day 3, last and perhaps most important of all.

this was the day we finally remembered we were press. today, we had passes and a determination to use them.

this non-report is from our most . . . acquisitive correspondent.

all in a day's work.

what are you missing?

pretty lights and colors. . . little flashy things. . . where was i? where are you? oh, coffee. thanks.

my shoulder hurts.

my back's broken.

my system is overloaded with caffiene.

yes, but how was the the convention?

24 cans coke stolen.

keep score ^_^

one of the nicest places i've ever been. it was as if i had walked through the gates of heaven. as if i'd reached my final destination while still alive.

confident of your station after death, aren't you?

so many games. . . all the new games. . . at least by u.s. standards.

playstation booth. definitely the playstation booth.

they gave me such a nice press kit. . . sony had an impressive kit in that it talked about more than the product —it outlined a marketing strategy.

it is true, isn't it. . . even at e3, the games are still for the most part, already familiar to japanese. . .

yare yare.

watch the preview movie. . . try a few games out from square. . . off to steal more stuff. ^_^

the joystick was nice. the backpacks were nice. the little shoulder bags were nice. the ghaleon dolls. gravis, sega, blue byte, working designs.

well, yes, a lot of the stuff was nice. stop drooling.

arc the lad was highly anime influenced. looks all right. rhapsody seemed pretty connected with anime, too. of course, there's pokemon, if you can call that anime.

it doesn't seem directly to be a strong influence, but there are a lot of games with that look and feel. most of square's titles, for example. harvest moon, from natsume, looks more than anime —it looks sd. very very chibi-cute.

fixated on chrono cross and lunar 2

( this was when we asked about anime influence in games. we do actually have an editorial focus. ^_^ )

working designs had a nice booth. all those posters. . . and three copies of lunar 2, not just one. . . so that we didn't have to fight over it. . . much.

pioneer had a lain poster. instant points. but we still can't believe that pioneer doesn't have a press kit. ('press? what is this press of which you speak?')

nice people at nvidia. food, coke, beer, vodka. . . nice couches. nice view, too.

email on-site. . . that was so nice.

in pioneer's defense, they said they were switching to a new press agency, and having new kits made, which should be ready in 'about a month.'

(ed. note —it also allowed me to show them the magazine _before_ they had to go out and represent it. ^_^ )

end of convention!! we're tired!

and then chris started singing 'don't stop' when we got home. . . but it was okay, because i was dreaming of sakura.

( not the one from the capcom games. )

the evil empire has begun its maneuvers to counter sony. (one wonders why they didn't spend the money on legal defense, rather than a spiffy-looking x box prototype.)

e3 seemed ready for internet journalism. they even gave us, a non-commercial, non-profit site, media access. tee hee.

( ed. staff sympathizes. lain deserves more exposure, both in game and anime. )

still not very much anime. but it's a gaming convention, after all.

i wish i hadn't missed the playstation party.

we have too many press kits to read. . . waah!!

the unspoken hazards of being press. . . press kits.

the role playing market is finally going up, as it should. popularity of lunar, ff, chrono cross. . . square is getting too big. . . almost dangerously oversized. perhaps conservative, not willing to take risks like it used to.

racing games and fighting games are becoming less popular now. they've finally overdone them completely. perhaps they can do a little more, (e.g. that game with the mad taxi driver, bushido blade,) but they're not a fad at the moment.

we are seeing a lot of anime turned to games. japan's always had a lot, but they've only recently started porting them over here.

covnention center. . . it was nice and all, but something seemed to be missing. no coke machines!!

( when asked about trends in the gaming industry. )

covnention center. . . it was nice and all, but something seemed to be missing. no coke machines!!

food. . . it would have been expensive had we actually had to buy any. but. . . buy food? when there are hordes of companies begging for favorable press coverage, willing to ply the stomachs of grateful starving correspondents? we ate quite well, and didn't pay anything. thank you nvidia, thq, sony, intel, and others with rooms in the press area on the second floor! we'll never forget you!

—day 3 non-report by jeff

aishiteru! ja ne!