GETTING TO APPOINTMENTS MIGHT BE TRICKIER, BUT IT’S A FAIR PRICE TO PAY FOR SO MUCH ENTHUSIASM.
E3 welcoming the public is a step in the right direction
For the first time in the show’s history, E3 2017 opens its doors to 15,000 members of the paying public, and it’s my worst nightmare. You see, I have an appointment to see GT Sport, and after navigating my way through an ocean of bodies, I soon discover the session will be live in front of the people I’ve just shoved my way through. I can bank on not having any fans for this race.
And yet it’s a perfect example of why the public attending E3 can be a good thing. While my race in GT Sport is hardly a resounding success (I finish sixth out of eight), it provides an atmosphere that simply wouldn’t be possible if I were in a meeting behind closed doors, and it makes the experience of playing all the better. I hear the roar of a crowd as this group of journos from across the world are pitted against each other and everyone watching appreciates the spectacle Polyphony’s latest is aiming for.
But, more importantly, I can hear how much it means to the people who managed to get a ticket. There’s a mystique to this event, the one where all the biggest games get announced and titles that might not
be released for an age are waiting to be played. As someone who had always dreamt of experiencing what it might be like to be in the thick of it, I constantly sense the excitement of people who clearly felt the same as me.
Of course, it’s also a plus for the developers who head out to the show to talk to people who’ll be parting with cash for their games. Whether they receive priceless feedback or morale-boosting praise, it shouldn’t be underestimated how much it means for dev teams to interact with so many fans they would otherwise rarely get a chance to meet.
CROWD CONTROL
All that said, a publicaccess E3 isn’t a painless experience. The biggest problem is that it feels like little consideration has been given to easing congestion. Every morning of the show is a battle to get into the convention hall for my appointments. Taking on a few thousand other people who aren’t keen on what they (correctly) assume are people jumping the line makes for an awkward atmosphere as people race into the halls for different reasons.
And, really, it’s hard to escape the fact that some of us are there to work and others are there for fun. This isn’t a case of turning my nose up and pretending my job is far more important than it is. But I book appointments to see specific games weeks in advance. Missing a slot because there was a slow-moving mass of people between me and my destination still means I’m losing out on coverage for the magazine, and that’s not what I’m paid to do.
There’s no easy solution for this. With the show spread out across two halls, it already feels like space is at a premium, and finding ways to keep more of a distance between the public and journos would be difficult. Having more off-site events like EA Play that draw crowds away from the convention centre could be one solution to the congestion, but it risks undermining what makes the show special: that sense of absolutely every game you need to know about being under one giant roof. Well, that and the copious amounts of free tat.
Yet even with these issues, it’s to everyone’s benefit to find a way to make this work as smoothly as possible, and to keep welcoming the public. An E3 that gives the people who love games the most a chance to experience it is a worthy goal.