E3 – The Virgin Experience

Before I go ahead, I should clearly state that the title of this article is based on the fact that I have never been to E3 before and that I flew with Virgin Atlantic and would not want to add to the further stereotyping of videogamers.

My old man knees didn’t cope too well with a lack of leg room for more than ten hours and sleep eluded me, but this did allow me to watch my way through Django Unchained, A Bad Film To Die Hard, Skyfall and Jack Reacher. On arrival at LAX we were delayed after landing as a “VIP” was travelling through the airport. I was a little annoyed at the prospect of being delayed due to some movie starlet, but was reasonably excited/pleased to find out this was the President in Air Force One. Mind you, I have never been delayed by the Prime Minister. 1-nil to England so far.

I chatted to the people in my row more during the time we were waiting here than we did during the ten hours while in the air, partly due to excitement and partly down to the fact there was a much more finite amount of time if any of us got “stuck” in a conversation. That is aside from the young, pretty, friendly, but by her own admission clumsy, girl sitting next to me, who split her lemonade in my lap half way through the flight – that started a conversation. Turns out she was the only person I spoke to on the flight that wasn’t on the way to E3 and was coming over to spend three months supervising kids at a Summer Camp. Good luck with that! The rest of the people in my row comprised of independent retailers and a TwitchTV streamer – all like me where on the way to E3, but I was the only one who was travelling there for the first time.

I knew my hotel may not be in the nicest part of LA, but this was confirmed when I jokingly asked Walter on the front desk if it was safe to leave the hotel at night without the fear of getting shot. He replied seriously, that it wasn’t advisable to go out after 9pm. This was also backed up by the local Jack in the Box (a fast food establishment that serves all day breakfast) having bulletproof glass covering the counter with a bulletproof serving box for the collection of food. That said everyone I have encountered, no matter what time of night has been very friendly and I have since heard other people giving conflicting advice that the area is “much safer than it looks.”

I didn’t expect to not speak the native tongue of the area I am staying in. Walking the streets, people commonly speak Spanish first and only started speaking English after I had replied. This is certainly a mainly Mexican part of town, but will point out for those that don’t know me that is a comment rather than a complaint. I am glad of the opportunity to immerse myself in a culture I know little about. However, this has lead to a few scenes that seemed very odd to me. Must say, I have never seen anyone breastfeeding in Carphone Warehouse. I have never seen a crowd of people watching a football match on a market stall that sells TV’s. I have never seen a variety of Mexican street food cooked on BBQ’s with ingredients kept in shopping trolleys. All sights I have now seen numerous times – well, aside from the breastfeeding in the phone shop, that may have been a one-off.

I also was not expecting to see as many football (or soccer) pitches as there are basketball courts and today I saw another sight I had not seen before, in the nearby MacArthur Park. An organised children’s football match (as in they had strips and a referee) being played with both boys and girls on the same team. Have never seen that before and it was nice to see.

Cory and I walked a few blocks to visit our local Gamestop today, so that he could make an unsuccessful attempt to pick up Animal Crossing. They basically, slightly depressingly look almost exactly the same as a GAME store from the UK. Prior to this, the only “shop” I had visited where I could have bought a game was a blanket covered in Gameboy cartridges in a nearby, very unofficial looking street market. Original Gameboy, GBA and DS games all without cases or instructions. After trying it out at Loading Bar for the first time the other day, I nearly bought a copy of Qix, but was unsure of their international returns policy.

Having a stroll around the few blocks of my hotel this afternoon, I uncovered the location of all the essentials a busy blogger may need; McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and the Circus. Okay, I can’t think of the circumstances where I might need a clown and an elephant in an emergency situation, but hey you never know – rather know where they are and not need them…

We are shortly just about to leave to go and complete our E3 registration and pick up our media passes. All the press conferences start bright and early tomorrow and then the show kicks off the day after. My E3 virginity is about to be broken and I sense that I may be by the end of the week.