EVENT REVIEWS
Modern Warfare 2 Launch Party
On November 9th, 2009, Bestbuy, in West LA, hosted a launch party event for Modern Warfare 2. The company, Infinity Ward, creators of the Modern Warfare series, sent over their team that worked on Modern Warfare 2 to represent the company and introduce their new title. Other then the much anticipated appearance of Infinity Ward, KROQ and Monster Energy Drinks were both on hand to celebrate with fans, blast music and keep them energetic as the event started roughly around 9pm and lasted till well past midnight.
The representatives of Infinity Ward set up the whole event to introduce Modern Warfare 2: presenting it with an actual tank and an armored personal carrier, letting gamers play/test the game all night before buying their copy and waiting to get an autograph from the all of Infinity Ward at the event. As said before right outside of the event sat a tank and an armored personal carrier to follow the theme of the event and add that army flare; those who had a camera took a picture of it or with it. For the event, they also set up 10 Xbox 360s for people to play the game and for the fans of the series as they waited to buy the title or wait while their friend did.
Another thing that was at the event was that all attending had the chance to participate in a raffle. KROQ, one of the sponsors, held a raffle, prize being: 3 Modern Warfare limited edition XBOX 360s, 3 signed, framed artwork of the game, a few Modern Warfare T-shirt, a couple dozen strategy guides that had a signed copy of the cover art included, and a few dozen posters that was covering the event all night. Everyone listened as the announcer called out the winners; although one person has missed his/her change to win the much wanted Xbox 360 Modern Warfare system, because they failed to show up when they were called. The best part was if you were getting tired and needed an energy boost, the representatives of Monster Energy Drinks were handing out their limited edition Monster Energy Drinks with Modern Warfare 2 cover art on their cans.
When all this came close to an end, roughly midnight, Best Buy informed customers that: they could pick up if they pre-paid for the game, or get in line and purchase the game. Unfortunately this is where the event went bad. They had separated it into two lines: one line that was just purchasing and the other for those that are to just pick up preorders they had waited in line previously before the event. One would assume that the people that have already paid for it would have gotten the game quicker, but that line was so long it made the person at the back of the line wait at least an hour or so before they could get their hands on their game. It was not only because of the length of the line, but how many people they were only allowing in. On the other hand, those that were just buying it went in and out of the store with hardly any wait. Many people were not pleased to see that some people were cutting, and others were allowed in earlier. This was caused mostly because the employees were not completely sure which line is for what, and it caused a lot of confusion among the people in line. The event itself turned confusing and left many people unhappy towards the end. Even so, the Infinity Ward team was really nice to the people that showed up at the event, and it was really a pleasure to meet them in person.
