VIDEOGAME-BUYING TRADITIONS UPHELD BY YOUNG GERMAN GIRL

Now, see, this is nice. People dressing up to go buy video games, just like the old days!

Why don't people do that anymore? I remember when my whole family used to get all gussied up in our Sunday best just to make the trip into town to trade our otter pelts and homemade butter for the latest Atari cartridge. I think it made us appreciate what we had back then, unlike these no-good kids today, what with their internets and loud music and what not.

Silke here is from Germany, and even though we already have a lot of pictures of German fans up, I have to add her photo because she took the time to put on the traditional "Spieleinkaufenkostüm" or "Game-shopping costume" of her people.

Dressing up to buy video games is much more commonplace in Germany because buying a game there is more of a special occasion. Imported games easily cost the equivalent of what a typical German earns in five years. Usually an entire village will chip in to buy a game that will be shared by the whole community. Town hall meetings are held for months before that year's game purchase is decided upon. Meanwhile, all of the elderly women of the town get together to spin the fabric for the Spieleinkaufenkostüm. Then, through a week-long competition of both skill and character, a Game Maiden ("Spielmaid") is selected, cleaned, dressed, and set off on the six-month journey to town to make the critical purchase.

Congratulations and Glückwünsche to you, Silke! Both for being chosen to represent your community at the Spieleinkaufenfest, and also for buying Psychonauts instead of FarCry, the game your village asked you to get. I know they're threatening to stone you to death now, but once they get to the level where we make fun of Napoleon, they'll love it.

(Hey, is that why no French people are sending in pictures? The Napoleon jokes? The guy died in 1821! It can't still be "too soon," can it?)