Uh, hardly. Looks like keeping out gamers and focusing on business and media people is what killed it.

/RTFA

They had booth babes when they showed SSB Brawl last year at some event. Yea....I wanted to put a bullet in their empty heads.

'GET THE SMASH BALL!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!'

/Shut the f*ck up and let me watch the game.

Was the obvious tag unavailable today?

The industry threw a hissy fit because they got caught with nothing of substance to show. You've got to understand how young of an industry Gaming is, and how foreign the idea of traditional business events are to these people.

But now that a blockbuster game is a ~$100,000,000 budget project, the trappings of traditional business will have to be worn to placate the investors.

Gaming has grown up.

Well of course getting rid of booth babes was a bad idea. The majority of people who play video games are young heterosexual males who like looking at hot women. But because a few SNAGs and feminazis threw a fit, booth babes were banned from the world's most famous video game conference.

People don't want to pay to listen to hype unless there's hot girls and/or alcohol.

Dalar: Uh, hardly. Looks like keeping out gamers and focusing on business and media people is what killed it.

Dude, its a conference for journalists to get a sneak peek at what the big and small dev houses are offering in the coming year.

I think thats what was killing E3, the focus went from upcoming titles to endless rehashes of the same project with contests for which booth had the biggest tits around.

There used to be this small hallway for the really tiny devs to show off what they had, when they moved venues and ditched the small dev area IMHO the conference went tits-up.

This new direction could really bring some greatly farking needed professionalism to the whole ordeal, and bring us back to showing off what will be coming up in the next year.

booth babe pic thread!

I CAN HAS?

Conferences in general suffer in tough economic times. They're an easy expense to cut out, after all.

But, yeah, I think losing the babes might not have helped either.

If you have to rely on mostly-nude girls to promote your video games, you DESERVE TO FAIL. How about having a good product? No?

/female gamer, resents being excluded. I'd not complain if there were MALE booth babes. Eye candy for all, y'all.

NERDS!!!

Bored Horde: I think thats what was killing E3, the focus went from upcoming titles to endless rehashes of the same project with contests for which booth had the biggest tits around.

FTFY

/MARIO PARTY 47!!!

Bored Horde: The industry threw a hissy fit because they got caught with nothing of substance to show. You've got to understand how young of an industry Gaming is, and how foreign the idea of traditional business events are to these people.

But now that a blockbuster game is a ~$100,000,000 budget project, the trappings of traditional business will have to be worn to placate the investors.

Gaming has grown up.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Investors. Ruin. EVERYTHING.

Obligatory:

E3 has always been about the gamer, that is their audience. We do not want to be subjected to the same ideologies of automobile makers and sit idly by while the development process is kept under wraps. This approach might make a few low-output developers money (I'm looking at YOU Blizzard) but in the long run it is very harmful to the core identity of non-conformity that most gamers appreciate about the business side of it.

E3 is already dead, anyway. They forgot about the gamer and that's why this year is nothing but drek when it comes to the quality of games being released. For every MGS 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 there are a larger share of shovelware titles in this year than ever before.

If you can't see your target, how are you going to hit your target?

darkjezter: The majority of people who play video games are young heterosexual males who like looking at hot women. But because a few SNAGs and feminazis threw a fit, booth babes were banned from the world's most famous video game conference.

I never understand businesses that do this sort of thing. It's like car companies who make their muscle cars take biodiesel. Seriously, if someone isn't likely to be a customer, tell them to STFU.

The Icelander:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Investors. Ruin. EVERYTHING.


Congratulations on posting the dumbest comment in the history of the internet.

This thread is useless without a detailed analysis of the state of the video gaming industry as a whole.

\The whole thing has been going downhill since the demise of the FM Towns Marty.
\\Gamestop is a glorified pawn shop.

I don't know, even if E3 wasn't invitation only I would pick PAX over E3 any day.

Cut out 3/4 of your potential attendees and cut the offerings then wonder why your trade show flops? For a $500,000 consulting fee I can explain this to them.

