PS3 crime spree, part II: Fall of man
By Paul Miller 
posted Nov 17th 2006 1:40PM
posted Nov 17th 2006 1:40PM
Read - CT man shot outside Wal-Mart, suspects still on the loose. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - Armed robbers steal 5 PS3s from Ohio EB Games store. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - Riot breaks out at Circuit City. [Thanks, John C.]
Read - Police use pepper balls to control crowd in Tyson, VA. [Thanks, Troutman]
Read - Escaped rapist apprehended in Best Buy PS3 line. [Thanks, MrMarvey]
Update: While not actually criminal, last night's award for cruel and unusual went to PC Gamer, who were on hand in SF to try to convince a card-carrying line-waiting PS3 fanboy to swear off Sony forever. In exchange for a $7,500 Falcon Northwest PC rig, dude had to sign a legally binding contract to not purchase or ever own a PS3, under pain of
I love Pam!
I love Lamp!
That's what happens when you let gamers leave the living room.
The machine is taking over the world!!! Run for your lives!!!
"In Palmdale, Calif., authorities shut down a Super Wal-Mart after some shoppers got rowdy late Wednesday. In West Bend, Wis., a 19-year-old man was injured when he ran into a pole racing with 50 others for one of 10 spots outside a Wal-Mart."
I find this one funny :)
Consoles really shouldn't bring out the worst in us...
*Laughs at all of this*
What can I say? I'm currently more interested in the PS3 than the 360 (< Wii)...
what happened to 20-30 promised launch title, i only saw 12
oh noes video games cause violence. For reals!
is that "The Vede"?
Sony is loving this. Absolutely ecstatic that people are hurting themselves to get their product.
It reminds me of the book Jennifer Government. Near-future fiction, but similar: Nike releases a hotly anticipated pair of sneakers, doesn't release enough to satisfy demand which creates the same sort of frenzy the PS3 is causing. People camping out, fighting for them, etc. THEN Nike marketing executives hire a hitman to kill someone who was lucky enough to find a pair, just so the sneakers will be known as so hot that people are getting killed over them.
How long until that sort of thing actually happens?
totally maxx barryesque...think sony planned it? that would be awesome...
I was actually thinking the same exact thing when I started hearing about this fiasco a couple of days ago when the PS3 was launched in Japan. It's actually kind of scary how similar the circumstances the characters in the book and real life are.
So the guy got a $7,500 computer and now all he has to do is get someone else to buy the PS3 and permanently 'loan' it to him.
You thought the fighting is bad now, wait until they actually get home with the "launch" titles.
The PS3 fanboy/nerd rage will take over the world...
A virtual riot shut down Costco's website this morning when all their PS3s went online. Somehow it sold out, I just got a bunch of timeouts and server errors. :(
LOL, yah, I checked out costco this morning also, I wasnt planning on buying one but I wanted to see how their site would handle all the traffic. Obviously, not well. I wrote a story about it. :) http://hellojoseph.com/228/ps3-hopefuls-destroy-costcocom
This is unbelievable. I still cannot see why anyone stands in line or camps out for these toys. And to actually rob or attack people for these games, that's another story. Actually the stores should provide security if they anticipate a line up. Better yet the stores should hand out "come back later" vouchers to the first xxx number of people standing in line for each game in stock.
Im glad to hear someone else feels how i do about the whole Jim/Pam situation! Karen is, yes, much more attractive...but you can't beat Pam with anyone! Jim should just forgive her and bring back old times.
Oh, and i totally would have done what Neil did, given that i dont know if i ever will own a ps3
Ha ha - the day Sony killed Costco
...and this is how the Japanese are going to take over the US
Im glad someone else feels the same way i do on the whole JIM/PAM situation. While Karen is quite attractive, i believe nobody beats PAM when it comes to coolness factor. Jim should just forgive her and bring back old times.
Oh, and i totally would have done what Neil did, given that i probably will never own a PS3 anyways
It's things like this that makes me ashamed to be a gamer. What has society come to?
wow these ppl must be really desperate to get a ps3, lik a shooting, theit wow, these guys must be in love with the ps3.
it's not necessarily that the cons in these incidents are PS3 fans, it's that they know it can get them double, triple, or even 6x the original price in some cases over the net. One shooting was a guy not going for the PS3, but robbing people in the line, each person with 500 some on them(unless using credit)heck, the people were even lined up for easy money taking.
The Office reference FTW!!
Why bother, people are so stupid. Why not wait until the new year the price will be lower, there will be more games, no hastle, and no supply issues. Plus they will ship with the correct F/W, have the initail hardware bugs fixed, and most likely wont be a fire hazard.
I hope the quality is better than some of the other Sony products I have purchased recently, and their Lion cells.
I'd have taken the computer too. 8800's are seksy.
Well these people are probably fighting because they know they can sell them on E-bay for huge porfits. Just saw numerous sell for $5000+. Outrageous.
