It was around noon on Thursday that I started seeing tweets from Brits who had received their copies of Skyrim. I sat at work as the clock ticked by the time at a pace that would make a turtle seem like a speed demon. Seeing those tweets was not helping, but I couldn’t stop myself from reading them. I was actually enjoying the build up of anticipation.

Tara, my best friend and cohost, had texted me early that morning:

Tara: Hey! They’re doing a a midnight release for Skyrim. Wanna go? That is, if you preordered.

Me: I didn’t preorder…can’t I just go buy it??? I wanna go!

Tara: Go preorder tonight then!

So, once the local GameStop opened, I gave them a call.

“Are you having a midnight release for Skyrim?” I asked.

“Yes, we are!” said the nice man on the end of the line.

“Do I have to preorder to get it tonight?” I asked, a bit worried.

“No, but all the people who preordered get their copies first,” he answered, and my heart fell a little. What if they didn’t have enough copies?

“Can I come preorder tonight after work?”

“You can,” he said to my relief, “Here’s what we do. From 9 – 12, we’ll be open. Come in and pay for your game and we give you a claim ticket. Then, at midnight, you can give us the ticket and we’ll give you the game. It’s pretty simple this way.”

“Okay!” I said, happily, but then added, “There shouldn’t be too many people, should there?”

We were going to a GameStop in an outer ring suburb and I couldn’t imagine that it would be too crazy, but he proved me wrong when he replied, “Well, we have 400 preorders, so I’m expecting at least 100 people.”

Yowza!

—

I left work a little early and headed over to GameStop to preorder copies for my husband, Jeff, and myself. The front window was filled with a huge display for Uncharted 3, which bummed me out a bit – I wanted to see  all Skyrim everywhere in the store – but I was happy to see the front door covered in a Skyrim decal like it was a special portal just for me.

Inside, the store was laid out with red tape on the floor to direct people how to line up. There were about fifteen other people in line. Most of them were doing the same thing I was, but a few looked a little confused over why there was this strange setup. A man with glasses and a scraggly ponytail, which he probably first grew in 1992, walked toward the counter, but the clerk shooed him away with the wave of a hand and a loud, “Go to the back of the line! Yes, where that red line starts.” The man looked puzzled, but took his place.

Two young girls with choppy black hair and lip piercings discussed the races they wanted to play behind me, while the guy in front of me sauntered to the counter and asked if they had any used copies of Modern Warfare 3.

“Used copies?!” the clerk exclaimed with more than a little disdain in his voice. “No. Come back in a few weeks.”

The guy made a muffled reply, but the clerk snapped back, “No! It only came out three days ago. There won’t be any used copies for a few weeks and then they’ll get bought right away.”

I felt sorry for the kid and almost offered to give him the extra five bucks a new copy would cost him, but he was gone before I had a chance.

When it was my turn, the clerk was all business, but when he asked I wanted both copies for the 360, I said, “Yes! This game is gonna be too good to share.”

I think he cracked a smile.

I paid for my games and guide and went home to kill the four hours before we would come back.

—

We picked Tara up about 8:30 and headed over to get our little number tickets. It was pretty busy, but also uneventful. Tara spent our time in line talking about how we were only allowed to buy pink games and finding the most obnoxious “girly” titles.

Jeff didn’t want to hang out in line, so he wandered the store and at one point called out in a dorky voice, “What are all you people in line for?”

Tara and I burst out laughing at that while everyone else looked confused.

After we picked up our tickets, we decided to kill the next three hours in a bar that was in the same strip-mall as the GameStop. The name of the bar was “The Dive Bar” so I had an image of a nice dark bar with peanut shells on the floor, some grizzled old regulars at the bar, and the smell of greasy food in the air.

Boy, was I wrong.

From the moment I stepped in the entryway, I knew this was not the place for me. It wasn’t that it was 18+ night and everyone in the place was twenty years younger than me. It wasn’t the neon bubble lighting and lounge chairs. It wasn’t even the horrible music or that next to the dance floor was a stripper pole.

It was the people. They were all so phony. Yeah, I get that 99% of people don’t know who the hell they are at 20, but everyone at this place was pretending to be cool. They were all looking to get laid in such an unsubtle way that it was pathetic.

But, we had paid a cover charge and were there, so we found a table in the corner and had some $1 rail drinks that had about two drops of alcohol in them. Tara and I had a few rounds of tequila shots to even out the weak drinks. I decided that if I had to be in this icky bar, I was going to try to make Tara drunk enough to barf on the GameStop clerk. It didn’t work, though!

We left that phony factory about 11:15 to head back over to GameStop. I was feeling nicely tipsy as we sauntered up to the line and we were greeted with friendly smiles and welcomes from the complete strangers ahead of us in line.

Oh, yes. These were my people.

Brad, a tall blond guy with a goatee and tan jacket greeted us, and we told him all about our club experience like he was an old friend. To help take that bad taste out of our mouths, he offered us a swig of wine from a plastic water bottle he had hidden inside his coat.

“What is it?” I asked. It’s best to know what you’re drinking before gulping it down.

“Franzia!” he said with a smile.

“Oh, boxed wine in a plastic container!” Tara exclaimed, so I grabbed it and took a swig. Mmmm! Tara followed suit.

Brad’s two brothers and girlfriend joined in the conversation and soon we were making bad jokes about Dragonborn and using swords in unusual ways.

It was such a difference from the club. Here, people were genuine and excited. Despite the chilly 27F degrees, we were all warm with anticipation as we stood in the fluorescent glow falling out of the GameStop windows.

Finally, midnight arrived and the crowd of about a hundred people pushed towards the door. The GameStop employees started shouting out numbers – they were having a raffle. For what, we didn’t know, but we checked the tickets we’d been given earlier in the evening and when we didn’t win, shouted the numbers around the corner of the building. There would be a shout and the winner pushed through the crowd to claim the prize.

After that, we were called up in groups of ten to get the game, which we did, and then headed home.

—

I stumbled into the house, still tipsy and ran to the bathroom…I’d had a lot to drink! Once that was done, I ripped open the game and watched the opening. I was so excited! But, oh, so sleepy…

Okay, here I am in a wagon…

What’s going on? Where am I?

Who am I?

High Elf…
Gold skin…
Red tattoos…

I’m gonna get my head chopped off? WTF?

OMG! DRAGON!!!

RUN!!!

“We’ll be safe in here!”

Yeah, follow that guy…

Do I have to play in first person?…

“Check those chests for weapons! There must be something you can use!”

Yeah…
Blink…
Blink…

Zzzzz…

I woke up two hours later with the guy still telling me to check those chests.

Yeah, it was a night to remember…I’ll immerse myself in Skyrim tomorrow…