Read to the end for a post about dog irony.

👋🏻 Welcome to this week's edition of TimeMachiner. Thanks for subscribing and checking out my work. I'm so happy you're here.

As a fan of The Legend of Zelda series, I was thrilled to hear about the release of the Tears of the Kingdom collector's edition. When Nintendo announced it, I eagerly waited for various stores to put up their pre-orders. Instead, I found myself caught up in the frustrating world of online shopping.

I knew the game would be in high demand, but I didn't expect the level of frustration that I encountered. Within minutes of the pre-orders going live, each retailor's website was flooded with bots that had scooped up most of the available copies. Despite my efforts to refresh the page and keep trying, I was unable to nab a copy of the game.

Of course, I'm not alone in my frustration. Many fans of this highly-anticipated game have had similar experiences, and we all felt cheated out of the opportunity to purchase this highly sought-after collector's edition. It seemed unfair that bots could take over the purchasing process and deny actual fans the chance to buy the game. The worst is more and more of these copies end up on eBay.

It's a sad reality of online shopping in today's world, and it's not just limited to video games. The use of bots has become increasingly prevalent in the retail industry. Sneakers, graphics cards, and toys around Christmas are all industries hit by these bots making purchases. It's so freaking hard for real people to get their hands on limited-edition items. It's a frustrating and unfair practice that needs to be addressed.

Last week I gave up and pre-ordered the Tears of the Kingdom normal version. I took the notification apps off my phone and stopped trying. Of course, three days later Amazon dropped their big pre-order and I missed out, leaving me with no other options even if I wanted to try again for the collector's edition. Buying things should not be this difficult! I hope the industry will take steps to prevent bots from ruining the shopping experience for fans like me in the future. Given how long this has been going on, I'm not optimistic.

I hope you have a great week.

-Aaron

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TODAY'S RANDOM FACTOID

The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn. Source