Yes, as we speak everyone is beating me to the goal.

This past Tuesday September 9th was a relatively brisk summer-into-fall day that, other than feeling a slight sense of accomplishment at unpacking a handful of boxes in my new apartment then subsequently stubbing my toe, was completely uneventful. Now, that's slightly problematic as Silent Hill 4 and Burnout 3 were supposed to be in my grubby appendages, fresh from the publisher and straight to my arms - but they aren't. Now now, lest you think I'm making my release dates & publishers commentary an annual event hear me out. I started thinking about why I was getting into a slight tizzy over not having these three games in my hands immediately, especially when I have several unfinished, within-six-month-old games crying out for attention, weeping giant tears of sorrow with eyes that would give a three-week-old kitten competition for ministration. So then, why am I tearing at the bit for my new games?

First and foremost pre-game hype and publicity always hits me in my anterior fontanel, I won't deny it. I've been talking about Burnout 3 since late May, since videos started trickling out. I've been tapping my foot impatiently for Silent Hill 4 since June and Fable, the mother of hype? April 18th. I probably would have been hyping it earlier if the forum existed before then. Yes, promotional materials sent out to get us diligent website-reading gamers to shout 'HAEV YOU SEEN THE QUEST FOR D PLAYTEST IT LOOX AWEOMS' at each other, and it works! I shouted that to mee Ronn earlier today as well as a few other missives before he abruptly logged off! I'm sure it was just a bad connection.

But what is it about hype? People can hype how great a new brand of giant cookies are, I'm still not going to call up my local grocery store and ask if they have them on the shelves the day the cookies leave the factory. I guess some people get pretty excited about Krispy Kremes but I just sat at home the day they opened one in Chicago. Sure, there's an intrigue, an allure to playing a game that no one has seen yet but I suspect that drives a very small percentage of those that buy games immediately, kind of like that friend of yours who has seen every movie in the video store just to impress the young lady behind the counter.

Some say films are more events than pieces of entertainment to be consumed, that many people attend films like Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Raising Helen or Eurotrip because it's a communal event more often than any compelling need to see said films but a couple of hours that you can spend with friends that bring all of you closer, it's a shared experience. After the film is viewed you bond or clash, depending on your opinion of the film, pouring over the particulars or merely commenting on how much cash Palm spent to sneak their logo in the film. Film production companies have pounced on this facet of the movie-going public and frontload their films as much as they can, sucking in as many customers in the door at once as they can. Release days are highly publicized, and if your film has enough clout, well people may even skip work to go see it with their co-workers. And apparently, that's just what occurs when a new Dragon Warrior is released in Japan.

October 27th was a fine day.

For instance, Dragon Warrior VII sold over two million copies over a three day span when it was released, and ratcheted up 3.2 million copies within its first week. Obviously, numbers like that in the U.S. are rare, but not unheard of - take for instance Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's estimated four million copies sold within its initial week. Vice City became the gaming equivalent of the release of Star Wars: Episode One, and in doing so it became a shared experience. You were competing against your friends as to who got how far first, what secrets were discovered, trading information on the location of secret packages like baseball cards, sharing experiences with crazy (or in my experience, infuriating) bugs in the game - you simply just don't get the same experience when you're playing the same game two weeks later.

And that's why I buy games on their release date. At the moment the game is released the gaming community, be it a group of neighborhood friends or hundreds of hardcore gamers on an online forum, act like explorers canvassing and mapping a new continent. Everyone is at the same level, if you're playing online there aren't any wallhacks yet, you're all helping each other learn the boundaries laid down by the developers and exploring the nooks and crannies in this sparkling new world. If the game is of lacking quality, you can still immediately bond over how poorly executed the gameplay is, or the numerous glitches that inhibit even the simplest of tasks. And if the game is great, well, sharing the inaugural experience amoungst a collective makes it even sweeter.

Of course, even the hardest of the hardcore gamer doesn't buy every game the moment it comes out. Myself, I'm choosy as to what games will entice a pre-order or calling around town for spare copies. All I know is that writing this article is but one thing keeping my mind off of the fact that my copy of Burnout 3 is in Texas, slowly working its way up north while friends and well-wishers taunt me with adjectives of amazement and stupefaction. But hey, here's FedEx with my copy of Silent Hill 4! I suppose I'll have something to share with my fellow gamers after all.