| ECTS
London EXCEL
em Review
The European Computer Trade Show is Europe’s
annual event for developers, publishers and manufacturers of computer
and video game entertainment to show their wares to others in the
trade. This of course doesn’t mean that you need to be in the
trade to enter, and putting down any old business name seems to
suffice. Working for Gameplay at the time of last year’s show
it was a place that I needed to go to, and in fact was made to go.
This year however, I suppose I had no right to be there, but I decided
to go anyway, not that they should care.
So after
filling in the ‘Visitors’ registration online under eyemachine
I went on to receive a ‘Press’ pass instead. I was happy
at first, but then a sort of fear set in as a realised they might
not let me in. Not that it should matter, but on their website it
said that if you had a press pass you needed to bring stuff along
to prove you were genuine. For online media this included a cover
letter from your editor (not necessary in my case as I am the editor,
and if they wanted a note I would have been more than happy to scribble
something in child’s handwriting on a torn piece of notepad
paper) and an article relating to the industry written in the last
6 months. What?!
IT'S GOD'S DAY
Anyway, I had a visitors pass as a backup for when I go with my
current employers, so now I needed a plan. Sunday, GAH! Typically
dowdy, overcast day that really doesn’t inspire you to get
out of bed let alone leave the flat to go to London. It wouldn’t
be so bad, but this year ECTS has been plonked right out of the
way in docklands, as opposed to last years more central location,
Olympia. But apart from maybe watching Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal,
what else was I going to do with my dreary Sunday?
So I got the Thameslink at 10:19am. God I hate these trains, yet
there’s something disconcertingly suspicious about Sunday train
travellers. They shouldn’t be there for a start, who in their
right mind would want to go anywhere on a Sunday? And maybe it’s
my paranoia, but they all look like drug dealers or arsonists; each
one with a furtive glint in their eye.
| "As
long as I took out the CCTV cameras and crawled under the motion
sensor lasers I should be alright." |
After studying the
floor plan of the show I worked out that I would firstly try out my
press pass on the gate to the furthest left. If that failed I’d
switch passes then go in via the furthest right hoping that the security
on the first gate wouldn’t spot my deviance. This would be awkward
considering how conspicuous I looked in a bright red ‘Danger
Of Death’ t-shirt. As long as I took out the CCTV cameras and
crawled under the motion sensor lasers that I’d revealed with
a fine mist spray, I should be alright.
The Thameslink by now had filled up to capacity and above with a load
of people coming back from their holidays. At least I later got to
travel on the scarily cool Docklands Light Railway (Ghost) Train.
These trains have no driver at all, nor any signs explaining how the
train works nor gently informing the passengers that there isn’t
meant to be a driver. It wouldn’t surprise me to find people
running up and down the carriages screaming “We’re gonna
die! We’re gonna die!”, and unless I had friends with me
the first time I went on one of these death machines you could have
very possibly witnessed me doing the same sort of thing.
A nice picture
of London - just so everyone's clear where the show was.
ESCAPE & EVASION
I approached the entrance to the hall, and I began to panic as I discovered
that there was a separate entrance for press. Shit! Think! Think!
I carefully swapped my passes over and thought to enter the visitor’s
entrance, but at the last minute had a change of mind and just decided
to go for the press thing. I mean what were they going to do, point
me in the opposite direction and give me 30 seconds before releasing
the jungle-cats? Everyone in front of me was having to show business
cards and letters; I started to worry. It came to my turn; the woman
scanned in my barcode and let me in…what an anticlimax.
The press area really wasn’t too exciting, a few press releases
from the various exhibitors to pick up, some tables and chairs to
relax at and free…water! YES! Actually there was coffee too,
but considering the heat factor inside the hall, hot coffee was the
last thing on my mind. I would like to point out here how poor the
‘air conditioning’ was. It was hotter than a monkey's ass
in there, and if it hadn’t been for the cooler, more open areas
at the back on the hall I could have very nearly ended up an Alex
Mac-ean puddle by the end of the show. (quick update - they must have
fixed the air con for Monday as it was ever so slightly cooler)
There was a large gathering, however, at the entrance of the conference
room. Being one to enjoy a good public spectacle, be it an old woman
who’d fallen over in the street or some major factory accident,
I decided to join them and see what was going on. Result - not much.
Must have been interesting though to stir up that much interest, or
perhaps everyone else was just wondering just what was going on. It
turns out it was a conference by RPG developers Blizzard. This could
have been interesting, but it turned out it was invite only. I decided
to leave the press area as the lack of invites was taking me right
back to school.
| "I
could have ended up an Alex Mac-ean puddle by the end of the
show." |
HOLDING SPACE
Now ECTS claimed this year’s venue was larger than the last,
and although Excel may have been larger, the event was something else,
with last years having two floors opposed to this year’s one.
It wasn’t a small place, but considering I managed to look at
everything interesting, and some not so interesting, in roughly two
hours you have to wonder.
It was widely known within the industry that this years event wasn’t
attracting many of the large publishers, with most deciding to offer
their own invite-only parties elsewhere. This meant that the place
was filled largely with third party developers and manufacturers of
accessories, hardware and appalling multimedia learning programs.
There were a lot of games on offer, but mostly PC and not any of the
big games that we get excited about.
I did manage to show some interest in one or two stands however, and
those shall be revealed in the following pages, and second part to
this feature.
david twomey
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