katie's blog

Soooo I guess I should write something up about E3, given that I'm a huge video game nerd and going to E3 is like near the top of the list as far as things that video game nerds would love to do. I don't really feel like writing all that much though, but knowing me I'll probably write up a ton anyway. [note, after writing up everything: yeah, pretty long. also not spell-checked because i'm too lazy to reread over it. sorry!]

I got in to LA on Monday afternoon, and met up with Ben at the hotel. I hadn't seen him since two Mays ago, in Barcelona, so it was nice seeing him again. We hopped on a bus and went over to the Electronic Arts press conference, where I got my first batch of shwag (including a much-needed 1GB flash drive. Thanks, EA!) and saw such people as Will Wright (SimCity, Sims, Spore, etc), John Carmack (id software), Gabe Newell (Valve) and a bunch of people from media outlets that I follow, such as 1UP and Kotaku. It was so weird! More on that later though.

After the press conference we made our way over to the Los Angeles Convention Center and I got my press pass, which was amazingly un-complicated. There wasn't even a line! I just walked up, gave them my ID and two minutes later had my press pass in hand. After that we went to the "Into the Pixel" art show, where we drank free beer and talked with fellow nerds. This was the first time I really mingled with people from the show, so it was kind of daunting. I'm not the most socially assertive person in the world, so I pretty much spent the entire time smiling and nodding and piping into the conversation whenever it was appropriate. After that we went and got some dinner and just hung out.

Tuesday we woke up bright and early and took the subway (which was depressingly similar to the metro in Barcelona D: I want to go back!) up to Hollywood for the Nintendo press conference at the Kodak Theater. Yes, as in the place where they have the Oscars. It was.....not that exciting, which I'm sure you've already read about, heh. Though I did get to see Shigeru Miyamoto. In person. It was quite amazing (though, as I said above, more on that later). Then they shuttled us over to the Shrine Auditorium for Sony's press conference, which was a bit better than Nintendo's. After that we were shuttled to the Convention Center, and began our first real day on the E3 show floor.

First, an explanation. E3 is a "business summit," and it's set up as such. Each participating company had its own room where it had certain games set up that it would show to the press via appointments and, sometimes, walk-ins. There's also the "showcase pavilion" which is essentially a giant room with lots of little kiosks set up. Most companies had a kiosk or two. They're not the fancy booths of E3s past, but just a triangle of TVs set up. So nothing too fancy, but decent enough if you just want to play the games.

Anyway....I don't remember what happened on specific days, but we visited several companies' rooms and got to play a bunch of games. Some of the ones that stand out are Left 4 Dead (Valve), Fable 2 (Lionhead), Fallout 3 (Bethesda), Street Fighter IV (Capcom), Chrono Trigger DS (Square Enix), Halo Wars (Ensemble), LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule), Dead Space (EA), Mirror's Edge (EA), Flower (not sure...but it's gonna be on PSN) for the games I actually got a chance to play. There were some other games that I didn't actually get to play but that looked awesome nonetheless, like Rock Band 2 and Resistance 2. We also went to the Capcom press conference which was basically just about the Lost Planet movie, and everyone pretty much said nothing but "I'm really honored to be working with so-and-so." Though one of the so-and-sos was David Hayter, also known as the man who voices Solid Snake, so that was pretty much amazing.

Ok, so I guess that means I should talk about how absolutely star-struck I was the entire time. While I didn't personally meet anyone "major" other than Cliff Bleszinski (of Unreal and Gears of War fame) and Alex Navarro (formerly of Gamespot, currently of Harmonix), I got to rub shoulders with guys from Kotaku (which I read daily), Joystiq, Giant Bomb, and other places I'm sure. I also got a one and a half hour tour of Fable 2 from two guys straight from Lionhead (that is to say, no PR bitches. Just guys from the dev team who were there. Sweet? Sweet.) which is pretty much near the top of my list of shit that happened. I also walked by Satoru Iwata in the hallway and did a double-take. It was totally weird to be surrounded by people who I consider to be "celebrities." Not in the sense that, say, Angelina Jolie is a celebrity. If I saw her in real life, I'd probably get all excited and whatever. But it wouldn't really affect me that deeply, because as much as I like Ms Jolie, nothing she's done has really deeply affected my life. Which is why I got so excited seeing Shigeru Miyamoto. My sister and I used to talk about "Mr Miyamoto" (though we pronounced it "my-ah-moto," not "mee-ah-moto") when we were youngins playing our SNES, and I have pretty much had a bizarre nerdcrush on him since then. So that's a long time! So to finally actually see the man, was quite extraordinary. Anyway, in short: seeing all these people was nothing short of amazing.

