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I never aspired to become a game reviewer, it just sort of happened. My journey began with the casual podcast download, progressed to writing iOS game reviews and has escalated beyond my expectations with my inaugural E3 experience. Attending E3 with a media pass has its perks, but if you’re not prepared, there are some pitfalls awaiting the unsuspecting noob. What started out as a nightmare, however, eventually became something that I will value the rest of my life. I’m already preparing myself for next year’s E3, but nothing will be quite as intimidating, yet ultimately transcendent, as my first time.
When I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center, I thought I was adequately prepared for the long day ahead of me. My calm quickly unraveled while I walked through the parking structure. The sign near the entrance read “$50/day maximum for event parking.” E3 definitely qualifies for an event, but surely I wouldn’t be charged $50 for leaving my car in this garage for the day, right? Nope, I parked in the garage for L.A. Live and parking there was considerably more expensive that the convention center parking. Rather than search out another parking garage, I decided to finish my first appointment to preview Dead Island, and then scope out more affordable parking solutions afterward.
I entered the “media” section for the West Hall and took my place in line, staring in disbelief at the hundreds of other E3 attendees who were there to do the same exact thing I was. I knew the game industry was large, but being a nameless face in a sea of fellow game reviewers and journalists had an unsettling affect on my sense of accomplishment. Wearing my media pass didn’t feel as cool when I was surrounded by all my fellows, with the same pass on the same Zelda lanyard. As we anxiously awaited the opening of the West Hall doors, the room’s temperature rose to an uncomfortable level. The foreheads of the more portly reviewers glistened with a perspiration that was punctuated by the intermittent wafting of unknown odors. As the day wore on, the sweat, smells and anxiety would only increase.
After shuffling through the entrance, I bee-lined it to my appointment for Dead Island, which I had been anticipating since receiving my email confirmation. When I arrived at the booth I found my PR contact, Angela, and said, “Hi, I’m Matthew Booth from the Adrenaline Vault, I’m here to see Dead Island.” When the look of confusion left her face she politely let me know that the booth was for UTV Ignition Games which, as I already knew, was not the developer of the title I came to see. I thought back to the original email and realized that while the subject line had said, “Dead Island Inquiry,” the content of the email was for a different developer with non-zombie-centric characters. So I squeezed this lemon into some lemonade and spoke at length with the project developer and marketing manager for three surprisingly interesting titles: Faxion, Sky Legends, and Plant Crashers.
Within a 2-hour time frame I had set the pace for a borderline nervous breakdown. The ingredients of which were poor planning and unrealistic expectations. My thoughts returned to my parking dilemma, so I exited the building, paid my $5 parking fee (apparently parking is cheap unless you need it for the day), and spent 30 minutes trying to find a parking lot that took a debit card. Los Angeles doesn’t have free parking, and Los Angles prefers cash. I found a parking structure a half mile away, and then proceeded to speed walk back to the convention center. I entered the West Hall sweatier and more unglued than I had 2.5 hours earlier. I pulled out my notepad and noted the location of my next appointment. It was in the South Hall. The distance between the two halls is considerable, yet manageable. Throw in several thousand nerds, geeks, corporate suits and exhibition booths, however, and the perceived distance triples in length.
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All I got out of this article is that Booth likes to pat his own buttocks.
Just kidding, man! Good write-up. I’ll probably be going with you next year and in the mean time we need to put the word out that nerds must bathe. I’m much more particular about the smells, and have no qualms about telling people to their face that they need to take a shower. So we have one year to change the nerd culture, or we’ll be getting in a lot of fights…
Backpack essentials: extra pens, notebook, laptop, business cards, phone, wallet, powder, diaper wipes, extra Starbucks, map, room key, fresh shirt, and adding a travel size bottle of Febreeze for Matt and Alaric
Thanks Alaric! I look forward to our first E3 together! We’ll have to get some l33t PC-only interviews. I finally realized how much I need a real gaming mouse.
@ Michele – Next time I will buy some business cards. On day two I put baby powder in my socks, kept my feet nice and dry. I did forget to bring extra pens and the one I brought broke, but I found a booth that had free pens and I was set. It’s nice living in the same city, I was able to replenish my supplies in the evening. One other bonus was free energy drinks from NOS at the South Hall entrance.
