I preordered Final Fantasy XII about a month ago, so I wanted to be guaranteed a copy without having to worry about waiting in line for eight hours. Now, I have always liked the Final Fantasy series, however I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a fan. Each one has its pluses and minuses. I got this pre-recorded call informing me that it was being released, and that my local EB games was going to re-open at 11:00 pm to have a pre-release “party” for FF12 which they would begin selling at midnight. Originally I was going to wait until after work later in the day to pick up my copy, however it sounded like a good fun nerdy time. My friend was mad because he is a big square-enix fan, but spent all his money on his Halloween costume. I felt kind of bad buying it, because he had been waiting for longer than myself. I was the first one there. They were trying to set up the bonus features DVD without a remote control, so I tried to give them a hand. The red bull girls came and handed out a few drinks and then left. One of them kept staring at me funny. My guess would be because I don’t look like a stereotypical gamer, and it helped that I wasn’t drooling over them. I like to think that she had the hotts for me because it boosts my ego, but I realize that probably isn’t the case. So people started showing up slowly and eventually the place filled up. I talked to a few of the other people, who were all excited to talk to people who knew what they were talking about. I am consider myself more of a casual gamer, so allot of what they were talking about went right over my head. Nobody showed up in costume, which kinda’ disappointed me because ad midnight it would be Halloween. Eventually people began to form a bastardized hybrid of a mob and a line. I merged my way within it, and there was a big scary fat guy giving me the evil eye the entire time. He reminded me of the comic book guy from The Simpsons. He got his game and then walked out. There were a few people in front of me, then when it was my turn I got the collectors version of the game as well as the guide. I traded in a few games that I wasn’t a big fan of as well as some crappy movies so I could get a discount. Then I was all happy about my purchase, and left the store. I went out to my car, and the comic book guy was parked near me. “So, do you feel guilty?” he snarled at me. “What?” “Do you feel guilty?” “For what?” “You cut in line.” “There wasn’t really a line for me to cut in.” I stated, slightly confused. “You cut in front of a bunch of people.” “Are you kidding me? Is this the third grade? You got your game before me, whey are you complaining?” “Listen Dick, just because you think you’re cooler than us doesn’t give you the right to treat us like **** This statement truly bothered me, because he didn’t know me and he had no right no make accusations to anyone at this point. “Okay,” I started angrily “let’s ignore the fact that I was the very first one to get there, and had no problem when people started pushing their way in front of me. You seem to be the only one who had a problem with the whole keeping people in line thing. We were all guaranteed a copy of the game, so it’s not like someone wasn’t getting one.” “Whatever, I know your type!” He countered, his face turning red with anger. “What? Can you hear yourself talk? Who is the one bulling complete strangers in the parking lot. I don’t know what issues you may have, but I am just fortunate I don’t have to sink down to such rudimentary levels to improve my testosterone level because I am secure with the size of my… self worth.” At which point I sat in my car, revved the engine loudly, and drove home. People who know me, know I was picked on and beat up on regular basis in school. I don’t know what his issue was, perhaps I reminded him of someone who he didn’t like, but I didn’t wrong anyone. The thing I like about being nerdy is that the people are WAY nice and actually fun to hang out with. He reminded me of this kid in high school named Billy Hall. I tried to befriend him because he didn’t have anyone else to hang out with, but I quickly learned that the reason nobody hung out with him wasn’t because he was nerdy but because he wasn’t a nice person. If comic book guy had said something to me while in the store, I would have moved back further in the mob/line, because I didn’t mind taking a back seat. That’s why I was there: to have fun and talk to other people. If I didn’t want to social interaction I would order everything online.