E3, Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006 E3 is a huge trade show. This year's show was May 10-12. Being Wednesday - Friday cuts down on attempts by non-industry attendees to get in. Attendees must be at least 18 years old and this convention is not open to the public. I had never been to E3 before and I was impressed by enormity of it. The show was held in the multiple halls of the LA Convention Center. There were game consoles everywhere, in the halls, in the lobby's, in separate & private rooms, everywhere!
The Exhibits floors included Games, Software & more Games! There were games based on Comics, Books, Sci Fi, Movies, Anime & TV shows. Most were Video or Computer type games, almost no Cards or CCG. The interactive games have improved again, this time making the player move even more than before. One booth showed off a golfing, baseball & snowboarding game that require the player to swing & shift their body just like the real sport. My sentimental favorite had to be the Pacman booth, which was showcasing a Snoopy & the Red Baron game.
I was not at all surprised to see a large group of the attendees were female. Many companies had something devoted to the ladies. Complete game systems, single games and game controllers all showing that the industry realizes that Women and Girls love to play too.
In one of the halls was the History of Games exhibit. A clever little showcase of the games most of us grew up with. The small tabletop variety were displayed and roped off so that no one would mess with them. They also had full size floor models that were free for anyone to play. I played Galaxian because it just begged me to. It really was the original game. It had the quirks that the early game did, slow button firing & air leaking sound effects, psssst! I loved it! Ned got interviewed by a News crew about gaming, Lucky duck.
Several of the booths had a top area, sometimes it was for the attendees and other times it was private meeting space to make deals and sign contracts. I saw several full service bars. The biggest, flashest room also happened to have 3 stages set up. Sega & The Power of Korea had live musical acts playing. 3 lovely ladies played music that sounded like a cross between updated classical & gaming soundtracks. While the Sega people used fire and drums. It was all great! Meanwhile, despite the ladies and fire, my husband was drawn to the flying man across the room. There was a full size half pipe set up with skateboarders flying up to the rafters! There was a demo playing of how they used real skateboarders to make the game.
Pictures of some of the sights in the halls, take a look.
http://www.nosewheelie.com/marysgarage/news/e3picsH/
The Exhibit Halls did not give out what I expected. I was surprised to receive almost NO game demo disks. Since those items cannot be sold on eBay & Craigslist anymore I don't see why the hold out? I just want to play. They did provide copies of every computer & game based Magazine. I brought home only 12 to read at my leisure. They had various little freebies and I know there were other things given away that I never saw. One booth was completely decimated by the time we got there on Friday. The popular Conan booth was all out of swords. What I did bring home was this:
To view a large group shot of all the E3 Swag I happily snagged click on: 
E3 Swag A
E3 Swag B
The E3 website is jam packed with information: http://www.e3expo.com/default.aspx
Mary, marysgarage@hotmail.com