Aaaanyway. After a couple days in the heart of E3, we went to EA's cocktail party on Wednesday night. We went there, rubbed shoulders with some people (including people from BioWare! omg! They weren't working on Mass Effect 2 though D:) and drank free booze. We met a fellow journalist there named Heidi, and the three of us went down a few blocks to the Orpheum theater for the Rock Band Bash (which was basically a concert. Who was at the concert, you ask? Oh, some nothing band called "The Who." Or something. I don't know, never heard of them. They're not like a hugely amazing and influential band or anything.) She didn't have a ticket so we waited a bit while one of the Harmonix guy got her a ticket. We went in, got more free alcohol, and then sat down for the concert, which was pretty much amazing. The Who, performing all their greatest hits for about 1,000 people. Hell yeah!

Thursday was the last day of E3 so we just caught up on some companies that we hadn't hit yet. This was actually the best day, I think, since we went to Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda and Capcom. At Microsoft's room we played Halo Wars (which was actually....like....really fucking good, especially for a console RTS. I was pleasantly shocked) and Fable 2 (amazing!!! so excited for that game).  At Sony, we played LittleBigPlanet and Flower, and got a nice private demo of Resistance 2 by none other than Ted Price (pres and CEO of Insomniac). That night we went out to Santa Monica (by way of an obnoxious cab ride...ew, cabs, how I hate you) for the Joystiq party. It was pretty cool, I got to play Rock Band (and embarrass myself in front of a group of people by having to pause the game to change it to a left handed guitar...not my fault I was built weird, people D:) We also met and talked with Stephen Totilo and the other guys from the MTV Multiplayer blog. It was fun! I got a copy of Final Fantasy II on PSP, as well as a dope Nintendo pin and some other random shit. It was fun, though the 2 hours it took us to get back to LA via bus wasn't, heh.

Friday morning, we went and got breakfast, then Ben had to go down to meet with some game dev guys about their Wii FPS, the Conduit. I would have gone but I didn't have time, since I had to be at the airport soon. So we said our goodbyes, which was kinda sad since I won't see him for at least a year, probably more. Sad! The trip coming home was uneventful, though I've decided that LAX pretty much sucks. My flight was delayed by a couple hours, which apparently was a big deal for my parents, though I wasn't really phased by it at all. Maybe it was all that crazy-ass traveling I did while I was in Barcelona, but nothing really bothers me now in regards to traveling. Oh, I have to wait? Ok. Whatever. No big.

So, yeah, that was my time in LA for E3. Words cannot describe how amazing it was to be amongst like-minded people for several days in a row. 80% of the conversations I overheard were about video games. It was "work," yes, but at the same time, it wasn't. It reinforced my desire to work in the games industry, which I plan on doing sometime next year. God willing!

While I am far too exhausted to go into any extensive detail about today (or any other day at the craziness that is E3) I would just like to say that I saw The Who tonight in concert at the Orpheum Theater. For free. What? For free? For free. (along with an open bar.) And before that we went to a cocktail party for EA.

I believe what I really mean to say is something like "holy shit this is fucking amazing." Or something like that. Full blog update on all this madness later on, probably not until I get home on Friday evening.

I'm just about packed for my flight out to LA tomorrow for E3! I get in around noon and then we're going right to EA's press conference. I'm very excited/terrified. I don't really know what all to expect, other than lots of nerds gushing about nerdy things.

Anyway, we're going to try and keep as on top of things as possible. Give us a visit at http://www.quarterplay.com/ for the down and dirty! :)

I just ordered the DVD set of Firefly on Amazon for a cool $17 (down from $50). I've only seen the first episode, and while it didn't blow me away I've been meaning to finish the series since all I hear are fantastic things about it. I think the main reason I couldn't get into it when I tried was because I was still somewhat obsessed over Buffy and anything that didn't involve wooden stakes and sexy vampires/witches, I didn't want anything to do with it.

I've also obtained all five seasons of Angel and am slooooowly watching them (by "slowly" I mean I've watched the first two episodes. Egads!) So I need to get on that too.

Also, issue #16 of Buffy Season Eight comes out tomorrow. Woo! Waiting a month in between each issue sucks, I must say.

Soooo work is pretty ok, it's rather boring at times and time usually seems to craaaawl, but in general it's not so bad. The only other "retail" I've worked at was Brookstone during Christmas which was like 90 times busier than the liquor store is, so that's kinda nice. My coworkers are all pretty cool, except for the token "anal know-it-all" who gets his panties in a wad if something is done wrong (sorry, buddy, I've been there two weeks! I got nothin' on your 13 years!) Though when he's not lecturing me on how many flasks should be put on the front display, he's pretty nice too. Just a (weird) anal know-it-all, but I guess every place has to have at least one employee like that, no?

Anyway....I've developed some little pet peeves that people do. Your credit card is perfectly safe here in my hand, you don't have to grab for it right away, or stare at it as you hold your pen and say "Can I have my card back?" before you even sign the receipt. Isn't that like, sort of one of the reasons you sign it? To make sure the signatures match to some degree? And like, what, do you think the card is going to suddenly disappear from my hand? Or that someone's going to run up and swipe it from me and run out the door before anyone can do anything about it? IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. Calm down. Patience.

