Although I do not like the idea of camping to get something new, this is hardly an US thing. They should look at Japan, where peeps are camping for almost all new gadgets that come out.

"those people must have no life" the words I heard while waiting in-line for[insert next-gen system here] and i wish they wouldn't make a big deal. people who want to wait in line for something. let them; good way to meet people but getting shot over a ps3 or a "Extreme" tickle me elmo is idiotic. im a gamer and to see the media making hoopla over this is degrading for gamers and anyone who watches the news in general. In the line i was in to get a system; i had a great time. met people, talked, played wi-fi games and cheering like tailgaiters at a football game over uno. but the media has to fill its broadcasting day with people getting shot. it makes us look like maniacs and people with nothing better to do.

I wanna hear later that this writer's kid asked him for a PS3 and he had to spend 2000$ on ebay for one because he didn't wait in line.

Given the severity of what these people are waiting for (a 600$ top of the line piece of technology) I think waiting in line for a week is kind of extreme. But, the PS3 is in such high demand and yet there are so few of them. The Whole "supply and demand" principle backfired on the few folks who actually did get shot and mugged for one.

Someone needs to pull up the tickle me elmo riots. Video footage of soccer moms kicking, biting, scratching, and anything else, just to get their hands on a single toy. Not a 600$ toy, but yet these parents were trampling employees and anyone else in their way just to grab one and run off with it.

But, because that was Elmo, and not the satantic videogames that the media seems to quick to bash, we forget about it pretty quickly. This whole scapegoat thing is an abuse of media power.

PS: waiting in line over the week end at max 2 days is not to over the top but anything over that kinda is,but then again without crowd control to deal with the insurgence of people on the day of sale what good is baning camping out?

If you are waiting in line for Black Friday shopping, you are being patriotic and supporting the economy.

Wait, wait - where'd they say that part?

Does anyone remember the cabbage patch doll craze back in the 80's? how 'bout tickle me elmo (which used the cabbage patch kids marketing stratecgy)?

Yeah. This isn't the first time people have gone insane over a new toy and I'll be dammed it it's the last time it's ever going to happen.

Has anyone even heard of any incidents for the Wii? The most I saw in my town was about ten people lined up outside of the local Toys R Us.

The reason there were shootings and assaults where people tried to steal someone's PS3?

Simple.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PS3-SONY-PLAYSTATION-3-PREMIUM-60GB-SYSTEM-CONSOLE_W...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Playstation-3-60GB-Console-PS3-NO-RESERVE_W0QQi...

Two different auctions on Ebay, by two different sellers. Both brought in the exact same amount - $14,100. As someone above said, the main cause of the violence was money.

The reason why there was no violence for the Wii was because there wasn't enough time for a lot of people to line up. Some people waited for 5 days for the PS3, but to be first in line for the Wii, you had to line up on Friday or Saturday.

This and all other editorials with similar messages seem to take the attitude that video games aren't worth our time because there are more "important things". Before any newspaper says that, why don't they quit their jobs, throw out all their CDs, movies, music, books, art etc. and go work in a homeless shelter or fight in Iraq? If you're going to call video games a waste of time, then you must take the same position on all media, in which case you're anti-culture. It is human nature to seek out and create art/entertainment even if it isn't saving any lives in process. If we didn't have any of that, I highly doubt people would spend their lives helping the suffering. In fact, we would probably just end up killing eachother. I'd like to know what the author of that article does in his spare time that's so much more worthwile...

Kinda on topic, but Chan Lowe, the cartoonist for the Sun-Sentinel, has a response to all of this...
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/media/cartoon/2006-11/26577165.jpg
I'm wondering, though, if he got the facts right, because I don't remember any violence during the Wii launch...

"Wait, wait - where’d they say that part?"

It's not necessarily in this story. But it's something several media outlets claimed, both locally and nationally, on Black Friday.

Pfft I say sony was just trying to push up demand for this product to get news coverage like this. Free ads for the "most wanted" system that in my circle of friends no one wants to bother trying to get. On the other hand my Wii should be here some time tomorrow. Personally I don't see what all the hype about the ps3 is about...sure I'll probably get it sooner or later since thats where FF series gets published, but all the trouble with this launch? Screw it you can get the 360 and the Wii for the same price as 1 ps3 and they are more readily available.

payday loan company...

...

I think that camping out to get something new is nuts. Simply wait a few days and you won't have to sleep in a parking lot.