ENJOY THE VIOLENCE: Video games are often criticized for violence, and even the industry's staunchest defenders had to be rattled by some of the mayhem surrounding the launch of the PlayStation 3. At a Wal-Mart in Putnam, Conn., two gunmen tried to rob people who were waiting in line for the PS3, and shot one guy who refused to give up his money. Armed men stole five PS3s from an Englewood, Ohio, EB Games. In Manchester, Conn., and Allentown, Pa., customers were robbed after they emerged from electronics stores with their new PS3s. In Fresno, Calif., people were trampled in a parking lot when a crowd rushed a Best Buy. In Tysons Corner, Va., police fired pepper spray into an unruly mob assembled outside a Circuit City; Henrico, Va., police fired a talcum powder ball at the ground to settle down a crowd waiting at Target. To be fair, order prevailed at most locations where the PS3 went on sale last Friday. The vibe at my local Best Buy (in Springfield, Va.) was decidedly mellow, despite driving rains that made the line-sitters miserable most of Thursday. Sergio Daynes, 26, who camped out all week at a New York Best Buy, told The Associated Press that the people with him at the front of the line were "beautiful." "It was the people in the back who were desperate who messed things up for a lot of us," he said.

WHOSE LINE IS IT, ANYWAY? Almost as soon as the PS3 lines had dispersed, new ones started up for the week's second hardware launch, for the Nintendo Wii. Things went a bit more smoothly, mainly because there were a lot more consoles available and Nintendo has promised to have 4 million available by the end of the year, 10 times the number of PS3s shipped by Sony. There were a few overnight campers: At the Toys R Us in New York's Times Square, Isaiah Triforce Johnson waited more than a week to be the first person in America to buy a Wii. Yes, Johnson legally changed his name to include the "Legend of Zelda" reference, and he wore an old Nintendo Power Glove (circa 1989) as he shook hands with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. Most people, however, waited until Sunday morning, the console's official on-sale date, to line up. It still sold out quickly in most stores: In a spot check of eight Northern Virginia big-box retailers Sunday, I was unable to find a single Wii.

PROFIT MOTIVE: An awful lot of those people who spent 48 hours or more waiting for a PS3 probably never even opened the box. They went straight from being in line to being online, rushing to resell their systems on eBay. The auction Web site had thousands of PS3 listings Friday morning, with resale prices for the $500 and $600 models generally ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. (The GameSpot Web site reported at least three auctions closing above $15,000.) How can you get a PS3 without being taken advantage of? Your only hope is to wait, probably until well after Christmas. Sony says they're making the machines as quickly as they can, and chartering planes to fly them into the North American market. "Hopefully we'll replenish (the supply) very quickly as well with the weekly shipments," Kazuo Hirai, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, told the AP. "But ultimately, when we have a situation that the consumer can walk into retail and pick one up remains to be seen, basically."

BACK IN LINE: The PS3 launch even created a bit of a political scandal for a potential 2008 presidential candidate. Wal-Mart said that a staffer for John Edwards asked the manager of a Raleigh store to hold a PS3 for Edwards' family. Edwards said the staffer "made a mistake, and he knows he should not have used my name." Wal-Mart, whose labor practices have been criticized by Edwards, issued a statement saying, "While the rest of America's working families are waiting patiently in line ... Edwards wants to cut to the front."