E For All Expo 2008 – Day 1 – FRIDAY RECAP

E For All returned to the LA Convention Center, whether the gaming community was ready for it or not… including me. I showed up and got in line an hour before the doors opened at 10am, bag slung over my shoulder, and suddenly realized that I didn’t have my camera. How is that possible?! It’s my reason for existing at events like this. (check out our Flickr page this weekend for pics as I WILL NOT forget my camera tomorrow… by the way, the picture here was taken with my cell phone) As I mumbled verbal abuse to myself, the lobby was soon filled with a bagpipe band making it’s way through the crowd. It’s one of the “traditions” (if 2 years in a row can be considered a tradition) that I really like about E For All. Last year, they had a different traveling music group play for those waiting in line. I’m not sure who to expect next, but it could be a local school marching band that leads us onto the exhibition floor tomorrow morning.

Anyway, onto the show… They moved the event to the smaller West hall (much to my surprise when I arrived, as I had parked under the South hall), which fit the event much better. Lots less open space than last year, although everything was spaced out enough that you were never in danger of being shoulder to shoulder with anyone unless you were reaching for airborne t-shirts hoisted by various gaming vendors. Whether it’s the smart use of space by the promoters or the lack of mega-sized crowds, this event could be considered the anti-Comic-Con on those merits alone… and I like it. I’m sure the promoters would appreciate more people at the show, but I like moving around without having to walk sideways just to walk a straight line between any two points (at Comic-Con, it always feels like you’ve got a proton pack jammed in your face or a stormtrooper blaster crammed up your ass whenever you walk the exhibition hall floor).

Okay, back to the line for a moment… I noticed that there were more than a few people carrying their own gaming gear, which I don’t remember seeing last year. Backpacks were stuffed with customized keyboards and mouses (mice? meeces? just what is the plural for a non-mammal mouse?), which had to be tagged by security so that no one could be accused of stealing event-provided property. And for good reason. If you are a hardcore multiplayer gamer, E For All is heaven (I’m not one, but I imagine this would be the case). Rows after rows of high end LAN party machines were clustered everywhere throughout the hall. Intel had their World of Warcraft tournaments, where players competed for tens of thousands of dollars in prizes (or the potential to). Other areas included matches for everything from Halo 3 to Command and Conquer to racing games of every type. I was glad to see PC games so well represented, when everyone knows that console games demand the big money these days. But like I said, I’m no LAN partier, so I kept away from all of that. If I had the time to play like most of these gamer geeks, I know I’d be hunkered down with them, my face inches from the screen as I click madly and pound the WASD keys through the table.

The big stars of the show were Guitar Hero World Tour and Gears of War 2, both getting instant and sustained crowds the moment the doors opened. Fatal1ty hosted a non-stop cavalcade of wannabe rock stars on his stage as everyone took their shot at playing Rock Band for the crowd while others competed in a real life analog and digital obstacle course that mixed stepping through tires and walking across a balance beam with minigames from the Wii Fit. Big screens over one of the main stages let everyone watch an seemingly endless battle between 2 players beating the snot out of each other in Super Smash Bros Brawl as others at the other end of the room blasted holes in each other with Quake 4 in hopes of winning Intel’s latest super Quad-core processor.

I found myself spending an awful lot of time at the Samsung booth playing yet another mobile phone game in hopes of winning big prizes. Namco didn’t show this year, so I couldn’t kick ass on Ms Pac-Man like last year, but Samsung hooked me into playing Asphalt 4 on their new INNOV8 phones in hopes of winning $1000 and a trip to Germany for the finals. I was ranked #2 for about an hour before my measley score was blown out of the water. I skirted the top 10 for most of the day, but couldn’t stay there. The great thing is that between attempts I could glance over my shoulder to watch the Iron Man movie on some sweet Samsung flat screens in the comfy Samsung lounge (I know I’m not famous like Conan O’Brien, but if I compliment these companies enough, will they send me free stuff, like a 65 inch Samsung HD 1080p television? One can dream…). I later attempted to win swag at the Sharp/Pro Gamers booth by playing a little simon says with a pretty hostess, but when she tried to get me and the other remaining (male) constestant to touch our neighbor’s butt, we each requested that we touch her butt instead (score!) as she could be considered our neighbor as well, but we were both disqualified for our slight homophobic reaction to her request (plus, he was a stranger! they gotta buy me at least 2 drinks before I let them get that far!). I did get a cool t-shirt for filling out a survey, though. Possibly the coolest shirt I’ve ever gotten at a convention…

I circled the floor possibly hundreds of times in the 10 hours I was there, playing everything from Assassins Creed on a stunningly sleek and powerful Intel laptop (free computer please!) to Lego Indiana Jones on the Nintendo DS to learning my way around a new as-yet unreleased game called Bionic Commando on a kickass Intel desktop (another computer please!).

Yes, in case you’re wondering… I’m a whore (and I am also in desperate need of a new computer, so bye bye journalistic integrity!).

My long day that started camera-less could have ended under even more dire circumstances when I reached down to my chest to find that my badge was gone! I retraced my thousands of steps and asked every pretty booth girl I had lamely flirted with today to no avail. My pass was gone and along with it my chances of getting in for the rest of the week. I made my way up to the Media lounge with my tail tucked between my legs and my head bowed, but the girls there would have none of it. The sweet and lovely young Courtney (oh god i hope i remembered her name right… i was so stressed out and exhausted at the time) took great care of me and got me a replacement badge without hesitation. She was a life saver. So the LA Convention Center should be expecting me bright and early tomorrow with both badge and camera in hand.

There’s lots more to say and show (pictures!) over the next two days, despite how small the show appears to be (compared to the monster shows like Comic-Con and the old school E3). I’m not going to blab about it all tonight (if I talked to you and you’re wondering why you didn’t get a nod just yet, just wait…). I need sleep so my blisters can subside (sneakers tomorrow maybe?) and so I can get geared up to play more games, take pictures, and drink as much legal gamer-centric energy drink samples as one body can manage in a day!