For years, the ESA has been maintaining the myth that E3's no-one-under-18 rule is strictly enforced. Anyone who has been to an E3, though, knows that, there are always a few obvious minors running around the show floor, despite the ESA's best efforts. Anecdotal text reports of the phenomenon are wide-ranging, but photographic evidence doesn't seem as prevalent (one exception). It's time to change that.
If you see any young'uns at this year's show, snap a quick picture and send it to kyle.orland@gmail.com with the words "Too young for E3" in the subject. The person who takes the best photograph will win a strategy guide for XenoSaga Episode II which the good people at BradyGames were kind enough to send me. The best photos will themselves be featured on this blog after the show. Get your entries in by midnight on Sunday, May 22, or I'm not your friend anymore.
As a side-contest, also feel free to send in your best story of a person you know or meet at the show who is obviously not a member of the "industry," as it were. You know the type I'm talking about. They use their Gamestop-owning cousin to get them a pass. They buy tickets from departing attendees after day one. They make up fake companies and business cards to get their badge. They STAND IN FRONT OF YOU IN THE NEVER ENDING LINE TO SEE THE NEW ZELDA GAME GOD YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE THIS IS A TRADE SHOW YOU'RE NOT IN THE INDUSTRY GO HOME ALREADY!
*cough*
Sorry about that. No prize for the best such story, but you'll sleep better knowing that you helped bring to light problems in the E3 admittance process. Photographic evidence of these attendees is also a plus. Good luck!
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So wait ... if I can con one of my cousins into buying a Gamestop, I can go to E3 next year?
ReplyDeleteThat's GREAT news!!!!
Well, there's always the obvious "I write for a 'website' " strategy. We bloggers are quite good as beating the system over. Deadlines keep me from attending E3 in any form, but it's quite a good show.
ReplyDeleteDespite these journalists' blustering about E3 coverage, they're just as excited about this show as anyone. You should see grown men crying about an expanded Zelda trailer. It's quite sad.
Wait, I write little videogames in my spare time. Does that qualify me as a member of the industry? If not, do I have to start selling copies? :)
ReplyDeletenot a member of the industry? you shouldn't even be playing games! i'll confiscate those, and you can go sit under a rock somewhere and grow moss, you plebeian.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against people outside the industry plying games, of course, but E3 is supposed to be a trade show. People are there to do work, and non-industry gamers sneaking in just to play game early makes it harder for them to do that work.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 13 years old, I went to the spring Consumer Electronics Show as a reporter for our local kids' news magazine. The third day we had to run all over creation to get permission for me to enter, as apparently some 7-year-old had taken a header on the steps, and they had litigation fears.
ReplyDeleteWhat was hilarious at the show was being 12 and realizing that PR people were actually blowing smoke up my ass.
It was like finding my first Playboy.
If you don't want gamers to go, then don't make the show so desirable to gamers. My dad is in the food industry, and they have trade shows too. Everyone and their mother eats food, but you wouldn't want to go to these food shows. They are boring and they sell stuff like commercial ovens and crap.
ReplyDeleteE3 says on papers that it's an industry trade show, but the whole thing is marketed heavily towards actual gamers. If it was a real trade show it would be boring and only actual game developers would have any interest in going. If you don't want us going don't market it to us. But if they're going to keep the show the way it is, then add some open to the public days. They can charge admission and make a zillion dollars. It's only fair, smart and right to do that.
I think E3 was open to the public once, when it was held in Chicago? the whole thing turned out to be a fiasco with long lines and kids running rampant! I believe it was reguarded as the worst E3 ever
ReplyDeleteI didn't get a picture, but an EA press rep very curtly shoved us out of the way to show "someone from the media" a demo of Batman Begins (ignoring the fact that we all had media badges and were actively playing the game). After we were swept off the demo machine, we were replaced by some guy and his ten year old kid. I mean, cool for the kid, but what the hell? It wasn't worth bothering to play the rest of the (rather long, and repetitive, and poor) demo anyway, but geez.
ReplyDeleteYou don't even have to own a Gamestop to be at E3 - I lost track of how many times I saw badges with "Gamestop" or "EB Games" followed by "Sales Associate" - so WTF, all I need to do is run a fuggin' cash register and I could get in? I'm insulted.
ReplyDelete~kris