s}{ammer

E3 shows game industry's true colors


By David Becker
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 24, 2002, 4:35 PM PT


reporter's notebook LOS ANGELES--The marketing drone was demonstrating a new extreme-sports game based on roller skating, calling attention to the way the game's physics model allowed the skater's extremely short skirt to move with lifelike precision.
"We've also revolutionized the boob technology," he cheerfully reported as the skater jiggled her way through another death-defying jump.

And there you have the essence of what makes the Electronic Entertainment Expo special, at least for someone who spends a lot of his time covering the video game industry as a big, lucrative and growing business.




E3, the industry's main trade show, confirms that gaming is all that. But it also reminds you that this is a $6 billion business designed for, and largely by, 18- to 34-year-old males.

The result, at least on the show floor, is a bevy of anatomically gifted, spandex-busting booth babes showing off games that seem to have come off an assembly line with about five components. You can shoot people or you can hit people. You can spin around on a skateboard or a motorcycle. You can enjoy a soundtrack that consists of rap-metal or metal-rap.

Still, as the show wraps up Friday, it's possible to reflect on some stuff that managed to stand out from the pack, for reasons weird or wonderful:

• The Breakthrough Invention award goes to game-accessories maker Nyko for its Power Switch, an elaborate gizmo that allows PlayStation 2 owners to turn on the thing from the front, rather than having to reach around to the back of the unit to find the power switch. It's a welcome correction to one of the dumbest industrial design decisions in recent memory.

• Nyko also gets the Dubious Achievement award for Air Flo, a new line of game controllers with built-in fans that alleviate the gamer's curse of sweaty palms. I guess the idea of putting down the controller and doing something else is just too radical.

• For runner-up, take Foul--please. The newish magazine combines game reviews, soft-core porn, and articles such as "How I Left My Husband for My PS2."

• For Goofiest Game Concept, we direct your attention to "Restaurant Tycoon," a PC strategy game in which you compete to do the best job of running a virtual steak house. Did we miss the point when an actual restaurant career became an unobtainable dream for young people?

• For Worst Job in the World, lets have a hand for the Nintendo models who had to squeeze into horridly uncomfortable costumes to portray "Pokemon" characters that basically consist of little round balls. After watching one lass contort her way into a petite, yellow fuzz ball, it was hard to imagine how she was able to keep breathing, let alone continue walking.

• And last but not least, Cybergun, a manufacturer of light guns for shooting-based video games, was pleased to announce that it now offers an Uzi model.

darkside

Is this a joke article?

The PS2 comes with a power switch on the front already. You hold it down for two seconds and the system turns off. The back switch is just to cut the power completely. I only use it when I'm moving the console.

Absolute Zero

I think the power switch in the back was a pretty dumb idea. Then why make a "sleep" button in the front? I see where the guy was coming from and I do have to agree. Just make one switch.

darkside

I've owned other electronic hardware that had a standby switch and a main power cut off switch like the PS2, so I guess that is why it seems normal to me. I hardly use the main cut off, so I can see why putting it in the back is fine.

Trigger

Yeah really, shame on the gaming industry for adding a little T&A here and there... The writer needs to grow up a little. Name an industry that hasn't ever used sex to sell their products at times... beer, cars, television, music, movies, soda, cigarettes, comic books, etc etc... it's like the author has never been to a trade show before. Idiot. I was at E3 and it's true that there were a handful of girls dressed up as game characters, but nothing I saw was out of line - worst example would be over at Eidos where a girl rubbed a t-shirt on her butt and her chest and tummy to make it more desireable to the crowd before throwing it into the air. Even that is just harmless fun. I honestly didn't see any super-hot girls and none of the costumes were all that revealing. I went out on Friday night in LA and saw 20 times more hot girls dressed 20 times more provocatively. E3 was all about the games and if the guy at news.com didn't see that, well he was too distracted by the girls... maybe he's never seen one before. His comments about the show's highlights are also stupid - there was some big news and some really cool games and hardware presented... all he did was goof on the products offered and the people who are interested. I'd like to stick my boot up his arse.

Absolute Zero

Very good point. My receiver is the same way and that doesn't bother me. I think its just the fact that this is the first console to use that feature...its just something new to get used to.

s}{ammer

You know what is sad, I never read the manual for the ps2 and I have been using the power switch in the back all along and wondering why they designed it that way. Then this girl came over and tried to turn it on and told me she always just uses the button in the front. So after she left the next day I opened the manual and sure enough I was a fool.

alexkat

The power switch in the back is a good design, that way little kids aren't able to turn it on so easily and screw up the cd drive tray. If you don't have kids simply use the standby mode, but if you do(like me) you can turn off the main power.

qbert

same here ... except there was no girl ... and i found out through this thread

Trigger

Oh this is so asking to be put in someone's sig...