E3 2005

Atlantis, Cibola, Magrethea — all lands of mystery sought after for the treasures they hold. For gamers only one place holds the same allure and mystery as these places of legend — the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known the video game world over as E3.

In May 2005 I became one of the select few to grace those hallowed halls. Well, by “select” I mean one of 70,000 attendees. Officially, the event is strictly for industry professionals, retailers, and the press, however because of the tremendous draw the event has, virtually any gamer can get in… provided they know they right people or can BS well enough. As a result the showroom floors filled up quickly with attendees stuffed in shoulder-to-shoulder.

It’s also the tip of the iceberg for an industry that is pulling in billions of dollars each year — challenging the film industry’s stranglehold on popular entertainment. Video games are gaining recognition for the impact they have on international pop culture and amount of money they can bring in. Video game creators — and a few players — are now invited to A-list Hollywood parties, and A-list actors are now given first dibs on many of the most anticipated games before Joe Public can even pre-order them.

So, beyond the huddled masses, the hype and the dollars, what was it like? A cross between a regular industry convention and a fanboy paradise; E3 attempts to simultaneously be professional and fantastic, and for the most part it succeeds.

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel (the professional gamer seen on G4 and other industry spin machines, including in the May 16th edition of Time) told me the convention made him feel like he was 12 again, discovering games for the first time. I’d say that was a fair assessment.

Walking the halls of the 770,000 square foot Los Angeles Convention Center, visitors passed Jedi, scantily clad warrior women, zombies, scantily clad female ninjas, Tasmanian devils, scantily clad anime heroines, and women that were clad scantily for the sake of being scantily clad. Booths in the main halls (West and South) were all lavishly decorated and manned by professional entertainers. Video games from the 1970s to ones coming out next year were all on display, as well as marketing gimmicks and oddities like an interactive Star Wars floor mat that let pedestrians destroy TIE Fighters and the working oversized Nintendo controller.

The best display by far, or at least the most focused on a single theme, were the Lost Woods specifically created for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. After waiting in line, longer than five hours for some, gamers were brought into a darkened fog-filled room with a forest that seemed to grow out of the convention center floor and an adjoining dungeon on the other side of a falling bridge. Link was on hand (both in his elf-like and new wolfen forms) to great exhausted gamers, bringing a bright spot to their otherwise grumpy demeanor.

Celebrities got their share of the excitement too. Evel Knievel and the Harlem Globetrotters each had their own booth (I didn’t catch Scooby and the gang but they couldn’t have been far behind). The Wayans brothers were present, signing autographs and generally looking like they weren’t happy to be there. It could be because they’d been relegated to the Kentia Hall, the convention center’s basement. I don’t think that’s such a bad thing though, some of the most innovative products were in Kentia — from booths by Chinese, Taiwanese, and Scottish programmers (apparently Scotland has a Silicon Valley, or highland at least), to a CD washer that can handle 100 discs at once (that’s a lot of filthy discs).

Other celebrities graced the convention with their presence as well. While eating $1-a-roll sushi with my girlfriend in the food court, she looked over my shoulder and said, “That guy kind of looks like Sinbad.” I turned back and said, “Honey, that is Sinbad.” Nice guy, didn’t give me an interview though. I’m told Snoop Dogg and his posse were touring the facilities as well, but I didn’t see him.

He wasn’t the only thing I missed. I did some research before my trip to see what I would need to do. The one piece of advice I read over and over again was “bring a large bag because you’ll get lots of free stuff.” Sure enough, there was a lot of swag to grab, but most of it was in the form of pamphlets and posters (press kits usually had the best goodies, but you needed a media badge for that). Having my own bag though, wasn’t that necessary. Companies competed to give out better and bigger bags, each hoping to have the most fanboys carry things with their logo on it. One exhibitor saw me cross by with a large Chronicles of Narnia bag stuffed full of materials, turned to her co-worker and said, “Why don’t we have bags like that?” Other advice, like “prepare for expensive meals” and “don’t forget to bathe” also came in handy, but there was one thing I wish I realized before I went that no one warned me about — the biggest announcements happen before the expo. The two days preceding the actual event were reserved for conferences; that meant the big “next generation” showings would happen before my plane was even scheduled to arrive in LAX. Live and learn I guess.

Turns out I didn’t miss much. Microsoft showed off their next Xbox, the Xbox 360, and several playable games… but, as it turns out, the games were actually running off computers hidden underneath the display systems. Representatives assured anyone who dared peek behind the curtain that the real machine would be able to play the games, it just wasn’t ready yet. Makes one wonder if the 360 will be ready by the scheduled November launch. Sony was even vaguer. Fans waited in line for more than five hours to be ushered into a small theater so they could watch a five minute video of what the PlayStation 3 (complete with a Spider-Man 2-inspired logo) might be able to do. They were then hurried from the theater for a look at a prototype of the new machine — hidden behind clear plastic, of course — for all of a few seconds before being ushered back out into the real world. Nintendo was the most aloof, offering only the name of the system (Revolution), a list of uses, and a glance at the slim machine.

I would like to give Sony props however, as they were the kindest to the press. Microsoft was invitation only (another thing I didn’t realize going in), Nintendo was friendly but had too few representatives to answer questions, but Sony had PR agents waiting in the wings to talk to each reporter or camera crew that wandered by. They escorted me to the front of the line and gave me the pep talk about how their competitors wouldn’t be able to live up to promises made. They even gave me bottled water with the PlayStation logo on it.

In general, most exhibitors I talked to were excited to speak to “real press”, not just people who found ways to get badges and sneak in. Unlike the big boys who were too good to talk to the little people, smaller booths like Wizards of the Coast were more than happy to talk about their products and meet with the media.

Workshops and presentations also served as a separation between those there for business and those for pleasure. While hundreds waited in line to play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (myself included), only a few dozen were allowed to attend the King Kong, Medal of Honor, and Godfather presentations. It was worth it though, since I got a chance to meet Michel Ancel, creator of the amazing and underappreciated Beyond Good and Evil.

So how was E3? As if you couldn’t tell, it was a blast. And it was large. Huge in fact. This year served as a primer and readied me for my next trip in 2006. Now all I have to do is schedule more interviews in advance and clear my shelves for all of the swag that will be rained upon me.