Line campers... I generally hate what they symbolize
 

This is inspired by the ridiculous line waiting from the i-phone yesterday and other stuff from the past like the PS3. Of course there are some exceptions that I can tolerate. People camping for once in a lifetime chance tickets or product is ok, as well as someone reselling the item on ebay for a good profit. I'll even excuse the parents who want to get kids presents for their birthday or xmas. But all the rest of you line campers out there need to get a life. Just the fact that they are so needy and can't wait a couple extra days/weeks for another shipment annoys me.

The i-phone isn't near xmas, so you can cross out that exception. It wasn't a once in a lifetime item, so you can cross that out too. So unless you were reselling it for profit or were getting one for your kid as a birthday present, then you are pretty pathetic to wait outside that long just because you are that desperate for a what is basically a toy. Some people think it is the adventure aspect, but no one wants to waste a day away by sitting outside in the cold or the heat. If you polled every line camper in the world, 99.9% of them would have the item delivered them for free if they could.

The only reason people do it other than the exceptions is because their lives are so pitifully driven by little gadgets, that they've completely lost touch with the real things that matter in life. Taking off work, taking of school, blowing off meetings. These are real life things that matter. A toy is not that important people. If it means that much to you, then I feel sorry for you. I think the way society today has become completely dependant and reliant on gadgets and technologies like cell phones is what angers me most, because the line camping for the tickle-me elmos never annoyed me. I honestly think many people in society today would lose their mind without a cell phone, and to me that is really a shame.

Anyway, that is my rant. You don't have to agree with me if you don't want to, but that is how I see it. Everyone has their weird pet peeves and this is one of mine. Maybe I sound like a total nutjob, but hey, it is what it is. I'm talking about the people that sit out there for days, and not just a few hours or overnight btw. That I can tolerate.

I agree with you. Yes, yes I do.

100%.

I think you have a weeping vagina simply because you couldn't procure yourself a iphone.

I don't see the big deal in it at all. It is their life and line waiting only shows they're dedicated to getting what they want, unlike your lazy ass who seems to throw a hissy fit whenever a electronic you want comes out that you can't procure by simply walking into the store. So you proceed to slam the people who will take the time and wait to make sure they get one.

You pulled this same rant back when the PS3 was released.

What's pretty stupid about this is that...the iPhone isn't nearly as limited in it's production scope as things like the Wii or even the PS3 were. There are tons of them.

It's pretty dumb of people to buy them and expect to sell them for profits on eBay. It's even more dumb if people are actually buying them off of eBay.

So, one night's ok, but not more?

What if the guy who can afford to spend two nights in a line (or who splits line duty with a pal), wants to beat the guy who can only do a single overnight camp? Is he pathetic for wanting the device just as much as the other guy, only he has a better plan for making sure he obtains the object of his desire? Seems kinda weird that there's a cutoff for when a person has "no life" and when a person is "ok", when they both desire said product about the same amount.

I waited in line about 14 or 15 hours for a Wii preorder, and I was 7th in line, out of 10 consoles. I wanted the thing, and that's what it took to make sure I got it. My desire for the thing was probably no stronger than that of the younger girl and her father who were in 11th position. Does that make me more pathetic than them, because I budgeted my time better? Come on.

This rant sounds like you're aggravated that people didn't wait for you to show up before buying the store out of a phone. Just sayin'.

Edit: Weren't you the useless sack of shit who said they went to go egg the PS3 campers?

Egg? No. I facetiously said that I was going to drive around and dump a bucket of water on them. I did not do that nor would I do ever it. It is rude, cruel, and immature.

Anyway, I don't want an iphone, nor do I ever plan on getting one. No sour grapes here if that is what is sounds like as two posters have claimed.

Yes I did mention this rant to some capacity when the PS3 came out. That also had nothing to do with the fact that I didn't have a PS3. Unlike the iphone, I wanted a PS3, but was in no rush to buy one. I casually walked into an EB in december and bought one, and honestly I regret that I did buy one. I still only have one game for it and haven't touched the system since april.

Like I said, I think the whole act of doing it speaks volumes about today's society. I live in Philly, where our mayor of all people camped outside for one. Yes, our mayor. Instead of busting his ass trying to help this city fix the record number of murders and homicides, he's camping out for an iphone. People take off of work for things like this, when all it is, is a toy. It just shows how frickin obsessed our society is today with electonics. People have based their life around them and it is important enough to them to drop everything they are doing in their life for days at a time just to get this item. It is that important to them.

Our mayor doing it really set me off, because our city is a joke right now in terms of crime, but I think he is just one example, of plenty of people right now who care more about things like iphones than real life things that matter.

Again, no one has to agree with me. If I'm the only person on earth who feels this way, then it is fine with me. But I do feel this way, and I do think it is a shame that society has sunk to this level.

Well, my mistake then. People who annoy line goers are just extremely retarded. While I've never had to deal with them, I've heard some pretty terrible horror stories, often involving some kind of physical violence. Makes shit even worse.

