My first E3 was in 1996 in Atlanta. It was a big show, and, as press, every company there was happy to see me, and I had no trouble going from booth to booth, sitting with individual programmers to let them tell me of the amazing games under development. Most companies had t-shirts and swag to give away, as well as food. From 11am to 1pm, one could catch a free lunch in the press room, and there’d even be extra boxed lunches available at 5pm, to take back to the hotel if I wasn’t doing a party that night. Each day would end with my back breaking from carrying the swag and heavy press kits (that, like as not, were also stuffed with swag).
Everyone learned of all the neat stuff on display, and everyone wanted to go. But hey, this was a closed trade show, only media and industry people were allowed in, and certainly nobody under 18. Well, sort of. See, any yahoo with a website, blog, posting to a website, or the $10 to get bogus business cards printed up could now get in. As the crowds increased, so did company efforts to attract attention. While booth babes (scantily clad females that existed simply to attract the eye) weren’t so common that first year, each year past that, the babe factor increased. Adding to the eye-catching women, minor celebrities and sports stars became relatively common. I almost slammed my foot into my mouth one time; at a game display, a kid pushed me aside to get a closer look. I was about to say something snotty about “nobody under 18 admitted,” when the kid turned, and I saw it was Gary Coleman.
About three years ago is when things began to get unworkable, and it wasn’t just the celebrities wanting to take a look. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t begrudge people wanting to see all the spiffy stuff, but most companies had so many visitors, that I could no longer even see half the games of the big companies, assuming I could even get in the door. By 11:05 am, they were out of lunches in the press room, the crowds were so heavy with pseudo-media. Even as the displays grew to gargantuan size – Pikachu is actually a little frightening when he’s as big as Godzilla, by the way – swag drizzled to a trickle, as nobody could afford to hand out more than stickers and keychains and like trinkets, and those sweet press kits turned into little business cards directing you to FTP sites; my back was grateful. Trying to see a demo of the game on the showroom floor was impossible, from all the blaring music and sound effects. The good stuff was still there, but it was all behind closed doors… which were still filled with Bobby Bloggers and Timmy Tinysites, meaning you needed to make appointments 4 months or more in advance, to get one spot in the crowd. The smaller companies, hidden well off the beaten path, were so happy to see people with press badges that you could do your job there, and I’d still get plied with food, somewhat higher quality trinkets, drink, or anything short of a recreational female. Even as the huge companies were wasting their resources giving individual presentations to individuals with no outlets, the little guys still couldn’t get real coverage, since everyone I’ve ever written for wanted to hear about the current year’s Electronic Arts sports license title, as opposed to ten independent new ideas.
At long last, the suits started to realize that this bloated beast wasn’t really working as intended, and E3 threatened to collapse under its own weight. As pretty much everyone not living under a rock knows, E3 underwent a major transformation this year. No more the ostentatious displays, nor the lewd girls; just a select few companies showing off their latest planned wares to media types, who won’t be frazzled wresting through crowds. Around three dozen companies, with only 3,000 press invitations, would be the entirety of the show.
This, of course, was the theory, but, in practice, things didn’t work out so well. These companies were no longer in one spot, but instead scattered to and fro around fine Los Angeles area hotels. Instead of fighting the crowds, the press was now ticked off at waiting for shuttle vans, or from walking the hills of L.A. getting to those hotels where there were displays, but no shuttle drop-offs. Additionally, all the game demos were held at a hangar well away from all the hotels. Factor in the 30 minute trip (more if traffic is bad, hardly unusual in Los Angeles), the 30 minutes waiting time for the shuttle, and you’re out 2 hours travel time round trip just to SEE the games. Like many others, I had no choice but to simply skip an appointment just to make it to the hangar and back.
There still were some booth babes, and I scored a few t-shirts, although for the most part swag was minimal (which was okay; I have half a dozen t-shirts from games that turned into zombieware… I’d rather the money was spent on making a great game, anyday). The displays were definitely toned down; only Sony really got the job done, focusing on what really mattered, the games. Disney was a close second, though. The free press lunch was awesome – nobody had the time to take a shuttle ride to get it, but I enjoyed it the one day I happened to be in the same zip code as the lunch… with the three other press guys that could make it. The press lunch isn’t about the food. These shows are so big, that getting the press together in one room, to talk to each other makes it that much harder to miss the really important news that could easily be lost in the shouting, especially if you’re caught in a line or on a bus when it happens.
Restricting the companies really didn’t work. Quite a few companies were at E3, but unofficially. Luckily, word of mouth kept me more or less in the loop, although I never did find out where WildTangent was hiding. Sorry guys, I made the appointment, but the guys at the main office had no idea where you were. I’d say there was a dozen such “stealth” publishers hiding amongst the hotels, but there is no way to know for sure. At least you could see their stuff without making an appointment a season or two in advance, but that was true for the main companies at the show, as well.
The largest such stealther was GameCock, taking over the role of Gathering of Developers. They took over a big part of Hotel California, running interviews and demos out of hotel rooms. They actually had many cool and innovative games, and sponsored an “E3 Funeral Procession.” It was basically a parade down the beach, to the cheers of derelicts and freaks, to listen to little talks of E3 past, and not exactly mourning the death of E3, with no hopes this replacement will survive.
They’re probably right for two good reasons. First, this format doesn’t really work, either. All the shuttling around is crud, and restricting who can display at the show is idiotic (and doesn’t work). The folks putting on the event should have just put it all in a massive Las Vegas casino hotel; there are several there that could have handled the entirety of the show. Those are a heck of a lot cheaper than L.A. hotels, and there’d be no shuttling.
The second reason is the E for All Expo, an open event held exactly where E3 used to be held, the Los Angeles Convention Center. Is there even the slightest doubt every company displaying there will run things there like the old E3? Surely there will be daily press releases and events. Los Angeles is bloody expensive; how many companies want to fly out there twice, get scalped by the horribly overpriced hotels twice, spend a couple hundred bucks on cab fare or car rentals twice – to cover the same stuff, twice. Which one to skip?
So, barring a massive change in how things are run, E3 is dead… to be replaced by something that looks exactly like E3, held in exactly the same place. Long live E3!
--Rick Moscatello
