and the sense of camaraderie.
"Can I scoot ahead of you in line?"
I've had much better evenings in the comfort of someone's home, not sitting in line in front of a retail store trading bathroom trips with a friend because otherwise we'd both lose our spots.
I got that feeling when installing games back in the day, when the installer would take up your entire screen with artwork and play music while installing the game, and you actually had to sit there and watch for when it wanted you to change the disk out. That would take ten minutes at most, though. My patience for a line at a Gamestop (or wherever) would be well worn-out by the half hour mark, even if the game being released were Half-Life 3 or something similarly momentous.
Is this what people think preorder lines are like?
When I went to pick up SC2, me and a friend got there about 45 minutes before release (we were thinking the same thing as you guys: lines), the guys at the gamestop simply asked our names and order numbers/receipts and showed us our copies, then put a sticky note with the name and a number on it and gave you a small note with the number. As soon as midnight hit, things went fast and smooth as they set up 3 lines where they called the numbers in numerical order. Got it done in minutes. There were only maybe 40 people waiting at that store, but still.
I don't have time for that these days, I'd rather just order it on Steam the day before or so and get it preloaded that night.
But the thing is other than Fallout 4, no recent releases have risen to "HOLY SHIT" levels with me since SC2 (It looked like it was going to be the shit then) and Skyrim. But then, I preordered online for Skyrim, and got it loaded that night, no fuss.
I for one, will be preordering Fallout 4 the night before release, cuz it's reached hype level "HOLY SHIT" from those Trailers/E3 demo.