On Location a Few Hundred Miles from E3
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
So I was standing on a street corner the other day, shuffling my feet and casting aspersions at passers-by, when a bus drove past with a huge ad on the side, boldly announcing MI3. Or actually it was "M:i:III," but despite the leering face of excitable new parent Tom Cruise next to the lettering, it took me a second or two to convince my brain that MI in this case did not refer to a great new Monkey Island game, but rather to some sort of kinetoscopic peep show which will be projected at the walls of a darkened room in a linear fashion and only at specified times. Go figure.
Speaking of acronyms, the enormous entertainment expo "E3" is going on this week. E3 is actually an abbreviation for EEE -- a savings of one whole character, which just goes to show you how compression-obsessed this industry really is. "EEE," in turn, does not stand for anything at all, but is the sound made by the unprepared upon strolling through the front gates of this extravaganza for the first time. It's a fearsome onslaught of noise and flashing lights not unlike sticking your head inside a slot machine. A dense nugget of Las Vegas, transported from the deserts of Nevada to the deserts of Los Angeles. And instead of free drinks and the chance to win millions of dollars worth of nickels, E3 boasts T-shirts galore, emblazoned with the names of chip companies and peripherals manufacturers.
Here's a telling story from last year. I'm walking around on the main floor in a cathode-ray induced stupor, and I come across a long, unmoving line of young men, waiting in front of one of the booths. There's nothing visible going on at the booth, no game to try out, no amazing new hardware platform being demonstrated. I can't figure out what these guys are waiting for, so I ask somebody. "Oh," she says, "the Playboy bunnies are going to come out and sign autographs." Aha! Now I get it. Satisfied, I keep walking around. Midway down another aisle, I come across another long, stagnant line of young men, easily three times longer than the first one. This must be something really great! I ask again. THESE guys are waiting for a free T-shirt with the name of a graphics card manufacturer on it. Sexy tech beats out plain old sex by a margin of three to one at E3.
Wait, have I told you that story before?
I myself am not at E3 this year, I've stayed home to write blogs and design games and otherwise behave productively. Also, the E3 Powers That Be denied my application for a free pass this time, even though I sent in exactly the same documents as last year. The email said that E3 was for industry professionals -- apparently I haven't been wearing the requisite number of nVidia T-shirts.
Some friends of mine are there, though -- a big dog and a sociopathic bunny, announcing a few particulars about their new episodic game series and partying crazily into the wee hours with graphics card manufacturers, who tend to be a pretty rowdy bunch. I'm speaking of course of Sam & Max - and there's an acronym I can't wait to see on the side of a bus -- a pair of walking arguments for gun control whom you may already have seen tracking their special breed of euphoric madness all over other portions of our web site.
While they're down in LA having a good time, Brendan and I are confined to the conference room until the designs are done for all of the episodes, and probably a bit longer for quarantine purposes. The conference room at Telltale is at least fifteen degrees colder than the rest of the building, which is why it's normally referred to as the c-c-conference room, and why we're working as fast as we can.
Meanwhile, Sam & Max have been calling us up from the expo at all hours, asking for somebody called "I.P. Frilly" and making wild suggestions about the games. Sam wants to be able to project a force beam from his ears and thinks we should get Kurosawa to direct. Max is obsessed with the idea of including a collectible switchblade along with each episode. Every time I try to explain that the games are downloadable, he sarcastically calls me "commissioner" and then giggles uncontrollably.
Man, I can't wait for E3 to be over.
Speaking of acronyms, the enormous entertainment expo "E3" is going on this week. E3 is actually an abbreviation for EEE -- a savings of one whole character, which just goes to show you how compression-obsessed this industry really is. "EEE," in turn, does not stand for anything at all, but is the sound made by the unprepared upon strolling through the front gates of this extravaganza for the first time. It's a fearsome onslaught of noise and flashing lights not unlike sticking your head inside a slot machine. A dense nugget of Las Vegas, transported from the deserts of Nevada to the deserts of Los Angeles. And instead of free drinks and the chance to win millions of dollars worth of nickels, E3 boasts T-shirts galore, emblazoned with the names of chip companies and peripherals manufacturers.
Here's a telling story from last year. I'm walking around on the main floor in a cathode-ray induced stupor, and I come across a long, unmoving line of young men, waiting in front of one of the booths. There's nothing visible going on at the booth, no game to try out, no amazing new hardware platform being demonstrated. I can't figure out what these guys are waiting for, so I ask somebody. "Oh," she says, "the Playboy bunnies are going to come out and sign autographs." Aha! Now I get it. Satisfied, I keep walking around. Midway down another aisle, I come across another long, stagnant line of young men, easily three times longer than the first one. This must be something really great! I ask again. THESE guys are waiting for a free T-shirt with the name of a graphics card manufacturer on it. Sexy tech beats out plain old sex by a margin of three to one at E3.
Wait, have I told you that story before?
I myself am not at E3 this year, I've stayed home to write blogs and design games and otherwise behave productively. Also, the E3 Powers That Be denied my application for a free pass this time, even though I sent in exactly the same documents as last year. The email said that E3 was for industry professionals -- apparently I haven't been wearing the requisite number of nVidia T-shirts.
Some friends of mine are there, though -- a big dog and a sociopathic bunny, announcing a few particulars about their new episodic game series and partying crazily into the wee hours with graphics card manufacturers, who tend to be a pretty rowdy bunch. I'm speaking of course of Sam & Max - and there's an acronym I can't wait to see on the side of a bus -- a pair of walking arguments for gun control whom you may already have seen tracking their special breed of euphoric madness all over other portions of our web site.
While they're down in LA having a good time, Brendan and I are confined to the conference room until the designs are done for all of the episodes, and probably a bit longer for quarantine purposes. The conference room at Telltale is at least fifteen degrees colder than the rest of the building, which is why it's normally referred to as the c-c-conference room, and why we're working as fast as we can.
Meanwhile, Sam & Max have been calling us up from the expo at all hours, asking for somebody called "I.P. Frilly" and making wild suggestions about the games. Sam wants to be able to project a force beam from his ears and thinks we should get Kurosawa to direct. Max is obsessed with the idea of including a collectible switchblade along with each episode. Every time I try to explain that the games are downloadable, he sarcastically calls me "commissioner" and then giggles uncontrollably.
Man, I can't wait for E3 to be over.
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