Dog Days
It seems, like my chum Aggro Me, I have been on a bit of a hiatus from blogging, though mine was unintended. The combination of high temperatures and long hours at work sapped a bit of my will to write. Now that at least the weather is being more cooperative, I shall endeavor to do better.
Much of the fuss around gaming sites at the beginning of the week centered on rumors and announcements about the status of next year’s E3 (that is, the gaming industry’s biggest convention). First it was going away, then it wasn’t, then it was being downsized–but in a good way, the people in charge assured us. In the end, it may be a while before we know the full impact of these changes.
Fresh off a recent round of media training, Shwayder pointed out to me how carefully crafted all the official press releases were. They drove home key points about the positive nature of these changes, painting the picture that it was really the major players in the industry who were behind them. Now, carefully crafted messaging is the norm these days, and in and of itself is no indicator that there is some conspiracy at work. But it is interesting to watch how one group can spin downsizing as a good thing while others can paint it as a sign of the apocalypse.
As for the potential changes themselves, I admit to having mixed feelings. I’ve only attended the festival over the last three years, so I’ve only heard stories about what it was like in simpler times. But even to me, the evolution of the event has been obvious. Each year it has become bigger, louder, and less about games than about hype. But in a way, that’s part of the appeal.
My first year attending, I saw a lot of new games and met a lot of great people. The second year, less so. This last year, I had to drag myself through the various halls. Now, this is certainly due in part to the fact that working a booth at E3 giving demos for hours on end is extremely draining, not to mention hard on one’s feet. And hey, I’m not getting any younger.
So if E3 becomes smaller, less flashy, and more focused, I can see the value in that. Creating fancy demos for upcoming titles inevitably sucks up some degree of development time that could instead be spent on the games themselves, so reducing that burden would ultimately be better for devs and players alike.
And yet, despite how physically and emotionally taxed I feel by the end of the week, there is a certain charm in the bombast of E3. Even with all the hassles of transportation to and from the convention center through the squalor of Los Angeles (Vegas would be a better location for so many reasons), I’d miss it if things changed too much. But if they do, and E3 becomes a quiet little blip in the future of gaming, at least I can say I was there to see Gomorrah just before its fall.
As long as the nightly parties and free drinks don’t stop, that is. Nobody better screw with that.
“My first year attending, I saw a lot of new games and met a lot of great people. The second year, less so. This last year, I had to drag myself through the various halls. ”
Admitedly I have never had any information about E3 besides what comes out of there and never delved too much into it. However, Im looking for a little clarification on what you wrote here. Are you saying that each year you actually were introduced to less new “up and coming” titles from the gaming industry? Or are you saying that you were just not overwhelmed with as many new concepts and designs each year?
Obviously each year there would be less and less interesting people to meet based on your experiences the previous years. But if the whole convention has gotten to the point where there were less and less games/designs/gaming announcements than in years past, well then something needed to be changed.
As a bystander, “downsizing” seems like a bad idea as it will prohibit many people from experiencing the whole thing, wich from what I am told is a blast. But, if the whole thing has gotten to the point where the games and technology are beging to take a back seat in favor of more flash and pizaz, well then limiting the convention can only lead to better things for all of us gamers out there.