E3 Approaches: Growing Up With E3

The fact that E3 exists really amazes me.

The fact that our society has such an excess of "needs" that we can warrant and justify to ourselves that a convention of E3's size and sheer magnitude can exist for the sole purpose of videogames is kind of hilarious to me. Over 45,000 people flew in to LA last year from all over the world just so that they could pile into a packed convention center, play some games, stare at some booth babes, and then blog about it.

It's fucking awesome.

I had two big events that I would look forward to as a kid: Christmas, and E3. I remember my brother and I would count down the days until Nintendo's big E3 press conference (because really, who really cares about what Sony and MS have to show off :P), like literally drawing "X"s on my calendar with a big red Sharpie, getting more and more excited as the conference would get closer.

We didn't have internet access at our house until just a couple years ago, so the only way we got to the see whole "news" side of the gaming industry was through my Nintendo Power subscription and Morgan Webb & Adam Sessler on X-Play. And G4 has always had really good coverage of E3. They would have on show demos with the developers as guests, and lots of cool features and funny videos and stuff. My mom was even cool enough to let me skip out on school a couple times to let me stay home and keep up with all the hubbub going on on TV.

When I think about it, E3 is an escape. It's easy to just lose yourself in the excitement of it all. Watching the (almost celebrity like) game developers get up on their stages and talk about the things that they've been working their butts off on for the last year is exciting! Remember when Nintendo showed off the first trailer for Twilight Princess? I do! EXCITING! (I took the liberty of embedding said video for your trailer watching pleasure below.)



Moral of the story is, kids: E3 is just as exciting for me now as it was when I was a kid. I can't wait to see what Project Cafe is actually going to be like. I can't wait to see the hilariously bad jokes Jack Tretton is going to make regarding the PR fiasco some people like to refer to as "PSN".

And most of all, I can't wait to see Cammie Dunnaway make a complete ass out of herself on that stage, pretending that she knows shit all about videogames.