My experience with buying a Wii - XTREME-SOURCE

Sadalius · 11-20-2006, 06:34 AM

Well, I suppose I was a lucky one. I was able to get my daughter a Wii for Christmas. With that experience behind me, I thought it might be appropriate to note the experience as it was different than any other time I have waited in line for anything. This is really the first time that I have waited in line for an extended period of time, but I have witnessed long time waits for products and experienced short time waits so I now how anxious and greedy acting people can be.

On Saturday, 11-18-06 at around 12:00 PM I went into my local Wal-mart. I talked to a few people that worked there that I knew about the situation. I found out that there was already a line that had started to form on the previous day at around 1 PM. I was starting to feel like I didn't have a chance to get one at that point. I was also told that they had 31 units to go around and that the line was in the garden center.

I promptly went to the garden center and when I went in, I saw a bunch of people there. Again, the feeling that I wasn't going to be able to get one was setting in. There was a lady that asked me if I was there for a Wii and I said yes. The lady then took a list out of her pocket and asked my name. I asked what that was for and she told me that she was trying to organize things so it would make things go easier. I told her my name and she wrote it on the list and told me that I was 28th in line for a Wii. I was pretty excited at that point and went to the back of the line and sat down. There was actually chairs there provided by Wal-mart. Even though some had brought there own chairs. The other people that were there were friends and family of the people that were actually in line. They were playing card games, hand held video games and some were even sleeping. The attitudes of these people were entirely different than what I was expecting. If you needed to go to the bathroom, of even grab something to eat, someone from the friends and family group would volunteer to watch your seat for you. As long as you weren't gone for a huge amount of time no one seemed to mind. Also, once the list was full, no one else that was interested in the Wii came in.

It was around 10 PM when everyone was getting curious as to Wal-marts plan for distribution and someone went to electronics to see what they could find out. When they got back, the person explained that they had found out about the list and that Wal-mart could not use that list since it was not authorized by Wal-mart, that they would pass out the tickets to get your Wii to each person in line and when they were out of tickets, that would be the end. This caused a little concern for some people, but not enough to get them upset. They were afraid that some of the friends and family people would try and get in line since they were already there playing cards and such with the other people that were in line. So, we got out the list, had the people that were not in line to move outside the boundry and lined everyone up according to the list. By that time it was around 10:20 PM. At 10:30 PM, some wal-mart management support team members came in and passed out the tickets. I was 28th on the list and my ticket number was also 28. That part went smooth as silk. After the tickets were given out, we were told that we were free to go out and move around the store and do what we wanted till 12:01 am. They also told us that they would start to call out our ticket number when they were ready for us to pick up our Wii for purchase. I strolled around the store for what seemed an eternity. The time it took to get to this point seemed to go by so quickly, but this seemed to go one forever. Makes me wonder how many times a person can look through the games in the case, HDTV's and other interesting things in electronics in an hour and a half time span. The answer to that question is ALOT!

By 12:00 AM, everyone was already in the designated area to pick up their Wii's and at 12:01 AM, the cart containing the 31 Wii's rolled out and distribution began. This also went pretty smoothly. I left the store feeling fairly exhausted. But I have to stop to wonder about the people that was there if it had something to do with this being a nintendo product known for family oriented content and not like PS or Xbox with alot of their games promoting violence and things. They were of a totally different mentality than I was expecting. Absolutely no one was in an aggitated stated, everyone got along, no pushing or shoving, trampling or shooting. I also think that the lady that maintained the list was great. I think the list played a good role in providing the people some relief in the idea that they were taken care off, even though it wasn't authorized by Wal-mart and for that I thank her. The whole experience

I was also reminded when I got home that this was a Christmas present and that it wasn't to be opened until then and by our daughter. So I wasn't able to get any pictures of it as of yet, but hopefully, I will be participating in the Wii scene as quickly as possible. I did get to play the demo of it, and it is a pretty interesting console to say the least. The interface is really what makes this console, plus it does have a good selection of good games out on release date. So it's my opinion that if your looking for something thats on the cheap but new, the Wii is worth looking at.

