Today's hottest game video: homeless people in line [update 1]
by Zack Stern 
{ Nov 18th 2006 at 12:00AM }
A North Carolina newscast about smart -- or exploitative -- entrepreneurs drew the most views of YouTube's game videos. These gamer-hustlers drove homeless people to local stores and paid them $100 a day to wait for the PS3.These console launches bring out the worst in people, but this situation is more ambiguous. Does everybody win, with homeless people being paid and the organizer scoring an eBay-able PS3? Or are there more ethical questions to consider?
Watch the video after the break.
[Update 1: Thanks Kozwiz for the spelling fix.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kozwiz @ Nov 18th 2006 12:17AM
Um....homeless is spelled wrong...
Joey @ Nov 18th 2006 12:19AM
OMG HOMLESS PEOPLE ATTACKIN
Wait, what are homless people?
All Your Lost Socks @ Nov 18th 2006 12:19AM
Why am I not at all surprised?
Well, first come first serve. It's like putting more tickets in a raffle bin, if you ask me.
I don't know about anyone else, but when the video ended, the look frozen on the female reporter's face nearly killed me. Woo.
Nathaniel Neufeld @ Nov 18th 2006 12:21AM
You realize, humble blogger of Joystiq, I come only to mock you and your tenacious typing prowness.
The internet must suck eh?
Alex @ Nov 18th 2006 12:23AM
So he's just paying them to wait in line? Hell he shouldve called me for $100 and free food I 'll wait in any line you want.
AlexL? @ Nov 18th 2006 11:59AM
Wow.. I never expected to see my news on youtube. Lol literally I live in Raleigh, NC, sence I don't read the newspaper, or the 5,7,12,5, or 6 o'clock news, this is news to me, and it's a good idea of how to get a console. He get what we want, while they get paid money.
dan(o) @ Nov 18th 2006 12:31AM
This literally makes me sick to my stomache.
Toast1185 @ Nov 18th 2006 12:49AM
If you are sick to your stomach, then I don't think you've had to work hard enough for a buck. For $100 I would have done this. If it wasn't a homeless person, if it was anyone else in the world above the age of 18, there would be no ethical questions. Where has anyone been wronged in the slightest way by this?
Just because some people decide not to sweep the homeless under the rug does not automatically raise issues of ethics. That seems to be the only question that pops up when someone tries to employ the homeless in a non traditional way.
taco @ Nov 18th 2006 12:54AM
I think you should change the headline back to "homless", its the way it is on the youtube video :P
RedStar @ Nov 18th 2006 1:09AM
I call shen.
100$ a day *2 * 50 * food +2 day rental.
They prolly offered 10$ and a free beer
32_Footsteps @ Nov 18th 2006 1:18AM
You see, this is capitalism at its finest.
You've got a person willing to spend extra to get himself a PS3. Does he just pay off someone on eBay?
No. He uses his money to not just ensure himself a PS3, but help out some homeless people who could really use it.
Really, we all win. The guy wins because he gets a PS3. The homeless men win because they get $100 for just standing around. And we win because we don't have to hear about how this one guy ruins it for all the "true fans" who don't want to act stupid for a PS3.
HotShotX @ Nov 18th 2006 1:18AM
Hey, I don't see anyone else around giving these homeless people money, let alone a job, which this probably falls under.
$100/day sounds sweet, homeless or not.
~HotShotX
HikerManiac @ Nov 18th 2006 1:33AM
@ #3
Yeah, I found the lady's face at the end rather amusing to say the least.
Kirby @ Nov 18th 2006 1:46AM
$100 to stand in line? Come on, I'm a socialist and I even I don't think that's exploitive.
Leto @ Nov 18th 2006 2:12AM
$100 a day is nice pay, hell that's better than "nice" for just having to stand on line.
kuri @ Nov 18th 2006 3:29AM
So are any of the people in these lines actually going to, you know, use their PS3?
This video just reminisces that Kotaku article a week ago where Japanese businessmen hired homeless Chinese nationals to sit in line for them for a cool buck.
Is it safe to say this is less of a console launch, and more of non-gamers trying to rape the market? Signs point to yes.
DG @ Nov 18th 2006 3:14AM
It's nothing I would do, and dehumanizing people for money is nothing new. I find it hard to get outraged about this. Perhaps that $100 could have been spent better, but whatever. The PS3 long ago stopped being a video game system. In these first days of the console's launch, it's a cash cow and cash cow only. If you need any more evidence of that, just look at the game line-up. Clearly, none of them were meant to be played. Right?
Seraph Wing @ Nov 18th 2006 3:43AM
I think this is just fine. I myself started camping outside Target Wednesday with every intention of selling the PS3. I was a little late, and stuck with a Basic system. However, on the night before Friday, I managed to sell my spot to someone for a cool $500. I made money, and he got his PS3.
BTW, I'll be nothing more than a grinning idiot playing Zelda on Sunday....
otakucode @ Nov 18th 2006 5:16AM
Helping the homeless is great and all, but you just know the IRS is going to be running around Raleigh tackling every homeless person they can find, grinding their faces into the pavement as they kneel on their face, raving about needing their cut with crazy eyes.
And then, next week they're all going to get letters delivered to them by courier from Sony saying they're being sued for 'short-range importing'.
Rob @ Nov 18th 2006 10:44AM
yea this is way more than they make with their signs at the intersection.
Joe @ Nov 18th 2006 3:45PM
Lulz. Not that they're exploiting the homeless, but they paid 5 grand per day for 50 men to wait outside for EIGHT UNITS. They'll lose, probably, a few grand at least.
Hammy @ Nov 18th 2006 11:21AM
#10, a pointless correction 4u. your math is off -- if food=20 days=2 pay=100 and ppl=50 then i think you mean
= 100*50*2 + 50*20*2
= 50*2(100 + 20)
= 50*2*120
your example would have been
= 100*50*2*20
= 50*2*2000
which is way more...
also at the end did they say there were only 8 PS3s to go around?
Justin @ Nov 18th 2006 11:40AM
Is it just me or does the lady say there are only 8 units at the end?
Andy @ Nov 18th 2006 1:50PM
Here is an example of a reporter who doesn't ask the hard questions.
If I was that reporter, right after the guy told me he was paying them $100/day, I'd have asked if they still get the money if they don't get a console.
Then (and this is the important part) I would have gone to the people in line and asked if they were really getting $100/day.
Simply asking those two questions and getting solid answers could change the entire tone of the story. Either he's helping the homeless out by paying them good money for easy work, or exploiting the desperate. The reporter doesn't ask the right questions for us to know which.
Kralos @ Nov 18th 2006 5:57PM
sweet, i shop at that place
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