In this article I describe my Grand Theft Auto V ‘Midnight Launch’ Experience.
The time is 11:30 pm
It was a rather brisk evening here at the East Coast of this great nation as many gamers started venturing to the shopping plaza in which my local GameStop is located at. After leaving my house, I proceeded to stop for a massively large iced coffee (probably a bad choice, given the temperature outside), in order to endure the long night ahead of me.
The Time is 11:45 pm
I pull into the parking lot where the gathering had already begun and a scattered line began to form in front of the retail store. There must have been a hundred people waiting by the time I arrived. With my ticket in one hand (in order to have an orderly process, GameStop handed out tickets to group people together to avoid mad trampling), and my coffee in the other I joined the line.
The Time is 11:55 pm
At this point a rather tired, slightly unhappy and annoyed GameStop employee makes his way outside the store to announce we only had a few more minutes before the doors opened up. Immediately the crowd was silenced and started to rustle in their pockets to ensure they had an ID (or their extremely responsible parent was there) and the ticket was ready. The crowd was even more excited now and louder than ever.
As I am looking around to check out just who was standing in line on a Monday night to pick up their ‘crime simulator’, I was not surprised. The ever growing group of people, it must have been around 300 people now, consisted mostly of very young adults of the male gender dressed in hoodies, baggy jeans and some smelling of pot. At this point I actually nodded to myself: “Yup”.
The Time is 12:05 am
The doors open and the first group gets to head into the store to grab their pre-order of the most highly anticipated game of the year. Each group is 10 people that head in, take the game and leave with a massive smile on their faces – they had waited for this. I was in group 8. As time started to pass the conversations became more audible.
People wold talk about what they will do in the game or how big the map was – some people were arguing over who the best characters were – the usual stuff one would hear when gamers get together and talk about a video game. Then of course the homophobic statements start getting louder. I don’t have to give any examples as you all know what I mean.
The Time is 12: 30 am
At this point I am somewhere between annoyed and amused – not sure to which side I was swinging to exactly but it was certainly a pendulum. Group 5 was called, I am nearly there. More people arrived as others were still coming in.
At this point the teenage showoffs of the world decided it was a good time to turn this GTA V midnight launch into a Fast and the Furious type hangout. As some people got their game it was time to get out of dodge and start playing the game but since everyone there pretty much knew each other from High School it became a pissing contest.
Who can do the best burnout and who can do the longest drift.
The Time is 12:45 am
A tuned up 1990s Honda Civic is lining up and readying his launch – after a few revs the crowd is ready and watching – as the clutch drops the car spins its tires – the crowd cheers and everyone is happy as the Civic makes its way out of the parking lot. I shrugged.
Who’s next I thought. And just in time to please the crowd once again a mid nineties BMW 3 series coupe gets in the same spot as the crowd noticed and started cheering. Same as before – the car revs up, the rear wheels spin for a bit and the car launches itself up the hill only to put on a solid drift that even Paul Walker would have raised an eyebrow to.
Group 7 is called in and it seemed the show was over for me but a V8 Mustang with way too much horse power for its teenage driver to handle lets the engine scream and I knew this one would be special. As the car lines up and the crowd is fully into it, the ‘Stang drops the hammer and leaves a cloud of smoke before he hits the left / right combo drift only missing the curb by inches and keep him from flipping his precious chick magnet.
Finally Group 8 was called…
