Awesome video Mike, I love the video content and work you're putting into it. This expo certainly has some great games to take away from it, but it's been a huge bummer on the Big 3 side of things. Chiefly Nintendo. I was counting on Nintendo to bring some magic and inspire me, and I was left bored and uninspired. As you said, it began strong with Shiggy showing Pikmin 3, and Mario, but then it was all downhill and after that there wasn't anything worth remembering. They were just packing it with filler and before I knew it there was a pathetic, poorly animated, poorly sound designed, 5 second fireworks display brought to us via Nintendoland and it was all over.
You could practically feel the crowd's disappointment and deflation. You couldn't have made a more flaccid and lame ending to the conference if you tried. First of all they spent forever trying to explain how to play a Pacman clone. I'm into level design so I understand enough designer-speak to get the gist of what I'm hearing in any given situation, but I honestly lost track of what was happening and glazed over for several minutes when that asshole was doing that Nintendoland demo. On twitter I was watching it and live tweeting my reactions and I said something along the lines of, "I've never been so confused as a designer tried to explain his game to me." Once that was finished there was a lame explosion (the "fireworks display") and then the lights came up. Who does that? Don't people get paid to put these things together? Don't people have to earn degrees to get to such positions and don't they have reputations to establish or defend?
That show sucked so bad at the end and left such a weird taste in people's mouths that I can imagine it will only continue to fuel the jadedness that so many gamers and press have. I don't see how that show was suppose to inspire gamers. They had more than enough time to convince me that the Wii U is the new hotness, and they failed with that particular show. It's as if they live in bubbles and never get out to hear criticisms gaming communities have. One thing that shocked me was after the show Reggie went over to do an interview with some of Spike's people and all Reggie could say was, "I think we did amazing, and I think people are super excited." I love Reggie, but to me that's just bullshit business-talk.
A businessman or PR rep will tell you whatever the fuck they want you to hear as long as they keep it positive, paint the product in a good light, and stear far clear of any creative challenge, intellectual debate, or criticism. I hate that aspect of E3 Mike. The only time any real human beings came on stage to talk about games was Matt Stone and Trey Parker talking about South Park. All the other people from all the companies and their respective conferences were just there to spin a story, possibly rub some fanboy bellies, and pretend that everything is perfectly fine and they can't do any wrong. E3 doesn't have a backbone. It's like it's not a creative outlet or a gathering of gamers anymore. It's just a media blitz and a place where bussiness majors come to spew out the shit they are obligated to say.
The analysis, debates, and discussions all of us regularly have here at Pixlbit are infinitely more productive and honest than the crap going on at E3. And it's as if all these compaines are completely disconnected to us and don't cultivate that same experience we get to have. What's E3 even for anymore? Is it for us?
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