Or like, when the guy would scream "Snape Kills Dumbledore" at the kids waiting for Harry Potter books T_T;;

Anyway, my beef isn't really with the campers themselves, they can do whatever they want with their lives, so maybe the topic title is misleading, and it is my fault for that. Although, whenever I see a picture of them, I think of the equivalent of a bunch of junkies lined up to get a fix. But my problem is with what they symbolize. When it gets to a point where mayors start dropping everything they are doing to get some new piece of technology, then there is a big problem. The addiction of electronics today is growing stronger and stronger. People are so enfatuated with things that are really not essential to them, that they have almost lost complete touch with reality.

Kids dropping out of school to get an Xbox 360, or taking off of work to camp out and get an iphone, people shooting people for their PS3, kids killing themselves when their MMORPG items get stolen. While all that isn't the end of the world, it damn well isn't good news. That I do know. If it continues to get worse, where does it stop? Where is the line drawn? Like I said, this stuff didn't happen 10 years ago for electronics. What is it going to be like 10 years from now? Are people going to be camping outside of Best Buy for a month just to get something like a Playstation 8? Are people going to permanently quit their jobs, just because they can't wait a few more weeks to get that hot item?

I never would've even brought this up if our mayor didn't do it, because I honestly thought that people really did value their jobs more than getting a new electronic, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal about it than it is, but I do think it is something that is getting out of hand.

So what if people want to wait outside all night to be certain they get something they want? I waited like a faggot all night in line for Wii, and you know what? So fucking what. We had fun out there with all the other faggots and it was really nice to walk away in the morning, looking at the sad faces of the people who showed up way too late, with a Wii and Twilight Princess under my arm.

Maybe it was a waste of 10 hours of my time, but who are you to judge?

If I came off as judgemental, then I apologize. Like I said in my previous post, it isn't the campers themselves who I have a beef with(although I personally find it really lame, and I'm entitled to that opinion), but what it symbolizes and how society's obsession with electronics is getting worse and worse.

Would it make you feel better if I waited outside my local grocery store all night the next time I need a loaf of bread?

That really has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, and is irrelevant anyway because you won't need to do that for a loaf of bread.

I'm glad people have weighed in though, because while I may not agree, I always respect and consider opposing views. Nothing I posted was meant to be taken personally by anyone btw.

But what if there's a really bad bread shortage and I just need my fucking bread? What then?!

Only if Sony releases a new PlayStation every other year from now on.

Which might not be a bad business model when you think about it, I mean, many people upgrade their computers every year, and console gaming, unlike its PC counterpart, isn't even dead.

Well it should! Phones are alot more useful than a bunch of garbage bin lids stuck together with red fuzz that makes distorted demon noises when you touch them. You can't talk to your mates with that! Buying it for little Timmy's happy Christmas? Stuff little Timmy, he should be playing with a G.I Joe anyway.

Buying rubbish before other people is awesome, you can be all "I'M AWESOME, LOOK AT THIS THING" and everyone will be so impressed that they'll shit their pants eight times in a furious rage of rubbish lust. I'm sure you saw the bits on the news where Joe GasStation and friends ran out of the iPod shop with their iPhones and were treated like iRockstars by the crowd that had formed just to watch people purchase something. When I waited an hour and a half to buy my Wii on launch day, I was like "HAHA VIDEO GAMES", the six o'clock news teams and the traffic report helicopter surrounded me and I became a celebrity. Now I live in the second 'O' in the HOLLYWOOD sign and do bubble bath commercials. All because I waited in a line to give someone some money.

School? Jobs? Meetings? Pffft.

I guess I'll let it slide. :cool:

My take on the matter is that what people do with their time is their own business. If they wish to spend weeks camping out to catch the latest Star Wars movie, to buy the last Harry Potter book, or to get the newest gadget from Apple or Nintendo, they are entitled to do so! :D

YouTube Video

iPhwned

Perfect for a thread on line camping.

One day doesn't annoy me THAT much. But when people start taking off froim work, dropping out of school, then IMO it has gone too far. Am I publicly telling line campers to stop? No. They can do what they want with their lives. I'm just getting concerned about about our society. When a city mayor takes off of work to camp then you know something is seriously wrong.

But 100k is pathetic. It shows she has no cocnept of managing money. She can wait a week and walk in and buy them. That annoys me.

I don't see the big deal with people camping out for something. Shit, more power to them. Why take personal offense to how OTHER PEOPLE spend THEIR money? I only wish I'd camped out with Skills when he was getting a Wii~

:burnoutonxboxlivetil8am:

You should have driven your ass up here and camped out with me, sir. We only needed one, but ended up each putting our names down for one and walked away with 4. Sold the other 3 on Craigslist, and it more than paid for the one we kept.

Just going to chime in on that youtube video. Simply awesome.

Well I do agree with you I have a feeling you were in said line you are complaining about doing the same thing you were badmouthing other ppl about.

