Taking the subway

David Thomas of buzzcut.com, writing for the Denver Post, has penned a beautiful meditation on the state of the games industry. In the piece Nobody walks in LA Thomas reflects on E3 as a celebration of dreams: where lies are mixed with the desire to be lied to, and where mere bits and bytes - sometimes - are transformed into something wonderful.

Comments

[J.]

1.

That's a right positive outlook, considering he didn't write anything about what actually goes on within E3 (and in fact his nut graphs are all about him being sick of the hype, or in his words, "I’ve grown a little tired of the simple hit lists and best ofs,") and instead chose to write about crazy people on a subway train.

I'd say he misses the Promised Lot as much as I was glad it was there during the two years I went to E3 (2000 and 2001.) And people mocked GODGames for mocking the whole premise of what was going on inside.

I agree with the conclusion, but I note that he leaves out the conundrum that plagues the industry -- only /some/ people's dreams are being made into reality, and it's increasingly difficult to find people who have good ideas, good execution and enough money to get the job done right. You might have one or even two down, but rarely three.

Furthermore, since I've already taking a meathook to the romanticism here, it seems worth pointing out that at E3, some games will reach their peak performance. There, presented in well-crafted demos and couched in the thin rhetoric of hungover developers and booth babes, the heart and soul of what the games /could/ be is presented in all its hazy glory. Journalists, reviewers, fans and business associates are left to ponder in their hearts how much of their imaginations will prove true after they carve open their shiny boxes and run the installers. At that point, the dream's over.

Maybe I'm just impatient about columnists like this getting ink in a major daily newspaper for what's plainly a slapdash whimsy tale that doesn't really say anything about anything. It's the typographical equivalent of CNN's past treatments of E3 -- a wide pan shot of West Hall's floor, a few shiny people watcher shots, and a wrapup by a talking head that tells next to nothing about games, the industry or what either are all about.

From what I read on buzzcut.com, that seems to have been the goal -- "The piece doesn't mention a single game, publisher, developer or platform. But does fit in a reference to Zeppelin's Tangerine." Sadf.

Fact: I had my copy of "Before You Were Punk Vol. 1" by Vagrant Records, including the Hagfish cover of "Walking in L.A." during E3 2001. The column title brought back some memories. :)

[J.]

2.

Sorry for the multiple posts.

[ren]

3.

J> Sorry for the multiple posts.
That's ok i just removed the duplicates.

[Jeff Lotton]

4.

Having grown up in SoCal, I have learned to avoid LA at all costs. My current cop-out/compromise is San Diego.

I for one was looking forward to something specific about E3, not pining about LA.

Anyone got any news about e3 ?

JHL

[Mr. Poppinfresh]

5.

This was the first E3 in a few years that was actually worth going to in terms of interesting copy for my website. I'm not so sure that's due to any special "maturing of the industry" event, because in a lot of ways that so-called maturation involves bullshit like incompetent suits calling the shots in place of immature, but at least at times clued-in, developers.

I think things are just too messy right now to make any grand statements about how things are. Developers are still, by and large, sex-obsessed children, and the suits are still, by and large, idiots. Give it five years to pan out before I have an opinion on the subject. Until then, I'll just be posting my annual E3 coverage same as always: what I liked, what I saw, and where I got drunk.

[weasel]

6.

Im with J: this may have been well-written, but it was completely vapid.

Perhaps that's the parallel we were supposed to derive, and he's more clever than we're giving him credit for (but i doubt it). At E3 everything looks and sounds good, but when you stop to think about it: it was a giant waste of time -- alot like reading the article.

[J.]

7.

As seen on Jeff Freeman's blog, Alex Mars of Catacombs.com did a pretty good (and funny) catch-all report.

http://daoc.catacombs.com/forum_news.cfm?Forum_thread=90587&Forum_action=ReplySubmit&forum_pagenum=1

[Mia]

8.

I was actually happy to read something about E3 other than the same old, same old list of great games, sucky games, and games that failed to show up. And of course that all just means demos and trailers, really. I think these days with the saturation coverage, there's no need to be 'one size fits all' with coverage either, and as others point out, there are plenty of other places to check out for a different view. I'll plug another-- Ian Bogost's excellent reporting on the Education Arcade in particular, over at watercoolergames.org.

Now back to the dreams...