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How I learned to stop stressing and enjoy E3
Just take a deeeeeeep breath, Vic.
I remained calm. Before I left for Los Angeles I vowed that this year
"the tradeshow that never sleeps" ™ wasn't going to get the best of me.
Before I entered the ludicrously enormous LA Convention Center, I took
in a deep breath and braced myself for three days of straight down on
the longest, fastest roller coaster I know of. E3 can kill the unprepared.
Since this was my sixth visit to the tradeshow(!) I felt confident that
I knew what was in store for me. I remained calm.
Draggin' stuff from hall to hall to hell
 The
thing about covering E3 for the EP television show is that somebody has
to carry around all of the heavy electronic crap it takes to actually
record the event on videotape. And, because we're documenting E3's events
on professional gear, the weight of said electronic crap is astonishing.
A Betacam camera weighs in excess of 30 pounds. The camera's tripod adds
an additional 25 pounds. Throw in a heavy battery belt for camera lighting
and extra batteries to run the camera. Add a small lighting kit that weighs
around 40 pounds in a heavy-duty lighting case that weighs another 40.
Then pack around all of the gear on big heavy hand-trucks and we're talking
in excess of 200 painful pounds of TV equipment. Oh and don't forget all
of the paperwork and media information that covering E3 provides. Even
the stupid Beta SP tape that the EP crews have to lug around is heavy
and cumbersome.
Okay, my deal is that as one of the on-camera interviewers for Electric
Playground it doesn't fall to me to carry all of the TV junk (thank god)
but I still had to look into the sweaty, struggling faces of my teammates
as they would drag dead weight from one interview to the next. My heart
would break every time we had to pack up and shove off. And that's when
I noticed them…
The
video kids
What
was up with E3 this year? Everywhere I looked I saw young 'uns packing
around digital Handycams, recording gameplay footage, interviewing game
company spokespeople and generally videotaping an event that I felt Electric
Playground had all but secured exclusive rights to over the last five
years. When we started EP, we were pretty much it in the video coverage
department but not anymore. E3 2000 was a breakthrough year for two things:
portable digital recording equipment and the youth of the users behind
these devices.
 It
wasn't without serious envy that I watched my youthful competitors take
in E3 with the carefree giddy abandon that comes from having less crap
to pack around and lots and lots of cool new stuff to check out. Their
perfect smiles, spiky hair and tiny, virtually weightless cameras really
pissed me off. Not only were these one-person crews able to record all
of the show on high quality tape but because of hassle-free set ups, these
intrepid digital directors were also finding the time to actually play
some of E3's game offerings--a feat I long ago gave up the possibility
of when traveling with the bulk and heft of professional equipment. Over
the course of E3's three days I grew to hate these video kids with a rampant,
feverish jealously I'm ashamed to admit.
Sigh. So the cameras are smaller and the operators look like photos from
my high school yearbook, what do you do? It's a new age. There was no
sense in getting upset over progress. Besides, I had a job to do. I remained
calm…on the outside.
Cycles
At the first E3 back in 1995, there were two brand new systems introduced
to the world: the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. Both of these
platforms were ushered in with the hyperbolic force of a fierce Midwestern
tornado. Promises of world-changing 3-D polygonal graphics and extraordinary
gameplay opportunities were disclosed at press conferences glutted with
optimism and innocence. Before E3 1995 had commenced, Sega was on top
of the videogame world and Sony had yet to prove itself a competitor.
By the time the three days of the first Electronic Entertainment Exposition
had come to a close it was obvious, to even the most uneducated observer,
that Sega's Saturn was in for problems while Sony and its sexy new PlayStation
looked poised to grab the videogame industry by the tail and shake it
around some.
 Cut
to E3 2000 and the imminent launch of Sony's second videogame system,
PlayStation 2. Not content to let Sony hog all of the limelight, other
booths and press conferences revealed Sega's continued efforts to turn
Dreamcast into a household name through innovative internet gaming, Meanwhile,
Nintendo observed their coy "you show us yours and we'll wait, but in
the meantime here are six or seven games that will make us a fortune"
tactics and Microsoft continued to assure us that once they deliver their
X-Box, life as we know it will be changed forever. Exciting stuff. The
stuff, in fact, that E3 was made for. Still, despite all of the hype and
hysteria that accompanies the evolutionary passing from one technological
generation to the next, something felt odd at E3 this year.
This time, despite the aggregate youth of those in attendance, innocence
and optimism were not the adjectives hovering in the air at E3's press
conferences. Sure the expo was filled with wide-eyed first timers that
were happy enough to have an admittance ticket let alone have the opportunity
to test out tomorrow's game products today. But thanks to the proliferation
of information so quickly and readily available to even the most casual
game player, the audience at this year's expo seemed more primed for disappointment
than ever before. Even the youngest faces that I observed had the obvious
tone of "prove it!" written all over them.
