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There Is No Point To E3
Modesitt writes "Corpnews offers some thoughts on how E3 has changed for the worse. Several factors are mentioned, but the increased number of people sporting 'Exhibits Only' badges courtesy of Best Buy, CompUSA, and EB Games is focused on as a cause of the descent of E3." From the article: "The only legitimate purpose to E3 is as a media event, for companies to show off their products to the public via the media (after all, such a tiny sliver of the gaming public could go to E3, even if it was open to the public, that the press must inevitably mediate this process), and it is failing terribly at that. Companies are no longer courting the press, or even attempting to develop new contacts among them; now, it is an established siege war between giant website network and shitty magazines, and arrogant companies who divulge the merest crumbs and act as if this were a thunderous pronouncement from Yahweh."
The feeling I get from R'ing TFA is that the writer is bitter about people not blowing him as soon as he steps near a booth.
"Worse yet, the private hallways are becoming more and more hostile to media they are 'unfamiliar' with- and by that, I do not mean small, nor do I mean only to Corp writers. Corpnews is a medium-large website in the videogame industry now, and I am not the only media badge to have experienced outright hostility at my inability to name-drop at the front entrance to this or that booth. Companies like Vivendi and EA will ask for a name right off the bat before admitting you to their corporate Shangri La, Blizzard was running World of Warcraft media demos on the noisy show floor, and Nintendo did not even have enough press kits for all media, saying "We only give these out to major media outlets". Well, fantastic, I'll be sure to tell ABC's crack video game department to saunter on by and hear how you plan on not eating #3 dust in the next round of the console wars, smart guys."
The guy's got an inflated opinion of his Blog (that I've never heard of) and he's crying about it.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Doesn't that make sense? The press is who it's for. The press reports on the shiny video that Sony/Microsoft/Whoever Else shows and the people who already made their minds up use the reporting to say "See, x is going to kick ass!"
They have the Best Buy and EB guys there so when they go back to their stores they can say "OMFG DOOD x-product WILL KIK AZZ!!!11"
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Also, something that the author forgot to mention, there are a lot of little developers there, making games that might not have distributors yet or need investors in order to continue making their game.
If you don't care about the huge companies, and actually want to see something, then don't head to the big main area: They're only courting the IGN's and GameSpots and EGM's out there, the news outlets with millions of readers (or at least a few hundred thou), because they're just showing off.
The little guys need as much press as they can get, and they will probably be more than willing to show you their game if it means an article on any kind of gaming news site.
Over a thousand games at the con. Look for the 90% that people don't know about if you want to do news!
Beyond the Polygons : Because 50,000 polygo
The point of the article I think is that E3 used to be a 'trade' show, and now its a 'hype' show, and thus useless as a tradeshow. Its for organized PR teams to hype products to consumers, not for individuals in the trade to conference with each others (publishers & programmers, programmers & middleware)
The point of the article I think is that E3 used to be a 'trade' show, and now its a 'hype' show, and thus useless as a tradeshow.
Exactly. It was originally an industry gathering, a true "convention", like there are in a lot of other industries. The media started covering it because, well, games are popular and a lot of games were being shown there. And that has ended up transforming what E3 fundamentally is.
I wouldn't say E3 serves no purpose. But I do think that it's ultimately irrelevant. Nobody buys a game machine because of what goes on at E3. They buy it because of what happens after E3. I could list you so many years and so many companies that supposedly "won" or "lost" E3, or that had particularly good or bad showings, and then went on to do the exact opposite of what everybody predicted they would do in the real-world marketplace (Sega and Microsoft being at the top of the list with their respective late Dreamcast and early Xbox showings).
There is too much importance placed on E3 by the media. It is ultimately a sideshow. It's interesting, and if you read between the lines you can glean some useful info, but it is basically just a bunch of PR reps trying to put their best face on. Ultimately, the companies that show well at E3 are just the companies with the best PR departments or PR agencies. But that says absolutely nothing about either the actual quality of the games or their ultimate marketability and popularity.
(God, did I just use the word "marketability"?! I've officially crossed to the dark side.)
You also don't see the unspeakable name of God on the front page either. I know that religion is generally unpopular around here, but it would be nice if the editors didn't go out of their way to offend people.
A) It was a quote. /. is a disscusion site, not 'the media'. /. is most certainly not a professional organization. /. has never tried to better itself, no matter how much people complain or ridicule.
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"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
The purpose of E3 is to show games that are about to be released. For example, I still remember seeing demos for games like Duke Nukem Forever.
" Booth Babes, need I say more?"
Yes, actually you do... are you for them or against them? Personally, I sure as hell don't mind looking at them...but really they're not necessary if you have a good game. A lot of female gamers I know are very turned off by them as well..so it helps keep down the female gaming population...which is a Bad thing.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
And Yes, I do make video games for a living.
I was at last years E3, as were many of my co-workers. In addition to being a media function, it also lets developers get a look at the competition. E3 serves the following purposes.
1) It shows up new games and hardware to the gaming media.
2) It gets alot of developers and publishers together in the same place, allowing for deal making.
3) It gets alot of publishers and retailers together, giving the retailers an idea of whats coming out, and helps them decide what to put on the shelves.
4) It lets developers see what other developers are up to, and serves as a reality check for your own game. It also gets the delopers out from behind their desks to do something resembling a vactation. It also lets you catch up with friends working for other companies, allowing us to network a bit, let each other know if a given employer sucks or not, etc.
I went to E3 as a develper, and was handed an Exhibits Only badge. The booth babes are getting a bit over done, but they are there more for the retailers then anything else. The booth babe gets the retailer to walk over to the display, and perhaps even see the game.
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