Kids these days don't get it. When I was young, there were three occasions I'd look forward to every year: my birthday, Christmas, and the Electronics Entertainment Exposition, also known as E3.
Despite being at the focal point of all video game announcements for the year, with heavy games media coverage detailing all of the booths, upcoming releases, and of course the major press conferences wherein games, consoles, accessories, and major announcements came from, I didn't realize until I actually lived in Los Angeles that E3 was actually an industry conference, and not something open to the public. Civilian gamers don't just get access to the biggest show in gaming by purchasing a pass - you have to work in the industry, adjacent to it, or be incredibly dang lucky. I just happen to be the latter.
Back in 2016, dating apps were still fresh and new, and Tinder was on fire - get it?
I had mixed luck, including the absolute worst date of my life where the girl and I sat silently in my car for the hour-long drive back from the Griffith Observatory in utter gridlock, because she asked me to tie her shoe for her and I said no. On the other side, I was fortunate enough to go on a few dates with an absolutely lovely woman who worked in the gaming industry, and while it didn't work out, we briefly kept in touch and exchange messages and gaming memes. Back when Twitter was still Twitter, and not awful, I made a post about a month before E3 exclaiming that "if anyone I know has an in to E3, let me know!"
She DM'd me not fifteen minutes later, "I got you!"
One month later, there I was at the front doors, lost in a sea of dweebs and giants, my eyes overflowing with wonder and awe that I was even able to set foot beside, let alone within, the greatest show in gaming.
I was at E3 2016.
As a semi-professional actor/bartender, I'd never really been to a trade conference, or an industry expo, so I wasn't sure what to expect from an interactions perspective. There was a large mix of mostly 20- and 30-somethings meandering around with their Persona 5 "Take Your Heart!" ID badges, and their various branded bags full of swag, some folks in business attire supervising various booths, and tons of workers wearing t-shirts respective of their advertised game or product trying to attract walkers-by to check out what they had inside.
I should have done a much better job taking photos, and I definitely didn't expect to be writing a thinkpiece about this a decade later so I didn't take many notes, but I remember the three days pretty clearly.
The first day was building my stamina and scoping out the conference. There was far too much to get through in one day - booths, lines, crowds, you name it. Most of my day was spent checking out things I truly had no interest in, like playing Final Fantasy 14 for the first and only time, teaming up with a group of however-so-many other rando's to fight the newest raid boss, Sephirot, not to be confused with FF7's Sepiroth, only for the game to crash right as we were about to win. They still gave us our t-shirt as a prize.
Back in 2016, the industry trend everyone seemed to be chasing was Virtual Reality, including apparently the porn industry. You better believe I waited about 45 minutes in line to slap on a sweaty headset only seconds after the guy ahead of me to experience incredibly visceral pornography while surrounded by dozens of other men, also waiting in line to experience incredibly visceral pornography. I didn't regret it then and I don't regret it now, though it wasn't such a positive event in my life that I'd looked for it again.
I spent a fair amount of time playing this very cool VR game called Raw Data, wherein you use swords and guns to fight off waves of robots enclosing on your central position. What I found particularly impressive was changing weapons by activating the controller while touching certain parts of your body, like your waist for the pistol, simulating a holster, or over your shoulder for your sword. Strangely, there wasn't much of a line for the game despite it being what I would consider the most impressive demonstration of the VR technology to date. Because the crowd at this booth was so sparse, I stayed for a bit and played a few rounds. At the time, I thought this was probably the best example of the future of VR in gaming - it felt like an evolution of playing House of the Dead 2 at my local bowling alley arcade - going through the motions of actually slashing and shooting my foes as they closed in on me, with the same agility that might make one exceptional at a light gun game.
I remember one of the big attractions was the debut of PlayStation VR, for the current console which at the time was still the PS4 in its middle years - I wasn't interested, as their main draws were completely unattractive to me. As we now know, VR didn't really take off, and despite a core group of dedicated users and a bunch of cringe dweebs who make VR chat their whole life, it never took off with the average consumer.
The rest of my first day was spent exploring some seemingly major franchises I'd never heard about, including Mafia and Persona, but the lines to each of these displays were so fast that I didn't feel like spending time for something I wasn't sure I'd enjoy. There was a line, however, I was ready to step into and wait in, which was my first stop for Day 2:
In the summer of 2016, the Nintendo Switch hadn't yet been announced, but shortly before the conference itself, Nintendo announced the next entry in the recently dishonored Legend of Zelda series. Following up on the poorly received Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild was the showstopper and nearly the sole focus of Nintendo's presence at E3 that year. Their space was a massive, sterile white cube with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild written on all sides, with a line that wrapped around the conference itself. Though I waited for five (yes, the number after four) hours, it was one of the best experiences I had at the conference.
