I don’t have to go anymore, and I’m relieved. Here are the top ten reasons why:
- The pre-E3 madness. When I was at Xbox, nothing and I mean NOTHING got done that wasn’t E3-related for weeks. Marketing and PR just went dark for all other matters.
- Having a back-up plan for every possible disaster–except the ones that actually occurred.
- Being jostled and groped by a sea of sweaty, near-orgasmic nerds on the show floor.
- Booth babes. A living reminder of what a woman’s primary place in the games industry still is.
- Drunk text messages at 3am.
- The hot, crowded back rooms where lowly Xbox.com writers had to work.
- Getting busted for ‘leaking’ something that was presented in the press briefing final rehearsal because space couldn’t be spared for the ‘real’ briefing. Real conversation later in hotel lobby: Important Guy: “Nice leak, Trixie. You gonna leak the name of the next console too?” Me: “Yeah it’s the Xbox Kiss My Ass.”
- Having my boobs banned from the website.
- Not being able to go to any parties because I had to be on camera the next day. (I’m OLD, folks. I look worse than you can imagine without sleep).
- Being really excited to share news with the world and having snarky game ‘journalists’ shit all over it in an attempt to seem cool.
So glad I’m not there. If you still think E3 is Christmas and your 21st birthday rolled into one, enjoy! I’m over it.
Update: #11 Leaks. You wouldn’t know it to look at it, but one of the most popular websites in the country has been scaled down over the years to a skeleton staff <5 full time employees and a handful of vendors and contractors. These are smart, hardworking people who love Xbox and gaming. Hire more people to write, edit and produce? Naw, the powers that be decided to hire a wide swath of overpaid middle managers who go to meetings and kiss ass (this is called ‘strategy’), while cutting resources for the people who actually do the work. Smart. What really sucks is that these few folks that actually DO something besides fluff up their careers will take the hit for this leak, not the assholes who by bad decision-making and horrible leadership made it happen. I say to my friends and former teammates at Xbox.com: Don’t let the bastards get you down.
Trixieland 
It is nice to see real E3 thoughts from someone who has lived it, but as a gamer I still see it as an exciting time of the year. I am always anxious to see what the industry has to offer and what new innovations or games are coming my way.
On the other hand my wife hates it because I talk about the briefings non-stop and she couldn’t care less. 🙂
In all my time working on community sites (Xcast, the Married Gamers, and even my own site Game Zone Radio) I wasn’t ever apparently good enough to go to E3 Always hearing the horror stories it would seem I didn’t miss much, especially since all the big press conferences are televised anyways now.
I’ve been a longtime fan of yours and confess that I haven’t been keeping up to date with the gaming industry the past few years due to career, church and family life (used to read ALL your gamer spotlights too – they were so cool and witty!)!
This blog post intrigues me because I find your opinions and insights highly credible. For someone who was constantly engaged with the gaming community, you obviously had to put up with a lot of BS. I honestly find it refreshing to see this ‘other side’ of the gaming industry – nothing is perfect and things that could be improved upon SHOULD be acknowledged and addressed. So thank you for that.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I respect your opinion and always enjoyed your work. I give you major props for prioritizing your family above corporate life (something that often challenges me) and look forward to more blog posts. 🙂
Take care and God bless!
Mike
Yeah, just have to leave a note that the booth babes really set the low standards of quality for real gaming women in and around he business (they just promote a bad image for men and women in general).
It also helps me remember the cruel reality that regardless of how successful the women’s movements have been in proving that women are more than their physical assets, well, let’s just say we take one step forward to take one step back sometimes.
I fucking hate the presentations and interviews.
All the hype is a pain too. I just hate e3. Even the PR.