Smash my Xbox 360

Given that thousands of people stood in long lines for hours the night before the Xbox 360 launch to get their hands on one of the hot new consoles, one might expect a frenzy to actually start playing with the machine.

But to a group that spent 55 hours in a tent in front of a Best Buy to get an Xbox, play wasn't the point.

Unless, that is, you temper your definition of the word "play." This group got its console and then--surely to the shock and dismay of the other nutcases who stayed overnight to buy an Xbox--it took a sledgehammer to the brand new machine.

That's right. A sledgehammer.

Why would someone do that? Well, surely for the shock value. The most hilarious part of it all was that the members of the group didn't pay a penny of their own money for the opportunity to destroy a video game machine that a few gamers would have probably risked jail to kill for.

In fact, the group--which had previously pulled the prank with an iPod--paid for the Xbox with donations collected by its Web site.

The site now has a video of the Xbox destruction. Ben Lovatt, one of the group's organizers, says more than 200,000 people have visited the site to view the carnage.

The upshot is that I thought times were still tough out there. But when a group is willing to blow $430 just for thrills, I guess I was wrong.