Mark's Bottle Cap
So by this point you're probably sick of reading a North American's viewpoint of E3; what better reason to start reading from a foreigner's perspective?
Yes, it's me, Mark, the Australian E3 staffer who actually got to attend E3 2004 and E3 2005 in succession. And again, since you're probably sick of reading all of our stories, I'll try to concentrate on the highlights I experienced on each day to make it a sweeter read!
My E3 story is a little different from everybody else's. As you should know, I was living in Vancouver, Canada, for a year having left Australia on May 2004 and due back June 2005. This allowed me to make a pit-stop in California for E3 on my way home to Melbourne.
I arrived in Los Angeles a full week before E3, and thanks to my good fortune in having some great family members living in So-Cal, I had free accommodation and in the days leading up to E3 I toured around Los Angeles, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Long Beach and other parts of Southern California seeing some great sites and just generally living it up. I was staying in Long Beach during E3, having decided not to stay with the N-Sider crew at their hotel due to monetary constraints, and this provided an interesting backdrop to E3 which I'll get to in a minute.
Pre-E3 Day 1 - Sony/Microsoft - This was when I got to meet some N-Siders for the first time, namely Glen, Brandon & Jess, Chris, Adrian, and Angel. Brandon has already talked about the Sony show we attended so there's no need to mention that anymore, other than to say how bad we felt that Angel hung around Culver City for 2-3 hours while we were being given all the free food, drink, and "PS3 excitement" that we could handle. This was also the day that Angel was "spinning out" at being in the company of an Australian Filipino guy with the very uncommon (at least to him) Australian accent that I've got. After the show I also got to meet Ricardo for the first time, and re-acquaint with Justin, Ben & Amanda who I met the year before.
Pre-E3 Day 2 - Nintendo - The interesting part of staying in Long Beach was that I decided to commute to and from downtown Los Angeles via the Blue Line train, and funnily (or scarily) enough Long Beach to Downtown runs directly through Compton, which you may or may not know is considered one of the most gangster-ridden and dangerous cities in the United States, if not THE MOST dangerous. This day was the first day I'd ridden the train into the city, and on my very first train ride at 6:30AM (I had to leave that early to make it to Hollywood by 8AM to meet the rest of the N-Sider crew) at the stop before Compton 4 cops got on the train and STAYED ON for the next 5 stops. I thought to myself "man cops have to come on the train just to make people feel safe riding the train?" and admittedly I felt safer during that part of the journey because the train was going through Compton and some of its neighbouring areas. Anyway, long story short today was the day I got to re-acquaint with Dean and Josh, who I also met the year before. Highlights for me were everything! I just love Nintendo shows, and I have to admit I gasped to myself when Reggie said something like "...and I know you've never seen this before" and pulled out the GB Micro. In that instant I immediately thought "Game Boy Next", but the sight of the Micro still impressed me even though it wasn't the successor to the GBA and the PSP-killer rolled into one that I thought (and hoped).
The other random highlight was "meeting" Adam Sandler as he was having a media circus on Hollywood Blvd. and people were gathered around the Chinese Theatre area. Going home was just as interesting as getting there, once again the cops came on the train during "that" section of the blue line, and once again I felt safer with cops around.
E3 Day 1 highlights - Feeling like a chick who's just been given an unlimited amount of money to spend in one store for just the one day and not knowing where to start, I didn't know where to begin when the doors opened and practically the entire LACC was opened up full of gaming goodness to spend your entire day playing. My first port of call was of course the Nintendo booth, and this was the day when I won six Mario Kart DS races and awarded the prize (the Mario Kart RC karts) six times, to which Dean "stole" one from me for himself (he hadn't won one of his own by that point), and other people looked enviously at my swag bag full of the coveted Mario Kart RC kart boxes! By the end of the day my kitty comprised of three Mario RC's and two Yoshi RC's. It was also the day that I first got my grubby hands on Twilight Princess (after sneaking in the back way), New Super Mario Bros., Battalion Wars, and also the day when we all found out about Thursdayton and I was the only one who still believed in it the next day.
My funny transportation story of the day was seeing a pair of bums on the train trying to sell off chocolate bars for $2 each! They didn't sell very well and the two of them got off at, funnily enough, Compton station! The cops on the train didn't take too kindly to those two guys though.
