E3 vying for respect

January 29, 2006 on 10:38 am | In MMO (Live), General Gaming, Industry

I'm out of commission a few days and suddenly the entire world changes?

Currently playing catch-up for the last five days, I came across this article at GameSpot about some changes coming to this year's E3. Notably, the amount of clothing at the show will increase.

If you've ever been to E3, you know what I mean. If you haven't, then let me just put it this way: the predominantly-male attendees of the show were often greeted and ego-stroked by women presenters in no more attire than one would find on your average Night Elf Warrior.

That is about to change. And I am happy for it.

I'm no prude, but the fact is that the way things were handled in the past did nothing to legitimize games as an artform and intellectual pursuit to be taken seriously. For years, the E3 the public saw was treated as a sort of raunchy Auto Show. While attending the event required you work in the industry, there's very broad definitions of what "in the industry" means. If you wanted to go and could afford the flight, chances are you could get in. And be greeted and ego-stroked by what has long since become referred to as "booth babes".

According to the Entertainment Software Association, which sponsors the event, there has been a long-standing but seldom enforced rule about the quality and quantity of attire on those who work the show. This year, they are going to enforce it. To sum up:

…material, including live models, conduct that is sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative, including but not limited to nudity, partial nudity and bathing suit bottoms, are prohibited on the Show floor, all common areas, and at any access points to the Show.  

So now there's one less thing to distract attendees from the games themselves. This, of course, presents some risk to the presenters themselves. With less obvious methods with which to pull attendees into their booth, it'll just be the lights, music, canned routines by the barker MCs, and, shockingly, the games.

I doubt we're going to see a cascade failure of glitz, to be replaced by high intellectual commentary and true discourse on what these games are and mean. For that to happen, games would need to truly be about their innovations, and not mostly about the quality of their graphics or the use of comely Elven women. And for that to happen, the entire industry of publishing, distributing, and selling games would need to change how they deliver and measure success.

In other words, I'm not holding my breath.

But I applaud this move by the ESA. I feel this is a good thing for the show, a way to perhaps get people more focused on the main topic. Maybe, just maybe, this'll make it so hard for games that are little more than re-skinned sequels to be shown so prominently that companies will start looking for ways to improve features and introduce new ones.

The impact of the fine the ESA will begin lodging will not be felt this year of course. There's not really enough time for companies to do the necessary soul-searching that would redirect attention back onto the games. And let's face it, if you can afford a big enough booth at E3 to not go ignored, chances are you can afford to get slapped with many multiples of that fine.

It is, however, a start. And a start is all is needed.