Reports

So, I went to E3 2011 Day One today! I am just a person. Here is what there is to report.

I attended PAX East, checking out upcoming games and meeting great people. That last one was a bit more difficult thanks to the enormous size of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC), but that size made panels much easier to get into and allowed for an expanded and much nicer exposition floor. In case you weren't there, here are some impressions.

Another year, another great PAX. If you've never been to the Penny Arcade Expo, it's debatably the best gathering to celebrate videogames and videogame culture on earth. E3 might win out in terms of sheer size, number of parties, and the incredible quantity of games on display, but PAX has never attempted to be direct competition. Instead, this convention focuses more on the gamers themselves, and in doing so, has become the preeminent place to be a gamer.

For me, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is a giant, growling contradiction in terms.

Every year I attend the behemoth celebration of digital entertainment and culture, and I just can't process the massive, public scale of this thing. The towering screens and throngs of people tell me that this is a business like any other—one that's loved by millions of people, and one that makes millions of dollars. Games are more popular and more prevalent than ever—without question. If that's the case, and it is, then it's ironic that it's always felt like such a solo endeavor for me over the years.

Yes, gaming is social and I've spent countless hours playing and discussing it with my friends and colleagues, but at the end of the day, games remain a lovely pastime that's processed by yours truly as the quest of a man alone. It's time spent by myself. If you rearrange the letters of "Quality Time" (and delete a few) you get "Quiet"... So, the loud, flashy marketing blitz that is the Electronics Entertainment Expo stands in the face of my lifetime of experience.

So, with these overwhelming feelings running through my head as a counterpoint to the throbbing crowds and masses of fans eager for their electrons, I submerge into the depths of E3 to bring you my news and impressions; the halting, limited coverage of a solo gamer set adrift on the convention center floor.

Enjoy.

That elusive, Sasquatch-like gargantuan has slipped into the woods once more. Yes, despite its immense size and broad scope, all three days of E3 managed to disappear without warning. Somehow, somehow, the darn beast got away from me with some of its treasures locked away; with some of its stones left unturned... Ah well, now that it's over, I've something to look forward to—next year's show.

No one wants to be outdone in life, so it would seem that keeping up with the Joneses will never go out of style.  A perfect example? The PlayStation Move. Since its announcement, the Move has never seemed more than a "me too" device to compete with Nintendo's massive Wii marketshare.  The official word, of course, has always been "Just you wait, Joe Gamer."  Well, now's its time to shine­—it’s time to put it all out on the line.

Every year I attend the behemoth celebration of digital entertainment and culture, and I just can't process the massive, public scale of this thing. The towering screens and throngs of people tell me that this is a business like any other—one that's loved by millions of people, and one that makes millions of dollars. Games are more popular and more prevalent than ever—without question. If that's the case, and it is, then it's ironic that it's always felt like such a solo endeavor for me over the years.

On April 8, Sony hosted an event in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood in honor of the new PlayStation 3 Move controller and its games. I was fortunate enough to attend the event with a number of other local press folks and snapped a few pictures in between scarfing hors d'oeuvres.

Since this was my first year going to a conference as a family unit (mommy-daddy-baby) I decided to skip most of the presentations and after-hours events. My little boy was great on the exhibition floor, but I didn't want to push my luck… or his endurance. Since I don't have much to say on the other events that occurred (and boy, there were an absolute ton of them) here's my final rundown of the games I saw and played.

Today was the first day of PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) 2009. I have to admit that I hadn't really been paying attention to many of the press materials prior to the show, and I was a little taken aback when the family unit and I arrived on-site to find that the place was an even larger, more spread-out roil of gamers than it was last year. I think the expo may be reaching its critical mass at the Washington State Trade & Convention Center, honestly. I certainly don't want it to leave, but I have a hard time imagining more people being able to cram into that space.