The E3 Experience - CELEBRITIES, Deadlines, and Sore Feet
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Well, the day started out early. Having passed the hell out the day before, today I was up and ready with fresh vigor. I got to the convention center at 8AM. The floor officially opened at 12PM, so I had four hours to mingle and socialize with other game journalists. I made some new friends in that department! We all sat around the guy's laptop as we watched first the Nintendo E3 digital conference, which took place at 9:30AM, and then followed up with Square Enix right after. Unfortunately, as most of us observed, Nintendo delivered a relatively lackluster E3 performance, with many in the media being incredibly disappointed by some of the reveals. Most people felt incredibly let down by the conference, where it was concluded that it was the year of the 3DS, with the Wii U being relatively forgotten in the distance. I can't award Nintendo for best conference this year because it sadly fell under par.
So, as far as appointments went... once you hit the show floor, you kind of don't want to go to those meetings, because they feel so transient and not worth it. If it's an interview, then hell yeah, by all means, go and get some footage! But if they're just briefly showing you something, you really shouldn't bother too much with it, because you need to remember that you're at E. Fucking. Three. It's a big deal. With my appointments for today, it was mainly just the folks at Natsume and a group called Snail Gaming, which was into Android console/gaming development.
My first appointment stop was with Natsume, which was... all the way across the convention center over at South Hall. Kill me, that walk was awful. Probably about a mile's walk. It felt like it. At Natsume, I got the chance to try out two titles - Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories (coming to Wii U, Android, iOS, and I believe PC this holiday season), and a 3DS title called Gacha Racing. The person who was kind enough to show me through the titles did a great job on selling me for the game. With Seeds, the title was extremely diverse, and is on a staggered development scale, according to my representative at Natsume. Some of my more important interview comments are below for your viewing pleasure with regards to Seeds.
As far as Gacha Racing, that title was incredibly interesting. It felt like a simpler version of Mario Kart. It's still top down, but the controls are a lot more reduced. Accelerate, brake, and combine the two to drift around a track. It was really straightforward, and the thing that interested me was the idea of the Gacha roller. In Japan, Gacha machines are used to get little trinkets. The same concept applied here. Use in game earned coins (No in game purchases needed!) to get parts, which could then be added or fused to your car in order to modify the stats. The game seems to be good at allowing customization, and the rep was telling me that there's so many options that even if you used the same root car, your upgrade paths will more than likely differ and it will lead to a changed game. Lots of stats that are similar to Mario Kart!
They then brought me over to an Android home console, called the OBOX. It looked like an OG XBOX, with shades of black and green. It played with 3D, playing Android games as well, using 3D glasses technology. I wasn't too impressed, but it did have some promise.
Anyways, from that point on it was just kind of... wandering around, picking up some small freebies here and there, trading business cards with some companies to get the site name out, but other than that, I found that today, I spent the majority of my day in West Hall. All the magic was happening there. I even got to play the new Mario Maker!!
Holy god, that title. Seriously. Where do we even go with this? The demo was pretty much unlimited. There was no time limit, and there were literally like a dozen consoles all lined up for play so that people could try. Except, for my line, two people were playing it for forty five minutes each. What the fuck, Nintendo! I was so shocked because they had such stringent limits on all of their other demos. So then, it came down to my turn! The possibilities were endless. I got to demo the new stages that debuted at the Nintendo World Championships, as well as try some other developed levels made by the Treehouse (Nintendo's secretive R&D division). That was super fun, and it becomes quickly apparent that the possibilities here are ENDLESS. There were some really sadistic maps out there, and some features that we'd never see on any stage in a standard game. And the real joy? These maps are shareable so we don't have to play the same levels over and over again! I can see this being a real crowd pleaser when it releases come September, and it was a huge hit in the crowd as well. The game was artfully done, and just being able to go through some of those OG graphics and play those custom levels was incredible. I demoed the editing feature as well, which let you basically play God and design a stage however you wanted to. The limit is your mind. You can also choose to test out the level at any time to see if it's perfect or not!