As ever, some extremely large promises were being made at E3 this year.
The spokespeople talked of massively multiplayer communities playing multi-genre,
fully three-dimensional and physically accurate, beautifully textured
videogames on internet connected consoles that boast super high resolutions,
impeccably fast frame rates and all sorts of impossibly cool control flexibility.
For the most part, however, what was seen on the copious amount of monitors
in the halls of the convention center was not dissimilar to the 32- and
64-bit product that has been filling monitors since 1996. Again let me
preface this observation with the admission that I had little time to
actually play anything at E3 2000. I can only go on what few games I did
test out and the vocalizations of my friends and colleagues who also attended
the show.
 Yes,
there were games that stood out: Conker, Metal Gear 2, Halo, Timesplitters,
Dynasty Warriors 2, Spiderman, Deus Ex, Renegade, etc., but at E3
this year, there were another 2000 games that didn't stand out whatsoever.
This is nothing new to past attendees of the loudest videogame carnival
on the planet but it was discouraging to witness the much touted 128-bit
generation fall into the same launch title pitfalls that plagued the last
generational shift.
What did I learn at E3 2000? The Dreamcast will have Internet ready games
this fall. The PS2 will ship for US$299 on October 26th. Rare has developed
a mature rated game with a kooky sense of humor and Nintendo is going
to run all the way to the bank with it. Next year, Microsoft is going
to stop at nothing to own the console gaming market share. PC gaming,
despite rumors to the contrary, is not quite ready to curl up into the
fetal position and die. I also learned that videogames have never been
so well covered and that I have to start paying more attention to all
of the digital camera commandos the web is providing an outlet for. Did
I play or see or hear about any videogames that were so engrossing, so
perfectly realized and so fantastic they would make me forget that I was
playing a videogame at all? No. I didn't. Even though everything looked
really pretty, the gameplay experiences all felt pretty familiar. I didn't
think it was possible at E3 but despite the flood of announcements and
cool new technology on display, this year I remained calm.
Oh
well, maybe next year I'll lose my self control again.
Victor Lucas
Executive Producer
Electric Playground
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My
highlights
The
Sega
booth
In
all of my visits to E3, I have never experienced a booth with as much
punch as Sega's this year. Entering through a hi-tech, "It's thinking"
space tunnel, willing participants were funneled out to banks of DCs
connected for online game testing. All around the booth danger-decibel
noise pumped out of speakers. To the left, a vast concert stage allowed
performers the opportunity to bounce around for Sega's captive audience.
Behind the stage in the Space Channel 5 zone, five go-go girls perched
on tiny balconies swayed and wiggled in time with the digital dancers
in Sega's crazy new game. Everywhere you looked the color and intensity
of Sega's aggressive fight to maintain the public's attention was overwhelming.
Metal Gear Solid 2
Meeting and chatting with Metal Gear Solid director, Hideo Kojima, was
one of the most exhilarating events at E3 this year. In front of me
sat as talented a storyteller as this industry has ever produced and
yet here he was modest and eager to let the world know that nothing
is as important to him as challenging the preconceptions that people
have about videogame entertainment. Metal Gear Solid 2 will deliver
but we'll have to wait.
The Nintendo press conference
Nothing about Dolphin. Nothing about Game Boy Advance. All that Peter
Main, Minoru Arakawa and Ken Lobb discussed were a series of Nintendo
64 and Game Boy Color titles that the company plans to release in 2000.
One of them involved the nastiest little cartoon squirrel you could
ever imagine. The audience was equal parts mesmerized and hysterical.
James
Bond & the ongoing effect
of Goldeneye on the games industry
I'm already knee deep into Perfect Dark and loving it and still I have
PSX, N64, PS2 and PC versions of The World is not Enough to look forward
to and a brand new PlayStation 2 disc from some of the team behind Goldeneye
and Perfect Dark, Timesplitters. Not only that but EA's also going to
be delivering a James Bond Racing game with all of the Bond cars featuring
the Need for Speed engine. It's a good year to be licensed to kill.
Some
specific titles that more than caught
my attention at E3 2000:
Conker's
Bad Fur Day, Renegade, Deus Ex, EA's NASCAR on the PS2, Gorkamorka,
Dynasty Warriors 2, Jet Grind Radio, NBA 2K1, Sled Storm PS2, EA's NHL
Hockey 2001 for PS2, Mario Tennis, Mickey's Speedway, Dungeon Siege,
Starlancer on the Dreamcast, FIFA 2001 on the PS2, Spiderman, Gunslinger,
and the new Galaga from Hasbro.
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Renegade
Deus Ex
Dynasty Warriors 2
Jet
Grind Radio
Mario Tennis
Gunslinger
Starlancer
Spiderman
Galaga
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> Final Thoughts From an E3 Veteran