Carrie Gouskos Associate Editor, Mobile Games

Now Playing: Psychonauts (Xbox), Alien Hominid (GC) , Wipeout Pure (PSP) , Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (XBOX) Recent Favorites: Resident Evil 4 (GC), God of War (PS2), Lumines (PSP) All-Time Favorites: Metal Gear Solid (PS), Double Dragon (ARC), Stinger (NES), Ninja Gaiden (Xbox), Counter-Strike (PC), Eternal Darkness (GC)

The E3 Me

Being a developer and a journalist at E3 are fundamentally different experiences. But they share one thing in common: They remind you that E3 isn't supposed to be all fun. I've taken this long to write about my time there, because this is exactly how long it has taken me to recuperate. Of my six years attending the show, this past one (my first as a GameSpot employee) reminds me most of my first E3, working the better three-quarters of every day and not seeing any games that I didn't happen to be working on. But I've worn a number of different hats to the show, and each of them highlights different aspects of it in different ways.

Video games are the only thing on my mind. I swear it.

If you work in quality assurance for a game developer or publisher and are lucky enough to get to go to E3, then chances are that they want you to work the show floor. Of the three years that I attended the show on behalf of Acclaim Entertainment, my first two consisted of exactly that. I was assigned to a section of games. In my case, it was their extreme sports lineup, and I had to stay there to explain the games (in the best light possible, of course) and reset the systems if they crashed. It's a simple enough task, and since I enjoy talking to people, I had no problem standing around making small talk for 10 hours a day. The problem arises when you throw the E3 atmosphere into the mix. Why would anyone come play Jeremy McGrath's Supercross game when Jeremy McGrath is standing four feet to my right, looking beautiful and signing autographs? What's the appeal of checking out the new tricks in the Dave Mirra sequel when he's pulling backflips on the halfpipe over my shoulder? If E3 is supposed to be about video games, why does all the E3 fluff seem so tempting? When your role isn't clearly defined, it seems too easy to fall into these E3 pitfalls. For two years I attended E3 with almost no purpose whatsoever, once as a guest of my former publisher-employer and once as an employee of a retail chain. Without a place to be or appointments to meet, I merely wandered the show floor, taking in all of the games, but also way too preoccupied with the events and the swag. Those years I had to return home with additional suitcases because I had picked up so much game paraphernalia. And for what? To wear for a few years and then throw out when I move out to California...because nobody in the universe needs 80 video game T-shirts. Although I didn't fall prey to it, there were definitely events, like autograph sessions and lines for game demos and movies, that ate up four or five hours of time. As a visitor to E3, even if you have no place to be, you still have to monitor your time carefully, being wary of time sinks with low reward, no matter how tempting meeting Carmen Electra might be.

It was almost a relief that, as a journalist, I didn't even have time to stop and see what they were passing out or who was in what booth, let alone actually take part in it. This year, if I wasn't in an appointment, I was running to an appointment. And if I wasn't running to an appointment, then I was writing about one. Gone were the simple days of leisurely strolling around the show floor; if I wasn't hustling, I was late. While a mere year before, I would have hung around in the middle of a crowd to see exactly how much of Vin Diesel's shoulder I could glimpse, this year I had to know about the big signings only so that I could plan my route around them while sprinting to my next appointment. And to think, I have yet to go to E3 as an investor, a PR person, or the president of a major company (all entirely possible, of course).

Would you pass up a sneak peek at Halo 7 to hang out with Vin?

E3 is my favorite time of the year, and it ranks up there in my top life experiences, somewhere directly behind being born and meeting Ice-T (which also happened at E3, incidentally). But it's amazing how one event can mean so many different things to many different people. It's the neat kind of amalgamation that you might only be able to get in the game industry, the cross section where work, business, interactivity, and entertainment all come together.