"There is No Point to E3."

[Liquidize105]

I saw this article by corpsnews at killer betties' last night. It basically entails the changing nature of E3 as a marketing event.

Read it for yourself (http://www.corpnews.com/node/37). There's not much to say beyond what's already been stated by the article itself.

[DeadPixel]

Now, the assholes in the Best Buy, or EB Games, or CompUSA badges, retail monkeys who are the industry equivalent of burger flippers, are as thick as flies. The music is louder, the booth babes skankier and more numerous, the show floor less and less useful.

I tend to agree with this statement. The purpose of E3 is for industry marketing, pure business. I saw so many people this year that looked like they didn't give a rats ass about the industry at all. They were there to play demos, get free t-shirts and other marketing crap no one would even think of buying at any retail store. I specifically remember hearing kids who somehow got these passes comparing the junk they were able to scavange and where to flee for the next round of free junk before it's depleated. I heard comments like, "don't waste your time at Age of Empires booth, they wont get t-shirts till tomorrow" or asking someone in line "are they giving out stuff here?".

The entire point of the showfloor is lost when it becomes nothing more than demo concert.

[LilEvilFish]

I agree with him.

[Grimgrock]

I don't work in the games industry but my job title does have a place in that world. I do pay attention to the E3 reports and I've noticed everything that the guy from Corpnews said. I can imagine that if your job is to report on E3 and you get paid to do that and you are now competing with EB, Gamestop, and Best Buy employees, it can be very frustrating. I also agree with his assessment of NCSoft and Mythic coming from a customer's point of view, of course. I didn't know there was some kind of MMO conference that is in Austin (further down in the forum replies on that Web site). Anyone something about that?

[ldi222]

I think this guy is a media snob asshole from a publication I’ve never even heard from. I bet he did get a surely reception from a lot of booths, he probably walked up all self important with a superiority attitude to a guy who didn’t even know who the hell he was representing. I suspect more established gaming media scheduled most of their appointments ahead of time. And yes there are still plenty of business suites to discuss the nuts and bolts behind the chaos that has always been part of this show. That rant pissed me off, E3 is the largest gaming convention in the world that got plenty of press this year both with mainstream media and gaming related places of interest. It sounds to me like this guy is just pissed off he is treated like the wannabe elite nobody that he pretends not to be.

[Rommel]

His is medium-large website in gaming?

[dr_wily]

hooray for bullshit!
hooray for cashgrabs!

[Liquidize105]

His is medium-large website in gaming?
They have some good writers - better than gamespy's by a long shot.

[KarmaGhost]

Corpnews is a medium-large website in the videogame industry now...Never heard of it.

Companies like Vivendi and EA will ask for a name right off the bat before admitting you to their corporate Shangri La...Sounds like a frat. (eww)

I've always thought of E3 as a big super bowl commercial: it is a commercial, but one that everybody enjoys watching because it's entertaining. However, it does sound as though it is becoming more exclusive, but to what end? Why allow CNN/PC Gamer/etc. in, but bar people from smaller news sites? Doesn't it benefit everyone to allow any legitimate press into your booth?

[Harold Corduroy]

Right on the nail. This gentlemen summarized in a short text my feelings with this year's E3. I went and it actually turned me off from video games. I went there as a profesional video game developper and came back disgusted and questionning my career. It was that bad. The floors where covered with endless lines of geeks and nerds from all walks of social exclusion all fighting each other for t-shirts and shamefully botering booth babes for yet another picture of themselves with a sexy girl. Of course it's their job to be there and look hot but it made me feel sick to my stomach to be part of an industry that would actually create such debasing employment opportunity to pander to the hormone driven overweight neckbeard sporting mass.

God E3 sucks, next year I'll go but I'll trade in my badge for a beachball and skip the whole mess.

[ChrisJohnson]

Pretty much on the mark, and is a huge reason shows like ECTS are dead or dying. More and more developers don't want to go, and would be more than happy to boycott the thing, but unfortunately publishers still see this as necessary, so it's a necessary and much-maligned evil.

There are definitely ways to improve E3 (get it out of L.A., and stop letting random people waltz in to it, for starters), but I doubt they'll be done.

As far as his assertion as to "retail monkeys".... yeah I agree. The fact is that every individual who works on the sales floor of Circuit City of CompUSA has no need or business there. the only people from retail channels who need to worry about the show are the buyers on the corporate level; they're the only ones with a decision to make.

That rant pissed me off, E3 is the largest gaming convention in the world

No it isn't. It's a trade show. GenCon, QuakeCon, those are gaming conventions. E3 is supposed to be a situation where people go there to get work done.

[eatme]

I don't see where the surprise and bitterness is coming from. E3 is a marketing/retail event. Game development is handled at GDC. Gamer events are at QuakeCon, PAX, etc.. Did some people not know that?