And another thing about signatures that annoys me sometimes but also amuses me. A lot of people's cards either aren't signed, or the signature is worn off, so I usually ask for their ID if that's the case. Sometimes they get all huffy (like some old dude who was like "Well, it's just worn off, it used to be signed." Um, yeah, but it isn't signed right now) but usually they act all flattered and surprised, like I'm asking for their ID to check their age, not because of the card. Um, yeah, your card doesn't say "See ID" or anything, and you look really young for a 63 year old. Heh.

I also hate when people tell me they have a store account (spend $500 and get a $20 in-store credit sort of thing) AFTER I ring everything up, run their credit card and they're halfway out the door. Or when they give me a coupon or tell me they want the "email special" when all is said and done. Like, isn't that common sense to give coupons/tell me something that will save you money/etc BEFORE you, you know, spend the money? Or they'll make me do a whole song and dance to get that $3 worth of shooters on their account. Like, ugh, jesus people. Give and take. You work with me, I'll work with you, then we'll get things done quickly and easily with no headaches on either end.

Oh, and a big ol "what the fuck did you expect?" to all the youngins who come in without an ID and are shocked to find that we won't sell to them. First of all, shouldn't you have your ID on you pretty much always? Especially if you're out driving? And, you know, going to a liquor store? There are signs EVERYWHERE - on the front door, all around the store, all over each cash register, EVERYWHERE - that we DO ID people and that we DO NOT sell to people without an ID. So, BIG SHOCK when the 23 year old overly-tanned blonde girl comes up with some girly drinks and looks at me like I'm totally off my rocker when I tell her I can't sell to her since she doesn't have an ID. It's a liquor store. Big surprise that we actually ID people who look young. And bullshit you "didn't get IDed at the other place" because "the other place" is in the same state we're in, and the same laws are going to bust down on them if they sell to a minor, so chances are they ID you too (unless they know you.)

Speaking of which, are all states as tough on stores that sell alcohol to minors as Colorado? Our store has been caught once and they were shut down for 5 days (apparently they lost like $150,000). If they get caught again they'll shut them down for 30 days which would essentially put them out of business. Which seems pretty harsh to me....the store's been there for like 35 years, they've had one offence, so if a dumbass cashier gets caught in a sting, the whole place gets screwed? Not fair, Colorado, not fair!

Though starting in July, liquor stores can start opening on Sundays. Which is going to be really weird getting used to the concept of going to a liquor store on a Sunday.

Anyway sorry for the semi-rant. Hopefully this will be my one giant bitchfest regarding the job. I really like it though, it's pretty laid back and pays decently considering I'm just standing around selling booze all day.

Show us what you wish you were doing right now.

beach

The only thing missing is me holding a margarita.

So I'm all set to go for E3 it looks like. Got my plane reservation, got my registration for the event all squared away, etc....:D:D so exciting! So now I just need to see about some other stuff, like appointments with companies and stuff. I just made my first call to the PR folks for a company and I about shat myself in terror (I'm still shaking, actually! haha I'm lame) I hate calling people, especially people I don't know. And especially this sort of stuff that I'm not super familiar with to begin with, combined with my intense fear of phones, just results in me getting all awkward and tongue-tied and mumbly and it's just not good.

But, whatever. I'm going to E3!

Last night I created an account for Metal Gear Online and went to create my character only to see that....I can't be a girl! Wtf? I guess in this day and age, where more and more games are not only letting you pick a gender, but are also going out of their way to include an option for a female character (i.e. Mass Effect), I expected MGO to give me the option of being a girl. Especially MGO! I mean, c'mon, while the series obviously is aimed towards the straight male crowd (excessive booby and ass shots during cutscenes, dirty magazines, etc), there are still a lot of strong female characters throughout the series (Meryl, Olga, Naomi, EVA, The Boss....) So why not let us create our own female character?! For shame, Konami, for shame!

And it's not like it would be that hard, anyway. Just create a couple more character models, record some more voices, and boom.

Holy shit Metal Gear Solid 4 is amazing. Definitely one of the best games I've ever played. It was like everything good and amazing from all the previous games, wrapped up in a beautiful package. Amazing.

That is all.

Sooooo my friend apparently got an invite to E3 and he got me an invite, because we're awesome and have a video game blog (along with like half the rest of the world). I told him "yes," so I'm on The List. Airfare's kind of a bitch since we don't have oodles of free miles from our United credit card, so I actually have to do what most people do and pay for a ticket full price (what!) Still it'll only be, like, $200-$300 for round-trip from Denver to LA (heh "only"), I don't have to worry about a hotel room, and I'll probably need like $100 for food/shit/etc.

But now I just need to ask for time off work. I hate having to ask for time off right after I just started, but...meh. I might only need to ask for like, one day off, since I could leave Monday night after work, be in LA from Tuesday through Thursday, and get into Denver Friday morning and work that night, so I'd still be able to work 4 days that week. They're pretty laid back there so I'm not too worried, I'm just trying to think of a good way to pitch it to my boss so it doesnt sound completely ridiculous and actually sounds like a worthwhile reason.