My wife is absolutely convinced that Microsoft engineered this entire XBox 360 “shortage” in order to drive Christmas sales up through I can’t get it so I must have it shopping frenzy mentality that once led to mothers slugging each other over cabbage patch dolls and beanie babies.

And I saw firsthand today how basic economics brings out the worst in people and why corporate control over enormous resources pretty much sucks for the average consumer.

I pre-ordered my 360 immediately after they went on sale for preorder back in early July (July 6th to be exact); and I was about the third or fourth person to preorder. Well, rumor has it (and this is what the manager at Game Crazy told me) that Microsoft chose an arbitrary date (July 16th) as the cut off line for delivery allotment of first shipments. So, the people who preordered their systems prior to July 16th were supposed to be guaranteed one on launch day. Fine.

The Game Crazy I went to had about 68 preorders in that time–that’s 68 XBox units they should have received this morning.

They received 8.

So sixty people were going home pissed off and I would have been among them had the guy not said to me, “Yeah, you’re name is starred here–that means you’re getting one today.”

The woman in front of me was number eleven in the preorder pecking list. She was assed out. She had spent three hours waiting in line at Target to hedge her bets and pick them up there only to get turned away when the 24 units they had were sold out. Then she was turned away at the store she had already laid her money down at, and now her kids might not have the best gaming machine ever devised by the feeble mind of man in their living room on Christmas day after the wrapping paper has been shredded and stuffed inside hefty bags with the handy plastic draw strings.

I felt sorry for her for about thirty seconds, until I saw the box that was to be mine. Sorry lady, I hope you picked one up but I’s got’s to get mines!

I was an hour and a half late for work but my boss is like the most awesomest boss ever and totally rooted for me to get one. How cool is that. She even let me work through my lunch so I only had to stay a half-hour over quitting time at Tara.

Once off work, I headed to Best Buy and had a ten minute long conversation with the resident gaming geek about which games were cool and which ones were renters. I decided on none for now–still need more research. But I did pick up a copy of Call of Duty 2 earlier when I bought the system itself. I also picked up a wireless controller and the very last Seinfeld gift box including seasons 6 and 7 and a replica puffy shirt encased in plastic (very cool!).

And once I got home, I had to basically rewire the entire house, change my Internet setup so I can pump a full 100 Mbps into the 360 (split with my laptop of course).

The system is beautiful but the power supply is heavy enough to break your toe if you should be so unlucky as to drop it on it. The GUI is very easy to navigate (ala Tivo) and I was able to pull my XBOX Live Gamertag (see right sidebar) into the system in no time.

There were several great downloads (all HD which I can’t take advantage of as of yet), demos, and a bunch of crap to buy. But Call of Duty was the jewel of the crown tonight.

That game is so awesome that I want to sleep with it. I thought nothign could top Medal of Honor as the best World War II first person shooter. Trust me, it blows away anything that’s been made in this genre.

I can’t wait to get into it even more.

So, I’m downloading the Kameo demo to see what the big hubbub is all about and I’ll be finalizing my Christmas gaming choices in the upcoming week. More to come.

I’m tired. My brain is fried. But I’ve got my 360 and it works. Life is good today.

I want to give a big shout out to Major Nelson, who was instrumental in getting me to purchase this amazing system. Thanks dude–I hope a friends spot opens up on your gamer tag soon so we can mash online sometime.

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