I didn’t go to E3 this year. I know, you probably didn’t either. But after 12 years in a row of wallowing in the annual excess of that particular event, it felt pretty weird to be at home, reading blogs and just taking notes.
But as my jealously over all the free drinks, bag fulls of schwag and glimpses of starlets has subsided, I realize that I didn’t miss much.
Call it sour grapes, or call it a wakeup call. It hardly seems to have mattered sitting out this year. To get Shakespearian about it, E3 is “all sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Following along online the various musings of reporters better at uncovering facts than me, with better access to key players and, in many cases, just smarter news heads, I learned nothing that I couldn’t have gleaned from reading the ample press releases that poured over the wire: Microsoft ha sa motion controlled kickball game that may or may not demonstrate actual technology, Sony is going to launch another new really expensive game platform and Nintendo is just going to smugly count the money for the time being.
Oh, and Rock Band will feature Beatles songs. Except that we already new that.
So what did I actually miss by not being there? I have to face facts that E3 is a sort of Mecca for gamers, and by that, I mean it’s a spiritual center for the whole gaming enterprise. It makes people happy to think that there’s something bigger than them, and E3 is that for gamers. So I am beginning to think of E3 as similar to Christian radio. If you bother to listen for awhile, you’ll find out that they really don’t have anything new to say day in and day out, just more of the same churned over endlessly. On the other hand, if you are a believer, it must be nice to have the entire universe processed through such a narrow lens.
And just like you don’t need a radio to express a devout belief in a higher power, you don’t need to go to E3 to be a hard core gamer.
Then again, just looking at my unused E3 press pass sitting on my desk makes me want to cry.