EPTSo here we go. Take a breath, as this will be hard to bear for avid D3 fans. Or a reason to mock me all along.
Sunday, May 13th
Sunday, lazy Sunday. While sitting at home, being frustrated with SC2 because I have been playing that too much, I decide to finally pre-order Diablo 3. Living in Germany, I usually order my games from Amazon.co.uk nonetheless, because they tend to be a tad bit cheaper and I prefer English language in my games anyway.
So I load up the website, enter Diablo 3 into the search bar, hit the return button...and notice something strange: There is no price tag!
Should the game really be sold out on Amazon? A quick web search reassures me that my initial supposition was correct. Sold out.
I move on to battle.net and decide to simply download the game from Blizzard, because a direct download should be cheaper than a boxed game coming with manual, disc etc, right? Wrongly thought, poor IBringUFire. The game there is a full 15 Euros more expensive. I scratch my head, pondering why that might be the case, but decide to just buy it from amazon.de then, the heck!
Monday, May 14th
Monday nothing particularly noteworthy happens, except this: amazon informs me that my game has shipped! The website shows the estimated arrival date as May 15th. I get really excited, should I be able to play the next day? Imagine my nerd chills.
Tuesday, May 15th
The horror, the horror... So the day of arrival has come. After years of waiting, I shall be able to frantically left and right click my way through the hordes of Diablo, shan't I?
I work as a TV and radio journalist, and while I usually love my job, believe me, this day I couldn't stand it. Throughout the day I periodically check the delivery status via tracking, and a slight smile appears on my face when I see "package loaded into delivery vehicle - 07:35 AM." I can't wait, hours stretch out, my shift seems to take forever to come to an end.
Then, it's 4 PM.
Only one hour left till I can rush home and start playing! I finish my feature for the day and happily start the voice over. Everything goes fine, and the only thing missing is the head editor's approval. After that, I'm done for the day.
4:15 PM.
My head editor wants me to change a single line, after that the piece should be fine and ready to air. No problem, I can do that within a couple of minutes. So back to the recording studio, changing that one line, I begin to get impatient. I really want to leave the place as fast as possible.
4:30 PM.
I return to my room, and my head editor is about to review my piece a final time (quality check, nothing ever airs without a final approval, be the change ever so slightly). But right then, one of the senior guys shows up and asks my head editor to his room with the words "do you have a minute for me?". Of course she has, and leaves me alone with my finished feature.
I start getting a little bit angry. Damn, all it would have taken were about 30 seconds more and I'd be out of there and hacking little demons!
5:15 PM.
Yeah, that one minute turned out to become 45 minutes. 45 minutes of waiting, knowing that I could have left 45 minutes ago. I browse through Diablo websites, TL, whatever distracts me. Of course, nothing distracts me.
When my head editor returns, of course everything is fine and I can leave, finally, at 5:30. Towards home, towards Diablo, towards hack & slay & loot & repeat, towards enjoyment.
6:00 PM
On arriving home I hectically check the post box - it's empty. But I fear not, because I live in a flat share, so surely one of my flat mates opened the door for the delivery guy and received the package. I ascend the final steps of the stairs leading to our apartment. Push the key into the lock, turn, and walk into the hallway. I greet my equally Diablo-3-nerdy flatmate, he's grinning. I ask if anything arrived for me. The moment of truth. Time stands still, I feel my heart pressure my chest.
Ok ok, ignore the last sentence. I added that to generate some drama, to get you excited, you know.
To keep this short, nothing has arrived. No D3, I'm a bit disappointed. Spend the evening browsing D3 fansites, having a beer, being impatient as inferno. Later that night I trace the package again, receiving a "the package could not be delivered today - 7:35 PM" message.
Wednesday, May 16th
I arrive at work, where one of my coworkers is telling me about reaching the third act of the game. I ponder punching him, but of course refrain from doing that. I boot my computer, check the package tracking, and my hopes get renewed. The package has, again, been loaded into the vehicle.
I spend the day working and not thinking about the game, surely it will arrive. This time, my feature receives final approval around 4 PM, and I can leave early. With thoughts of "that should make up for the lost evening on Tuesday" I drive home and enter the house. Again, the post box is...empty.
Again, I walk up the stairs, again I turn the key. Again I ask my flatmate....nothing has arrived.
Imagine this: I live in a 16-party house, lots of the apartments are - just like mine - flatshares with 2 to 5 people. Anybody in that huge house must have been home when that delivery guy rang the doorbell.
I assume he was either to lazy to really do that, or didn't even show up at all. I'm frustrated, begin playing SC2, and surprisingly my impatience carries me to quite a few victories in the game. Maybe playing angry enhances my destruction skills, I should keep an eye on that, hehe.
Thursday, May 17th
...was a bank holiday in Germany, so no deliveries. At all. I spend the day playing SC2, complaining to my girl friend about the game not being there for one of my spare days off.
Friday, May 18th
Today. It is now 11 AM here, I'm at home, took the day off so I have a 4-day-weekend. Those four days were originally planned to be full of Diablo 3. I have checked package tracing, and again my game is "loaded into the delivery vehicle". So far, nothing has arrived, I spent the morning looking out of the window from time to time, in hopes of catching the yellow van that should bring me what I have been waiting for the past few days.
I'm a little bit afraid to take a shower, since my flat mate is still asleep (oh studies were good times) and in no way do I want to miss that guy.
To pass some time, I decide to write this blog, which has so far taken me a little bit more than 30 minutes.
I'm getting more impatient by the minute. Today is the last day I have all for myself, because tomorrow I'm on the road with my band, and Sunday absolutely belongs to my girlfriend.
So wish me luck, Team Liquid, with me luck...
dhl brought my CEa day earlier than expected so... Im lucky I guess?
