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Gen Con To Take the Place of E3?
Venues like PAX, Tokyo Game Show, and GDC are taking stock in the wake of E3's 'demise', and coming to terms with what this will mean next year. Gamasutra reports that another trade show is stepping up the the plate: Gen Con. From the article: "In order to better accommodate the video game business into its existing shows, Gen Con organizers plan to expand its venue space at the Indianapolis show in 2007. An additional 43,000 square feet will be added to the exhibit hall with additional space expanding into area hotels as well to accommodate the thousands of games taking place over the four-day event. In addition, Gen Con So Cal, the companies' show traditionally held in Anaheim, will be moved to the Los Angeles Convention Center, the former site of the annual E3 trade show, for an unspecified 2007 date, and will attempt to attract further video game companies to exhibit alongside the traditional paper-gaming and CCG Gen Con stalwarts. 'When the news came out about the drastic changes at E3, we began to hear from some industry players about Gen Con increasing its capabilities to better accommodate the industry,' said Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con, LLC." This is truly surreal.
I just don't think GenCon has the infrastructure... But it would be cool to see.
Gas prices being what they are, and budgets being crunched, I think you will see a lot of shows combining in the near future.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
But it also means minus the hype..the buzz..the sitting around watching video game news for a week. For as much of a pain in the ass the fanboys might be if it werent for them no one would give a flip about E3. The only thing that scaling back E3 is going to accomplish in the long run is ensure that small developers have a harder time getting their games published and bigger companies can freely continue to shovel out crap. E3 has always been about hype and press, yes deals occasionally got made but even most of those were the results of the buzz.
I knew E3 would die when I heard that they stopped allowing booth babes.
I worry more about the already laboring tabletop RPG and CCG markets. How long before they get pushed to the edges of the floor, or segregated into their own smaller room? Two years? One year? Five seconds?
... but World of Warcraft is even better crack than Magic: The Gathering.
ComiCon (in San Diego, Chicago, and everywhere else) have absorbed the media presence, so the original supporters of GenCon might be all right
Why would anyone want to become the next E3? The ESA said it themselves, the members themselves decided unanimously that E3 was too big and cost too much. Those are the same people who are going to look at Gen Con and say : "You know guys, there's a reason why E3 is dead. We won't take part in your E3-wanna be project. It just costs too much."
Anybody who wanted to get in to E3 could score a pass. Getting fake credentials was as easy as using a business card design template for MS Word. Do a fake card layout, print, tape to the E3 application form, fax to E3. Done.
Maybe the new E3 will actually make some effort to check those credentials, but I guarantee fakers will still get in, and some vendor/game company will still employ booth babes.
Personally, I am all for Gencon or Comicon or someone else stepping in to do the "video game show for the public" complete with booth babes and the whole nine yards. BUT I can't see the game companies getting in on it. They went to E3 with the illusion that it would make them industry money, not appeal to the public. They don't want to deal directly with the public and have no reason to move their thing to Gencon or wherever. Nothing in it for them.
The public woundn't appreciate it either. E3 had become a contest of biggest, flashiest, loudest and most jiggly, with the winner of those categories declared the winner of the whole show. Along the way, people forgot that there wasn't supposed to be A single winner, that it was about providing entertainment of all sorts to all sorts of buyers. If the public gets in, they're going straight back to that biggest, loudest, showiest thing and lots of good games will get kicked to the side. The industry put up with that from E3. They will not put up with it from the general public.
Like anything I say matters.
I do say, bring on the babes! Life's more interesting with good things to look at and boost morale. Every workplace should have cheerleaders and/or cute mascots of both genders.