[Tricky Thumb]

There was a time when E3 wasn't overflowing with anyone working at a store that sells any sort of videogame items, but it's always mostly been about marketing new and even current stuff.

[LikeTheRazor]

I went and it actually turned me off from video games. I went there as a profesional video game developper and came back disgusted and questionning my career.
I felt the same way. Although I quit the game developer part a while ago, I snuck into E3 to see what it was like. Honestly, I have to say, both gamers and the game industry disgust me right now. It's like some sick twisted version of Interplay's slogon:

By losers. For losers.

[LilEvilFish]

it made me feel sick to my stomach to be part of an industry that would actually create such debasing employment opportunity to pander to the hormone driven overweight neckbeard sporting mass.


Couldn't have said it better. It's kind of like the full stop at the end of the commercialised games industry. Then again, what would I know, I'm not a developer or hardcore gamer as they're known.

I do know I love games, but they can go fuck themselves if they think I'm gonna pander to their marketing driven shite.
</maturecontent>

[Royal Fool]

Pretty good read, and the comments in the forum link are also good.

I've never been to E3, for obvious reasons, but even if I was invited to go I wouldn't bother. I think it absolutely sucks.

[GrinR]

All it would take is closing it to the general public for the first X days to make E3 gold again. I went a long time ago (5 years?) and I had the super-all-access pass since I worked at Imagine (PC Gamer, PSM, NEXTgen, etc.). It was nice to be able to skip the lines of nerds and get to the demos/shows right away. It was also great to meet the actual developers and talk with them (briefly) about their game. I don't recall there being a -lot- of non-industry people there, but they were there and I wasn't terribly bothered by them.

[Spigot]

Every year when E3 rolls around I try not to care. There is such a preponderance of information coming out on a daily basis that rarely is anything of substance communicated to the gaming community. Most of the announcements made are either confirmations of rumours that have been circulating on the net for a few weeks or empty marketing blather.

That said, I would love to go to E3, if only to check out the games. Kentia hall would be the first place I'd go. I watched about an hour of the G4 coverage of E3 on the last day and once again it confirmed that while a gaming news channel would be awesome, G4 isn't it. They could have actually scouted out the interesting tech that's been sent to the bowels of Kentia and instead they just showed even skankier booth babes and the lineup at the bar. Sigh.

It does seem that E3 is turning into something akin to the Xbox 360 MTV special. It purports to be a gaming trade show and instead is a vacuous marketing platform aimed at everyone except those truly interested in games.

They need to turf the booth babes and get a little pickier as to who they let in the doors. Just make it so that you have to be at least 21 years old (or some such age restriction) and at least you won't have to worry about a bunch of kids running around ruining the show.

[eatme]

All it would take is closing it to the general public for the first X days to make E3 gold again.

It is, ostensibly. Are you saying they need to have better security, or more stringent review of credentials?

[ÜberJumper]

errr it's not all about the booth babes and getting swag?

[ÜberJumper]

Spigot:


Just make it so that you have to be at least 21 years old (or some such age restriction)


It already is.

[B_Money]

While it's pretty accurate to say there's no point to E3, I don't agree with the thrust of this article. From what I can tell, the authors are bitter that they no longer get exclusive access to the publisher's lies and deceptions. Well, I'm sorry they've made it so hard to do your work, maybe now you can do some actual research instead of reciting the corporate slogans. E3 has never been a source of accurate or useful information, the only difference is the industry no longer has to court the media to get thier propaganda out.

[GrinR]

My understanding is that you can simply buy a ticket. Maybe there is some kind of cursory check to make sure you work for someone... but I know at least two guys who went who have no connection to the games industry at all. DeadPixel? Any input?

But yes, I think there should be a limited number of non-mainstream admissions. That means everyone who has at minimum a website that makes money or a game company that's produced anything. I'm sure there are better criteria than what I just laid out but you get the idea.

[aversion2k]

My old tutor (a senior producer for midway) said pretty much the same thing about e3. You dont get any work done there. You just wander around and look at the flashing lights and boobies.

[GrinR]

B_Money, you're just wrong. The three days I spent there were invaluable. I met developers face-to-face, got to see games in many different states of readiness, enhanced my contact list by insane amounts, and most importantly got a chance to put a finger on the pulse of the games industry.

[eatme]

I had to show a pay stub from the company I work at, and a company credit card, in order to get a pass. Then I had to show ID to pick up my badge holder, even though I already had the pass.

However, I hear press admissions are easier to get-- you can make up a fake article or two and get in that way, which some friends did a couple years back.

Ooooh, wait a second. Those are both for free passes. I guess if you pay the full admission fee, they don't care who the hell you are. That makes sense. So if they just restricted it to industry only, they'd shrink a lot of the noise. They probably won't, because those are the people who are actually paying. :) And if they did crack down on that, they'd have to actually start doing a decent job of verifying credentials (which they may have already-- I'm remembering the fakes from a few years back).


