At A Show
I’m at a show, it’s a game show, but not the sort you stand on stage and answer questions. I’m in line to play the latest big video game, an action adventure game in a popular yearly franchise. The line is huge though, with a four hour expected wait time. You can’t really sit on the floor, well maybe you can, but nobody else is. I’m standing in line for four hours to play a twenty minute demo of a video game. That’s a lot of time wasted, so imagine if the game was no good?
The line slowly moves forward, and I see people on their phones, on their portable consoles. I wish I brought something, but my phone battery is dead and there is nothing else to keep my mind busy. The crowds of the show room are incredible, it’s like being at a football stadium, and I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed. Time keeps on ticking. I’ve yet to play the game.
Someone keels over, looks like standing for too long was too much for him, and so he is sent away on a stretcher. It doesn’t cancel the line, it doesn’t cancel the show. The minute he’s been pulled away, he’s become forgotten. If he dies, no one here will care. They just want to play this game.
Near the front you get to peek inside and watch other people play. The game looks real interesting, with a wide variety of weapons and options to keep things fresh. I’m eager to play, though I’m getting a little stressed out by how sweaty some of the players hands are. I hope they clean the controllers with a cloth in between demos. I once caught the flu from a crusty PlayStation pad.
When I finally got my hands on the controller, it was hard to keep them there. It was drenched in sweat and covered in crisp bits. I grumbled and wished I brought a cloth. The game seemed okay though, I’d played a hundred games like this before. You follow sign posts, see an impressive set piece with little freedom, then button bashed a few enemies to death. It was like everything else but shinier and bigger than the last one. All I gained was losing four hours of my time, and how does that happen?
I went home feeling a little bitter about it all. I wasn’t even paid for this, I paid for my ticket as it always looked so fun online. But alas, you only see the good bits, not the waiting and everything else. Forget wars, relationships, health, and the future, it’s a video game! I wonder if we’ll regret all that waiting on our death beds, then I thought about how we always talk about death and maybe saying stuff on our death beds as if it is a fiction. But for many it is all too really and not all that far away. In double my life I can worry about it.
I guess I still have time for another game. This time I’ll try something with a smaller line, something people don’t care about. Maybe I’ll have fun this time?
Channel Static 