop people did a good job. They had a Halo2 Tournament at 9:30, so that was a good time killer. They also did a good job of moving the line once 12am hit.
mostly uneventful night in line.
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9-25-2007 @ 4:03PM
Jon said...
Damn those red rings! I can't join in the awesomeness.
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9-25-2007 @ 4:20PM
useedems said...
@11: You already have.
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9-25-2007 @ 4:25PM
Mrfreezie said...
Whoa, Richard, I didn't know you lived in Tulsa! Which mall did you go to? It looks like Woodland Hills, but I can't tell..
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9-25-2007 @ 4:35PM
Iliad Force said...
Nice piece, Richard. The launch atmosphere at the Gamestop and Circuit City near my NYC home was decidedly muted--which is to say altogether absent. For some reason, the local Circuit City decided against opening at midnight, even though the ad in the Sunday paper named it as one of the midnight-opening locations. The people in line were, in my estimation, insufficiently outraged. Or, perhaps, insufficiently juiced with Game Fuel. And, even more mysteriously, my local Gamestop didn't open either--despite the fact that, before I handed over my hard-earned preorder cash, the clerk told me it would be open for the midnight launch. Which all the stranger since the same Gamestop opened at midnight for Halo 2. Needless to say, those of us who were waiting were none too pleased. So yeah, I'm sitting at work trying to look busy while I am in fact trying to figure out how to best extract myself from a dinner engagement so I can get home and fire it up. God this is hard.
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9-25-2007 @ 5:40PM
adam S said...
#13;
It's Promenade. Woodland hills only has glass railings and marble tiles while promenade mall has those angled rails and carpet.
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9-25-2007 @ 7:28PM
Jeramy said...
meh, promenade sucks. there are hardly any good stores and the food court is terrible. but then again woodland hills is really crowded and annoying.
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9-25-2007 @ 7:28PM
Jeramy said...
and on that note, tulsa x3f meetup anytime soon?
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9-25-2007 @ 7:59PM
Grant said...
"We tried to look away, but were strangely fixated on the spectacle, as were a number of other people in line. We watched for several minutes, but we're still not quite sure who "won."
The answer is quite clear.
Stupid people? destroying their reproductive organs?
Everyone wins.
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9-25-2007 @ 8:28PM
Logan said...
HOLY SHIT! They have electricity in Oklahoma?
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9-26-2007 @ 1:25AM
Carnie said...
@Richard....
You live in Tulsa? Shit if I would have known that I would have come up and kicked it with you.
Though I don't like halo I had to pick my girl up from the wendys in Sand Springs which is close the Gamestop there. I drove by and saw if I could have helped out with getting drinks and all of that shit but no one needed any help.
But it's nice to know that part of the fanboy towers actually reside here in Tulsa too.
oh and Logan...kiss my ass.
Any Tulsa Fanboys hit me up on yahoo. theorigionalcarnie
-carnie
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