E3: Change has come, but growth is evident

Let me first make a personal note here to everyone who participated during the event here on N4G.

To the content providers, thank you. This year was decidedly the most organized, well-approached event to-date. There was very little bickering, though there definitely were a ton of questions and communication. You understood our goal and accepted when someone beat you to the news. You barely questioned when we failed a story for being a recap and you just kept working harder to get the news our users want. Thank you for your time, effort, and devotion to bringing news to our users.

To the users, thank you. It may not seem like it matters, but among all the usual petty squabbling that will never leave our hobby there was a ton of excitement for the industry and a ton of discussion on the future of the industry as we see the three different console manufacturers continue to grow in different directions and yet at the same time in similar directions.

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Now, with the side note that much of this will be a stream of thought put quickly to digital ink rather than an outlined writing, let me get onto my personal thoughts about E3...

I've been playing catch-up a lot in the last two days. But, even without that news, I was happy with this year's E3. I wasn't happy because we're suddenly getting games that have never been seen before and somehow change the dynamics of how games work. I wasn't happy because one conference did so much better than another or because some game I really wanted was announced.

I was happy because our industry is not dying and is actually growing. Consoles aren't dying. Video Games are thriving. Support from more sources than ever before are increasing each year. Hardware news is still major news in a world where new phones and tablets come out every three months. The industry is becoming more diverse over time.

What's that you say, you were disappointed by this E3? I get it. I really do. You didn't care for the new hardware announcements and what game announcements there were just didn't show you anything brand new or of interest to you.

"But, that's just your opinion, man."

And what I mean by that, is just that. That is your opinion. But, regardless of our opinions of what we like or didn't like, the fact remains that what was shown is a sign of the growing desire for gaming to expand and capture new ways to engage gamers while building on the current way gamers have come to love to play our games.

New hardware from Microsoft really isn't a priority for me. It isn't. But the fact it was announced is a massive priority for the industry. It sets a tone going forward how consoles are embracing a system more familiar with the PC industry, where the games you buy now will be playable 20 years down the road on the nth generation of hardware while still maintaining a console structure that supports the gaming environment people want and love. Regardless of what people say, MS is setting a tone going forward on how people will see consoles and just announcing their plans will affect change across the board in the long run.

Rift, Vive, and PSVR really aren't my bag. Besides the fact that due to my lack of vision in one eye it would cause me headaches and possibly some nausea... I'm just really interested in more what the game on my TV can do to evolve gameplay rather than what new ways to control how we play games alters how we play the games we've been playing for over a decade. But, there is no denying the love for the VR that people have experienced and the surprisingly well-started hardware sales on PCs so far. With a more affordable method on Sony's platform and MS supporting multiple VR solutions with Scorpio, the fact is that gamers who want it will easily be able to access it and support for it is only growing. Sure, there are a lot of one-hour "experience" games, but if the pricing is right and the experience is worth it... That's all that matters, right? Not whether you or I want to hand over $400 to $800 for a new way to play games, but whether the experiences are worth experience. And, so far, the mass majority of people say they are worth experiencing.

Software... I know how easy it is to be that cynical person who finds nothing of interest in something. And, I admit, there were a lot of things where I just had no or completely lost interest in this year. But, at the same time, there were a good number of things that pleasantly surprised me. Am I seeing a huge surge in innovative gameplay? Nope, not at all. But, what I am seeing is more focus put on growing games to a point where they are actually trying to fix past mistakes and show a sign that they are listening to gamers. Are they making some mistakes? Absolutely. But, that's life. We should celebrate when a company listens. We shouldn't just criticize or find witty ways to belittle what they've done when if it was being done by a different company with a different IP, we would be praising it.

Let's review some of the more common comments I've read over the last few days (I told you this wasn't a properly outlined writing!):

- "Zombie games. OMG, they're everywhere, am i rite?" No, actually, no. Neither are any other genre. Seeing a zombie game and throwing your hands up in the air in disgust at something you don't want is akin to me seeing a commercial for dog food and proclaiming we don't need any more dog food commercials because I don't own a dog. They aren't that prevalent and non-zombie game options out there are plentiful, to say the least.