You're right regarding usefulness: there's a lot of noise, but there are still a ton of devs there, which makes for great networking.

[Whodaknown]

I would have to agree with GrinR. I found it to be incredibly helpful in many ways. Being a game designer it is always cool to see what other people are doing. I don't know about you guys, but I don't have time to rent 50 games a month to check out content. E3 allows me access to virtually every game in development at the time, basically a crash course in the state of the industry. Playing the other developers games allow for great brainstorming to make sure that i can stay one step ahead of what is currently in production.

[Phhhh]

I dunno, I work for a developer and attended E3 two out of the three days. I think everyone who doesn't like it is just bitter. Or maybe you're just not used to the spectacle that is E3.

I've been to E3 8 times now. One day I was there just to get shwag and gawk at booth babes, but that was after I had already gotten the business out of the way... All work and no play makes anyone dull. Especially in the industry that i'm in.

[Dr.Finger]

Is E3 needed? I'm not sure, but the fact is, it's just as necessary as an Orthodontist's convention or the farm equipment expo. E3, as with most professional conventions and expos, are more about partying, free swag, and networking than any real dissemination of information.

With the internet the way it is, we really don't need a single event to get this kind of info like we did back in the 90's, but the event is still important because it's a celebration of the industry. Look back on the past week and ask yourself how many mentions the video game industry got in the mainstream media. I'd bet there were more non-negative stories about the industry the past 10 days than the rest of the year combined. I feel bad for the people trying to do real work on the floor while others are just trying to score free crap, but that's the price you pay for working in this biz.

[Goronmon]

The author of the article takes himself and the site waaay too seriously...

[DeadPixel]

... I know at least two guys who went who have no connection to the games industry at all. DeadPixel? Any input?

I work for a software development company that is approved by the E3 registration. All I had to do was submit my form with a valid ID and W2 form by April 14th and I got a free pass. This is a show floor pass only of course.

My understanding is that you can buy a pass after April 14th for $250, but you still have to be verified as "part of the industry". The conditions for this verification are listed on the E3expo.com site, although I think they are not as strict in reality.

I have done game development in the past and that is the reason I go. I'm primarily interested in game UI design and E3 lets me check out some of the latest ideas on the market. Especially games I never hear about, the smaller companies who may never find publishers due to original ideas. I blaze right through the giant beasts like EA, SONY, UBISoft and go directly to the back of the rooms where I’m not surrounded by 500 LCD panels playing 30 second MPEG videos of yet another combat FPS game.

My problem with the show is it’s full of crowd not really that interested in games themselves, they arrive for free junk and pure entertainment. This is exactly why those giant booths hire robots to stand around answering game questions, I’ll even give you an example:

The same booth that showed Dungeon Siege 2, also displayed a demo of Vanguard (MMO game). I was watching a demonstration of harvesting, given by one of the exhibitors. His avatar must have been chopping a tree for over a minute when I popped a question:

Me: Is there any challenge to this tree chopping besides just watching the animation?
Exhibitor: As your skill gets better you can chop better trees.
Me: Will the process be the same each time, just the tree graphics change?
Exhibitor: There are a number of things that could go wrong.
Me: Interesting, such as?
Exhibitor: All sorts of things, like a player may encounter a bee hive, or he may not get best quality wood out of tree if his skill is low, or he could even fail to chop this tree.
Me: Really? A bee hive? This actually exists in the game now?
Exhibitor: Well, not really, but it could…


At this point I just had to laugh and walk away. Are these exhibitors simply trained chimps representing the company?

I think so.

[motor]

I think this site might actually be a hoax. An, admittedly cursory, browse through the archives shows that march of 2005 is their first post. Unless they lost their archive, these guys are all of 3 months old and they expect to get behind the scenes demos of games...I don't think so.

[LilAbner]

Anyone notice how some huge games were missing from this year's show? Games like Madden PSP, GTA PSP, and a few other notables. Not good.

[Racknahm]

Anyone notice how some huge games were missing from this year's show? Games like Madden PSP, GTA PSP, and a few other notables. Not good.

They never give out any information about GTA. They just release a few screenshots and people are on it like a lot of things on one this one thing.

I also think that people that cosplay for E3, and they're not getting paid by the company to do so, should be shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun.

[Jart]

I gave up going to E3. It really is disgusting now, you just get mobbed by fanboys looking for free shit. The only meaningful things that go on anymore are behind closed doors...get rid of the public displays and the same thing will be accomplished. I think a time will come in the next few years when publishers will quit dumping cash into e3 booths, the constant attempts on outdoing each other are costing them a fortune.

