Gaming by GlossGreen

It may surprise you to learn that like 99.9995% of gamers, I was unable to attend E3 this year-or any year for that matter. I know what you are thinking; "How does an incredibly talented and superb blogger like GlossGreen not get an invite to the biggest gaming event of the year"? This is going to sound amazing, but, I'm not actually that important in the gaming industry. Not yet at least. But, no use crying over spilled milk (or no milk in this case).

E3 is definitely one of the most covered electronics oriented events in the world. Granted, it's not as grandiose as it used to be, but it still pulls in the crowds. Gone are the days of binge drinking and booth babes (well, maybe not the drinking part), the party atmosphere, and definitely a lot of the showmanship. I remember reading about my favorite writer's escapades in the latest issue of PSM or GamePro, days, if not weeks, after the actual events happened. Then something happened to change how I got my information. I discovered the internet. I have to be honest here, up until 2 years ago, I didn't even own a computer. My news access was limited to what I could find in print, but no more. Now with sites from all the major magazine publishers, plus independents like N4G, Kotaku, Hooked Gamers, and Ripten, I have all the news I need. Almost.

It's kinda funny sometimes. I happen to visit a site almost everyday, but I can still miss something. I did that today. My wife says I'm the most unobservant person she knows (next ot our daughter), and here, she is absolutely right. I regularly visit IGN for gaming new, plus I also post these blog posts there. What I didn't notice is one of the links right on the front page. On the left side, not too far down from the top, was a link to their Live Wire Show. I had no idea what that was, thankfully, now I know.


Live Wire is where IGN is broadcasting LIVE all the press conferences from E3. I know a few other sites are doing that, too, but Live Wire looks absolutely amazing. I just watched the first few minutes of Microsoft's press conference and I have to say that seeing all that live impressed the hell out of me, and of course, my inner fanboy. Instead of waiting for the written press coverage, or days for a video, I can see the whole thing live. I get to see what was-previously-only available for those people that could attend the show. We get to see the first looks, the hands-on demos, the secrets from out of left field that no one even thought about. All from the comfort of my couch.

Does this take the sting away from not being able to attend in person? I does a little-but only a little. One of these days, I will make it to the promised land. Either that or maybe I'll hit PAX one of these days instead. Until that time, back to Live Wire.

So Why Listen?

We all see the numbers each week for sales of whatever somebody finds interesting, be it games, consoles, Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD sales, or what have you. With each of these topics, we see multiple sites quoting multiple analysts about some number or trend regarding the direction these products are going. One camp says they are tops in this region. Another says the first is lying and they are in first. The last says the second made a statement that wasn't true about widget 4. You see where I'm going with this, right? With all these PR people trying to spin their product why should be listen? What do we get out of it? The truth is most definitely something we don't get, and the numbers can lie.

If a good game, by good I mean well designed and critically praised, under sells its potential, does that mean it was a bad game? Of course it doesn't. We've all seen the results of what happens when a publisher fails to promote a game that may be a little out of the norm. We get Madden (a game that shows very little innovation from year to year) shoved down our throats each and EVERY year, but a truly unique game like Psychonauts, gets less press coverage and no on air advertising. Clearly Psychonauts was less of a mainstream game and it didn't sell very well, so if the numbers are correct it must have been a bad game. Let's look at Kane and Lynch, a game that was given not so hot reviews by pretty much everybody. The sad thing about a game like this is that it wasn't a great game (which the developer and publisher had to know) and still had a HUGE marketing campaign to back it. Conversely, we see badly reviewed games, poorly designed and difficult to play, get up in the sales charts all the time. They may not be horrible games, but they're probably not as good as an Okami or some other non-typical game. Back to Kane and Lynch, will it sell better than Psychonauts? Probably. If it does sell more, does that prove that it was the better game? Not a chance.

I've given up listening to all these charts and numbers that everyone puts out. The only number that matters in my life is little ol' number one: Me. I know what I like and what I'm likely to buy. Am I going to let Microsoft's or Sony's number games influence my buying decisions? Don't count on it.

Don't buy in to the PR schtick and stick to what you like. Let's stop crap from getting so much attention.