What was your E3 2006 highlight?

to clarify: e3 makes games about flare, graphics, who has the best pr, half naked booth girls, beating the living snot out of the smaller developer houses with a lead pipe, and making a buck off joe gamer... That's not what games are about.

if that's what games have become, it's a sad day on earth.

Well....there is coverage of the GDC, just in different circles. It's hardly relevant information for most consumers to know "how to successfully bridge the gap between technical and art teams", or "how GOAP can provide more dynamic and robust AI", after all.

Polaris - there is always TGS

There is very rarely anything interesting at tgs that hasn't already been shown at E3.

Quote from mabufo

to clarify: e3 makes games about flare, graphics, who has the best pr, half naked booth girls, beating the living snot out of the smaller developer houses with a lead pipe, and making a buck off joe gamer... That's not what games are about.if that's what games have become, it's a sad day on earth.

you know...i think that it is possible for that to change. this year at E3 there were certainly less booth babes, and the feeling at the show was just one of "hey, let's make better games not just shit and throw in a box and hope it sells." I've been to E3 six years in a row now, i feel like we're finally starting to turn the corner on "professionalizing" the industry with an attempt to raise quality across the board. I know we have a long long way to go before every game delivers value to its intended audience, but you just get this feeling when you see presentations and meet with devs that in their collective, they are starting to remember that it is about the games and serving the customer. Too many shit products in recent years that bombed, combined with massive industry consolidation and rising costs have made everyone realize that you have to deliver quality or else you will go otu of business.

The booths this year were not as loud and audacious, and there was a lot of playable code and open demos. Not everythign was "uber l33t secret" other than the lines for the Wii but that was to be expected.

Anyway, don't give up the faith. this industry is going to rock...and real innovation is coming soon...