[mister_slim]

Aren't the retail buyers at CES anyway?

[Thenetcase]

I couldn't agree more... I hate the fact that E3 has turned into a wanker fest.

[ElectricMonk]

i haven't been to e3 so maybe the depths of depravity aren't quite sinking in, but t's obvious to me just by the media surrounding it that e3 started as a trade show and turned into a media event. and every time something changes there are people around to whine about it.

eventually e3 will lose it's business premise and just be all marketing. and life will go on.

[Redline]

I don't really care about anyones personal slant on this, the basic idea is correct. I went there last year (as industry), and can I say 'boooooooorrriiiiiiinnnnnngggg'. That's it people. Full of booth babes, marketing hacks and people pushing piles of junk. Oh, and the loud music/noise from each company booth that were trying to drown out all others. *Yawn* I got absolutely nothing out of it. Oh wait, I spoke to Peter Molyneux and the cute girl maning the nVidia booth (the fairy that is, not a booth babe ;)), those were good.

Don't waste your time and/or money people.

[ldi222]

I guess its cool to diss E3 now. Because giant screens showing the latest next gen games with booming sound suck to behold in person and all those marketing hacks who dont know anything about their games and the fanboys who shouldnt get in getting in my way, how annoying. Oh and booth babes are so bothersome, why do they waste my time?

E3 has always been about hype and its growing because this is a billion dollar industry. When I walk into that E3 floor I am filled with a sense of euphoria, I dont care how jaded you are in the industry, the Sony and Microsoft partys are fun! Perhaps rivaled only by logging into my favorite gaming website Evil Avatar. :)

[nein89]

I think this site might actually be a hoax. An, admittedly cursory, browse through the archives shows that march of 2005 is their first post. Unless they lost their archive, these guys are all of 3 months old and they expect to get behind the scenes demos of games...I don't think so.

The archive is in reverse chronological order. That means you have to look at the bottom of the list to see the date of the first post. And, yeah, they have lost the archives. More than once, in fact; the site has had several previous incarnations.

[Deadend]

So, how about making E3 last longer? maybe even a whole week, so that on the last 2 days, they could make it public. Or rankings on access, as press would get more days, so would devs, but the retail people and such (the low men) are shafted onto the end of the week.

[Rasputin]

The archive is in reverse chronological order. That means you have to look at the bottom of the list to see the date of the first post. And, yeah, they have lost the archives. More than once, in fact; the site has had several previous incarnations.

Correct. Corpnews started as www.thecorporation.co.uk in 1998. The site moved under Poppinfresh's ausipices in 2000 and picked up the current domain around then too.

The cursory investigation apparently missed the "archive" link on the right I provided when I moved the site from the hacked NewsPro script we were using to Drupal. Moving the old archives to Drupal is a tedious process that we're going to have to do by hand.

Thanks for the attention.

[Buddha Lotus]

Spigot

I agree with you.. G4 would be great if they didnt have all the annoying hosts etc.. I REAL gaming news channel would be great.

[Duranki]

I've attended one E3 in Atlanta, back in the day, and three in L.A. Admittedly my last show was three years ago, but I was as filled with wonder the fourth time I walked in the door as the first time.

I get what the author of that article is saying. The publishers have changed what E3 is because it makes business sense. You say that it's hard for the people who deserve to be there to get any work done? One idea is to have another E3-like event, open to the masses for the purpose of showing off games, and let the developers and industry types have E3. That'd cost way too much, though. Why have two shows when you can cram it all into one?

Sucks for a lot of people, I guess, but it kind of makes sense.

[ÜberJumper]

I've been to 4 E3s now (all in LA). It's pretty well been the same every time I've been there. It was just as crowded around the blizzard/sierra booth as it was back 5 years ago (always a good gauge IMO).

I've watched devs being huge fanboys and swag farmers at every show I've been to. I've tagged along with devs as they check out competition and looked for interesting ideas.

While travelling between booths, checking out the scenery was lots of fun. However, only once did having a booth babe encourage me to check out a product/booth, and I can't think of a time it make me think more of a product. More than once though, the antics of the booth babes distracted me from what the developers were trying to say/do with their demonstration time (thinking of ATI speaker's corner and the True Crime booth).

The *good* booth babes were The Microsoft Games for Windows booth babes were not underdressed (overdressed?), but did show enough cleavage(whatever) to get attention, and they were travelling the crowd handing out pamphlets and T-shirts. I checked out both of their pavillions (the one inside, and the one across the street).

My initial response walking through the door this year was "uggh, it's so fucking crowded this year". However, once I was in tune with the flows of the crowd, and used the thousands of people milling about, I was much more comfortable actually looking for interesting content. I am still debating if I want to go back or not. The end point remains though... E3 is useful, but like anything, you get out of it what you put into it.