Yes, yes

About two years ago, I couldn't help but get dragged into the latest popular-culture craze of that time. Being the father of two teenagers, I take pride in knowing something about what my kids are doing and thinking, but I have to admit I wasn't fully prepared for the onslaught of the release of video gaming systems. The previous round of introduction of gaming systems hadn’t affected our household much, but then my kids were not in their teens either. I had actually let my guard down since Black Friday had come and gone and I had slept through most of it. Retail establishments have colored this day a happy black since it contrasts with being in the red. For shoppers it is black because for most of them it starts while it is still dark out and also because they enter the poorly lit tunnel of free-spending, the only light at the end of which is the on-coming train of unending credit card bills. I thought I had dodged the bullet of standing in line for stores to open, in uncomfortable weather, reminiscing about similar Soviet era images usually with a caption exhorting the virtues of the Capitalistic system. But you do have to give our system its due that it gives you a choice, and I had taken full advantage of the choice by not participating, at least not on Black Friday.



Little did I know that the savvy marketers of the video game companies had decided to dribble out their new systems so that the buzz would continue to grow. My kids had decided they wanted the new Nintendo system called Wii and they were going to do anything and everything to get it. Because they are not of driving age - of automobiles that is, since they do learn to drive their parents batty at a rather tender age -they needed a chauffeur. Once it was clear that they were willing to do anything, parent - children negotiations started in earnest and quickly came to a conclusion acceptable to both parties. My part of the deal included driving them to the store early in the morning - on a Sunday no less- and "hang" with them until the desired system was acquired or all hope for getting one was lost, whichever came first.

Although there wasn't much traffic while driving to the store, which is the way it should be before light on a Sunday, the first look at the parking lot of the store gave me pause. The lot seemed half full; a lot more cars than I expected. Then I saw the dreaded line. People huddled in blankets, some standing, some sitting in canvas chairs and some walking around like zombies, but not straying too far from the line. What kind of people are they, was my first thought, not realizing I was just minutes away from becoming one of them.

It was early in the morning, but not early enough from me not to figure out that the cars which had turned into the parking lot behind me might be looking for the same thing that my kids desired. The competitive juices started mixing with the orange juice I had just consumed, and it was this lethal combination that led me to make the initial but crucial competitive move to let my kids out of the car right at the end of the line, before I parked my car. The cars following mine, had no answer to this since they only had one person each; a tactical mistake if you ask me.


Once safely in line, with our own accessories like books and games to keep us occupied and layers of clothing - which in the warmth of the home seemed excessive, but out in the elements were quickly turning to be quite inadequate - we surveyed the field to find out where we stood in the line. It turned out we were somewhere in the low twenties as far as the number of people in the line ahead of us was concerned. Figuring out the exact number was very important but since it wasn't clear whether everybody ahead of us was a lone ranger or a part of a pack like the one I belonged to, the exact number could only be estimated.

As I tuned in to the chatter going on in the line, I found that it ranged from whether we are a crazy bunch of people to estimates on how many systems the store might have, to stories of how some people had tried this before on Black Friday and lost and were determined not to be bowed by the artificial scarcity of the coveted system and were willing to brave the elements and disregard the need for sleep in order to get this elusive merchandise.

Both rumors and flurries were flying all around us. Flurries could be ignored but rumors were not inconsequential. They could be the basis of important decisions like whether it would be prudent to abandon the line here to join another line outside another store or to stay put. Since this is the era of wireless communications, it turned out some people in the line were communicating with people in other lines in other parts of the town and were relaying the information to strangers in their own line. Just the fact that they were giving out information led one to suspect that some or perhaps most of it might be misinformation. So the tools of the information age were actually hindering the process of making sound judgment based on reliable information, a far too common experience nowadays.

To the relief of everybody, someone from the store appeared to give us the “official” procedure of how the upcoming transaction will be conducted, mixed in with it were the rules of proper conduct for such occasions. The most significant part of his speech was not the rules but the information that they would be giving out tickets before the store opens so everybody will know beforehand if they will get a system or not, since they only had a finite number of systems. But what was that number? Apparently it was a closely guarded secret at that point. He also told us when the big event would happen at which point time suddenly slowed down considerably and no matter how many times one looked at the watch it refused to move any faster than what could only be described as a slow crawl.

Meanwhile the line was getting longer and important excerpts of the speech were faithfully passed by people who heard it firsthand to the newcomers. At the appointed time the store employee appeared again and made the fateful announcement that after checking and rechecking the number of systems they had received they have come up with a grand total of 23. A whoop went up somewhere in the middle but changed to a nervous laughter as it moved towards the end of the line. Before we could start counting where we stood in the line, he started giving out the tickets at the head of the line. A hush came over as everybody started concentrating on these 3 x 5 pieces of paper and tried to estimate how many were left as he gave each one out.

As this guy came closer, we could see that the stack of tickets was getting depleted pretty quickly. My heart sank when I realized the two people right in front of us were not together since each one of them demanded a ticket. As he finished handing them out he raised the remaining ticket over his head to show it to everybody and declared it was the last one. Then he handed it to my son.

We were heartily congratulated by everybody ahead of us, and probably got dirty looks from people behind us which we promptly ignored. The ticket handler started another speech to the rest of the line about how sorry he was etc. but we were not paying too much attention to that. The line was abruptly divided into the haves and have-nots. Somebody from among the haves pointed out how ironic it was that between two people standing next to each other in the line, one of them was the happiest and the other one was the most disappointed. Somebody else chimed in that most things in life are circular in nature and the earlier observation was but one manifestation of this phenomenon. Things can get pretty profound when you have what you desire in your hands.

So, at the appointed hour we were ushered into the store with the coveted tickets in hand which were quickly exchanged for the brand spanking new system and a promise to pay the required amount to the credit card company later.

It was still early in the morning for a Sunday but of course the system had to be setup immediately. Whether it was the thrill of victory or the fact that I had quite a bit of time invested in it, I was now thoroughly involved in the process. I was even looking forward to playing the game as soon as the system was set up. By this time I had heard about the innovative controllers this game used and was looking forward to using it. Well, it didn’t disappoint me. This thing is ‘radical’ or whatever the equivalent of that slang is nowadays. You actually have to get up and move to play some games on this system. And this fact is making the system very popular. Even among the parents; especially among the parents.

Other video game makers are probably going to copy this and we will have a new generation growing up with indoor games that involve physical activity. We may even end up with the fittest generation ever. Pretty soon skating rinks may be converted to video game arenas because these games will need a lot of space. There may be video game tournaments, where kids will play over the internet essentially pitching a baseball thousands of miles away where another kid will try to hit it. This will give us travel teams that don’t really travel because they don’t have to. Parents could watch their kids play from their work computers even when they are in Bangalore on a business trip. They will be able to punch the umpire avatar (Mii for the Nintendo partisans) from anywhere in the world if they don’t agree with a call. I am excited about the future as you can probably tell. So if somebody asks me what do I say about the Nintendo Wii. I say yes. Or in other words: Wii, oui.