MTV Multiplayer › Miscellany

I just got my ticket the other day. I'm going to the circus.

By circus, of course, I mean E3. This year, E3 is invite-only, as compared to last year's event where you needed, say, a pulse to get in. Game companies finally tired of the huge crowds, the excessive expenditures on booths to show off their games, and the general uselessness of E3's show floor. So instead of a mass gathering of game store clerks with T-shirts designed to show off this year's newest bulge, E3 has morphed into something a little more cozy, a little more intimate.

"Welcome to the E3 Media & Business Summit," the E3 Web site reads,  "an exclusive, invitation-only, three-day event which offers the opportunity for both ESA members and non-members to stage major press events, and to have personal meetings in hotel suites and meeting rooms with media, retailers, developer partners, and other key industry contacts. In addition, [Santa Monica's] Barker Hangar will be converted into a software showcase where attendees will be able to casually test drive featured video games outside of the companies? suites."

So, basically, everyone is going to have to shuttle back and forth between this hangar and various hotel rooms in Santa Monica. One of my friends, who happens to write for the very fine game-related publication EGM describes this as "a train wreck ready to happen."

And, may the the good lord Luigi have mercy on my soul, but I think he's right.