Where will you be at midnight the 12th/13th of November? Will you be queuing outside a game shop in order to tear your box out of the hands of the retailer?

I will. Not that it really make any sense. I’m not having vacation the next day, so it’s out the question that I could spend the whole night installing the game and then launching myself into the Brand New Laggy Exciting World. At the most I’ll have a cup of coffee and START the project to install the game. But I don’t expect to make it work and to be able to enter the new version until the following weekend.

A ritual
So what’s the big deal? Why can’t I wait until the regular opening hours during daytime?

I think it’s because it’s a part of a ritual. By attending the release the event becomes more real to us. It’s a clear marker in time and space that this actually is happening to us.

And for all of us who haven’t been able to attend any Blizzcon event in US or Europe, it’s a chance to see a bunch of other crazy creatures that have fallen in love with this game – to feel the fellowship, to share the feeling of excitement and expectations.

It’s exactly the same thing that made me and my daughter go out and queue outside a bookshop for the midnight release of one of the Harry Potter books. Of course we didn’t expect the shop to run out of books the following day – that would have been plain stupid. The book stores are far to goblin minded to let that happen. But that hour we spent outside the shop was something of a party. Candles burning everywhere, plenty of girls dressed up as witches. As time went by we found ourselves speaking not only to ourselves, but sharing thoughts about the books with strangers. Because in those situations we don’t feel like strangers anymore, we’re more like sisters and brothers.

I wonder what kind of people will show up at the event in the town where I live. Will I be the oldest one? Will people even consider the fact that I may buy the game for myself and not for my children? Or maybe I’m the one who’s prejudiced. There may as well be bunches of middle aged people, what do I know.

Discretly staring
Since I’m going to the shop on my own, I expect spending most of my time in the queue discretely staring at other people, trying to listen to their conversations. Above all I’ll try to figure out what class they play. Can you tell it from their exterior? Maybe. I’m pretty short myself, so I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they found out I’m a gnome. So what else? Is it likely that a slim, tall person is playing nightelf? And how would you then expect the horde characters to look in real life? Hm. No probably there isn’t any evidence supporting a people-look-like-their-character-theory.

Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone going to the shop could carry a little sign, telling what race and class you’re playing, and maybe even server name? Is it possible that there are more players in the town where I live who’re playing at my server? This could be the one and only chance to find out.

Meet WoW Bloggers
There are a few WoW bloggers who have announced where they’re buying to buy their copy of the game, inviting readers who want to see them to come to the same shop and say hi.

• Lassirra at The Hunters Mark will be in South Burlington Vermont (I guess it’s the US)
• You can see Big Red Kitty in Orlando.
• And Big Bear Butt in a place called Maplewood (I’m sorry to say but I have no idea where that is located, though it’s a beautiful name of a place).