2006-05-17

What I don't miss about E3

I was reading the latest post from Greg Costikyan's blog entitled "I Hate E3", which made me chuckle as I suspected what was to come from the post. Here's a perfect summary of what I don't miss about the E3 experience. From the blog:

"Games: the most important and liveliest artform to emerge from the confluence of technology and imagination, the revolutionary endeavor to merge creativity and audience participation, creating experiences never previously possible. And how do we celebrate them?

With pounding music, three thousand games with virtually identical art styles and nothing new to offer blaring away on monstrous screens, brainless smiling bimbos dancing on stages while drooling fanboys take innumerable snapshots, and with huge crowds assembling not to hear the greatest auteurs of the age, but to drool at--Paris fucking Hilton."


Yes, all of this has to be put up with at E3 and each year it would bother me more and more. So I can whole-heartedly relate to what is said here, but having missed my second E3 this year, I'm beginning to miss the things I like about E3.

What did I miss this year? Well, I don't have the experience of playing with the Wii remote. That's the biggest reason I wish I could have gone this year. And while it is true that most of the games on the show floor all feel the same or are just rehashes of already existing games, the joy of discovering the few gems that break that mold was always fun. The last year I went was the beginning of the Classic Games Festival (or some similar title) and that was probably the coolest part of that E3. Seeing the history of gaming up close. The nostalgia and the discovery of old systems that I had never heard of. And I think that has become a regular part of E3 since then, but I could be wrong. And lastly there is something special about being able to experience all these games before anyone else, and long before they get released.

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