Even if you've never attended "the show" (as it is somewhat ominously known), you probably have a pretty good idea of what E3 is like from the coverage you've seen in the last few years. It's HUGE. It's LOUD. (There are new rules concerning excessive noise this year; I am sure they will be selectively enforced.) The larger companies spend millions of dollars on gargantuan advertisements, celebrity appearances, and decadent open-bar parties.
So isn't E3 just a hype-fest? Well, yes. But that doesn't mean that some innovative but non-hyped game can't become the big hit of the show. How, you ask? How can the little guys be heard over the pandemonium created by industry pillars and their PR departments? Word of mouth, that's how.You can't get over-awed by pre-show buzz or the biggest inflatable character floating over the convention center. Rookie mistake. After the first two or three years, a games reporter has had his heart broken a few times by artificially high expectations. Let me tell you, by year seven, all that media saturation barely registers.
Our reporter just keeps his head down, goes to his assigned interviews or appointments, sneaks into the cool parties and drinks Scotch (but not his preferred brand)... and he *gossips.* Not about people, but about the games. He finds out from his friends what's cool and what's not. What works and what needs work. Which games are really fun and which are empty hype. And then he finds a way to tell all of you. That's what we intend to do. Although the show officially opens on Wednesday, for me it begins on the day of my arrival, having an overpriced beer by the hotel pool, the first time I turn to that guy I haven't seen since last year and ask, "So what's good? What should I go check out?"
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