This thread needs more booth babes.

Until it gets them, I'm going to be irrational and suggest that Penny Arcade Expo be the new home for these major developer conferences. It's simply unfeasible, but hey, that game of ball (^) made no sense.

Jedekai:

If you can't see your target, how are you going to hit your target?

Make a teleporter that slingshots around a portal world, inevitably causing gas masked alien controlled police, telepathic slugs and giant lice to take over the world in several hours, only to be saved by a scientist that looks like an orange haired version of my 12th grade English teacher?

\Know it's not saved yet, but you get it
\\waiting on ep. 3

The gamer was their oxygen! And the stupid farkers put a plastic bag over their heads!

FTA: "There were no huge game announcements,"


Huh? That's a pretty subjective statement. Maybe the author didn't feel the games announced were huge, but plenty of people did. Hello? Fallout III, Killzone II, Dark Void, DoW II, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and a shiat-ton of other games.

Is it the fact that most of these games were sequels? That didn't stop Halo II and Halo III from being regarded as "huge" announcements.

I think E3 is becoming more irrelevant as PAX and GDC garner more industry and gamer attention. PAX is for the gamers, GDC for the developers.

Jedekai: If you can't see your target, how are you going to hit your target?

Curve the bullet?

But it was never about gamers - it was about finding a cheap way to create hype. Joe gamer never went, but instead Gamespot employees and web-based "journalists" clogged the halls and (apparently) demanded less games and more tits, bands, swag and attention.

Every year more and more games were "shown" by releasing pre-rendered video and snippets of games three years away, while the spiraling costs made it more and more silly. Since the whole point was to make the sheep-like "hardcore" set spread the gospel about vaporware and empty hype by pandering to them, once the costs meant it was cheaper to just hire the usual PR flacks and bribe website reviewers there was no point to suck up to Joe Douchebag and his "industry" creds. Gamers were used then as now - the only difference is in the old way, it was easier to masturbate.

If you want to see cheesecaks, go to the beach. Not only is there a chance to meet a girl who isn't there just to sell something, but you might get some exercise and Vitamin K.

FishyFred: This thread needs more booth babes.

Agreed, I came in here for the booth babes.

/severely disappointed.

farkeruk: darkjezter: The majority of people who play video games are young heterosexual males who like looking at hot women. But because a few SNAGs and feminazis threw a fit, booth babes were banned from the world's most famous video game conference.

I never understand businesses that do this sort of thing. It's like car companies who make their muscle cars take biodiesel. Seriously, if someone isn't likely to be a customer, tell them to STFU.

Bad example. Biodiesel is not antithetical to "muscle".



Runs biodiesel, 800Bhp, 0-60 = 3.5 sec, and completely destroys a Lambo Murcielago (or however you spell that) in the 1/4 mile, and does it getting 25mpg.

Dired: If you want to see cheesecaks, go to the beach. Not only is there a chance to meet a girl who isn't there just to sell something, but you might get some exercise and Vitamin K.

I thought you got cheesecaks and Vitamin K at raves.

I loved E3. The first one I attended was before a year or two before the PS2 was released. A good time was had by all. I attended most shows until the last, and was amazed at how the show just was getting completely out of hand. A good time was still being had by all, but it was becoming a complete zoo.

Little business was being done give the cost outlays, but a lot of goodwill was being generated and excitement in the gaming community.

I would like to see the show come back. It was like the greatest arcade in history, minus the tokens.

No big announcements? If Sony pulls this off, I'll buy a PS# just for this one game.

She couldn't make it, had to clean up first...

logruszed: FTA: "There were no huge game announcements,"


Huh? That's a pretty subjective statement. Maybe the author didn't feel the games announced were huge, but plenty of people did. Hello? Fallout III, Killzone II, Dark Void, DoW II, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and a shiat-ton of other games.

