I received an automated call today from Gamestop since I have 2 copies of WOTLK reserved. The message said that Gamestop is offering 20% additional store credit if you trade in your games today or tomorrow toward WOTLK during normal business hours. (I called the Gamestop I have WOTLK reserved at and was told they will not be accepting trade ins during the midnight release.)
I have tons of console & Gameboy Advance/DS games that I don’t play anymore and with WOTLK I don’t think they’ll see the light of day any time soon. Now seems like the best time to get rid of them!
All Gamestops will start letting customers pay for WOTLK at 10pm so you can leave and come back at midnight to pick up your copy. They are also having a costume contest and a scratch-off game for everyone in line. Everything starts at 10pm.
I attended the midnight release of The Burning Crusade and there were about 75-100 people there. It was my first venture in to the public surrounded by other WoW players and was quite scary. I never knew just how passionate people were about their faction that they would incorporate that in to their real lives.
I was 3rd in line behind a couple who played on Kargath. I arrived around 10pm, it was snowing (January in north-west Indiana) and we were joking around and talking about pre-BC WoW. They were a cool couple until about an hour in to our conversation.
“So what do you play?”
If I had known that my response would have caused an hour of total silence, I would have chosen my words more carefully. I told them that I played a level 60 Undead Warlock to which they responded with “..ah”
That was the last thing they said until we purchased our games an hour later. Previously in our conversation, they were talking to me about how their guild had worked really hard to build the AQ scepter but their guild leader was ganked by a Horde guild at the gong, causing the Horde guild to open the gates instead. I guess they still held that grudge.
I remember the next day I read a post on Livejournal about some EB Games customers had set up two lines – one for Horde players and one for Alliance. After buying TBC, one of the Horde players shoved an Alliance player to the ground and yelled “FOR THE HORDE!”. I laughed but I still can’t believe that people take their faction that seriously.
I play on an RP server. I RP from time to time.. but that is the ONLY time that I’m a factionist (I’d like to trademark that term, kplzthx). I’ve played Horde and Alliance and I get weird looks all the time when I tell people that. I just play where my friends are and have a good time.
I’ve encountered factionists and I’m sure we all have in-game. When I made my final post in my Alliance guilds forums about how I was unhappy with the direction the guild was going, someone actually jabbed at me for playing my Horde alts instead of my Alliance ones. I told them to start paying for my subscription and then they can tell me where to play but they didn’t want to do that because they “didn’t want to pay for a stupid Horde account”. The guy was 45 years old. Srsly.
Lets see if there are anymore factionist antics tomorrow at the midnight release.
