ShutterSpeed

I have to admit that I don’t know much about video games. While shooting this assignment, I managed to be booed by those in line when I admitted that I haven’t owned one since the Nintendo Gameboy of the 1990’s with their dim, green and black screens. Still, I figured this assignment would lend itself to something interesting.

Our features editor, Kevin Wingert, was doing a review of the game. So, I found myself going to Cheyenne’s GameStop for a photo of the crowd of about 50 waiting for the game roughly four hours before it was released.

The fan who was first in line, Robbie Sexton, told me that he had been there since 7:20 that morning. Sexton added that he had been getting by on Mountain Dew without a nap for the 13-hour wait. Sexton was still first in line when I came back at midnight to see what the scene was like when the game was actually released. But, now, the line had swelled to at least 500 people, if not more.

The assignment got interesting after the lights went out for a procedure which the utility company runs.  With no power for the cash registers, only those who had prepaid for the game got to leave with it that night. The Cheyenne Police Department dispersed the rest.

Shooting the assignment was what I had hoped for: a collection of die-hard fans laughing, joking and arguing to pass the time. I had fun photographing the way in which fans showed their enthusiasm — by wearing the gas mask featured in the previous installment of the game, for example. The hint of “spot news drama” as the police arrived also added some thrills to the assigment. Overall, the experience was a journey into a pretty distinct subculture.