The adventure that is E3!

I am sure that all of our friends at Level Up Video Games have already read all the major announcements, some of which were leaked even before the show began. So I am not going to cover these stories. There are tons of blogs you can read with all the opinions you need. What I want to share with you is the experience of being at E3.

This morning I awoke in my comfortable bed and realized that the excitement of the Electronic Entertainment Expo was over and I was back to reality. Every year for the last 5 years I have been attending E3, the biggest and best video game expo in the world. This year was no different. I packed my things on Monday and headed off for Los Angeles with my son who has worked at Level Up Video Games for the last 3 years and was finally able to attend the conference with me. We had a great time.

E3 is held at the Convention Center in the heart of downtown LA every year, across from the Staples Center home of the LA Lakers. High rises everywhere. A city where Mercedes, Porshe and Ferrari are as common as Honda on these traffic packed streets . The convention center, surrounding buildings and streets are draped with advertisement banners, some 50plus feet tall, advertising the biggest titles of the year. It truly is a spectacle to see. Downtown LA is like one big advertising mecca, there are ads on everything.

First off, when you arrive at the LA Convention Center there are always some rather large outdoor exhibits set up from various companies along the sidewalk entrances. Last year was Virgin Gaming a subsidiary of Virgin Records. This year it was NOS Energy, Saints Row and Walmart Gaming centers among the largest on the streets. Passer-bys can enjoy these displays as they are outside and not in the convention center. From NOS we had some insanely awesome car displays and DJ booth tented off with comfortable seating and free energy drinks (of which I had my share). Across the street was the Saints Row exhibit, where purple clad bikini babes were offering VIP car washes and giving away purple Saints Row T-shirts which read "I love Rim Jobs", I kid you not, I got mine. I felt sorry for the bikini babes because it was actually overcast and a bit cold in the morning and these poor women were out washing cars in practically nothing.

Moving on, aside from the hilarious and ingenious costumed characters and gorgeous models you see handing out fliers for their various companies wares, there are also the badge holder pick up tents lined up along the sides of the main entrances. As we made our way to the tents to gain access to the main facilities, one can't help but notice all the media. Camera-men and microphones are everywhere, thousands of people from all over the world speaking every language you can think of and dressed in all forms of attire from suits, to sweats, all with one thing in common, their affiliation to this immense industry of gaming.

After being fitted with your logo ridden badge from all the companies who paid to have their names adorned on the I.D. Badges, you are off to the front doors, but not before being handed numerous more fliers, and mini swag from the dozens of independents and other representatives lining the walkways.

The Los Angeles Convention Center is enormous with over 900,000 square feet of space. This place is huge and floor space comes at a high-premium for the exhibitors. Each exhibitor spends anywhere from several thousand to over a million dollars to display their products and services. From the structures, to the lighting, video and audio components, these displays are grand beyond anything I have ever seen before.

Upon entering the lobby you are overwhelmed by the shear size of the foyer. Displays from Sprint to Lord of the Rings are speckled across the main lobby. More swag, bags to carry the swag and more advertising fliers and goodies are passed out like candy on Halloween. Each booth more amazing then the next, and you haven't even entered the exhibit floors yet. There are escalators ahead and to both sides. The South Hall is the primary exhibit area where the big wigs like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are housed. Then there is the West Hall with companies like Bethesda, THQ and Activision amongst hundreds of other company exhibits.

On Day 1 the main exhibit halls are not open to all attendees until 12:00pm. So you can meander around the lobbies and hallways but you don't gain access to the main exhibit halls till then. The lines start to build at the hall entrances about 11:00am and the anticipation is ripe in the air until the clock strikes noon.

Let me elaborate here, there are essentially 4 types of badge ID's for E3. The most common being the Exhibits Only badge which is issued to attendees who work in the business as retailers or wholesalers but don't have any exhibit at the conference. The second type of badge is an Exhibitor badge, this is for staff that actually have an exhibit on-site. Third, is a Media badge, which is for all the news and blog attendees who have special access to certain conferences and other areas that are restricted to standard Exhibit Only or Exhibitor pass holders. In order to qualify for a media pass you need to work for a reputable print or online media company with no less than 8,000 subscribers a month. Lastly, is VIP badges which is pretty much the highest caliber of access. These are reserved for the biggest executives, main sponsors and special celebrity guests only. These guys have access to pretty much everything.

This year we were lucky and got hooked up with Exhibitor ID badges which meant we were let in early to the main halls prior to the noon kick-off, which gave us a little while to look around before the crowds filled the halls.

Upon entering the main halls you are overwhelmed. Lights, sounds and video overtake your senses, you catch your breath and decide which way to turn, which exhibit to see first. Decisions are made and let the games begin. There is no time to waste as lines are formed and chaos ensues. We started with Duke Nukem Forever. We got in line and entered their demo room, where we were greeted by the staff, assigned a seat and handed our choice of a beer or Redbull, upon which the demo was introduced and our first multi-player experience began. After a 10 minute match we were escorted out and corralled over to Duke's throne to have our picture taken with 2 incredibly hot Duke babes. And then on to the next, display. These displays range from a hundred square feet to several thousand square feet. My advice, after attending all these years is to wear comfortable shoes. You do a lot of walking. There are demo systems everywhere showing off all the hottest games to come for all your favorite consoles. Many of which you can just walk up and start playing, others which you must endure long-lines, kind of like being at an amusement park.

But all this fun is not the sole purpose of E3, in fact the real purpose of E3 is all business. Offices and meeting rooms are all around and business is being conducted on tight schedules. So while many attendees are there just playing games and trying out cool new peripherals and accessories, thousands of close-door meetings and deals are being ironed out.

As a store owner I am there to find new products and distributors to connect with, which for my son was not very exciting. But that's what it's really about when I attend this conference.

Being at E3 is definitely a memorable experience but the reality is that when you are reading about it on the internet or watching it on TV you really get to see more than you can ever see while you are there. There is just so much going on at once and with hundreds of thousands of square feet to cover, it is impossible to catch everything.

We walk for miles and get to see some amazing displays but in the end it is really impossible to keep up with it all. So just like all of you I do my reading on line to keep up with all the major announcements.

Don't get me wrong it is truly awesome to see and I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to go but now you get a better picture of how big this event really is.

New product announcements, getting to see up close and experience the games and technology first hand is an honor, but it really is hard to see it all, and in the end you're just happy you got to see what you did and wish there was more time (or a clone of you) to catch a glimpse of something you missed, but there's always next year!

Submitted By: Jerry Abreu