Waiting for Wii: the wait

by James Ransom-Wiley { May 12th 2006 at 10:30PM }

This is the beginning of the E3 Wii line.

This is the end:
E2 Wii line

Let's follow the journey...

Bring your DS.

This line means absolutely nothing.

Big, scary guy.

Just one more hour!

Closer...

So close...

Yes! (Now it's just a matter of waiting in line for the games...)

Tags: E32006

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neogin @ May 12th 2006 10:32PM

Wow.

Go Nintendo, !_!

AdamBot @ May 12th 2006 10:41PM

This has got to be unprecidented.

Is anyone old enough to remember if there was ever a line as long as this in the history of E3?

Good god, what a mess!
Is that E3??
I hear the other big players are more used to crowds and dealt with the crowds well.
Sadly Nintendo botched it and kept people hanging around waiting.
Very similar to the way night clubs make people queue up outside for no other reason than to make the place look like the place to be.

Jamesology @ May 12th 2006 10:50PM

Looking at these pics, and reading all these fanboyism. WOOOOW you ppl need to get laid.

The owners of Nintendo, Sony, and MS probably meet up at the end of this stupid E3 and laugh at such pathetic losers that never see day light and envy their balls. Then they probs think of other stupid things they can start for losers like the ones in the pics to take in and "flame on" like little fagg0ts.

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA. You fags remind me of that video I saw on YouTube.com about a guys jerkin off on a video game girl. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

the longest @ May 12th 2006 10:54PM

I've been going to E3 for 5 years and that's the longest line I ever saw. In fact, it's the longest line I've ever been in in my life (although not necessarily the most people, just by total length).

The year that MS was showing the Halo 2 movie/demo and ATI was showing the Half-Life 2 movie/demo those lines were very long, but as far as I remember, not as long as this. I didn't wait in either of those lines (I don't wait in long lines to see movies/demos at E3, although I will wait to actually use/play something).

As great as the Wii remote is (I played Tennis and Monkey Ball), really the reason this line is so long is the slow throughput of the line. Once people wait 2 hours to get in, they loiter a long time in there, and N couldn't stuff in any more people, so the line slowed way down. Probably as many people waited to see the DS last year, but the enforced throughput moved the line faster.

I still say go N! I'm very excited to buy a Wii. I'm a lot less excited about buying a $600 PS3, even though money isn't a big deal to me, I just think the price will stunt the PS3 platform enough that I'll get more good games on the Wii instead. Like even if you had money to burn, buying a 3D0 turned out to be a bad idea.

DankLogic @ May 12th 2006 11:01PM

Hey Jamesology,

What a mature way to express your opinion. If a million people that make and report on video games are waiting in line for hours to try something, then they must be waiting because they need to get laid.

Notorious MOFO @ May 12th 2006 11:03PM

I've been to a few E3's and that line is insane. The Half Life 2 line was pretty bad a few years back, but nothing like this line.

The love for Nintendo is insane. The Wii is an xbox with a gimmick controller. Who cares if you can use the controller to slash or shoot. The games are still the same. I'm still using Link to kill with a sword, nothing new there. And the old games. Why pay for games that are free on the internet? I though Sony fanboys were bad but they got nothing on the Nintendo sheep.

Garold @ May 12th 2006 11:38PM

#7: "Why pay for games that are free on the internet?"

Ummm... it's illegal, for one.

Jacob @ May 12th 2006 11:38PM

I've been to four E3s ('99-'02), and I NEVER saw a line that horrid.

(Back then WE thought the show was overcrowded...)

Aran @ May 12th 2006 11:57PM

@ 7 (to the MOFO):

"The love for Nintendo is insane. The Wii is an xbox with a gimmick controller. Who cares if you can use the controller to slash or shoot. The games are still the same."

Thank god especially for PS3 and all those great sequels that are definitely not the same than ever before. LOL

Gimmick or not, people are interested in the change that is coming as it seems. I've been gaming almost 20 years and I'm sick of this "let's update graphics and sell the same games with new number after the name" (=Sony strategy), so I'm very happy to see that something different and new is on the way. Go Nintendo!

Eric @ May 13th 2006 12:03AM

Here's the video of the stampede

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeR0fL9ofYY

navstar @ May 13th 2006 12:07AM

How about a little Quicktime movie? All digital cameras do that nowadays. Post it to Google Video!

On M @ May 13th 2006 12:11AM

That's a pretty long line, but i'd without a doubt wait it. I once waited in line 6 hours to ride a rollercoaster that lasted less than a minute, which is to say i'm exellent at waiting.

Anonymous @ May 13th 2006 12:13AM

Nintendo's booth was the biggest at the show, and it still had a line like this. Wow.

Neko Tsukimi @ May 13th 2006 12:20AM

I just wet myself ;_; That line is scary.

Cookiemonster @ May 13th 2006 12:31AM

I've been watching E3 since the very first show. Nintendo actually did a very good job of managing their area. You should see the video on Kotaku of everyone filling in. People literally stampeded in and RAN, not walked, for the Nintendo area when the doors opened. You can see the clearly baffled and perturbed Sony reps across the way watching with dispair. Well over half of the attendees were at Nintendos area at any point in the day.

E32006 can officially be renamed Wii32006.

Nintendo can pride themselves in that noone got killed.