And, we get to the big moments of the day, meeting gaming celebrities. Oh my god, this was so incredible. I can't believe my luck today. So, first of all. Since we were on the subject of Mario Maker, just a small distance away was a guy demoing it with a guest. An incredible one, being the man who helped voice Mario and Luigi for the past twenty-five years. Yes, Charles Martinet was at the conference, and for giggles he was looking for audience members to see if they could replicate his trademark Mario and Luigi sound effects. I actually heard some really good ones today! But at the end, and once they were ushered off stage with their commemorative coin prizes, he was like, "any questions from you guys?"
Now, remember, I said that I kicked my shame to the ground when I entered the place. So there's me, near the front, and I just shout out, "Can I have your autograph?" Oh man, he started laughing, and the Nintendo guy was like, oh, wait! He was planning to do that a bit later, can you come back then? Charles, being the great gentleman that he was, was like, hey, not a problem, and I'll open this to fifty other guests, which were counted by a member of the security team that was present. And yes, I got an autograph and a picture, with the legend who voiced Mario and Luigi.
On top of that, this one being the biggest and most unforgettable experience. So, first of all, a bit of backstory. Nintendo Treehouse Live is ongoing at the event, taking small breaks at predetermined intervals off camera to let the next interviewees prepare (you even see teams of people doing their makeup and adjusting their hair so that they look absolutely perfect on camera which is in front of them, away from the viewers watching it on TV). Mr. Miyamoto was up there a few times today, and so, one of his interviews ended. I noticed that there was a girl who had quickly snuck up to the side door that allowed Miyamoto to exit quietly, so I quickly ran over there, and we both asked him to give us an autograph. I managed to get my New Nintendo 3DS XL autographed by the living legend himself, and it's BEAUTIFUL. Also in Sharpie, so it never will fade. Not to mention, the guard at that door wanted to shut the door, but me being ballsy, I just stuck my hand in there, 3DS outstretched, and Mr. Miyamoto did such a great thing - he smiled really widely and he basically told the guard, hey, I'll allow him, but no more. So there were a few people behind me who were disappointed, but really happy that I got an autograph.
Now, here's the REAL kicker. I came back to the area towards the end of the evening, where Mr. Miyamoto was finishing up wrapping another interview. I was waiting for it, and this guy saw my console in hand, and he was like, NO WAY, THAT'S HIS SIGNATURE! HOW! I asked the guy to trust me, follow me, and I repeated the same exact tactic that I mentioned above. The press people were like, oh heck no, Mr. Miyamoto is a very busy man, and he's got a very tight schedule. And we were both a bit crestfallen, but Mr. Miyamoto was extremely nice enough to beckon us to go under the barrier rope, and as a result...
Yep. I got a picture with Shigeru Miyamoto himself, and I got the chance to thank him for developing some of the most awesome games. The guy tagging along with me also did, and everyone that happened to see that was applauding me for being so brave to do that. It felt great. I loved it, and now I have a memory that can never ever be forgotten. One of those photos where I can show to my kid twenty years from now.
So, that's a wrap on this first official day of the show opening to everyone in the trade. I got the chance to make some observations that there were an incredibly wide mix of folk - education, retail, analysts, the military, etc. The presence of booth girls was diminished and hard to come by. I want to get a picture with Cammy from Street Fighter because apparently she does... things... if you ask for the Special Cammy Pose.
A lot of those stages you see on streams are intriguing, as they're just on elevated platforms, with the cameras away from them, and a small team of fashion stylers to make sure that the interviewees are in presentable order. It's a lot of hectic activity, and by far one of the most insane experiences that I will ever get to participate in. I barely even finished one hall today. It's insane. I walked almost twelve miles at the show today, so now my feet hurt like shit. I was so glad to be a part of the show, and even if it ended today, I met my goal! I got a picture with Shigeru Miyamoto. It still hasn't sunk in. It's insane.And with that, I'll wrap this piece up. Thanks for reading all the way through, and I'll catch you all at the next day of the convention! Twitter is sadly out of the question, given that signal is absolutely awful in the place.
Photos of my second day of E3 are below! E3 Photos - Day 2
(P.S. request Falco, slippy and Peppy Emoji's in the Gbatemp v5 request thread). All seriousness though great job meeting him, You've literally completed one of the things I've been dieing to do alongside going to Comic-Con.
