It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Can you smell that? It’s that faint note that is lingering on the air as you go about your day to day business. You catch a whiff of it and suddenly your thoughts are distracted, wandering into the realm of what is to come, what is to be. It is intoxicating, scary and a little insane all at once. Yes, people, it is almost time for E3.
But this year will different. This year E3 will be more inclusive yet at the same time, discourage hands-on participation. It is a strange circumstance we all find ourselves in. We are wondering just how the biggest hype show on the planet goes digital with any sort of hope for success. Gone are the packed halls and in their place Twitch streams and chat rooms. No more dodgy expo burgers, just a bowl of cornflakes and a coffee. Nerdy t-shirts, crazy pin collections and cosplay creations are out, slippers and dressing gowns are in. It is going to be a strange experience for the many people that make the annual pilgrimage to LA to catch the latest and greatest in gaming goodies on the big stage.
Of course, much of the world, including myself, have always consumed E3 this way, through late-night streams, reports from on-the-floor Journos and through interviews with respected game devs. We have lapped up everything served to us on a digital platter. So what will change this year? Well at this point it is hard to say.
Not so long ago, E3 was the big dog when it came to games shows. It was the prime place to show your wares, but in the year 2021 things are no longer so cut and dried. E3 has serious competition from the likes of Geoff Keighley and IGN, along with the continued exodus of major developers like Sony and Activision in favour of doing their own thing. This competition gained a firm foothold last year when, during the height of the global pandemic, E3 just couldn’t get its shit together quick enough to run a digital show so these new players stepped up to fill the void. Now E3 finds itself in the position of having to justify its existence to the masses. E3 has to prove that it still deserves to be the grandest stage of all for game reveals and news.
But as the old saying goes, competition breeds growth and I hope that is exactly what we see. I hope that E3 grows and morphs into something modern, something approachable and most of all, something fun. I hope this because I love this time of the year. I am sure you have heard this before but people don’t get into writing about video games for money. In fact, the only reason to write about video games is you have a shared passion for gaming and writing. So with that in mind, it is easy to see why this E3 period is so special to me. It is essentially gaming Christmas for one such as myself. So much to see, so much to speculate about, so much to write. That excitement is hard to quantify, just take my word when I say I can’t get enough of it.
So in this, the strangest of years, I am pleased to say I am still excited, still eager to be wowed by the bright lights and fancy trailers. After 13 years of games writing, I am still just an eager gamer aching to catch a glimpse of what is to come. That it is online only hasn’t dented my excitement at all, in fact, it is quite the opposite. The world is such a glum place at the moment for many (many) reasons that it will be wonderful to forget it all for a few days while swimming in the sea of hype.
So join me, join Player 2 in 2021’s Season of Gaming. We are ready and raring to cover everything we possibly can, to watch all the trailers and to talk in nothing but the language of hype for the next few weeks. We want you to join us, to bask in the glory of video games and to have a lot of fun along the way. After all, if you can’t get excited about a tonne of new video games getting announced, well it is probably time to find a new hobby.
It really is the most wonderful time of the year.
