Do We Need All These Games Showcases?

I know, I get that it might seem hypocritical with some of the complete and utter nonsense I write, day-in and day-out. At length, I can talk about everything and nothing all at the same time. Someone has to read it (they are called editors), and someone else probably does too. I don’t look at the site views, and I don’t care to ask about them either. Nonetheless, I do know that at least that someone is reading this right now and wondering what drugs I’ve taken.

All this said, here comes the bit that will get me called a hypocrite. I value the time spent on something. In fact, on the back burner I am writing another editorial on game length. I’ll probably take far too long to express that maybe we shouldn’t make everything a thousand-hour MMORPG pushing realism. I consider the time spent on something because I know there isn’t a lot of it (time that is), and you can’t cram everything you want to do into life. So… What is the point?

Do we need bi-monthly (or even bi-weekly) showcases to display every game that is being released, will be delayed, and/or hyped to the moon and back? I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but through the present pandemic, everyone is doing a mini-E3. Now, I love E3 as that explosion of games being fired at you like the guns firing tic-tacs of Call of Duty trailers we see every year. I honestly do love it. Covering it is a nightmare, as everyone and their dog now gets a show. Yet, there is a special feeling surrounding it, as if I’m going to start watching Home Alone, Die Hard, and It’s A Wonderful Life, again.

Nonetheless, over the preceding year and a half, we’ve seen every games publisher and developer march out their PR person to announce their own at-home showcase. All of them are following in the footsteps of Nintendo who was soon shadowed by Sony, after that one year they had nothing for E3. Don’t get me wrong: I like a good, tight show when it is done well. However, yesterday Xbox did another one of those ID @ Xbox things, a sequel to the one I covered back in March.

At the time, I mentioned that it was like WWE expanding its PPVs to 4-5 hours in length, while the last two WrestleManias have been back-to-back 6-hour shows, each night. The comparison might not have landed for everyone. For all intents and purposes, my point was that they’ve had a 3-hour show in March, with a 2-hour show in June, a further 2-hours in early August, and whatever Gamecom is going to hold. Oh, and this is all from one company that has historically sold fewer consoles than their main rival.

My point isn’t to yell that Xbox shouldn’t be doing these events, and that somehow this indie-focused one broke the metaphorical camel’s back. It didn’t. What has me on the high horse is the fact that anyone and everyone who is interested in a little bit of indie action, is supposed to take 2-hours out of their Tuesday to watch a showcase of 28 games. As a viewer and general consumer, of course, you can break it up into little segments and watch it throughout the week. That is a healthy way to consume something of that length, but what about those that cover it? I don’t want faux sympathy, I don’t care about having to cover these things, but I care about the time.

This year’s E3 had one of the best presentations that has ever been at/around the event of E3, and you want to know something? It was an indie-focused event that highlighted far too many games to list in a single paragraph. How long was it? An hour. The Wholesome Direct presented about as many games as Microsoft tends to at E3, and did so in a much quicker fashion while also avoiding games that made me depressed. So, I have to ask the question once again, what is the point?

I’m not saying Nintendo can’t have their indie showcase later today. I’m not saying Xbox shouldn’t have had theirs yesterday, while Annapurna Interactive had theirs last week. I’m not saying we can’t have a show at Gamescom, and I’m not saying we can’t have shows surrounding E3 either. We just need to focus more on doing them well and doing them succinctly, focusing less on presenters who stream on Twitch for a living, and instead, getting to the point. I don’t mind having a famous face around to say, “up next,” but conducting interviews that go nowhere, shouldn’t be a thing.

The function of these presentations are to take a few moments on each game, whether it is 30-seconds or 2-minutes, make sure they are interesting, and move on. At least it should be. If I’m interested in a game, I am going to seek it out, and I’m going to look for actual interviews conducted by people who know how to interview. I get it, it is cute to see two developers who love their game about fishing have a little chat about it over Zoom/Skype, but it is unnecessary. I love Moonglow Bay as much as the next psychopath who enjoys fishing mechanics in games. However, if you replaced the interviews with a voice-over and showed the trailer again, I wouldn’t notice.

Show me a game, move on, show me another game, move on, and keep showing me games. If I am interested in them, I’ll go to them. That is how this works. I’ll be honest, you can tell me Hideo Kojima or Suda51 is behind every madcap idea game you’ve ever seen, but that alone doesn’t interest me. Showing me lovely developers, a name of a developer, or anything to do with them that isn’t the game isn’t going to sway my opinion on it. I don’t care about them, at least not until Activision-Blizzard (or any developer/publisher) lets harassment run rampant. That’s when I get myself in a twist over the people behind games, but until then, just show me the games.

Of course, the argument is that it puts indie titles in the headlines alongside the triple-As, so why complain? Again, often I am the one covering these shows. I might have something to say about spending a few hours writing up roundups. I don’t care if it is an indie game or a triple-A RPG, I want them all to cut down on the diet of interviews and 20-minute detailed rundowns on the same mechanics that everything else has. No, really, tell me more about how you have to push down on RT or R2 to fire this thing you call a gun, I want to find out how that works.

Unless you have porridge for brains, I’m pretty sure you can work out that games with guns will ask you to fire the gun once in a while. Put on display the best portion of your game, show me what makes it different, and tell me why I should want to play it, but do it quickly. A 6-minute rundown of another post-apocalyptic S.T.A.L.K.E.R-like shooter, with a color palette as dull as dishwater among several others doing the same, isn’t going to stand out. Yet, I saw just that while watching every single show at E3, aside from the stupid ones where madness festered and Razer announced an RGB facemask.

I don’t mind watching another 60-minute show that launches games into my face at a rate that would be considered illegal if it were water, but 2-hours for 28-games? My only critique of the Wholesome Direct back in June was that it may not have allocated its time well. It could have cut some games, giving either those that only had 10-seconds enough room to show themselves or give everything 2-seconds. My criticism of the first ID @ Xbox and the second, is that it let the presenters play too much of a role, adding needless time to the overall show.

Is it aimed at the kids and their reaction video nonsense? Why would they care about two people they might not even know, when their favorite “react-er,” I guess, could just do the same thing? I don’t know what it adds, other than a break to the pacing of a proper show. It is akin to stopping after every trailer at E3, pointing the camera at the crowd, and handing the mic to either the helium balloon from Bethesda’s 2019 E3 show or that “yeah!” guy every two minutes. If it is to sway my opinion, it is doing it in the wrong way. Anyone with more than porridge for brains can make up their own mind on a trailer they’ve just seen, someone else expressing disbelief shouldn’t influence that.