Opening the Cellar Door at E3

Part 1 of a 2-part series on the E3 expo and the ever-expanding and -changing world of video games.

*You stand facing a quaint little cottage. On your left is a mailbox.*

#Open mailbox#

*A note in the mailbox reads: "Beware of the cellar door."*

My friend's dad was a computer programmer back when no one had a clue what that meant. And one evening, he introduced us to a new thing called a computer game. We three sat huddled around a little monitor and keyboard connected to a room crammed with blinking lights, reel-to-reels, transistors and whirring thinga-ma-jigs. It was a sci-fi wonder-basement and the first "personal" computer I had ever seen. Actual video game graphics—or colors for that matter—were years away, but we were entranced like mice by the Pied Piper's song. We were gamers.

That memory was in my thoughts last month as I walked into the Los Angeles Convention Center, my first trip to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Boy, how things have changed. Computers have shrunk (my cell phone has more computing power than that basement-bound behemoth), but gaming itself has gotten much bigger. The banner-clad convention center that I stood in held more than a half-million square feet of exhibit space (an area equal to 40 Olympic-size pools) jam-packed with 400 video game manufacturers and their thousands of games and technologies showcased by over a million pounds of audio, video and lighting equipment, including nearly 6,000 flat screen monitors. Add 60,000-plus industry and trade people to the mix and you have what feels like an roaring ocean of humanity—with tidal ebb and flow—drawn by the gravitational pull of the latest big game demo.

The Good, the Bad ...
Some of the new E3 offerings were pretty impressive. Sony pulled back the curtain to show us their PlayStation 3 game console; scheduled for release Nov. 17. It comes with a grand array of bells and whistles, featuring Blu-ray laser technology (a high-definition DVD format), Wi-Fi (wireless connection to the Internet) and movement-sensitive controllers (tilting the controller affects game play). It also comes with the grand price tags of $500 and $600.

Nintendo hopes their new console, the Wii (pronounced we), will appear much more budget-friendly at around $250. They've got a fancy controller, too. Theirs looks like a skinny TV remote that you point or wave around to control onscreen guns, baseball bats, tennis rackets or swords.

Of course, for all that coin you get to flex a lot more computer processing muscle, too. This translates to amazing game depth and graphic capability. For example, Medal of Honor Airborne, a WWII combat RPG (role-playing game), offers stunningly realistic visuals as your character parachutes out of a night sky lit by bursts of artillery fire. And you can almost count individual blades of grass in Madden NFL 07 as you juke, cutback and dive with the game's innovative rushing controls. Huxley, a role-playing/first-person shooter, will explore new frontiers in online play as players join 200 friends in a 50-level (enormous) world that offers so much detail you can see the pores on character's faces. And those are only three out of scads of new releases vying for convention-center attention.

Now, that's not to imply that everything at E3 was golden. In spite of the fact that 85% of all the games purchased last year were rated E (everyone) to T (teen), there are still a lot of unsavory games being produced. And all that extra gaming power means games can annihilate with more ferocity and drip more realistic gore. Add to that the reality of video worlds that can be more interactively expansive and you've got games you can lose yourself in for hundreds of hours.

That kind of visceral vividness and time commitment will demand all the more gamer discernment (Honey, I've got my new game. See you next week!) and parental guidance (But, Mom! I'm only killing prostitutes and policemen!). Next week, in part 2 of this gaming series, we'll spend some needed time discussing this subject.

... And the Uninitiated
For now, though, if you're not really into gaming, you may be wondering what all the crowing is about. What's the draw? Is it really such a big deal to anybody who's not a teenager? Well, consider the fact that the average American gamer, believe it or not, is 30 years old. And last year, he (and millions of his fellow he's and she's) bought $7 billion worth of video games. By 2010 there will be an estimated 75 million people between the ages of 10 and 30 who cut their teeth on this entertainment fare—it's even been called the rock 'n' roll of the next generation.

And as to what motivates people to get involved with these games? There's a lot to choose from. It could be the awesome cinema splashed across the screen or the slaying of scary things that go bump in the night or the challenge of solving an arduous puzzle. Or maybe it's just that mysterious note that says *Beware* and our inquisitive longing to find the adventure behind that cellar door. Whatever it is, its piper's tune is in the air. And a lot of people are listening.

In Part 2, Bob takes a candid snapshot of one too-diligent gamer he met on the E3 bus.

Part 1 | Part 2