Just want to do a brief follow up to last week's blog. There we talked about the insanity that happens once every 5 years or so when a new generation of gaming consoles hits the market. This causes what to some would resemble a pilgrimage or a right of passage as many gamers camp out in front of retailers for days on end in the hopes of being one of the first to own a machine which has virtually no good games at launch.

As we commented last week. These kinds of gatherings result in large crowds which then results in tension which then translates to large mobs. And mobs do what mobs do best, create violence. The largest incident was a shooting as two guys tried to hold up a line of people waiting for a Playstation 3. We now have more details.

One of the robbers was arrested and the cops are still looking for his partner. The victim was reportedly shot twice in the chest. We now know that he was shot with a SHOTGUN. And that's not the craziest part. Apparently this fool was first in line with $2,500 cash which he and his 3 friends (#2 through 4 in line) were going to use to purchase PS3's to resell on eBay. So he took a SHOTGUN blast over $2,500...AND THEN.....after he was taken into the store while the paramedics were called, he turned to an employee and asked the employee to give his wallet to his friends so that they could continue their quest and be able to buy the consoles.....???? The man was lucky to be a live and probably in serious need of medical help and all he could do was think about buying these systems......stupid people like that almost deserve to be shot. He could have been considered the most hard core gamer ever but he didn't want the PS3, he just wanted to make a quick buck......now he's apparently facing hundreds of thousands in medical bills as he did not have insurance. The net loss to his seems kinda ironic.

Lastly, the Nintendo Wii has been a great success with over 600,000 units sold. However, people are starting to complain about Wii elbow and shortness of breath. Apparently the need to move more than just their thumbs has caused them to experience physical stress. If you don't know, the Wii's claim to fame is a controller that detects your movements and translates that to actions on the screen so you're doing a little more moving than you normally would. This is just an excellent example of the sad physical state that many people are in these days. I'd like to say I'm surprised but I'm really not. If history has taught us anything, a class action lawsuit is waiting in the wings.

Till next week.
Cyber Jock