My Experience at E3 as a Member of the Public

Hello Steemit!

Majin Buu here and I figured you might be interested in hearing about my experience at the Electronics Entertainment Expo. Sorry about the formatting!

For someone who has always been interested in video games naturally E3 was something I always wanted to go to. You get to see all the new games, try them out, and even possibly meet some of the development teams or masterminds behind them. Lucky for me this was the first year they opened it to the public for quite some time!

So I bought my ticket, booked a flight, and split a hotel room with two other friends. We ended up staying at the Vagabond Inn which was about a mile walk from the LA Convention Center and pretty affordable considering the event. Being so close was great because I cannot imagine having to drive in LA for more than we had to (to and from airport).

Anyway to the event! The event went from 06/13-06/15 and was a mixture of press/media and everyday fans such as myself. This being my first event like this I wasn't sure what to expect as far as lines, waiting, crowds, etc. In hindsight I should have really done some research, but going in blind was still fun!

The first day we arrived was badge pick up day and it was pretty quiet by the time we arrived. Only the entry plaza was available so people were walking around and taking pictures of the booths and adverts that were being set up at the time.

Outside of the first day every other day was absolutely slammed. If you were in either of the display areas (south hall and west hall) it was pretty difficult to get around especially if you wanted to go into a booth like Xbox's or Ubisoft's.

Since it was so packed (67,000+ of which only 15,000 were fans) that translated to a lot of waiting or standing in line. Some games had lines 5+ hours long. That's right you had to wait in a line for 5 hours to play one game for anywhere from 5-25 minutes depending on the game. I didn't think any game was worth that kind of wait and stuck with games that had much faster lines like Dragonball Fighter Z which was generally a 35-40 minute wait for a game I thought was really well done.

This was probably one of my favorite games here that I got to try or see. Mostly because I love Dragonball but also because it's very likely the best Dragonball game to come out to date. The visuals are perfection and every single animation was stunning. The gameplay felt even better than the game looks and I would definitely recommend looking into this game if you like fighters at all.

PlayStation tried to do something to curb the lines in their booth and it was a great idea, just poorly executed. Essentially the app was designed to hold your place in line and you would just come at the designated time. However you had to have the app open and find one game you really wanted to play then hope you get one of the spots in the time frame you chose, because as soon as the reservations were open they were gone in under 5 seconds. My friends & I tried each day and none of us got a slot.

Despite only being able to play 4 or 5 games the entire event I had a really great time since there was still so much to see even if you weren't playing the games or waiting too. A lot of games or companies really went all out with their booths. I don't even know how Forza got this car in the convention center but it was beautiful.

Mixer's booth was small but they had this table with robots on it that you could control with the computers and play soccer while streaming to Mixer which was really fun to watch and play with.

Monster Hunter World had this massive dragon standing over the crowd. It was fantastic to look at.

For the new Wolfenstein game they recreated the diner from the trailer. Unfortunately I didn't get to go inside but it was magnificent.

Overall I had a really great experience and I think it was worth the investment and time off. If you get a chance to go in the coming years I would highly recommend it. Just be sure to bring some friends, comfy shoes, snacks, and don't eat at the cafeterias! Food was over priced, bland, and it's likely Soylent will be there offering free Soylent again which will hold you over until dinner. Pick some of that up instead! Feel free to ask any questions you might have and thanks so much for reading!