Additional Spam:
WTF!!!? you got 4? So did that mean you bought 4 and resold them or did you somehow find a way to get a few free ipones (like that would ever happen)

NO no no. If you look closer, you'll see I was talking about the Wii launch. I was buying one, but had three others with me waiting. When we realized we were far up enough in line that there were enough for each of us, we put each of our names individually on the list (the store we were at was coming out and taking names every two hours to be sure nobody was holding spots for friends that were going to show up at a given time and jump in line).

That is just simply awesome. Fantastic.


I'd only wait a few hours in line for something and that was several times at E3, at amusement parks, for the Star Wars movies, and waiting to get inside of a concert if I get there early enough.

oh my bad.....but darn that was a good deal in the end :P

Haha. When the next Harry Potter book comes out, I'm going to yell

*SUPER SPOILER*

In Fremantle there were two bookstores opposite each other. One was selling the last potter book cheaper than the other. So tehre was a line of hundreds anda line of a few. The Store with just a few opened a couple of minutes early and the LEGENDS who paid the extra $5 or whatever, got their book out and jsut stood aorund reading aloud the final chapter of the book to those still in line.

Modern Day Heroes.

I can understand people that wait in line to get what they want and that they really want the item. I just hate people that wait in line just for selling the item after... that's what create more line in the first place.

The only time I waited in line was for the ps3 and i waited only 15min only because I already reserved the console first. I'm not sure if I would have waited in line without being sure that I'll get one...

about people yelling spoilers at people in line is as retard as yelling the ending of a movie when leaving the theater...

I remember waiting outside of a local theater with a few friends to get in to see Pan's Labrynth when some dude walks by bawling his eyes out saying how sad the movie was and he couldn't believe how traumatic the ending was.

When the movie ended my friends and I were pretty much just :confused: at that dude.

Anyway, I've never actually camped out or waited in line for anything other than the occasional time when I'd try to stop at a store prior to going to work in a morning, only to find out they weren't open for another 15 minutes.

That video of the "stand back everyone, I've got mad cash and I know how to use it, mwuhaha" lady was most excellent.

As for the topic, I agree that it's sad how we try to make ourselves happy in life by purchasing stuff. Not that it isn't neat to get a new toy, but in a few weeks that toy isn't going to be so neat anymore. Then all those people who lined up will be lining up for something else. There's always one more thing we need to buy if we want to really be happy. Right there, you can tell that this is a flawed way of living, but what are you gonna do? People can live how they want as long as they don't step on my toes. The example of the mayor taking a day off for an iPhone is something I would consider in the "toe-stepping" category, but even then, you could argue that he's representing the people by obsessing over buying stuff just like they do. It's a mad world, right?

Look at this. The sense of fun and merriment one feels within the company of strangers with a thing in common has been isolated and grafted onto the back of the consumer machine. See how they've made it seem fun for us even to queue up and feed money back into the system. Our whole lives are oriented around consuming. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The zombies are us man. That's what it's all about.

And look at the glee this competitive striver tells us she felt on being able to convert depressed, defeated faces into private gain. What? You didn't know that's what capitalism was about?

Tsk Society.

For me, I don't really care for line camping. I HAVE considered doing it ONCE because of the 'thrill' of line camping, but only doing it ONCE in my life, just, more or less to say I did it. And even then, it's not much of an accomplishment.

If people aren't going to work/school/doing some other important matter to stay in line, then I think that is idiotic and irreresponsible. If, however, they are just doing it to get the item, then I don't care too much because 1) I can get the item later, 2)I can get the item most likely with less flaws, 3 )I can get the item cheaper, 4 ) I can possibly get the item that will have a longer durability than the inital first batch.

Of course, this doesn't work for EVERYTHING. While the PS2 became cheaper, got better, had a nicer selection of games and so forth, iPod's really don't go down in price until a new version comes out (with probably only the shuffle being an exception).

Edit: HAHAHAHAHA! Ipwned was awesome. However, what was all that about a free iPhone? A couple of people (on the forums) and that one guy mentioned it. I haven't kept up with the iPhone though due to lack of interest so I have no idea what he was going on about...

So what? Seriously, it's like that with any new thing in the world.
Stores hold Grand Opening ceremonies and draw in large crowds to be there on day one. New restaurants (i.e. a Starbucks in a town without one) draw crowds for weeks after opening, just so everyone can see what the fuss is about. Remember that first McDonald's in Russia? Holy moly did they make a big deal out of such terrible food.

Big name concerts, new technology, major sporting events, new movies; it's all a matter of how much someone wants to experience it and in what way they want to embrace it. For movies they'll want to be there on opening night at the first show so they can see it without anyone ruining it for them (I'm guilty of this way too much). For concerts they'll want to see their favorite band live, and from the front rows. And for new technology they'll want to play with it first and have bragging rights over owning something they could just as easily live without (like those 5 guys who stood in line for Windows Vista lol).

I think, if anything, the people who wait in line are addicted to waiting in line. They love the rush of anticipation, waiting for the next new thing. And when they see people moping because they still don't have it at the end of the day, that just makes them feel even better. It's like a reward for them, the icing on the cake if you will.