The Answer to “Don, How Was E3”? – Part 1

I was asked quite a few times, and always tried to answer the best I could, “Don, how was E3?”. I know it is a month later, and this has become mostly irrelevant, but hey, I like to type and I’m bored. Why isn’t this going on Vagary? I waited too long, to be honest.

Attending E3 is one of the biggest achievements a gamer can unlock, only unlike XBOX Live achievements, this one is real. Outside of getting a job in games writing that pays or a job working PR for a big game company, this was the bar I set for myself a year ago. But enough rambling. Each part of this mini-series of sorts will cover a day. That gives me more time per-post to recap as much as I honestly remember and hopefully keep your attention.

Monday is when my fantastical journey in LA began, though E3 technically starts on Tuesday. After waiting at the airport for an hour and a half for my companions to show up, we took a taxi to the hotel to drop our bags off. Now, I’m from Oklahoma. The city I live in, Bartlesville, has a taxi service, but I have only seen it drive like any normal vehicle. Taxis in LA are a completely different story; they speed and hot rod like I did back when I was young and dumb. I never understood why the game Crazy Taxi played the way it did until my trip to LA.

Our first conference was EA at the Orpheum Theater. Yes we missed Microsoft and no I am not going to recap EVERYTHING. When we got there, we looked at each other in disbelief and walked to the back of a line that quite literally wrapped around the building. “There is no way all of these people are going to fit inside”, was my thought as I frowned and looked at my bar code for admission. Of course, I was wrong. That building fit all of those people and once the door opened it was actually a quick process to get to our seat. The conference was fun, though, and being there makes the spectacle that much more enjoyable. Not much was shown that had me overly excited or surprised though.

Next was Sony, and we managed to find a free(!) shuttle to their location. We still had an hour until check-in at 4pm, and we were all incredibly hungry. At this point, I had only had peanuts from the plane rides that morning to eat. Anyone that knows me will be shocked and probably reading that last sentence a few times. We decided to skip food (though I don’t recall why) and got in the long line for Sony’s conference.

In hindsight, we didn’t need to be in line. Once 4pm hit, since we had our passes, me and Kyle Baron (I never introduced my cohorts Kyle and Royel Edwards. :D) meandered into the large fenced off area Sony had outside. An open bar and vendors lining two walls had us drooling. Again, we were parched. We got to stop and chat with the guys at IGN (Greg Miller and Colin Moriarty), which was a real treat. It was more than just a handshake which made the experience a little more surreal. Doing games writing for a small site, you look up to these people to a certain degree, at least I do. So having them just chit-chat for awhile and not brush us off like the nobodies we are was nice.

I believe at the end of that two hour long pre-event party I only consumed three dishes of food and two beers. Disappointing, right? We filed into the building at 5:45 and I prepared for the one show I had to see. I will say, Sony did have one helluva show in regards to light and sound. The Wonderbook thing was cool and the only thing new that interested me, but I have to agree with the majority, it did run a little long, especially after the short amount of time devoted to the Vita. Oh, and PSOne Classics “COMING SOON”! YES. Except, a month later, and I haven’t heard anything else about it.

We got back to the hotel and met our non-Vagary roommate for the week, Justin. Justin is a freelance writer with an unusual personality. He says what he thinks, and had me laughing quite a bit. He’s actually on a crowd-funded trip across the country to visit various studios and has had to sleep on the streets a time or two, so you should not only go read his work (his writing is as entertaining as his personality) but donate to him!

Gamer-Unplugged

That wraps up the first night. We went to bed relatively early. I did not have to share a bed all week, as Justin opted to sleep on the couch. Stay tuned for part two coming in a day or two. Hope you enjoyed. If you have questions or comments, there’s a spot for you below. 🙂

<3,
Don Parsons