E3 Day 2 highlights - This was the day I got freaking banned/blacklisted from the Mario Kart DS stand! I'd started off the day winning a race and getting that 3rd Yoshi to even out my collection, and after a few losses here and there I finally won another race, and the booth babe handed me the prize and as I got my grip on the box she began to pull back on the box. I looked up in surprise and she's like "Oh, I'm not allowed to give you this prize, you're only allowed one prize per win, I didn't know and I was just told just now by the Nintendo rep (points to some Nintendo guy)" and feeling ripped off I replied, "But I won more than once yesterday and it wasn't a problem!" And she's like, "Yeah I know but I just can't give you this prize, I'm not allowed to," and proceeded to rip the box out of my hand. At this point I didn't feel like arguing (I had, after all, already gotten 6 of them) and merely said "fine then" and walked off. I'd won fair and square and yet was denied the prize, that was the part that annoyed me, it wasn't about being greedy and trying to get that prize just for the sake of it -- it was all about the principle. Later I found out from Glen and Josh that they'd literally overheard the Nintendo rep say to the booth babe something along the lines of "Hey, I recognize that guy, don't give him any more prizes" and so I was blacklisted from the Mario Kart DS stand. I didn't play the multiplayer Mario Kart for the rest of the show.
Today I also got a picture taken with Link himself, taking my collection of photo's with Nintendo Legends to two! (I have a photo with Mario taken in Melbourne, and now this one with Link taken in Los Angeles!)
The other major highlight was being responsible for the self-proclaimed N-Forums Post of the Day with my recount of the Thursdayton event that I was present for (by this point the rest of the N-Sider crew had left the show floor to see Star Wars Ep 3: Revenge of the Sith). I was the only one who still believed in the Thursdayton so I figured I'd put a spin on the fiasco and post in the forums. I'd wager that some people, during reading that post, half-believed that I'd seen something significant. Alas, I did not and Thursdayton obviously did not eventuate.
The only other major highlight for me was having my first taste of Nintendogs. I was hooked, and I found another swag-worthy avenue for collectors with the impressive array of "dog-tags" that Nintendo were giving away simply by playing Nintendogs. I managed to snag 4 out of the 6 on that day alone, that was 1.5 hours well worth spent!
Funny transportation story of the day? No cops on the trains! I felt unsafe going through "that" section and literally did not look at a single person or out of the window during that stretch, I figured it's better not to make eye contact! Possibly a little on the "over reacting" side, but better to be safe than dead, I thought!
E3 Day 3 highlights - Ahhh, the fateful last day. The day when you try to do all the things you thought you'd have time for, like seeing other stands and playing games you hadn't looked at the previous two days. I'd pretty much seen and played everything I wanted to play, but this day was the day I'd finally gotten around to trying Mario Strikers and man I wish I'd gotten to it sooner. Ricardo and I were amazed with it when we played it two-player (I won, for the record :P) and later Josh joined us for some 4-player action and we managed to crash the game! That was amusing.
After the show I hung out with the crew at the hotel for some gaming and whooped Brandon's ass at Street Fighter :P (apparently he'd wanted to challenge me earlier but we couldn't because I was always going home on the trains while there was still daylight!) and Ricardo's ass at Mario Tennis :P. A bit of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! here, some other games there, and day turned into night.
As people started to get hungry Angel, Glen, Brandon and Jess decided to go out for some dinner so I tagged along to get a ride to the subway station. I said my goodbye's to Justin (who's also experienced the joys of the Blue Line on his way to the hotel at the beginning of E3), Ricardo, Dean, and Ben. The rest of us squeezed into Angel's Honda and as I said my goodbye's to the four of them, the last thing I heard as I closed the door was Angel saying "Be Careful Mark!!!!!" as I walked to the subway, which leads nicely to my funny transportation story of the day. It was the first time I'd ridden the train home after sunset and I admit I was a little worried at what sort of passengers I'd see on my way home. Luckily nothing scary happened on the way and even though there weren't any cops I felt alright, must've been just me being used to it. The funny part is that on each day I'd organized for someone to pick me up and they'd always be there when I got to the station so I never had to wait, except this day they came 20 minutes late and I had to hang around at the train station in Long Beach waiting for my ride while some seedy looking guy was at the other side of the station just loitering. It was quite a tense wait. All up, it wasn't that scary commuting to and from Downtown L.A. to Long Beach but it doesn't help when you hear a few horror stories that happen in areas that you travel through each day!
And that was how I spent E3 2005. E3 is a such a wild ride and there's never enough words to describe how it feels to attend, especially when your only other past E3 experience is reading about it from half-way across the world all the way down under. It was such a privilege to be able to attend, made all the more sweet by the fact that I'd come from such a faraway country and it was all down to great timing, great opportunity, and a fairly hefty airfare price!