How To Be A Core Gamer When You Work 8 to 5
I’m not sure about tomorrow, but today worked out perfectly.
Since I’m still a core gamer and I still am willing to watch a stream of Nintendo’s pre-E3 press conference. Needless to say… this isn’t easy with an 8 to 5 job. I had to take a special type of break, and also write a killer ad copy while watching Aonuma-san talk about how revolutionary the Revolution will be.
Oh yes. Something you may not know about me: I’m a core gamer.
That’s means that – in far too many ways – I’d be in the top 5% of customer segments for the three major video game companies.
I buy more video games a year than I’m willing to admit. Although, in my defense, a high proportion go unopened, or opened and rarely played (if I do take a peak at the instruction manual and marketing materials).
It’s kind of a hobby that’s become more about collection and an eventual career objective anymore. I’ve never grown out of wanting to work in the industry.
I went to E3 last year. For those who aren’t in the core gamer club… that’s the industry trade show that’s held annually in L.A. The Electronic Entertainment Exposition as organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The industry lobby group/watch dog; the MPAA of games.
I went during my unemployed week. The random nine days between when MGIS “let me go” and I started my short-lived career as a computer tech. I was there as a reporter for Nintendojo.com.
E3 was a mixture the thrill and the biggest letdown of my life.
Why it was the thrill of a lifetime: I was able to be there in person.
I saw first hands the neon lights. Felt the awful techno music. Walked through the randomness of Kentia Hall. Played games before any normal, average person had the chance. All and all… I was able to be part of this interesting – and overwhelming business-based – trade show that I’d read about since I was six years old.
Why it was the biggest letdown of my life:
I was with Zack – an awful, brainless automaton who is one of the most ignorant, unlikable people on earth – 90% of the trip. Zack is the kind of person who asked me to chip on a pizza I didn’t order and didn’t eat five minutes after I met him. He greedily took any freebie that was available at the trade show. Had substandard personal hygience. Too much body hair. And was an average Arkansas Republican (to be?) from a small town who, traveling on his parents’ buck.
There isn’t enough I can say about why he made my trip awful. I’ll summarize saying his presence made me regret going to something I’d wanted to see my whole life.
It wasn’t completely awful socially, though. Everyone else from the site I met was awesome. And then the other two guys I roomed with… both wrote for the UNLV Rebel Yell and were interesting, normal people.
It was another big part of my “the world is simply the people in it” epiphany of the last four years. So I don’t need to go on any further on the subject.
More important though, E3 made me realize that games didn’t mean the same thing to me anymore.
They used to be something that I played and thought about constantly. By the time I went to E3, that wasn’t true any longer. By May of last year, all I thought about and did was write. My whole life was about fiction and grammar and word choices and characters and narratives and all of that.
Games had just become my casual hobby, and the industry I knew best. Mostly the way I keep branding, oligopolies and game theory in my head while I try to make a Big Lebowski style detective narrative.
Being in the huge L.A. convention center made me realize playing the games wasn’t why the industry appealed to me. It had become more about how video game narratives create an impact on a player. How the free market affects this new creative medium. One that’s still in its infancy.
End of story.
But enough about me. About video games.
This is a huge year for the industry. The big three – Microsoft, Nintendo and SONY – are all releasing or announcing their new hardware. Billions of dollars are riding on this week.
Here’s my impressions and my ranking of where the money will go: most to least.
1) Xbox 360 looks amazing to me. It does the sorts of things I want to do right now with my electronic devices. It supports High Def. You can plug in an iPod and listen to your music during an online Perfect Dark Zero game. Microsoft didn’t screw up the controller by trying to make too many changes for the sake of avoiding “inertia”. And you’ll still be able to play Halo online and with four people – the controllers will just be wireless now.
2) PS3 confounds me. It looks slick and amazing, but it has two many ports in the back, too many bizarre features and the worst controller evar!!!1!
And the controller. Not only is it ugly, but it’s useless. Try to imagine holding it in your hand and playing it. The triangle button is like half an inch from the shoulder buttons. It looks like it’d fall out of your hands if you actually tried to play games with it. You might leave fingerprints on it too.
3) Nintendo Revolution is uninspiring. The machine is small and beautiful, but as per usual, Nintendo didn’t really give out any of the good details. Although being able to play classic Nintendo games from the last two decades is reason enough for me to buy one.
4) Then the weirdest hardware announcement so far: the Gameboy Micro. Apparently, Nintendo thought we’d all want to buy a system hardly anyone is making games for anymore just because they made it super tiny. They could be right about me, but I doubt they’ll sell it to the rest of the world.
There could be more for me to say. But I’m too tired to think about it right now.
Oh yes. My sister recently had a baby. An adorable thing called Sofia. After the Coppola perhaps. Anyway:
She’s cute.
