Opinion Piece- E3 doesn't matter but I love it anyway
E3 week has gone once more and it gave us some things to love. There was a new God of War, more footage for Recore and Hideo Kojima was revealed to have officially escaped with his life from Konami. There were also very awkward moments, like that Minecraft demo but that's the joy of the show. This said, did much change after E3? Most of the games were leaked and the conferences often felt too long and countless numbers of these games will fall below expectations, probably even some of the ones I think will be shit. So if E3 doesn't matter, why do I love it so much and make the effort to write far too much on it? If only you could read below to find out.
It is pretty clear, even to moderately casual viewers of gaming that there is now little purpose to E3. For a start, leaks have ruined most of the joy and surprise I love so much about it. Half of the fun of the conferences is seeing a trailer come up and trying to guess what the game being shown is. An example of that joy came this year when what I assumed would be a Watch Dogs 2 trailer morphed into the new South Park game in what was probably the highlight of the Ubisoft conference. There are also dozens of other conferences where games are announced or shown in more depth. For example, Quake Champions was briefly shown but then Bethesda said they'd show more at Quakecon. This is no longer a world where one big gaming week makes sense but in a way, that's part of the beauty of it.
See, E3 is kind of a tradition. Before internet streaming of the conferences and Quakecon or Sony con or whatever, it was just E3. Gaming journalists would go to this conference and write down everything they saw for their magazines. I remember poring over the Official Nintendo Magazine coverage of E3 every year because there were so many games that all looked so very exciting. It's a week that got deservedly compared to Christmas because you never knew what amazing present you'd get, before drunk uncle comes along, treads on the presents and makes them look worse.
Most importantly, sometimes it's just fun to have fun. I'm a huge cynic and will be the first to talk about the ugliest parts of the gaming industry but for one week a year, it's nice to be excited. All of the demos we see are clearly either faked or exaggerated and there's something undeniably tacky about most of it. With the Scalebound demo for example, it didn't feel like those players on stage were actually playing, they were just there to provide a human aspect. Equally, I dislike many of these companies. EA and Ubisoft are companies I have zero respect for but once a year, I put that aside to appreciate what they show and then go back to being grumpy and miserable because I consider games art and EA believes you can't spell art without micro-transaction.
It's hard to explain the joy that E3 brings me when all logic states that it should be pretty crap. Sure, I'll always find a way to criticse things that happen each year but I will not stand for criticism that the conference should not exist. It's a beautiful testament to how gaming believes it is as respected as Film or TV. If they realised the truth, it would be a lot different but probably nowhere near as phenomenally ridiculous.
It is pretty clear, even to moderately casual viewers of gaming that there is now little purpose to E3. For a start, leaks have ruined most of the joy and surprise I love so much about it. Half of the fun of the conferences is seeing a trailer come up and trying to guess what the game being shown is. An example of that joy came this year when what I assumed would be a Watch Dogs 2 trailer morphed into the new South Park game in what was probably the highlight of the Ubisoft conference. There are also dozens of other conferences where games are announced or shown in more depth. For example, Quake Champions was briefly shown but then Bethesda said they'd show more at Quakecon. This is no longer a world where one big gaming week makes sense but in a way, that's part of the beauty of it.
See, E3 is kind of a tradition. Before internet streaming of the conferences and Quakecon or Sony con or whatever, it was just E3. Gaming journalists would go to this conference and write down everything they saw for their magazines. I remember poring over the Official Nintendo Magazine coverage of E3 every year because there were so many games that all looked so very exciting. It's a week that got deservedly compared to Christmas because you never knew what amazing present you'd get, before drunk uncle comes along, treads on the presents and makes them look worse.
Most importantly, sometimes it's just fun to have fun. I'm a huge cynic and will be the first to talk about the ugliest parts of the gaming industry but for one week a year, it's nice to be excited. All of the demos we see are clearly either faked or exaggerated and there's something undeniably tacky about most of it. With the Scalebound demo for example, it didn't feel like those players on stage were actually playing, they were just there to provide a human aspect. Equally, I dislike many of these companies. EA and Ubisoft are companies I have zero respect for but once a year, I put that aside to appreciate what they show and then go back to being grumpy and miserable because I consider games art and EA believes you can't spell art without micro-transaction.
It's hard to explain the joy that E3 brings me when all logic states that it should be pretty crap. Sure, I'll always find a way to criticse things that happen each year but I will not stand for criticism that the conference should not exist. It's a beautiful testament to how gaming believes it is as respected as Film or TV. If they realised the truth, it would be a lot different but probably nowhere near as phenomenally ridiculous.
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