Before stopping by the Best Buy this morning I drove past the Dunwoody Georgia Circuit City, at first tickled by the the fact that there were people camping out next to a camping gear store.

Not a very large gathering here. Just a couple of folks in cars and one tent, set up underneath the entrance overhang, with three guys gathered around a makeshift table outside of it. I cautiously approach the group, making it quickly known that I am no threat to their preorders. Just here looking for a story. They ask me who for, and I tell them.

"Doesn't sound familiar."

This is shaping up to be a running theme.

Not one of the guys is playing a DS or a PSP. Instead, there are poker chips stacked on their table, and a bag filled with board games off to one side. Monopoly. Sorry. Poker. These guys are kicking it old school.

Me: Is that Monopoly?

Red Hoodie: Oh yeah, we've been playing all night. This guy over here just totally kicked our ass. *nods to blue hat guy*

I don't think I've ever managed to complete a game of monopoly, much less say I've kicked someone's ass at it. Blue hat guy has earned my respect. We chat for awhile. Apparently he manager came out last night to tell them would be 6 systems available Friday morning. A total of 8 people are camping, though blue hat guy is only there for moral support. Not one person in line is planning on keeping the system. One even plans to hold onto his until the week before Christmas for maximum profit. Crafty.

Out of the corner of my eye I have been watching one guy sleeping in the tent. He hasn't moved an inch in 20 minutes, despite all of the laughing and shouting going on not five feet from him.

Me: Is that guy with you?

Red Hoodie: Oh yeah, we're all together. He's fighting off the stomach flu.

Me: Shouldn't he be someplace warm and dry?

RH: Nah, he'll be fine. He didn't want to miss this.

Commit that image to memory. I fully expect to see it in a 60 Minutes expose on the dangers of gaming sometime next year, fading to black with a jarring piano chord as Morley Safer proclaims, "It was the last time anyone would see Roger alive." Michael Fahey

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