Electronic Entertainment Expo Edition (E3 edition) It was a sunny day in downtown LA, in a big hall near where the Lakers play...the gaming convention, aka E3, was underway. It was the very first day. I was WAY under-spiked/dyed/pierced. The oldest geek. Only at this place is there a line for the men's room ONLY. (or as Yahoo! put it: "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) Oh, of course, it was the typical convention with the booth babes (at least they got to play games and not just stand there pretending there is a reason other than their looks that they're present)
. This was a treat. I knew nobody, except for a few recent colleagues, that attended. I did not have to exhibit, but could just wander through each hall trying to soak it all in. And what a lot to soak! If you have not seen a modern video game on an PlayStation2/XBOX/GameCube you would be blown away. they are incredible. It's no wonder that this industry topped Hollywood in gross sales last year (games vs. box office).

Well, want to see 10,000 men in black t-shirts (well, 9000 in black t-shirts, 1000 in black suits w/o ties) playing and looking at video games? Most of the "fun" games were either sports or fps (first person shooter) or RPG (role playing games). There were the biggies like Laura Croft..tomb raider (that's me and a Laura model up top). there was a harry potter castle in the EA pavilion.. The social interaction seems limited to small groups. At least they had games to play. the RPGs, like Harry Potter, could be played solo and such opportunities were everywhere! You know when you to to CompUSA or a large retailer and there is a single TV for each console with two teenagers playing it all the time? not here. First, as they said OVER and OVER, "nobody under 18 admitted...even infants" (no joke).

I was there of course to see mobile games. What can one say....mobile games. Games on phones. Or PDAs. But I'm getting ahead of myself. After the 2 hour drive, parking was remarkably easy even at 10:00 am when they opened. I went to the west hall first. It's the Sony/Nintendo/Sega hall. There were 5-10 35" Sony Wega tvs in rows everywhere with themes on each 10 set "stations" like Tomb Raider or Madden Football. The latter actually had a tournament area that featured head-to-head competition from all comers. There was no lack of enthusiasm for these games, new and old. People lined up to play them and nodoby much noticed that their picture being taken.

Speaking of EA, without a doubt, the biggest and most popular area seemed to be the open area that EA had in the South hall. Rather than place lots of mutlti-tv terminals in the middle of the area, they made the middle area mostly open and had a giant screen displaying custom and new games. One of those "grass is greener" things is that everybody that was working the west hall told me "you gotta see the south hall" and vice versa. Wierd. Nobody wanted to go downstairs and see all of the old arcade stuff. Anyway, EA's area was compelling! It was like a rock concert - very dark and very loud with lots of light coming from the "stage". Off to the side was a room reserved for VIPs (which yours truly does not, alas, qualify) that had sims on-line shows. if only. On the rest of the sides were the harry potter castle, lots of opportunities to play the sports titles. There was also what looked like a set of soundproof rooms in which players competed head-to-head. Again, no time to watch more than a minute of this competition, but, these guys were good.

I actually tried playing a few games, very briefly of course. I suck, so, it took little time.Well, back to the purpose of the trip - wireless. To this crowd, wireless means a controller without a cable (bluetooth?). There were a few areas where they were highlighting this space-age feature.. Like a wireless mouse or keyboard this works fine. .Just need to keep changing the battery in the devices. There was a wireless area. This area was about as exciting as the Russia pavilion at the wireless trade shows. In the corner, no traffic. How can a dinky phone possibly compete with a 60" HDTV playing the new Laura Croft with surround sound? It cannot. one group, Boost Mobile was showing a set of Motorola phones for the Nextel network that played single person games. Woa. When I went to take a photo I was accosted by the crew there that claimed I was a spy and not allowed to take photos. Please - everybody in this show had a camera! I thought you needed one to get in. naturally I took more photos. Anyway, this well coifed young man claimed that "..look dude...we know about your company...we are not a game company or a carrier...we are a youth brand...like quicksilver". Ok dude! cool! gotta go! Hard to picture a kid shelling out $500 for one of their phones to play a game that is lame on the nextel network. .Jamdat had their usual array of games for BREW and J2ME. Like Boost next door, they had nothing online/multiplayer or turn based. All the "game boy" model, except worse and more expensive.

In search of a truly mobile game I headed for THQ. I had met their wireless lead a few years back and thought that I'd see how things were coming. They had the same Motorola color phone on display with the same sorts of games. A screen with their "partners" was on display and their was some interest in their room. .. They had actually a great array of console games in there. They were sort of in their own area near the west hall. The statue of a man with a prosthetic chain saw in place of a hand was a nice touch. They also had the new Brittany Spears dance game, a sponge-bob game, etc. Broad appeal.

I think the really truly mobile game was a Sony PS built into a portable DVD player. That had everything - a mobile experience, the console experience, the same controller as the big game, and you could play the same game. That will sell. It had not connective, but, why not in the future? you could play turns and send some information on your performance up to a central server..

all in all a good experience that I will participate in the future...except in a more engaged role.

.. There were lots of other mobile releases on the gaming convention: Hutchison told those gathering in Los Angeles for E3 about nine of the companies supplying original and updated classics (chess, asteroids, and so on) to Hutchison 3G UK. These companies include Codetoys, Supedo, and the wonderfully named Cheeky Wireless. As the self-proclaimed leaders in wireless the Brits had a small dedicated group at this show.