Video Game Development at the University of Michigan

I see E3 as more of a party for EB Games/Gamestop employees than a place for real game developers. If you want a good conference where you get swag, time to talk to devs, looks at new middleware, then go to GDC. E3 is just a ton of people who scammed press credentials. Wil Wheton's E3 writeup made it sound like a fun conference this year, but he's a nerd celebrity and probably got to jump every line. Xbox Live brought the Lost Planet demo to my living room. No need to stand next to sweaty fanboys in line to play it. I thought the demo was pretty damn sweet.

I think part of the reason why marketing in general focuses so much on the video and so little on the game is that showing off the "Amazing graphics that you get to control!!!!!!" will get more people interested in the game than saying "Check out our ingenius and innovative gameplay mechanics!!!". They know they don't have much to lose in doing so either. Even the people who really want to experience the gameplay aren't going to complain too much if other important aspects are shown off. I think this really isn't going to change much until one of two things happens: 1. The general gaming public realizes that great graphics, music, etc. don't guarantee a great game and start demanding demos, or the more likely option 2. Some sort of online network is popularized for each of the new systems which will allow companies to post demos for people to play (I vaguely recall reading something about Nintendo's plan for a network like this, but I'm not as familiar with the PS3 and 360). If something like this was put into place, then E3 could be treated as a videogame amusement park, like you said.