Hacking the E3

I am what I am. What can I say? At heart I like to know how things are put together. And to find that out - you have to know how to take them apart. So I keep my eyes open, especially when I go to big events like E3.

I got bored of figuring out how they handle all the logistics for like fifty thousand attendees or something. That I pretty much understand. So instead I turn my attention to the subtext, the implications and circumventing the rules.

Just to see if I can.

Here's an example. On registration day walking up to the LA convention center there were huge lines of people snaking around the plazas. There were signs saying something about bag checks and as I got closer to the front of the line (take note, I wasn't actually standing in line I was just walking around) I could see security personnel rifling through bags at the table. Worried we'll bring in what - a bomb? a gun? a camera? No, they don't care about cameras.

And they didn't care that I walked right past the line and into the venue. Registration was inside. The nice young man there directed me to the "media registration" room and up I went.

There they asked to see my photo ID before letting me in the press registration room, but I think the guys guarding the door sort of missed the point. I figured they needed to see the ID later - to match it up to the name on the badge to make sure I wasn't handing off my badge to someone else to come in and use the free computers and wireless internet.

Nope. Once I got the press badge they never cared to see my photo ID again - and even told me so when I paused at the entrance, looking like I couldn't find my ID. They didn't care - as long as I had a press badge. So much for making the area "media only." They didn't even check to make sure the media badges hadn't been forged.

And yes, that can be checked. At the doors to the expo floor(s) they check the badges with a blacklight - one side of the authentic badges glows under blacklight. So far, I haven't seen anyone bounced for faking a badge.

They do have bouncers. Mean-looking men in burgundy coats stand at the back entrances to the larger event "booths." Others in black t-shirts make sure crowds don't build up too much to blog foot traffic. The biggest problem with that I've seen so far is the crowd around the skateboarding demo - real life, not game. "Step forward please, don't stand in the way."

I have seen a few (authentic) police on the show floor - but only about four. And that's nothing compared to the police presence on the outside of the venue. Downtown LA isn't exactly the safest neighborhood (some attendees have reported drive-by gunshots outside their hotel windows) so apparently the electronic entertainment community warrents a show of force. When I drove down Thursday morning there were two cops on every corner for a two-block radius around the event, four cruisers, three on bikes and three on motorcycles. After the event these are joined by cops in white gloves directing traffic. What makes this more surreal is that the "Join the Army" ads on the street are joined by ads for LAPD recruiting.

Speaking of ads - quite a few of them are being displayed in light. IBM was projected onto the side of a building Tuesday night - and probably continues to be even now. Inside the convention center they're everywhere on the floor. Mostly in white. E3, various games, companies, etc. How easy would it be to swap out the mask on the spotlights so it advertised your own game or indie company? I don't know anybody who's tried it yet - but I'd love to see it.

Another way of getting free advertising - setting the homepage and wallpaper on the computers in the press room. Companies obviously paid to have their ad showing on all the desktops - but I wonder about the homepages on the web browsers. Every time I sit down to a different computer there's a different game company or info website set as the homepage. So - either they paid for that privelege, or the press are being snarky and changing them around. I vote for the former.

But speaking of shared computers, did you know you can learn a lot from a browser's "history" button? Including the search terms previous users typed into google or yahoo search. Very interesting reading the press room. Most people don't think to clear their history before they walk away. So far I've found equal ammounts of work and play showing up in search terms.

But I guess that's what E3 is all about. Combining work and play. So I'll go on having my fun in perfectly harmless ways.