I had hoped to be able to plan some kind of get together for writers and others who frequent this board, but my lack of computerness has made that difficult. So, since E3's a big show and you can't count on running into people, I suggest meeting at GOD's parking lot display at 4:00 each day as sort of a standing invitation. The only problem with this is that some people may have 4:00 appointments and the GOD lot is sometimes hard to get into. Anyway, I'll try to be there.

- Mark Asher

Well, count me in. I'm sitting in San Diego right now, Installing Win2k on my laptop. :-)

For some reason the @home cable modem connection here won't talk to my box. Not in 98, not in Linux. The only thing I can come up with, after having configged the thing identical to my buddy's box that DOES work, is that it's ignoring me based on MAC address of the ethernet card. That, in a word, is stupid.

Currently, I'm able to access my [email protected] and [email protected] accounts, so that's the way to get ahold of me if'n you wanna.

Jim, I'm not really going to try to get ahold of anyone. It's too chaotic once the show starts. There is a Jowood cocktail thing at 5:30 at their booth on Thursday, I believe. I have no idea if it's invitation only.

Anyway, hope to see you there.

Have fun guys, and anyone else reading this. I wish I could be there to meet you all face to face. Hopefully next year. I'm sure I'll have lots of comments and questions for you guys when you get back!

At least I'll be enjoying a week off starting Friday. I'll be in Bar Harbor, Maine eating Lobster and hiking. The Dreamcast is tagging along though. :)

--Dave

It seems like a funny thing to go to E3. I'm not a writer, but I've corresponded with a few for the past few years. It seems like nobody really enjoys themselves at E3. You don't really get to play the games, it's too crowded, the marketing types are all over you, blah, blah, blah. Yet still, everyone wants to go. I don't think it's the booth babes (and if it is, you guys are just sad), so what is it? Parties after hours with folks you usually only get to know through typing?

I've talked to non-journalists that have been, and does seem like pure overload that inhibits your ability to learn & to analyze the new games. I can understand the writers needing to go to see the new things on display, but why anyone else?

My office is in downtown LA, just a few blocks from the convention center (6th & Grand). Actually, you can see the Convention Center from the south side of the office even on smoggy days. Anyway, I don't attend E3, but I always see the secondary effects. E3 is one of several conventions that overloads the cell network in the area, effectively disabling my cell phone when I'm at the office. There are lots of pasty white guys in gaming t-shirts wandering about with bags of swag. God help you if you need a hotel room.

I did manage to get into the Sony party last year, and that was nice, but I don't think that lightning will strike twice.

Gordon, Tom, Jason... anyone else I'm forgetting who has a head for sims? I'm counting on you guys to bring back the goods on IL2 and other sims being shown this year. From the looks of it, you're really going to have to dig to find much. Don't let me down guys.

Everyone go to our (games.theglobe.com) booth on Friday for a cocktail thing. It's like 5-7 or something like that. Our booth is inexplicably next to Sony's near the opening to the big-ass hall. It will be very loud and annoying. But come on by.

Thanks Steve, sounds good. I just got a cocktail invitation from Wild Tangent also. Not only will they have drinks, we get our feet massaged too. Will you massage my feet if I come to your party? :)

Heh -- actually, there's no way I'm letting anyone near my feet after a day of marching up and down the aisles in a convention center filled with 50,000 people.

Kazz, E3's one of the only events where we get to meet other writers and talk face to face to the PR people we deal with all year round. It's nice to meet people and it does help build relationships that help down the road. I don't mind the noise and confusion, though I sometimes get restless when I'm being pitched to. There are plenty of games on the floor that you can just walk up to and play without getting the PR pitch.

I'm going to try to spend more time with a few games this year so I actually have more of a hands-on feel. If Dungeon Seige is up and running I'd like to play it for 20-30 minutes, for example. There are plenty of opportunities like that. A lot depends on how booked you are with appointments. Some writers really have no time to do that because they have so many appointments.

As to the parties, yeah they're fun, but not because I'm a party animal. It's nice to talk to peers and game industry people in a social setting.

All I know is, I'd give my right eye to go this year. Between the Xbox and Gamecube launches, and Warcraft 3, I can't imagine a better E3 to catch.

I've heard that they're supposedly going to have a playable War3 version there. Somebody play it for me!

Yeah, Warcraft 3 would be another one I'd like to spend a little time with. The problem with it will be actually getting a chance at a system running it. Blizzard games tend to draw crowds. I think at last year's E3 one of the Diablo 2 fansites had someone playing the game for hours and taking notes. It was kind of annoying.

Yeah, I'll bet that's true! I know they'd have a hard time running me off if I could go!

Hey, Mark, how's the PC?

My PC's awaiting a motherboard. I'm hoping that the manufacturer will warranty it. I should know when I get back from E3. I'm a bit tired of this library business.

Carl Normal called me today and he'll be pitching Silent Hunter II, Destroyer Command, and Lock On in the sims department; for Harpoon 4 we'll have to wait to see how the dust settles. I haven't heard much recently about Sturmovik. I have a beta I've never had the time to look into.

"As to the parties, yeah they're fun, but not because I'm a party animal."

Oh yes you are! I've seen you drink! You'll never live down that UGO party and the bar stool... ;-)

Well then, folks, I hope you all have a great time and bring us back some good news!