Hopefully I can afford a laptop for next year, or a netbook at least, so I can do articles in the media lounge. I got home after midnight on the first day and had no energy for writing. Day two I didn’t go to any after-hours events so I could go home and do a write-up.
its my first timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
lol
I figured you out of all people would have gotten that joke, Chris. =]
Great stuff booth. Tell me u aren’t already counting down till next year?
Chris Micieli… I was already counting down to E3 2012 while I was walking around on day 2! I couldn’t help but think about all the things I loved already and how going for 3 days and staying in a hotel close to the action would change the experience. Oh yeah, I’m ready and waiting!
Congratulations
Envyyyyy….
Thanks Saulo! It’s definitely something worth experiencing for anyone into video games or the vg industry.
I am a female hardcore gamer. I never noticed the smell of bodies. Maybe my perfume kept the smells away. What I was most disgusted with was the 200+ models that Nintendo hired who didnt know anything about games. I would rather have someone unattractive tell me about games then have a good looking blonde say I dont know who Kirby is, or I’ve never played the game. If they dont know the games I dont think they should have been paid to hold them. It was my first time at E3 also and I am now going to go every year. I hope gaming companies come to their senses and hire only knowledgable workers. I thought it was the worst part of the show.
Hey Heather,
I agree with everything you said. From a make perspective, I understand why male gamers like “Booth Babes”, but their presence is unnecessary and highly distracting for members of my gender. Like you said, if a company is going to entice gamers with cleavage and exposed skin, they should at least make sure their female representatives have some sort of background in gaming, or at least a crash course in the products they are “guarding”.
Thanks for your input, I appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback. Maybe I’ll see ya around at next year’s E3! =]
sorry, spelling edit, should be “male gamer” not “make gamer”
I agree. They should also take away the booze, because it intoxicates people, distracts them from games, ruins families, etc. Also it wold be a terrific idea if they went away with all the flashiness altogether. A regular grey conference room would suffice. After all, people go to E3 to look at games not at booths, booth babes, booth art, and Matthew Booth. What we want are fact sheets printed on letter-sized paper (portrait not landscape) in Times New Roman 12 font. Loud music is likewise distracting and needs to be eliminated.
Most offensive, of course, are the beautiful women who dress as characters from games but don’t actually know anything about games. How dare the companies hire them? It is an affront to our good moral values.
Lastly (and I think we can all agree on this) people wearing t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops or other open-toe footwear must not be allowed to enter. Same goes for immodestly dressed women. No skirts above the shin, no blouses that show the lower half of the neck, and short sleeves. Harlots who do not adhere to this tried and true dress fashion cannot possibly contribute anything to E3 other than distract and offend others.
You forgot the most important filters. There also needs to be a test for skeptical and typically pessimistic gamers. Especially if they have a tendency to leave sarcastic comments. Definitely ban them. And if they have foreign accents… forget about it, no way are they allowed to enter.
I went to the 2004 E3 and for the most part I enjoyed it. If anything I would like to see them change the location. I stayed just 3 miles from the convention center and I have never seen buildings with razor wire on buildings and blood stains on the sidewalk. They need to go to Orlando. Much better environment, massive convention center (no more hiding non high profile games/pubs in the basement), plenty of rooms.
Obviously, it’s a tad late to mention this, but, given how many times the words “park” and/or “parking” appear throughout the article, I figured it would be worthwhile to point out that THQ was actually providing free parking to E3 2011 attendees as part of their promotion for Saints Row: The Third.
This is also not the first year such a promotion has gone down at E3, but the details easily go unnoticed when buried in the mountain of pre-expo press releases. As a suggestion for next year’s trek, it can definitely prove advantageous to Google the likes of “free parking E3″ before departing. Of course, this is assuming you would actually be driving again instead of doing the really wise thing and just selling out to a corporate sponsor in exchange for a nice, all expenses paid weekend. A room in a downtown hotel is tough to beat during E3 (at least until it fills up with 17 blogl0rds who just returned from running around the LACC all day).
@ Jes – You’ll have to excuse my mistakes. It was my first time. However, I did find out about the free parking/car wash parking lot for Saints Row, but I figured I’d just pay the $12 on day two and not have to worry about waiting in any lines or the lot being full. The parking in the vicinity of the LACC was insane and I get stressed easily.
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