Gaming Trek III: The Search for Wii

The Nintendo Wii was released about two weeks ago, and I have yet to own one. I did have a great time playing my brother's system when we visited Lincoln over Thanksgiving break, and a great time was had by all. So ever since, I've been calling and visiting stores, and asking people I know, and I just can't seem to find one. Turns out the Wii is this year's gotta-have-it gift for Christmas, which is pretty cool for Nintendo and millions of game players who enjoy having fun without spending lots of cash.

So this morning I got up, made some phone calls, checked some message boards, and discovered that a Circuit City near my house was going to get about 15 overnight. Schawing! I quickly showered and ran out in the near-zero temps to snag myself a new Nintendo (thankfully I had my super-warm Cabela's boots my wife's parents got me for Christmas a few years ago, or my toes would have froze).

I got to Circuit City and found that there was no line, which was super cool. Then I found out from a lady standing by the door that there *was* a line and the manager had given tickets to everyone in line so they could come back later and not freeze all morning. The downside: the store only got 11 Wiis, and they were now all spoken for (the lady was #12 in line, and I would have been #13). Bummer, sure, but then I found out that the lady who was waiting by the door needed a ride to someplace warm. Apparently she was waiting in line for her daughter, who had left to go run some errands. So I gave her a lift to a Starbucks, and zipped off to Best Buy to try my fortunes there.

I waited in line there for a while until the manager came out and said they did not receive and Wiis last night. Bummer #2.

But check it out: there's a happy side to all this, and it has nothing to do with games. What I discovered this morning was that there are a whole bunch of really nice people out there. Sure, that sounds cheesy, but everyone I met in line (I did go back to Circuit City after Best Buy to see if they at least had some controllers) was really nice, friendly, and polite about the whole business. It was 13 degrees out, but people were chatting and sharing stories and generally having a really good time. And when we found out from the Best Buy manager that they were out of Wiis, nobody fussed or got mad--they just calmly left and I heard many shouts of "Good luck, man!" and "I hope you find one!" and the like.

Maybe Christmas brings out the best in people after all.