E3: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

An article at Corpnews put words to something I had been thinking about E3 the past week as I read about each day's events.

As a gamer, I've always wanted to attend an E3. It's the place where you go to be assaulted by the sights and sounds of gaming, possibly meet the people behind your favorite games, and get the chance to play something months before it sees store shelves - if at all. It's an idealistic view, and probably a lot further from the truth than I realize.

E3 2005 was earmarked by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as being the media event that would culminate in the revelation of their next generation consoles and first wave of releases. I would have loved to have been there. But as the time approached, and quickly passed, I realized that I learned more about the new consoles and games in the weeks leading up to the event. In a PR department's rush to secure mindshare, "leaks" are orchestrated to ensure that this information isn't lost amongst the onslaught of E3-releated articles. This may also provide a shopping list of sorts for E3 attendees, but aside from an actual hands-on playtest that might last five minutes, it didn't sound like there was much else to learn. There were no suprises; I knew what would be there. And at the end of it all I'm as excited about Age of Empires III as I was before.

The writer's complaints about The Corporation, a "medium-large gaming website", not having privileged access to games and their developers smacked of too much bitterness. I'll overlook those comments and delve to the larger issue: the gaming media itself. The advent of online publications and self-publishing has changed the face of gaming media, to the point where the line is blurred between someone who is genuinely a media representative, and someone who simply operates a gaming website or has a few articles online. I'm not about to get into the "blogger vs. big journalism" discussion, mind you - this is about E3's media screening process. Ten years ago it was almost impossible for the general public to get in. You had to either know someone in the industry, or sign up the day of the event to weasel your way onto the show floor. Now that you're able to register online, who's checking the credentials of those signing up as media? Then there's the general attendance: all you have to do to get onto the exhibit floor is pay for admission. No direct connection to the industry is required. I know there are gaming webloggers and site operators that were able to attend this year, and probably provided a valuable resource to the people that read their sites. A prime example: Penny Arcade goes every year. But what do they do? They create comics based on games that may influence someone to purchase (or stay away from) a particular title. But how much of the game-buying public actually visits the site instead of say, Gamespot or the latest copy of Gamepro? Better still, what about the major TV networks or newspapers? It's all about viewership: as gaming makes its way more into mainstream culture, publishers and developers have less time to spend with fan sites or the hardcore that are going to buy the game anyway, and elect to get their piece out to the largest audience possible. This shouldn't be a surprise - it happened two weeks ago with the XBox360.

Some people will tell you that E3 has been going downhill for a long time, and the real action happens at the Game Developer's Conference, or at private press events before the trade show. These are places where the developers themselves are allowed to make some noise about their game - not have booth attendants rattle off feature lists or half baked concepts to get the product into a display at Best Buy or satiate the general attendees. Instead of celebrating games, E3 seems to iterate everything that's wrong with games - flashy booths, pre-rendered "gameplay videos", strippers earning some extra cash as a gaming personality, and publishers trying to sell their latest sequel. When the number of people in attendance makes it all but impossible to walk around, let alone see the games, how much fun can it be? The hostility towards attendees sporting "media" badges that the writer complains about tells me that it's simply getting out of control. Either we let the gaming media and industry professionals do their jobs, or overrun the exposition to the point where it becomes nothing more than an amusement park. Indeed, I would have loved to have gone this year, but when streaming video is a web browser away, does being there actually make a difference anymore? I enjoy the thought of sitting comfortably at my desk than standing amidst a massive, sweaty mound of flesh clad in free t-shirts. Last year NCSoft gave us E3 for everyone; I'd like to see more developers take that chance.

no brakes this time