At 11pm on Burning Crusade launch night, my girlfriend and I pull into the parking lot of the GameStop in Alpharetta Georgia to find at least 30 other people were already in one line, with another line going on inside the store. Seeing a few familiar faces I offer a cheery greeting.

"Is this the line for Hello Kitty Island Adventures?"

Apparently it is, and one gentleman asks me if my name might be Butters, which is a reference to the South Park episode Make Love, Not Warcraft in case you hadn't seen it. Everyone in this growing line has, or at the very least has seen lines repeated over and over again through general, guild, and even trade channels. Even though the episode was technically making fun of WoW players, we've still embraced it as part of the game's heritage, right up there with Leroy Jenkins and "More DOTs!"

So what's the deal with the two lines anyway?

There aren't any GameStop employees outside at the moment, but a helpful line stander explains that in order to get the expansion you first go in and pay, at which point they write a number on your receipt. After that you come outside and wait for the clock to strike midnight. Fair enough. The girlfriend and I go inside, wait in line for five minutes or so, pay for our two copies of the expansion (one Collector's, one regular), and then head outside into the dark drizzly night to wait it out with the rest of Azeroth's finest.

It's one of the most diverse gaming crowds I have ever seen. People of all races, ages, and walks of life, all chattering away to one another as if they'd known each other for years. People whom, if they met in other circumstances, wouldn't spare each other a second glance are chatting away about the new races, jewel crafting, leveling, starting areas, etc.

By 11:40 the line had swelled, with upwards of a hundred people waiting in line at a store I wasn't sure a hundred people even knew existed, with another line of about twenty still waiting to put their money down in order to expedite the pickup process. The GameStop manager periodically comes out to shout at the back of the longer line, "If you are in this line and haven't gotten a numbered receipt, then you ain't getting Warcraft!"

My receipt has the number eleven scrawled at the top, so my girlfriend and I stick towards the front of the line, making several chatting buddies as we wait. There are refreshments present, but people seem to be ignoring the generic soda and doughnuts, just like they ignored the costume contest GameStop promoted despite the promise of a $35 gift certificate for the most dressed up. The now massive crowd is focused on getting their hands on the expansion and getting home as soon as humanly possible to get it installed. Quite honestly, so am I.

Midnight is almost tangible, shaking people out of conversations and forcing their focus to the front of the line. Here and there people call out impatiently to get things started. "They'd better get us in their soon, they're forming a raid back there." At 12:02 the first person leaves with their expansion in hand...but our line hasn't moved. Huh? GameStop has two lines formed. One for people who have paid, and one for the people who haven't. The plan was to get folks to pay and then send them to the other line so they can just come in, get their game, and leave. Unfortunately the line to pay was still a couple dozen deep once midnight hit, so the employees decided to give them their product as they paid for it, making the whole standing in line thing moot as the people who showed up late got theirs first.

They were not prepared.

On top of that, I realize that all the number on my receipt is a marker for the bag they have prepared for me inside, and not a place in line. I start to explain to my girlfriend that we need to go to the end of the line when our new chat buddies stop me. "Don't worry about it. Everyone is getting a copy, so it's no big deal." So yeah, if you saw a very tall man cut in front of the line for the BC launch at the Alpharetta GameStop, that was me and I feel terrible about it, but not as terrible as I would have felt had I made my girlfriend go to the back of that line.

After watching a few more latecomers leave with their booty, we finally get our booties inside the store, where there is a slight delay as the GameStop employees tried to figure out their own numbering system. Once we get our bag we are in our car and gone, leaving over a hundred people in our wake. The girlfriend is dying to get home to start leveling her 60 warrior once more, and me? I just want to go home like a responsible adult and get some sleep before work in the morning. The Burning Crusade can wait!

I am a terrible liar. Michael Fahey