A new E3?
Apparently, there’s going to be an announcement about E3 2009 later tonight/early tomorrow. Current rumors seem to point to it being open to the public (for a fee), which means it’ll be much closer to things like Games Convention Leipzig and PAX. Personally, I dug this year’s event WAY more than the previous events, but I recognize that I’m in the minority.
As such, my personal E3 “wish list” would be:
– Hold it anywhere – literally, ANYWHERE – but Los Angeles. I realize there’s next to no chance of that happening, but I despise that city more than any other place on earth. And I’ve been to THREE cities in Alabama.
– Four day show (Thursday-Sunday).
– Days 1 and 2, press and pros only. This will give companies time to make “whiz bang” announcements and to do dedicated interviews without being swamped by fans.
– Days 3 and 4, open to the public. This should be plenty of time for fans to see everything and bringing them in at the end gives the press an incentive to get E3 coverage out quickly to help direct fans to the best stuff on the floor.
– “Backstage” area with decent security for press and pros to continue doing interviews and presentations far away from the thumping techno madness of the show floor. No public access on any day.
– Maintain reasonable booth babe restrictions. Trust me, people will want to take pictures with your booth babe, even if she’s wearing as many as THREE postage stamps worth of costume. Borderline nude models create nightmare bottlenecks all over the floor and make us all seem creepy and weird.
– Seating for the public. LOTS of it. In dedicated, strategically-placed areas that are away from main walkways. PAX does this very well and it gives the “tired feet and DS loving” masses somewhere to rest up without creating human pyramids in the middle of every hallway and alcove.
– ANYWHERE but LA. Hey, it can’t hurt to ask twice.
I guess that’s it. If nothing else, this SHOULD mean the death of E For All, which was 1000 times worse than any E3.
I’ve always found the whole “booth babe” thing at the games conventions to be a little odd. I’m glad I’m not the only one. =)
Interesting that you want to separate the fans from the media coverage so much. I have always found that many of the main stream media interviews that you guys do are just regurgitation of information that could be pulled right off of your website in less than 5 minutes of research.
The real “press coverage” that I, as a gamer, am more interested in are the various bloggers out there who, I think, give a better perspective. Though it seems that many bloggers are getting recognized more and more as members of the press at these kind of events.
Generally speaking, people who run decent sites have no trouble getting “proper” face time with us during press days. If someone with a reasonably well-run site and press credentials goes through the correct channels (i.e. scheduling in advance, rather than rolling in on Day 3 expecting us to just be randomly available), we have no problem talking to fan sites, blogs, etc. in addition to “main stream” media. And, for the record, the bar for “press” credentials is generally pretty low, so anyone with a fairly well-known site should have no trouble getting them.
Regarding the quality of questions from the “main stream” publications, the fact of the matter is that we need that information to be repeated – again and again – in places where previously unfamiliar consumers can see it. While it may not be “news” to long-term fans, it IS important for us to continually introduce our product to new people.
As for why I prefer separation between “public” and “press” spaces, the only reason is logistical. Events like E3 are ungodly loud and it’s hard enough to talk for 8 hours straight, 4 days in a row without ALSO having to scream over deafeningly loud. In addition, it’s often hard for people to tell the difference between an interview and a conversation, so we’ll often get situations where fans unwittingly interrupt “official” press, which is always awkward to cope with.
In my prefect world, my time with the public is dedicated exclusively to them and vice versa with my time with the press.