Here are the things that I can tell you about it (I was not allowed to open the box ours came in). From what I can tell, there is no hard drive. It has an SD memory card slot for MP3's , pictures and video files. I'm not sure what format of video's can be used though. Memory cards are also used to download the old school games. It is backwards compatible with the Game Cube games, it does accept the GC disks in the slot loading disk drive. People that had a Game Cube can use their GC controllers and their GC memory cards with the Wii. It has 4 GC controller ports and 2 GC memory card slots. There are two usb ports on the back and it has built in WiFi capabilities. The wireless Wii remote works it's wonders through a sensor bar thats relativley small, about 14 inches long and about a quarter of an inch thick. The sensor bar sits either at the bottom or on the top on the TV and is what receives the signal from the Wii remote to control the on screen movement. From playing the in store demo, interaction is pretty good. When Christmas rolls around, I will get a more in-depth review up, but I can already tell you, if you get the chance and are in the slightest interested, pick one up!

PTU · 11-20-2006, 07:00 AM

Thanks for post that sounds like you had fun. One hell of a log time to wait for a console but thats life.

kambodianboi · 11-20-2006, 07:05 AM

Kudos!! lol

I didn't wait in line for the Wii since I had very little interest with it, but my friends waited in line for the PS3 and Wii, same week (lucky them). They got both console, and I only played the PS3 which didn't put me down. I played a few PS2 games and PS1 games, which worked fine, and seem to run better. Not better graphic, but better performance. For example, I remember Driver 2 would lag when I go around some areas, but on the PS3 it had no effect, played just fine.

I will go to my friends house and play the Wii and see how well it does. My GC has wireless controller, and I would like to see if those will work aswell.

Sadalius · 11-20-2006, 08:22 AM

It was a long wait, but it was longer for others though. From the point I got in line, it was only a little over 11.5 hours and it was all over with. I think the level of maturity of the people that was there made it a lot easier too. I don't think I could have stood it had there been any obnoxious people there.

Stang · 11-21-2006, 03:00 PM

Congrats Sadalius, im jealous

Im sure your daughter will be thrilled Christmas morning

paddymail · 11-21-2006, 04:12 PM

Yeah, well done man.. I'm not interested in buying the Wii as of yet.. but still gonna be interested in finding out what other people think of it..
I just can't believe that people stand in line for things so long.. hell, I hate standing in line for more then 5-10 minutes, lol.. and it still seems like hours. I'm gonna patent a queueing system so that people can register their place in a queue by going there, but not having to wait.. could be handy to have

anyway, let us know everything you can about the console (without taking it apart that is) - and how your daughter likes it

Sadalius · 11-22-2006, 03:52 AM

Oh, I will. I will probably be able to get into the modding scene with it when things get rolling on it. Hopefully by the time my daughter opens it on Christmas, they may arleady have something, who knows. Seems it's easier for me to get reliable xbox or PS info than it is for me to get reliable nintendo info from the scene, lol!

punqewe · 11-22-2006, 07:59 PM

here ya go,the inside of the Wii for those that wanna see what makes it tick

Popular Science: Wii Broke It - Photo Gallery

from what I hear they got GCOS to run on it using the action replay,but when they tried to boot to a backup it just kicks them back to the normal menu screen. Nintendo seems to have locked out the debug of the dvd drive this time or something.

midrangejumpa2 · 11-22-2006, 08:10 PM

i waited in line for a record 40 minutes to get my wii. not bad, eh? me and my friends went to super target around 7:15 a.m. on the 19th. they did the list thingy, and i was number 39 on the list. there was debate over how many consoles the store had, then finally the manager came out with tickets and explained that they had 63 consoles. after that it was gravy. target even supplied free coke and popcorn. i guess being laid-back has its benefits after all

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Shoutbox
Loading...