Going down from the front to the end, Nintendo conscripted the legend himself, Charles Martinet, who not only took a moment to talk to people, shake their hand, and snap a photo with them, he recorded videos (check my instagram for the clip - he calls me "Supa Craig," leading to my face in the picture above) and signed photographs for everyone. I'm not kidding when I say everyone. Meeting Charles was without a doubt the highlight of my three days at E3, and the pure joy of a 23 year old man meeting the voice of his childhood hero remains a peak of my 20's.
"It's a me- Mario! With Super Craig! Let's-a Go!" -Charles Martinet, 2016
At the time, I'd recently purchased my buddy Chris's old 3DS - I'd somewhat fallen out of interest with Nintendo in the years leading up to this, skipping the Wii U and 3DS entirely up to this point. I think I was playing Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire at the time, logging a few hours here and there while advancing slowly through the line, stashing my 3DS from time to time to look around. For the first time since I owned the console, I truly got to see StreetPass working as intended, where I would ping the maximum of twenty users within minutes of closing the clamshell console. One particular user gave me a big smile:
The occasional bright spots really made the line seem shorter than it was. But a quick five hours after I arrived, I was welcomed into the Nintendo Game Cube through a giant fabricated shrine entrance, and I set foot into a life-size facsimile of Breath of the Wilds' Temple of Time.
I'd wondered if E3 attendees in years past had a similar experience, where they got to set foot in simulated environments from their favorite gaming series, or if we were just so fortunate to be at this particular E3. Everything was built perfectly to scale - a Link statue, donning his new blue tunic and armed with an ancient arrow, aiming straight for a Guardian, of which we knew so little at the time, and life size Bokoblins frozen in mischievous poses filled the room, adorned with a beautifully painted false red sky and perfect lighting to set the mood. Most notably, they even had a small "grill," similar to how Link cooks in the game, that played the jingle and the sizzling sound effects from the game, with moving pieces to simulate the bouncing of the food in the wok. To this day, I'd never experienced anything like it.
The best part of course was getting to actually play Breath of the Wild for the first time - even if on the Wii U. Remember, in 2016, the Switch hadn't even been announced! The game ran great, and I had a staff member hovering between myself and another player to guide us along and help us figure out how to navigate the massive open world. Trying to show off, I picked a fight with a Stone Talos, a massive construct faced as a boss in the game, and swiftly met my demise as it launched me across the horizon with one swing. I laughed and got back in there, trying to learn as much as I could before my brief 15 minute window was up.
The time flew by as you could imagine it would, and I was guided toward the exit where they kindly handed me some incredible swag, some of which I still have. A bright blue and white shirt emblazoned with the Breath of the Wild logo, and a real metal coin with the eye of the Sheikah, contained in hard clear plastic, which currently sits on my shelf next to my strange coin from Destiny (which was gifted to me by a random person at E3 who claimed he had "tons of them").
I ended up leaving shortly after my time spent in Hyrule, meeting with a friend for happy hour and going to an afterparty at a local bar which featured some guerilla VR technology that let you play existing titles with the visor. I remember I was most impressed by a VR-version of the recent DOOM reboot, of which I was already a huge fan, and finding it quite intense to play while my head became Doomguy's own visor.
To tell you the truth, I don't remember much about my third day. While at first the conference seemed to be never-ending, I had either exhausted my energy or my interest in exploring even more new games. Even in 2016, I felt overwhelmed by all of the new releases coming across the horizon. Armed with a backpack full of the best t-shirts and miscellaneous goodies I could scour, including an incredibly handy portable charge from Samsung, I departed from the LA Convention Center back to my apartment to get some well-deserved rest, and likely play 6 straight hours of Destiny.
As someone completely outside of the professional side of the games industry, I wonder if the lack of E3, and the networking that it brought, has been replaced by a more connected online community. In my current job, I attend various conferences to meet new people, see new technologies and learn how each part of the IT ecosystem may have an affect on another. Most valuable however are the personal connections I make at these, and from my understanding, E3 was the networking event of the year for the games industry. Does the Summer Games Fest even come close? Does Gamescom, or Tokyo Game Show? If not, what a shame it must be to leave a void in the industry.
Undeniably, the gaming industry is overflowing with top talent, to the point where a massive quantity of well made, polished, and creative games can't reach audiences simply because they're lost in the mess. It's a shame to think that opportunities to showcase small titles like E3 offered simply may not exist anymore, and one of many symptoms of an ailing industry at large.
I'm incredibly grateful that I got to attend E3 while it was still a tremendous event. I look forward to the Summer Games Fest and its surrounding announcements every year, but to be in the room and to experience the hype of the event in person, and especially to immerse myself in the booths was a surreal experience that I'll never truly forget. I even hold out hope that something like it may come up again, should the games industry ever un-fuck itself, but until then, we'll always have the memories, and the phenomenal games that came out of 2016.