- "Dad of War. God of Us." Oh, you so witty Internet. I'm not a fan of Kratos, but I think we've become way attached to mocking for the sake of mocking in order to earn some Internet points for an attempt at wittiness. Is God of War the same as the first three games? No. Is that a bad thing? Who knows, but the change doesn't make it a clone of any other game. We need to step away from these comments when expressing our opinions. It's what leads to everyone always being disappointed.

- "lol, MS kills XBO with Scorpio announcement." Really? Then why are XBO S pre-orders through the roof? Why are people talking about playing Gears of War 4, Forza Horizons 3, and Halo Wars 2? Why are the top news on our site and others about how awesome Scorpio and filled with people talking about upgrading their XBO when it comes out, not about just waiting on Scorpio, a console that is 18 months away... It doesn't even make sense. People buy a console for the games first, and I don't see how a new console that will play the same games will change that. Are you honestly going to put off playing 4 years of games on the XBO just for new hardware? Why not wait another 6 years? How about 10 years? When will the wait stop?

- "OMG, what is Ubisoft doing? That intro was cringeworthy." Okay, that's a valid comment.

- "Sony pulled the Neo from the stage because Scorpio was more powerful." Really? Considering we knew for months about the rumored specs of Scorpio which mostly turned out to be true, you think Sony decided just a few days before E3 to remove it? You honestly don't think with the rumors announced that they wouldn't have planned better for some replacement material at the event in case they decided not to show? No, you guys are right, these guys pulled it out last minute. That totally makes sense. Just as much thinking that the fact that if they are releasing mid next year, they can suddenly up specs on the hardware without changing any time frame or the like. Remind me to not hire any of you people saying that to plan out any of my future major hardware releases.

- "Where are the exclusives? We've only had a handful this year." What E3 were you watching in the last 10 years that showed off more than 5 new exclusives each year? Did you realize that with the growth of more and more gaming events that exclusive material has been spaced out for ages now rather than just all shown at once that one magical time in June/July.

- "Sony shows games we won't see for years." So much different than everyone else. What's that? The game of E3 was a Zelda game announced 3 years ago with its first ever hands-on gameplay? I'm sorry, were Scalebound, Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War 4 first announced at this E3 and not last E3 or even the one before that? Stop making comments just to diminish the games we are seeing from the different companies. Whether it's out soon, next year, or the next, we all know that each developer is putting out new content each year and they all present games that sometimes take 2+ years to reach our hands. Everyone does this.

Anyway, silly comments are silly comments. We as gamers keep looking for ways to be disappointed it seems and we fuel our conversations with a goal of competing with complaints about the "opposition" rather than just finding that it's easier to just be happy with what we like than to try and make someone else unhappy about what they like.

The final item I want to touch on about this E3 was the greatest stark change for me. And, it wasn't games, it wasn't hardware, it wasn't journalists, it wasn't any of that. It was how huge a difference one person can make. If you're wondering why I chose the Nintendo puppets as my story image, now you will know why. Nintendo's presentation, whether you hated it or not, showed how much a difference there was with the passing of Iwata. Nintendo's past shows had character, but this year they were replaced with just gameplay and not the joy I feel Iwata encouraged and brought to the events. Reggie stood on stage, gave some opening comments, and then left. There wasn't any real interaction between the faces of Nintendo and their games. For lack of a better word, it felt antiseptic. It was the absence of anything out of the ordinary, and it made me understand more of what his passing meant not to me, but to Nintendo as a whole. Sure, they are seeing some lows and that could affect it a bit, but I honestly believe that without him there to lead the way and to remind them what makes Nintendo who they are, we are seeing Nintendo in a place where it's trying to figure who they are as a company now that he's not there.

Those are my, off the top of my head, thoughts on E3. I ask you to share your thoughts, but I ask that you try your best to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. I've been trying it out myself and it isn't all that bad. Thank you for reading.