What To Do With E3 ’09?

What Will E3 Be Like For A PR Flak With No Game to Hype?

For the first time ever, I’m heading to E3 without a specific project or company to push (besides MavPR of course).

I’m not relentlessly booking (and double-booking) appointments.  I’m not debating the merits and lameness of tchotchkes, t-shirts and booth layouts.  I’m not training demo teams and booth staff in key messages, protocols, “what not to say” and who to bring to me and who to shoo along.

So what, exactly, am I going to be doing this year?  I’m flying out at my own expense to be there… so what’s the angle?

Still working on that.

I’ll be honest – I was pretty bummed about being gameless this year. I mean, what does it say that I’m not actively promoting a title in the Thunderdome that is the LACC?  Everyone on Facebook is bitching about schedules and they’re all announcing future announcements of announcements in an endless and super-elongated tease  designed to pre-warn press that they have something important to say so it won’t be absolutely lost in the hype of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

The Thunderdome of What Is the Video Game Apocalypse

Hell, that’s usually me! Something is wrong if I’m not nagging press and executive about E3, making sure we secure lunches for PD and party passes for the entire PR team.

And let’s face it – I am one of the most annoying E3 workers in the world.  I book like an asshole – last year I filled three days of meetings (off site!) in only 2 days of booking, and that was 4 days before the show!  I’m usually the guy pitching the poor judges on awards for my game a month before the show even opens.

So ya, this year with no insane prep work required, I felt a bit left out of the annual craziness.  But, I gotta tell you, as the show gets closer, I’m feeling more and more freed by the lack of constraint.

Look at it this way – I’ve never actually SEEN E3.  My experience at E3 has been very limited in the decade or so I’ve been going.  I stay in one central booth area, I carry a packet of papers with a schedule, I watch the time and rotate meeting rooms.  Essentially I see one game – my game – and nothing else.

People always say, “Wow! You got to be at E3!  What did you see?!?!”  And the truth is… generally I don’t see anything.  I get see my friends and colleagues for 15-30 minutes before shuffling them off to their next meeting and then I see them again at night in a drunken haze, but I don’t think I’ve ever had the time to go into the Nintendo booth, for example.  I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a controller and played a game at someone else’s booth.

Despite An Impressive - And Haunting - Set of Reminders Above My Desk of E3s Past, I Really Haven't Seen Much of The Show

So as the show gets closer and closer, I find myself becoming more excited about heading in with the ability to see everything, to talk to everyone and to get a full grasp on the show and the industry.

I’m going to play the new games.  I’m going to talk to the PR people and the press in the halls without being rushed.  I’m going to go see the weird hardware.  I’m going to really appreciate what E3 has to offer.

With this newly discovered freedom, I’ve been toying with the idea of “covering” the show in some way.  I haven’t wrapped my head around exactly how I want to approach this.

I may play a bunch of games and write up some impressions or I may try and cover the show from a PR perspective, noting the interesting booths, announcements, and storylines of the show and trying to guage from colleagues and press the effectiveness of the revived spectacle.  In the end, I may end up doing both – games on this blog and PR on MavPR.com.

Any thoughts on what I should do?  Share ‘em.  I’d love to hear thoughts.

And at the very least I’ll be shamelessly promoting MavPR and our PR services to industry leaders.  Really… you should think about it too.

E3 2009 is going to be a totally new experience – I expect it will be pretty damn fun.