Short version:

I liked the new E3. It featured enough serious press to make it worthwhile for us to attend, while remaining lean enough to not require a staff of hundreds to man a $5 million booth.

Longer version:

I actually blogged live from the event all week, over at TenTonHammer, so feel free to catch up with specifics there if you haven’t already.

The new E3 worked really well for us. We were able to give actual interviews and demonstrations, without having to scream over trillion-decibel techno music or wade through tens of thousands of people to get anywhere. We make games that can’t be summed up in a twenty second “whiz bang” trailer, so having the chance to sit down and talk for 15 minutes or more with each journalist was really helpful.

There are people who argue that without the over the top spectacle of previous years the show loses “value” for developers who choose to attend. Maybe those folks are right, but I have a hard time imagining a situation where ANY game that’s actually well-made and enjoyable wouldn’t be better suited by getting actual attention from the media rather than spending a million bucks developing a more effective swag cannon or having the army of bikini-clad models drop into their booth on zip-lines. It’s true that in the past more media overall attended, but to what end? They weren’t there looking at the games, they were covering the aforementioned spectacle. Getting the show on national TV does exactly nothing to help developers in attendance.

Now, don’t get me wrong – the new event is imperfect. It should be dropped down to 2 days total and the venue should be changed. I don’t think we need to send it back to hotels, but the convention center is simply too large for it at this point and holding it there only serves to make it feel less important than it is. I’ve heard rumblings that the show is now “dead” (but we heard that in 2006 and 2007 as well) or that it’s going to return to its Past Glory. I think either would be a shame, because it’s REALLY close to being a great event right now, even if it isn’t the sexiest thing in the gaming world anymore.

…I’m going to be guest-blogging for the hep cats over at Ten Ton Hammer throughout the show, so keep an eye out for that next week!

Summer Show Season, that is. As a result, Jeff, Paul and I (along with a rotating cast of other WAR notables) are in non-stop travel mode for the next couple of months.

Over the next six weeks, I’ll be heading out to E3, San Diego Comic Con, Games Convention (Leipzig) and PAX. Which is roughly 800 trillion miles of air travel.

E3′s a bit of a mystery, as it’s still a show that’s trying to find itself after the major contraction that took place in the wake of the ’06 expo. It looks to be a fairly well-policed “industry only” event, which is a bit of a bummer because hanging with fans is always more fun than doing interviews.

I’m going to SDCC because… well… I’m a huge comic nerd and it’s always a bonus to get a free trip to the Nerd Prom. We also get to unleash our full traveling demo booth there, which is always cool because thousands of people get to see the game first-hand in a short span of time.

Games Convention is, to be honest, totally nuts (in a good way). Well over a quarter of a million screaming Yurpians set loose in a huge air hangar filled to bursting with every kind of game you could ever hope to see. It’s one of the only events that brings out my inner fanboy because it’s so over the top that it’s hard NOT to get caught up in the excitement. Our friends at GOA always pull out all the stops and put up an absolutely kick-ass booth for showcasing and demoing WAR, but this year’s set up is totally, insanely awesome. If you’re anywhere in Europe, get your backside to GC Leipzig.

I’ve never been to PAX before, but it looks like the definitive heir-apparent to what E3 had inadvertently morphed into before it got “streamlined” a couple years ago. I think it’s safe to say that it’s the pre-eminent community-oriented gaming event in the US at this point. We’ll have the aforementioned Traveling Booth of Love set up, so if you’re looking for one event to hit between now and launch, PAX is probably it.

So those are the next few weeks worth of WAR – at least in terms of shows I’ll be at. If you make it to any of the events, make sure to swing by and say howdy.

We’re pleased to see he’s still alive out in Dreamhack-land. That’s our buddy Rowland with him tossing shirts to the masses.

Since I’ve gotten a fairly large amount of email, PMs and comments in the past couple of days, let me just say a few things:

1) Yes, it’s totally fine for you to talk to any of us at Games Day.

We come to public events because we like meeting you guys, hearing what you have to say, etc. And if you have questions that you’d like fairly detailed answers for, the morning (11:30 AM) Q&A is the perfect venue. Come prepared! Do not disappoint The Hickman by lacking questions!

2) There will be a table at the event for folks interested in the CS positions we posted earlier this week.

If you have questions about hiring, details related to the positions, etc. please direct them to our HR staff. Most of us won’t have the information you’re after, so save yourself the headache and go straight to the folks who CAN help you.

3) The hiring date for the CS positions has nothing to do with our launch date.

We need plenty of folks to help us shepherd WAR through the ever-growing Beta test phase and these new hires will be very busy working there well prior to launch. Anyone who says otherwise from this point forward is a SPY. The bad “confuses you with lies” kind – not the good “has inside info” kind.

FYI – A bunch of us are heading up to Charm City for the show, so it’s definitely worth coming to if you’ve ever wanted to get up close and personal with WAR.  Also, Jeff and I will be doing some sort of Q&A session at the show, so make sure to come armed with questions.