I miss the fun and excitement of midnight release parties, but I also don’t miss them at all – Destructoid

Gather around, kids. Uncle Destructoid is here to tell you all about a special ceremony of years past, a rite of passage for gamers everywhere.

Before the era of instant gratification, eight-second videos, and full game preloads, there was a little thing called midnight release parties. They were exciting, fun, and filled with joy and good memories while growing up as a blossoming gamer and human being. But sometimes, nostalgia is overrated.

When a new video game launches these days, you can begin playing it right at midnight in your time zone (or even earlier) without ever having to leave your gamer cave. That was a wild thought and impossibility not all that long ago. It’s a luxury that I still do not take for granted, because as much as I miss the allure of midnight release parties, I do not miss them whatsoever.

I like and miss the idea of midnight release parties more than the parties themselves, because the thought of having to leave my house and stand outside of a GameStop for an hour or more surrounded by strangers or people I don’t want to talk to, sounds just plain horrifying.

Sometimes the parties would have tournaments where you could play the new game, or giveaways of merch surrounding the new game. But they always meant dealing with the sales people trying to pitch you on buying something else or preordering another game. No thank you.

Also, I would always somehow find a way to run into that one slightly weird kid from school, too, who’d try to have an awkward conversation that would somehow always have an objectively incorrect or offensive opinion about the game we were both there for. And that’s about where our similarities ended.

Having to make small talk with weird strangers was the worst part about it, I think. Hey man, I’m here for Resident Evil 5, so I just want to pick it up and go home and play it. I don’t care that you think Albert Wesker sucks as a villain (oh, it’s all coming back to me now).

I distinctly remember going to midnight releases for games like several CoD titles (for Black Ops 2, I picked it up, played all night, and called in sick to work because I never slept), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and Destiny. Those were the games I needed to have ASAP, and I needed to have them on physical media. Now I can’t really be bothered with either factor.

There was also seemingly always a handful of people there who weren’t buying the game that the party was made for, either. For all 80-plus people on hand to pick up the new Call of Duty or Halo, there was always one or two folks there to grab the latest obscure JRPG or something. I appreciate those people a lot more now, because I probably am those people.

Now? Forget leaving the house if I don’t have to. This is one of the nicest things about advancements in gaming technology because I can be lazier than ever. If I’m excited for a new game, you better believe I’m preordering and preloading that shit to play it as soon as I can. Or, more likely, I’ll just play it the next day because staying up to play something at midnight sounds exhausting.

The one downside of the “gotta play it right now” crowd when it comes to preloading is not having physical media. I appreciate games on discs as much as anyone, and I get it. But it feels like most game discs these days are just there for show as you have to download the full title on top of it, anyway.

At the same time, it makes me sad. I long for the simpler days when midnight release parties sounded exciting and not like a drag. A place where gamers could come together and enjoy themselves while finding common ground, which feels all too rare nowadays, where everything seems to be a fight.

Man, times really do change. And so have I. But one thing that hasn’t changed, even after turning gaming into a career, is that there’s still a lot of excitement to be had and memories to be made while gaming, whether I leave the house for it or not.

Do you remember midnight release parties, or are you still not old enough to vote? Let us know in the comments below about your fond (or frightening) midnight release memories.