Since I’m still a core gamer and I still am willing to watch a stream of Nintendo’s pre-E3 press conference. Needless to say… this isn’t easy with an 8 to 5 job. I had to take a special type of break, and also write a killer ad copy while watching Aonuma-san talk about how revolutionary the Revolution will be.
Oh yes. Something you may not know about me: I’m a core gamer.
That’s means that – in far too many ways – I’d be in the top 5% of customer segments for the three major video game companies.
I buy more video games a year than I’m willing to admit. Although, in my defense, a high proportion go unopened, or opened and rarely played (if I do take a peak at the instruction manual and marketing materials).
It’s kind of a hobby that’s become more about collection and an eventual career objective anymore. I’ve never grown out of wanting to work in the industry.
I went to E3 last year. For those who aren’t in the core gamer club… that’s the industry trade show that’s held annually in L.A. The Electronic Entertainment Exposition as organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The industry lobby group/watch dog; the MPAA of games.
I went during my unemployed week. The random nine days between when MGIS “let me go” and I started my short-lived career as a computer tech. I was there as a reporter for Nintendojo.com.
E3 was a mixture the thrill and the biggest letdown of my life.
Why it was the thrill of a lifetime: I was able to be there in person.
I saw first hands the neon lights. Felt the awful techno music. Walked through the randomness of Kentia Hall. Played games before any normal, average person had the chance. All and all… I was able to be part of this interesting – and overwhelming business-based – trade show that I’d read about since I was six years old.
Why it was the biggest letdown of my life:
I was with Zack – an awful, brainless automaton who is one of the most ignorant, unlikable people on earth – 90% of the trip. Zack is the kind of person who asked me to chip on a pizza I didn’t order and didn’t eat five minutes after I met him. He greedily took any freebie that was available at the trade show. Had substandard personal hygience. Too much body hair. And was an average Arkansas Republican (to be?) from a small town who, traveling on his parents’ buck.
There isn’t enough I can say about why he made my trip awful. I’ll summarize saying his presence made me regret going to something I’d wanted to see my whole life.
It wasn’t completely awful socially, though. Everyone else from the site I met was awesome. And then the other two guys I roomed with… both wrote for the UNLV Rebel Yell and were interesting, normal people.
It was another big part of my “the world is simply the people in it” epiphany of the last four years. So I don’t need to go on any further on the subject.
More important though, E3 made me realize that games didn’t mean the same thing to me anymore.
They used to be something that I played and thought about constantly. By the time I went to E3, that wasn’t true any longer. By May of last year, all I thought about and did was write. My whole life was about fiction and grammar and word choices and characters and narratives and all of that.
Games had just become my casual hobby, and the industry I knew best. Mostly the way I keep branding, oligopolies and game theory in my head while I try to make a Big Lebowski style detective narrative.
Being in the huge L.A. convention center made me realize playing the games wasn’t why the industry appealed to me. It had become more about how video game narratives create an impact on a player. How the free market affects this new creative medium. One that’s still in its infancy.
End of story.
But enough about me. About video games.
This is a huge year for the industry. The big three – Microsoft, Nintendo and SONY – are all releasing or announcing their new hardware. Billions of dollars are riding on this week.
Here’s my impressions and my ranking of where the money will go: most to least.
1) Xbox 360 looks amazing to me. It does the sorts of things I want to do right now with my electronic devices. It supports High Def. You can plug in an iPod and listen to your music during an online Perfect Dark Zero game. Microsoft didn’t screw up the controller by trying to make too many changes for the sake of avoiding “inertia”. And you’ll still be able to play Halo online and with four people – the controllers will just be wireless now.
2) PS3 confounds me. It looks slick and amazing, but it has two many ports in the back, too many bizarre features and the worst controller evar!!!1!
And the controller. Not only is it ugly, but it’s useless. Try to imagine holding it in your hand and playing it. The triangle button is like half an inch from the shoulder buttons. It looks like it’d fall out of your hands if you actually tried to play games with it. You might leave fingerprints on it too.
3) Nintendo Revolution is uninspiring. The machine is small and beautiful, but as per usual, Nintendo didn’t really give out any of the good details. Although being able to play classic Nintendo games from the last two decades is reason enough for me to buy one.
4) Then the weirdest hardware announcement so far: the Gameboy Micro. Apparently, Nintendo thought we’d all want to buy a system hardly anyone is making games for anymore just because they made it super tiny. They could be right about me, but I doubt they’ll sell it to the rest of the world.
There could be more for me to say. But I’m too tired to think about it right now.
Oh yes. My sister recently had a baby. An adorable thing called Sofia. After the Coppola perhaps. Anyway:
She’s cute.
Labels: Mark
posted by M S Martinez at 5/17/2005 10:06:00 PM
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