Samurai @ May 13th 2006 1:11AM

Actually looks a lot like last year's line to be the first to play Zelda.

And wow, can you get any more pathetic than Jamesology. If I had to guess who more than anyone needs to get laid...

Chris @ May 13th 2006 1:15AM

Oh, yes, NotoriousMOFO, controls have never made a difference in a game. Not ever. Every dollar ever spent on gameplay improvements is a dollar that could have been spent on something more integral to the gaming experience--say a nice, robust CGI cut-scene, for instance--but which has, sadly, been wasted on something that any rational human being would immediately have identified as completely expendable. Insanity.

Really.

I swear.

rocko @ May 13th 2006 3:21AM

check out this vid for a better idea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCdrrQN_ir0

Sabre @ May 13th 2006 4:20AM

Ok first off:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v303/jag0/me_e3.gif

w00t! (I was in line 3-1/2 hours before I got in)

Second...Nintendo did make a mistake I think by making ALL of the Wii games be behind an enclosed area. Most of the games were attached to the display with a 6-7 foot long cable. The only ones that would have needed to be enclosed were the Wii Sports games b/c they weren't tied down.

Finally, I LOVED the controller and thought it felt really comfortable, responded pretty well and was INCREDIBLY fun to play. I tried out WarioWare, Wii Sports Baseball, Super Mario Galaxy, Exite Truck and Super Mario 64 using the standard conroller. Super Mario Galaxy? Incredibly fun to play but with a slight learning curve (like all Wii titles b/c of the new control scheme) but it was the same Mario we've come to love.

WarioWare? That was BAD ASS and so damn fun. Sure you feel dumb doing some of the stuff but they're also hilarious.

Excite Truck? Fun game and the control scheme was pretty neat but there was there (at least in the demo at the show.)

Wii Baseball? Was so damn fun incredibly accurate.

Matters @ May 13th 2006 4:25AM

Another good one from Kotaku.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/e306-clips-e3-morning-stampede-173469.php

Travis @ May 13th 2006 4:29AM

I have waited in a longer line. It was when I evacuated from Hurricane Rita in a camaro z28 with t-tops and no air conditioning on a 104 degree day FOR 10 HOURS!!! So stop whining... Thats what we get for being smart and getting away from our hurricane (eventually we were forgotten when I had no power for a couple of months, so Katrinites can bite me) Yeah..so I'm bitter...

Anyway, Nintendo definitely has won this E3.

Nicolas Redfern @ May 13th 2006 5:06AM

They should hold E3 here in Britain- we're famed for our ability to queue

Moogle @ May 13th 2006 10:11AM

I'm really wondering if those big walls that everyone griped about being in the way were actually radio shielding. Imagine how many people in line had bluetooth devices polluting the airwaves? And all those DS picto chat users? 802.11 is in the same wavelength as bluetooth iirc.

The corded remotes doesn't mean they don't need radio. A cord can't tell position information. They probably just provide long-term power and _maybe_ timing info to help with collision between remotes. I really wonder if most of the twitchyness some people saw was really from overcrowded radio band.

Ijo @ May 13th 2006 1:17PM

To #24,

Yeah, I think it was radio shielding. I had another post on another thread about this. There is a blog at the NY Times where the reporter described it in detail.

http://e3.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=20

Essentially, the guy said it was like a vault, and his cell phone crapped out when he went in to play. But, the controller was very accurate.

Cool!

ro @ May 13th 2006 1:49PM

I read in one of the articles elsewhere that E3 announced that the Wii line broke all previous records.

The Little Wii-Person @ May 13th 2006 5:18PM

two words: Biblical Proportions

DinnyHoon @ May 14th 2006 7:01AM

As a Sony fanboy, its taken me a while to accept this, but Nintendo already have the console war won.

People don't want to see another graphics overhaul like last gen, they want innovation. The PlayStation was successful because it was head and shoulders above everything else, so the PS2 success was already engraved in stone before its release, because PlayStation was a household name.

The Xbox wasnt as successful, because we'd seen it before in the PS2. We already had it. Similarly, the GCN brought nothing new.

Now Sony are repeating themselves again, just a few upgrades here and there. M$ have done the same, but the big N have it won. People are starting to accept and even like (!) the name Wii. The Wiimote is genius. I was skeptical when I first saw it, but now I annot wait. I'm still getting a PS3 (read the first 5 words of this post) but I'm saving that extra �170 for a Wii (no pun intended).

Innovation works. Nuff said.

Sublime @ May 14th 2006 8:52AM

Good morning all,

Jamesology, you posted here after 10pm on a Friday night... nothing to do eh?

Also, ya like lookin' for boys jackin off on YouTube, the web-site that has displays a HUGE amount of softcore porn?

Amazing how you waste your time trying to make other people feel bad when you just, in reality, make yourself look like an idiot. Yeah, video games are non productive, where to you, watching guys wank on YouTube, using your computer (and probably watching TV is not the same thing?

And where do you learn your language? Seriously man, you're incredibly offensive and belong on a deserted planet for idiots with no nourishment and dire living conditions.

Anywho, here are my rankings:

1: Nintendo Wii (Damn, that thing looks great.)
2: XBox 360 (Halo 3: 2007)
3: PS3 (I loved you twice and you broke my heart)