No Winners, No Losers

I had fun at E3, although given I was there to do mostly industry-focused coverage, I kind of scheduled myself pretty intensely and got surprisingly little time to actually play any video games. So now that it's over, it's time for the usual post-event discussion: What were the "best" games on the floor? Which platform-holder "won"?

...How the hell is anyone supposed to answer that?

As exciting as the event was and as keyed up as I got about a lot of the things I saw from a consumer standpoint, I've got to agree with Mitch Krpata's healthy pragmatism. I mean, sulking through the entire week's presentations because it's all so manufactured is no fun. But at the same time, when I'm asked (and please, stop asking me, I'm a bit tired right now!) some of these "best of E3" type questions, I find myself coming up short.

I hate being asked what I thought of a trailer. Um, it's a trailer? It looks cool, of course, what else am I supposed to say? And I hate the "biggest disappointment" question even more. How'm I supposed to be disappointed by a game that didn't even come out yet, or by the revelation of some technology or other that's at tightest minimum three years away?

In my opinion, it's simply too early to judge with the information we're given. Even if we're watching a gameplay demo and it looks fairly meh or fairly typical, a meh-typical game could still turn out to be glorious, stupid fun once you get your hands on it (no one expected Crackdown to be as awesome as it was -- in spite of flaws -- right?)

And even if you're getting hands on with something that has an awesome game mechanic that looks visually good, and you play an entire level, that still gives you no insight on what the macro view of the experience is. Games can live and die on their pacing, and you just can't get a feel for that in a booth demo.

And when it comes to Microsoft versus Sony versus Nintendo, it's even more of a big question mark. The tech they showed is hardly imminent, firstly, and secondly, who "wins" depends on the implementation. Announcements of first-party exclusives are always cool, but again, you're even less likely to be able to tell if it's a real value add based on just an announcement and teaser.

I tended to say I liked Sony's presentation best, just in accordance with my own tastes as a player, but there are so many variables that you'd be hard-pressed to get me to say what, if any, advantage the PS3 now has. In fact, from a business perspective I'm still putting my vote in the Microsoft corner until the day comes that hardware install bases start to shift. Who knows what'll happen?

And I'm only comparing Sony to Microsoft and neither to Nintendo, because Nintendo is obviously going to keep cornering the same market it has been. Whether either of the next-gens can tap into Nintendo's dominant mainstream is an essential unanswered question, so all one can really do is mull who's winning mindshare in the core market. And mindshare helps, but it ain't gonna feed anyone's kids.

Am I saying E3 is pointless then, like many do? No way (although I do understand their argument). Even though I pretty much loathe hype-speak, I think the volume and spectacle is important for industry PR. And even though I think that it's useless to the press when we just regurgitate it all blindly, I do think there's the opportunity to do useful coverage and pick out interesting trends. For me, I learn a lot from the audience response -- a lot of what I write and don't write, and look at versus overlook, depends on what the community reactions are.

Just don't ask me to pick a winner. Sure, I'm more interested or optimistic about some of the games I saw than others, but that's entirely an expression of personal enthusiasm, and not any kind of qualified opinion on whether or not something's likely to be "good." It's the same kind of challenge writers (and readers!) have with "preview"-type coverage, and I can't tell you how many times during E3 week I was glad to be mainly a trade writer and not the sort that writes previews.

Anyway. My opinion -- and that's all it is -- is that E3 isn't pointless, but using it to determine what is and isn't a game-changer is.

So rather than ask you, "which of the Big Three won E3," I'll ask you which presentation interested you the most, and rather than ask you which was the "best game" slated for the coming year, I'll ask you which you're the most excited about. Fair?

Oh, and if you need refreshment, we've rounded up our major coverage at Gamasutra, from the press conferences to the platform-holders to the major publishers. Take a look!

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