Man, the UGO thing was an anomaly. I was really tired and jet lagged and it was like 2am LA time, which is 4am my time. And yeah, I tipped back a few. I really was asleep on my feet, so to speak.

I was sitting there next to Ray Gresko from Nihlistic, too. I was telling him that he could have been a vampire in The Lost Boys because he had that look, and next thing I know I'm not on my barstool.

Man, that UGO party was something else. They had those dwarves serving appetizers, that magician with the long, straggly white hair who looked like he had just crawled out of a dumpster, and those rappers. Also, that woman with the holes cut in her blouse so we could see the bottom half of her breasts -- I was in love! I kept expecting them to bounce out as she was dancing, but she must of had them superglued to her blouse or something. Wild time. UGO may not know how to sell banner ads, but they can throw a party.

State Of The Wood, by Mark Asher.

Heh heh -- state of the wood indeed. Did you see that photo of Redwood from that CPL event (think that's what it was) when GOD had the topless women mixing with the crowd? The camera doesn't lie -- you could see right where his gaze was affixed. :)

Mark, something tells me he wasn't the only geeky wood in the room.

Oh I know. Mine eyes would have seen the glory too. I really am a sucker for topless women. I'm long over wondering whether I'm exploiting women by looking -- I just mindlessly gawk.

At least, I can understand the allure of topless real women. It's the folks who get hot and bothered about a bunch of pixels that puzzle me. I used to see this all the time in EverQuest--a wood elf goes by and all these guys start salivating and filling the channel with what they think is salacious chat.

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Quote:

with what they think is salacious chat.

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Yeah, but the best part is knowing that these drooling brain donors are actually salivating over the perky tits of some other male brain donor. Ph33r my elven man-breasts.

War3 was playable at last year's E3. I watched some dude play it for like 15 minutes.

Speaking of E3, I'm off tomorrow morning (as well as the rest of the CGames crew). I've got a big 2-hour appointment with the Xbox guys to check out games and meet with Allard and Blackley about the future strategy and whatnot. Most importantly for my job, though, I gotta check out the games being made by PC developers or that are going to end up on the PC one day (like Halo). Still, when the world's largest PC software publisher goes to make a game console, even PC game magazines gotta take notice. =)

Those of you who frequent this board and are going to the show, Computer Games is having a little beer & wine reception on Friday afternoon at our booth at 5. I'm not sure if it's invitation only or what, but stop by--we like to put a face with the names. Even if, in my case, you're going to immediately forget the name anyway because you just suck with names. =)

Oh yeah... since I'm actually updating my website this week I guess it's kind of a waste if nobody looked at it.

With that in mind, I hereby pimp www.coregamer.com

I hit the wild animal safari park yesterday, and toured Isis Pharmaceuticals today... pics and commentary on the site. I'm in San Diego until tomorrow afternoon, when I'm splitting up to LA to hunt down Tom Chick like the dog he is. Tom, just leave the keys in the jeep, ok?

Hey Mark & Tom,

Are you guys lost at E3? You haven't updated the site since Thursday! I think the whole world knows that Bruce is Gay now... at least put something up saying that you're stuck at E3! I'm beginning to worry about you two!

Help! We're lost at E3! Worse, on the flight into LA where I'm staying with Tom, a thin, neat single male in his thirties who works in theatre and Bruce, whom Erik has told you all about, I had this overwhelming urge to listen to show tunes. I heard the entire recording of the Broadway production of Caberet on the flight. I don't know what this means, but I'm terrified!

We should have something new up tomorrow (Wednesday).

"Man, that UGO party was something else. They had those dwarves serving appetizers, that magician with the long, straggly white hair who looked like he had just crawled out of a dumpster, and those rappers. Also, that woman with the holes cut in her blouse so we could see the bottom half of her breasts -- I was in love! I kept expecting them to bounce out as she was dancing, but she must of had them superglued to her blouse or something. Wild time. UGO may not know how to sell banner ads, but they can throw a party. "

Best paragraph I've read in a while! THIS is clever! Its like the beginning of a Tom Wolfe novel or some such thing.

etc

Hey guys!

Ok, I've been in LA for about an hour now... and I'm officially bored shitless.

Tom, Mark... remember the jeep!

I'm at 323-464-6006, room 427.

If anybody out here wants to get together and hang out tonight, give me a ring. Or, email me at [email protected]

I'm buying the first 4 pitchers... after that, you're on your own.

I was wondering, do game developers have the equivalent of groupies? and are any of these groupies like "Penny Lane" from Almost Famous? Maybe thats why they have all the strippers n stuff. To live the rock n roll lifestyle i suppose.

BTW, why didnt 3dO mention MM9... that really peeves me. damn them!

etc

etc

Game developer groupies are mostly paunchy, pasty computer geek guys in their 20s and 30s. Would you really want people like that - like me -stalking you? :D

I'm Tom's groupie. Especially now that he's got that cross between John Romero and Dennis Miller look going on.

As far as game developers go, I'm a big Robert Atkins fan - mainly because he's so nice to me I think. The ritual guys and I hit it off really well last year, had a great time. American McGee was very personable today as well, talking about his "true feelings" about the whole Alice ordeal. Levelord as always is the bomb hippy. Drank a couple of brews with some of the Blizzard guys.

Heck, everybody is super nice... well, except for...

Warren Spector offered me $50 to point out Tom Chick in the crowd. Something about a ball bat. I dunno. I told him he'd have to deal with his manager, Trevor.