This is where I try to separate the fan boy inside of me from the critic and present the actual reason why we have them. Keyword in that sentence is TRY. Just in time for E3, right?! The thing about them is that it generates excitement from everyone; from people in the gaming industry to fanboys to media outlets a plenty. It's a orgy of bright lights, loud noises, and cos-players. No matter how it's diced, I love it. But in the end, what is it all about? Here's my feeble attempt to make something out of it. Now to make justice, there are multiple cons for multiple purposes. And to give them all justice I'll just have to generalize then as best as I can. Of course I'm gonna give some examples of each generalization but it won't be of each con. That's just too damn much.
There's really two types of cons to consider, the ones that are for people in the industry to showcase their wares, and the ones that are for the fans that truly appreciate the work done. Guess which one I'm more in favor of. Let's get the industry con under wraps first. In essence it's core is for those who are within the industry to showcase their new wares to their peers and see among them is top dog. This is where CES and the likes are more prominent in that aspect. More the suit and tie aspect of the presenters and the viewers. The only flashy stuff in view is mainly the products and maybe some showgirls to model in front to draw the crowd. Ok, that I like... But as far as it's intentions I respect it. Their good in the aspect of getting to the root of why were all there ogling over all the shiny objects and pretty colors. That was what E3 was in it's infancy and it still retains such in their press conferences and product debuts for reviewers and analysts in the industry. But once you get to the showroom floor, it's a whole other story.
Now here's where I get my shit-eating grin on my face (and have a hard time getting rid of it). The Fan-Cons. They are what we the general public are able to attend (after the cost of admission) and have fun being fanboys. It's a gamer-orgasm taken form. Full of people wanting to see the next big thing and willing to wait in lines for hours to do such. It's where situations like LAN parties might engulf the patrons and cos-players are the beautiful people. Events like PAX, TooManyGames, and the open showroom floor of E3 are prime examples of such. It's where the nerdy and the chic are married into one helluva experience.
Now to make sense of how can the two coexist. Without the public wanting to display their allegiance to the developers games there wouldn't be games for us to have. And trust me we wouldn't want another 1983 again would we?!? But the whole point of conventions are to be among peers to compare their preverbal penis sizes (and nine out of ten Nintendo comes out on top; no pun intended if you read into that too much like I did). It's kinda hard to conduct business when you have hundreds of lunatic fans breathing on your shoulders. Thankfully conventions like the Tokyo Game Show and E3 are here, they're the closest things we have to marry them together. I just wish they're were more of them, but then again they wouldn't be as special. And I'm pretty damn glad to have them that way. It's like Christmas in June for us gamers. As for PAX's and the CES's, I'll respect your separation and enjoy the presences of them in their own rights.
BootLeG sampler.. signing out...
P.S. Look out for the next post and tweets on my thoughts on E3 2011.
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