Is it the fact that most of these games were sequels? That didn't stop Halo II and Halo III from being regarded as "huge" announcements.

Sadly, we've known about Fallout III since *last* E3, Killzone II is kind of a joke (again, Last E3), I read a six-page spread on Dark Void two months ago in a game magazine, Force Unleashed was announced late last year, Tomb Raider is still a weak franchise that's trying to recover from a long slew of crappy games. And we probably already knew most of that metric arseload of other games that were coming.

I think the big thing that wounded E3 this year wasn't lack of "big games" or "booth babes" but the fact that the big games were all leaked / announced / previewed well before the big show.

Of course, after the first half of this year... have you seen how many five-star titles have come out? It is going to be hard to trump all that.

Random hot chicks == good

Hot chicks dressed up like characters from video games == great

I was there.

It was sad times, let me tell you. Everyone you met bemoaned the death of Old E3, and couldn't stop talking about how small it had become.

This girl, and another working at the same booth were literally The Last Booth Babes. I think they got more interview requests than the Fallout 3 guys.

OK - mixed feelings about this here...

Let me make another comparison of E3 to a (formerly) popular and useful event for the Music industry, the Winter Music Conference (a.k.a. 'WMC')...

Many years ago, it was a place where record reps, upcoming artists, indie labels, mixshow DJs, producers, remixers, etc. could get together and talk about industry-related issues and put faces to the people they talk to on the phone on a regular basis.

Now, it's a wretched hive of bedroom DJs, blog-house dorks, internet remixers and randoes that aren't related to the industry at all. One literally has to swim through all the boat people and riff-taff to get to someone that really IS in the 'industry'.

So - what can E3 do to avoid being another WMC? I would suggest have some elements of E3 be the invite-only, industry/investor-related part and have another component/area for the gamers and small developers. Make it more INCLUSIVE, not EXCLUSIVE, but still have some modicum of separation so as not to make it unwieldy. Don't make one better than the other - just maybe a bit different.

The ONLY reason to watch E3.

logruszed: Maybe the author didn't feel the games announced were huge, but plenty of people did. Hello? Fallout III, Killzone II, Dark Void, DoW II, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and a shiat-ton of other games.

Pretty much none of that was new stuff. There were new videos, and a little bit more detail, but nothing groundbreaking.

That's what this entire E3 was. Incremental additions to the information that was already public. Not a whole lot of "new" information.

When is banning hot chicks from something ever a good idea?

hot linking

Fool_Marquis: I think the big thing that wounded E3 this year wasn't lack of "big games" or "booth babes" but the fact that the big games were all leaked / announced / previewed well before the big show.

Yeah... what you said.

WHAT ABOUT DUKE NUKEM FOREVER?!?!

The Dogs of War: WHAT ABOUT DUKE NUKEM FOREVER?!?!

heh. I laughed, then I kind of cried a little bit.

panoplos: The ONLY reason to watch E3.

Only when she's in the Princess Leia slave outfit

Fool_Marquis: logruszed:

I think the playable demo for Fallout III was a pretty big deal, same goes for a number of other games. And while I do agree with the overall sentiment of your response, leaking upcoming game development news has been ongoing for a really long time, but actually showing in-game vids or playable demos is really important. I basically disregard it when leaks happen because of how Duke has become such a huge joke (and still is), but when they show up with a playable or some real substantial screens then I feel that the announcement at that point becomes "real".

darkjezter: Well of course getting rid of booth babes was a bad idea. The majority of people who play video games are young heterosexual males who like looking at hot women. But because a few SNAGs and feminazis threw a fit, booth babes were banned from the world's most famous video game conference.

Umm no.

Women over the age of 18 are twice as likely to game as men under 17. (new window)

Batman in the Operating Room: I think E3 is becoming more irrelevant as PAX and GDC garner more industry and gamer attention. PAX is for the gamers, GDC for the developers.

I agree. Developers and consumers care about different parts of the industry, trying to satisfy both at the same time doesn't work too well.