Hot Air: Expo’d

E3 is for us.

By Aaron Roberts. Posted 06/18/2010 19:52 Comment on this     ShareThis

Hot Air

E3 is for us.

What do I mean by that? What I’m saying is that E3 is for regular people, the so-called “unwashed masses” that those mainstream media establishment elites think that they are better than. Don’t fall into the trap.

That’s why the non-E3 that they tried for two whole years before it totally flopped failed. It’s because E3 isn’t about the press, and it never really was in the first place. E3 was, and is, a trade show. What’s a trade show? I’m so glad you asked!

A trade show is where product manufacturers show off their new and upcoming wares to retailers and buyers. That’s it. It’s kind of like a car expo or a gun expo or something of that sort. That’s what the third “E” in “E3” is. “Expo.” I forgot what the other ones are for. Oh, well, it wasn’t important, anyway. To continue, the purpose is to show off the new products of the upcoming year to those who would be selling them. Over the years, people from the enthusiast media, such as Guns and Ammo or Electronic Gaming Monthly, figured out that they could get a scoop on the upcoming hot product as well, which might just be desirable to their readers.

This natural evolution is what happened with E3 as well. And the publisher started, you know, liking the attention that was brought to their products, because as we all know, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and the way E3 works, there isn’t a whole lot of bad press, is there? We’re all pumped about everything that happens there. So, really, the game makers are now using E3 as a way to show us, the consumer, what they’re coming out with next. Some are doing this better than others, as we can tell by this year’s press conferences by the hardware manufacturers. In fact, I don’t really even need to tell you how that went, as you already know who definitively won that whole competition. BAM.

When they tried to keep the general public, technically most of whom still weren’t allowed to go, from E3, the whole show turned into a non-event. You know why? Because it was just a big bunch of press conferences. Press conferences aren’t that exciting, as a general rule, and let’s be honest, here — each individual developer or publisher could have a separate press conference when ready, yes? Yes, indeed. And even the publishers were starting to not take it seriously. No one was saving big announcements for E3 because not that many people would actually be there. This, in turn, made E3 matter even less.

And there was an aspect of this that no one else even considered. You see, when lots of people come to E3, something else happens. There are lots of food, drinks, and the occasional keepsake sold at the show. Fewer people attending means fewer stuff sold, which also happens to mean less money made by the vendors, and also by hotels, rental car agencies, and the like. Now, the NBA Finals happening concurrently this year might have meant that the city of Los Angeles as a whole might not have suffered, but the ESA certainly would have, had they not made the right decision and opened E3 back up again.

If only I had managed to scrape up enough fundage to go this year…

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