As fun as the event can be, and as titillating as the news that comes out of it may be, it's difficult to deny that there are some logistical issues at E3.

Newsletter

Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Enter E-Mail Address Below:

One Idiot's Opinion:

How to Fix E3

It happens every year. Even before the Electronic Entertainment Expo begins, the print magazines and major websites start rolling out coverage of the event. Then, sometimes months later, the E3 coverage explodes back into the spotlight in magazines with long feature articles that proudly announce Winners and Losers coming out of the event, which nearly blots out a limp tirade against how much the event has gone downhill since the year before.

At least here, you don’t have to wait a month or two for a limp tirade!

The Incredibles (left) and Far Cry: Instincts (right)

As E3 closed this year I couldn’t help but think about how the event could be improved. Instead of descending into a lazy Top Ten list of improvements, I’ll hit a few points that should be addressed.

Next to the inside of a jet engine crashing into a cymbal factory, E3 is the loudest place on Earth. Every booth on the show floor – it didn’t seem to matter which area – had the volume knobs cranked to “10”. By 3 o’clock the first day, my migraine hit such proportions that I couldn’t understand English. It struck me as I sat inside 1C’s booth in Kentia Hall (which is a relatively quite Hall). 1C is a Russian publisher so when I couldn’t understand a damn thing, I assumed the PR guy had slipped into his native tongue. But as there was also a native English speaker in attendance and I couldn’t understand him either… well, I popped another three Tylenols and nodded and said, “Uh huh,” for about ten minutes before I could escape. This is probably the easiest problem to address. Turn the volume down! Your booth doesn’t need to be drenched in sound!

Not only would a quieter atmosphere help on the headache front, but would also improve communication tenfold.

I asked a rep at the Vivendi’s booth for a “Press CD” and her smile was replaced by a look of disgust. “You want to see my what?” she shouted. I had to dip into my mime repertoire before actually getting a press CD (then dodging security).

Advertisement

Maybe the most controversial idea that has been brought up in years past is restricting access to the show to Media and retailers. No more of this amorphous blob known as “industry professionals” baloney. But I’d like to enhance that idea by forcing everyone to take a short written test before the show starts. Nothing extensive but something that will gauge whether a person can be truly classified as Media (or other professional position).

Advertisement

On day two, I spent five minutes absolutely aghast at the crap that was being spewed by three guys from a gaming website. A reporter from the Chicago Tribune sat there taking it all in – things like Activision publishing Half-Life 2 and Nintendo’s DS in no way being backward compatible with GameBoy Advance software. (I wish I had recorded it!) Of course, they could have been knowingly feeding the reporter a bunch of bull but there were too many, “Well, ah…” and “Urrrrr”’s to be the thoughts of anyone more intelligent than the cherry danish I ate that morning. In hindsight, even the reporter seemed to be skeptical of what they were saying as he noted only one or two things.

Restricting access then administering a test would dramatically reduce the number of people wandering the aisles and make it a lot easier for real media to get to appointments on time. (It would also have the bonus of further reducing the noise level!) And not only hit the appointments, but be able to play games without wasting valuable time waiting in line to play a game! The last time I waited to play a game was in an arcade by reserving my position with a carefully placed quarter. At E3, I wish I had a quarter to jam in the eye of the Controller Hog. Barring the idea of restricting access to people that don’t need to be there, I suggest putting a timer on every playable unit or somehow utilizing the ID cards that everyone is issued to determine play time.

Namco's booth (left) and some of Vivendi's booth (right)

The alternative to restricting the access is to extend the show to four days (an idea that I’ve heard bandied about on some message boards). The first three days would be the actual “industry professionals” and the last day would see the doors get blown off with the general public allowed to attend (although still registering ahead of time). This approach has some logistical problems associated with it but it would certainly make the three days beforehand a lot easier for the media and retailers.

Before I step down from my soapbox, let me just vent about the amount of free stuff given away this year. I went through the first two days keeping my eyes open for free stuff, specifically t-shirts. Last year I was practically assaulted by people trying to put freebies in my hand. This year? Nothing! (Free magazines are great, but too heavy to comfortably carry around for six hours.) It was on day three that I finally got some swag, all three items from Nintendo: a DS t-shirt, a cool Nintendo shoulder bag (which turned out to be the perfect size for toting around press material) and a flashing stylus. (I would have also had a double bourbon at Nintendo's bar – yeah, Nintendo has such a “kiddie” image – but it wasn’t even noon yet.) Then I only went to areas that swag was a sure thing, like Infinium Labs' booth. I could have tried my luck at Namco’s booth for a t-shirt but I didn’t feel like jumping around with a bunch of sweaty guys trying to catch t-shirts thrown by the models on stage. It was a disappointing show in terms of swag. But I thank those companies that did provide some nick-nack to take away – from LucasArt’s mints to those cool Korean cans of Coke that NCSoft included with their press kit. Thank you! (One of the more interesting freebies could be found outside the convention center – coupons for free topless lap dances!)

I would hate for you to come away from this article with the idea that I’m a whiny, arrogant bastard. I have my moments – as do we all, when nothing seems to be good enough or somehow not to our liking – but for the most part I had a good time at the show and enjoyed being there and talking to the people behind the games and the people that set the gears in motion. (This is the part of the article where I go soft after spewing vitriol.) There’s always something that can be done better or improved somehow and E3 is no different. At the least, it needs a patch (i.e. turn down the noise) and at the most it needs a drastic overhaul (i.e. restricting access).

- Omni

(June 10, 2004)


PC \| Gamecube \| DS \| Wii \| PlayStation 2 \| PlayStation 3 \| PSP \| Xbox \| Xbox 360
News \| Reviews \| Previews \| Features \| Classics \| Goodies \| Anime \| Forums