Hahaha :)
I want one too!
I want one too!
I want one too!
that's my circuit city! Langhorne, PA
Worse launch ever!
This ain't bad, wait till the DOA units and hardware issues start to surface and those that buy them for $2K or even $600 start to try and return them...
New idea. Terrorist create a product that people cant live without. Watch as western world destroys itself on launch day while they laugh from their caves. Pure genius.....now if they could only make something worthwhile besides sweet beards...hmmmm
People are forgetting the 360 launch last year??? Trucks stolen, people robbed, people killed etc.??? They should've learned and stayed out of the cue. My life is worth more than a console, even if I can quadruple the pricetag by selling the gear.
And for the one signing for a $7500 PC.... Well done. PC's are multi-purpose, easy extendible etc. For people not caring much for PS3, it's a golden deal. Much better than selling your PS3 while risking your guts.
- Unomi -
Money brings the best and worst out of us.
What a bunch of douchebags. All this stupidity over a half-assed video game console that will be outdated in a year (if that long). These are the kind of guys that will be serving french fries for the rest of their lives.
Jim and Pam -- No way dude! Jim and Karen fuhevah!
who wants to bet that the next big lauch will have some pretty heavy restrictions on it.. like you cant sell it on ebay. only preorders will be accepted. no camping in long lines.. my store preorderd theres starting sunday and were sold out in 2 hrs for the companys first shipment.. we are now preordering for march - april next year..
ps you had to get a 40" or bigger tv to pre order...
Jim has to hook up with Pam, as hot as the Karen girl is - Pam is the best TV girlfriend ever.
I shouldve unleashed that oil slick attack.
BTW wouldve been a good night to go around serving coffee for $5 a cup.
Are any of these guys getting laid? Does anyone know?
Neil, the guy who signed away his PS3 rights is gonna be fine.
He just needs to have his Wife or Girlfriend buy one and own it..
..Oh crap, he's screwed!
It's funny, some people think this happened because PS3 is true next gen gaming, but in reality, it's the fact that there are alot of money hungry opportunists out there. If suddenly, 2 million Ps3's were available, nobody would be waiting outside in the cold or fighting for one.
It is just sad that human lives has become something that is so worthless
Here's the on the streets report of a guy in Washington.
http://www.americaninventorspot.com/playstation_3_launch
Karen looks exotic looking. Pam is... plain (no offense to the actress, in other words, good job).
I would have taken the PC too. That would have also helped fix the urge that I have to kick The Vede in the nuuts.
Gotta love the Apple screen on that PC rig. I'd like to see what I could do with $7500 toward a Mac Pro.
i got something interessting in montreal some people use homeless people to queue for the ps3 so they can do something else instead of waiting in the cold
I hope that SONY are aware of the pain (and i mean literally the pain!) that people are enduring to get their machine. I hope that they do something about this level of violence that has spawned because people are doing practically anything to get hold of one.
Noone seems to realize why these people are behaving like this.
Simply put the fuckers pre-sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise on eBay and, if they don't have something to ship today (or withing the next 10 days, but forget about getting another purchase opportunity for at least a month) then they're facing Grand Fraud charges, or whatever's applicable here.
They probably didn't even have the money to actually buy the machines till after the auction winners performed the Pay Pal transfer. If they don't have a product to ship ASAP they're fucked.
I think rather than risk my actual life at a campout I'll wait for "PS3: The Launch" to come out so I can arrive at BB as a gun toting O.G.(Original Gamer). That title should be a riot(pun intended).
Same thing happened at my best buy. They sent in soldiers with pepper pellets and rubber bullets to stop a riot. The doors to the store broke and 22 people died in our city. I can't believe all this violence over a console. Especially sence like 90% of the people were going to sell at ebay right after any way. This world is crazy over games and money.
It's not hard to find a loophole and especially if you have a good roommate. All you have to do is get the room mate to buy the ps3 and have him let you play the ps3 all you want. Legally, he hasn't bought and doesn't own it. Or, a more ciminal route, steal a ps3, you haven't bought it and you don't legally own it. Overall, I'd consider you a dumbass if you passed up that $7500 opportunity, especially if loopholes like the above exist....
Yeah, and they said Video games dont breed violence..... well they were wrong.
Camping at Best Buy (or similar stores) needs to be stoped.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_re_us/playstation_shooting
im willing to bet that sony has like 2 million consoles ready, but only released 500K so they can watch people ruin themselves over one of those.
Big props to PC Gamer for luring a console gamer away from the dark side. Also big props to Neil for not only knowing the difference between greatness and hype but for knowing not to say no to one of the greatest machines in the world.
I guess everyone has a price. This tool decides to get a hoold of a 7500 dollar PC that will be utterly outdated by next year... while the PS3 will not outdate till PS4... fuzzy math anyone?
