Figured I'd share my Skyrim midnight release experience:

I went to the midnight release after finding out the store in the mall we had our preorder at wasn't going to be opening for it and instead would be handing out their copies at the store down the road. My brother and I get there to find out the dude who is supposed to have the list of preorders from the mall is not there yet (mind you we didn't get there until 11:30 pm) so there is a line of people waiting for him to show up. We decided to wait since it wasn't yet midnight and figured maybe it would get sorted out in a few minutes. Meanwhile we look around and see a group of people dressed up in costumes swinging wooden weapons and using big shields wrapped in aluminum foil. We laughed at it, and even more so when the cops rolled up and seemed unable to figure out why anyone would do such a thing.

Around 11:55 pm they started lining up all the people who ordered at the mall in one line and the people who had ordered at this store and had finished their transaction in another. Realizing they weren't planning on letting anyone from the mall get their copies anytime soon, we decide that since Wal-Mart is right next to this Gamestop we'd actually get a copy there, even with their crappy electronics service, faster than continuing to wait on Gamestop.

So at 12:15 or so we walked out of Wal-Mart with our copy to find the line of people who had ordered at the store was already gone and had their copies while the mall line hadn't moved an inch yet.

All in all it was yet another unpleasant experience with Gamestop. It isn't the first time they've fucked up a preorder on me, I've had them guarantee release day arrival on two online preorders only to get them three to four days late before, but I gave them another chance since it wasn't an online order. I can honestly say I'd rather spend 10 minutes explaining to the Wal-Mart midnight electronics guy what the difference between a PS3 copy and a PC copy is and how it is able to be sold since it is now midnight, than deal with another Gamestop preorder.