I did once.
It was Black Friday of 2006, a week after the release of the Wii. My friend had to work at a store in the mall in the wee hours of the morning, and he dropped me off to wait at GameStop so I could test my luck. Nintendo has always been infamous for engineered scarcity, and the Wii was no exception, so I was fully prepared to leave with nothing but an interesting story to tell. I had never seen the horrors of Black Friday, and was morbidly curious to experience it for myself at least once.
The experience was pretty tame. At first I waited outside the mall. I had my guide dog with me, and I allowed other people in line to give her pets and scritches as we waited. Not gonna lie, me bringing her was a bit of social engineering. Who’s gonna hit a blind guy? We got to chatting about what the line was for, and I discovered it was for an unrelated promotion. I asked if I could be let in to wait in front of the GameStop in the food court out of the cold, and they let me enter.
I can’t remember if others in the same line came in with me, or if they had already been there, but I ended up behind a dad and his two kids, and they were both getting a Wii. There were only three in stock, so I ended up getting lucky. I even got a copy of Twilight Princess, as well as FF XII on the PS2 as a Christmas gift for my sister.
tl;dr: veni vidi wiici
The two longest and most memorable waits I’ve done were for the Wii and Wii U.
The Wii was great. Was a very social, collaborative experience.
Got to the store probably at 6 or 7 am. Two people were in front of me in line. The first would show up in my circle of friends years later, and I didn’t even realize until going back and looking at the pictures. The other was an older gentleman getting in line for his son, and when his son did show up later it turned out to be a friend of mine. I just hadn’t met his dad before.
At first we were in the lobby, then moved to the garden center, eventually to outside the front entrance before noon. Employees didn’t really know to expect us or what to do with us.
Everyone had their DSes and we spent most of the day playing something or other. Toward the end of the night, when the crowd got bigger, I remember doing 8-person Bomberman battles.
It was a cold November day. By the evening, I was freezing and hungry. My parents and some friends swung by at different times to bring blankets, snacks, etc, and those felt like such exciting moments.
Fast forward to the Wii U. I got a preorder, but they said there weren’t enough preorders to do a midnight launch. Stubbornly wanting to relive the great time I had waiting for the Wii, that was enough to make me drive over to the next big town and wait at a different store.
For a long time, I think I’m the only one in line? Or maybe someone was before me. Idk. But the line didn’t build up until like, an hour before midnight. I talked to people, but didn’t really connect with anyone strongly.
The cold was bitter this time. I was layered up way more, but felt as tho I was barely hanging in by the end of it. Folks in line kept asking if I was alright, offering to hold my place in line if I wanted to go take a break and warm up in the car.
I don’t know that we did any multiplayer sessions, but it was cool at least to get 3DS streetpass hits all day.
After all of it, I could just as easily have walked into a store the next weeks and bought one.
So yeah, the Wii was a moment for me, the U was a failed attempt to revisit that moment (a lot like the systems themsleves, kinda). Then there’s the difference between being in high school, hanging out with friends in your home town, and being in college keeping to yourself.