The reason it's $7500 is because it /doesn't/ get outdated for a very long time!
Hell, my 2 year old box with Radeon 9600 and 1.8 gHz Athlon is going along just fine... Maybe time for a little upgrade to the graphics card at this point but that's nothing big.
This computer cost $700 originally, and at this point it is still able to run most modern software that doesn't suck.
What I've come to understand here is quite simple: People believe that computers degrade in quality.
Actually, this is wrong: Users inadvertently degrade their computers.
That is much like how if you buy a Porsche but you drive it into a wall every day, it becomes a crappy car very quickly.
Luckily, computers are quite resilient. They get dented easily (it's not really the user's fault for that; some crappy cars, if you shut the door too hard, it feels like the windows will shatter! That's the car's fault), but those dents can be fixed for free and with minimal effort.
Solution #1: Use Linux. Ubuntu Edgy has breathed new life into a 5 year old POS Compaq (it was bad even when it was bought). It can now do smooth playback of very big videos; a task which was practically impossible with it under Windows.
Solution #2: Update drivers. (Or, again, use Linux because most modern distros have updaters that don't suck and there is a strong hope that, some day, if we keep at it, most driver updates will be official).
Solution #3: Since I know and respect that Linux is out of the question (I only use it on the crappy machine; the better one needs Windows' hardware/software support): Virus scan, Ad-Aware, WinDoctor (if possible). I generally don't get many of these problems (no viruses, maybe 6 critical finds from Ad-Aware with the routine checkup). Some other people seem to get incredible amounts of viruses, spyware, and all sorts of other goodies!
I won't go into a rant about why this happens, since it would only score me fewer points than I already have, but a hint: Use Firefox, Opera, or /at least/ IE7!
Finally... with that $7,500 rig, I hope this guy is doing more than just games.
Maybe something productive like 3d modelling or game development. It's not the same, but it can be very amusing and would really utilize that thing's power. (Well, not so much game dev as 3d artwork... but game dev can definietly be more fun than game playing).
Where was I?
-Ah, yes. Nice rig; it will last a long time.
Err... ramble fest as usual (I doubt anyone's reading this... if you are, you're weird!):
I've noticed that lots of software these days seems finally to be focussing down on fleshing out what can be done with all the hardware, instead of just graphics. Recently, the folks at VALVe said that they think game graphics doesn't need much extra innovation and that it all looks fine at this point. Their recent plans for the Source engine focus on using multi processor power to do fancy effects instead of just graphics cards.
The result is more precise effects, thus giving a striking image with tons of extra details being controlled in more logical ways, but with little extra hit on the 3d rendering time.
Wow, sorry about that enormous ramble! (Hope you didn't feel a compulsion to read all of it).
I'd like to see the look on the guy's face when he realizes PC gaming is mostly crappy FPS games. That would be priceless.
Anyone who thinks all this is funny is seriously effed in the head.
People getting shot, injured, and things getting stolen isn't entertaining or amusing. It's pathetic and shows there are people out there who must have some "chimp gene" flowing down through the family tree.
If this isn't a sign that people are taking gaming WAY to seriously, I don't know what is.
What's this Jim and Pam, Jim and Karen nonsense? Who gives a crap? Now, Pam and Karen...
Yes, I received my PS3 just yesterday. It's the greatest machine ever, but I have one problem fellow gamers it's the 20g. I know it's bad but the stores ran out of the 60g so i got stuck. So my question is how do I upgrade my current system to the more expencive system. the most important part is the wifi wireless enternet. I need wireless enternet really bad so if any one can help please respond... also upgrading memory and anything else would be great info also...
They should have released all of the PS3's in Iraq so they would all kill each other
I went to pick up batteries yesterday, and the Drugstore/Electronics store had two PS3s sitting on display, and walking down the mall past EB games the line up to get in at store opening was a whoping 2 people (a fellow and his girlfriend).
Nintendo would never incite such violence.
Mario & Luigi are said to be distressed and could not be reached for comment. Someone in the office was heard muttering "damn Ebay..."
I was at E3 a few months ago when they unveiled all the new systems. The Wii had a line four hours long to get in and try it out. The PS3 machines were free, and nobody was going to them. The reason: The Wii is plain out more fun. It looks odd until you try it, and then it's the funnest darn thing you've done since you were a kid. At some point, you will try the Wii, and you'll know you have to have one. It's just that cool. So let the silly people beat each other over the head for their Playstations, we have Wii!
You don't imagine how many unsold ones I saw in Taipei....
…Yes, but all “Neil” has to do is get someone ELSE to buy the PS3 for him. (Hide it – when necessary) That contract doesn’t say anything about buying games. So, by the end of 2007, “Neil” will walk away with both; a free PC Gaming Rig and a PS3. How stupid can PC Gamer Magazine be?
Compare this to the launch of Wii. Complete contrast - which also reflects in the business attitudes and ethics of the two companies as well...