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Apologies in advance, ladies and gentlemen, for the lack of levity in today's strip, and that this rant will be LONG. That is a very real warning. I do invite you to check the comic out, as always, of course - but if you are not in for a bit of mopey navelgazing I shall say only that Friday will bring the funny once more. I can assure you of this.
For the real reason behind my proverbial "blueness," I shall point your eyes to this article - a "same song, different station" that is all over the gaming press - that E3 as we know it is dead. The Electronics Entertainment Expo, dog and pony show of the gaming industry, largest entertainment expo in the world - now going to be a minishow of maybe 5000 people. I should point out that the Penny Arcade Expo (which I will confirm that I will be at, in an official business capacity) is looking at like 12,000 attendees. 5000 means that it will be The Suits, not the devs. Not the People, Capital "P."
Let me tell you why I mourn so much for the loss of E3. I recognize it was ridiculously expensive. I can tell you from experience that the rush to get things polished and ready for those 3 days in May is fucking insane, and that the show itself was noisy and crazy and crowded and the food in the convention center was the worst and most expensive crap I've ever run across. I can tell you that sometimes lines stretched for hours and it was probably absolutely impossible for you to see everything you wanted to see. I can tell you (and you probably already know) how much I wanted to crack every goddamn "booth babe" across the face with a bat.
But E3... 2004 I went as an outsider, an ex-assistant manager at a GameStop, clawing at the gates of the industry and crying for entrance. I was amazed at the games and getting a chance to play everything before anyone else (E3 2004 was the first time I got my hands on Katamari Damacy, and when I learned to my great dismay that Final Fantasy XII was real-time) - but what REALLY floored me was that the people showing the games, by and large, where the actual people that MADE them... the programmers, the producers, the testers, the artists, the designers. People whose love of the industry was evident even when they were tired and had sore throats from talking so long, who were probably sick to death of their game only a few days before, but now full of pride in showing it off.
2005 I was there to show off my first game in the industry, worried about how it would be received, newly-fledged industry member, and suddenly I got to meet all kinds of new people, shake hands and say hey. I saw Warren Spector - I got a picture taken with Yuji Naka. I got in to see The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess by Nintendo Power because of THIS WEBCOMIC. And I met up with some wonderful people, including someone with a very busy schedule who nevertheless dropped by my booth to talk with me and give me a hug when I was nervous and made me feel like a fucking rockstar. And I got to bring a LOT of friends with me - and show them the spectacle and the fun and madness of the event.
This past year, 2006, I was more established in the industry... I had a AAA game that I was (and AM!) enormously pleased with being shown off (but not directly by me), and I had the great gift to be able to meet and hang out with kinds of people - both old friends and new. I got to see people coming back to the show after years away - people who had been attending for years - and people experiencing their very first E3, eager to soak up everything they could. I had the luxury, after 3 years of learning the ropes, to not only enjoy bits of the show, but make new friends, and - most important of all - meet up with old ones to enjoy the chaos and fun.
Do you dig me? Aside from all of my nostalgic rambling, it's a very real part of my growth in the industry, and as much as we want to keep "punk kids" out, there was something about E3 that attracted the attention of SO MANY - that the eyes of countless gamers were fixated on the news coming out of the LA Convention Center with a rabid and intense interest, and the dream of a kind of "gamer Mecca" wherein all of this was going on in ONE PLACE at ONE TIME is still something that sparks a fervent gleam of joy within even my jaded husk of self. I know more than a few people who would like to get into the industry that I am so unimaginably lucky to be a part of, and so many give up trying to get in prematurely - as I did once, until I had sense talked into me - because they feel the wall is too high, that there is no way to really TALK to people who actually make games and get some advice... so key here, ESPECIALLY when knowing someone goes such a long way to getting your foot in the door somewhere. SO much of what we do seems to be separated so much from the general public... that they have some clue of how, say, a MOVIE gets made, but no earthly idea of how GAMES are put together. For as fakey and as stylized and as dog-and-pony-show that E3 was... somehow there was something very real about it, that it shook up so many people, Suits and QA and wannabes and newbies and grizzled industry vets and put them all in one place, and for all the glitz and glam - there was something actual and REAL about E3 - for me, at least. For all its warts, as they say, there was a very real and addictive beauty to that crazy show. We will not see its like again, I do not think.
Anyhow. Take this "as thou wilt" - not to mention the deliberate and purposeful "SPIDER-MAN NO MORE!" tribute (apologies, by the way, to John Romita for my shitty art)... but it something I will miss that I think we in the industry need. We'll find a replacement - whether it be more attention to the GDC or to PAX or whatever the little "Wee-3" that it turns into - we'll see. Waiting is. And I can be patient. ::small smile::
Anyhow - enough moping from me. I will present you with a site entirely devoted to collecting pictures of cute kittens and will see you all on Friday, wherein I will bring the levity. 'Cause that's how I roll. Word.
Singing To Myself Sometimes,
Annie "Blue" C
strange how lines blur into one
- Infected Mushroom
"Blink"
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