For the past few years I've made an annual pilgrimage, not unlike some Chaucerean wanderlust through Olde England except that my destination was southern California and not once did I say 'soothe'. In total, I've enjoyed my E3 experiences, in part because there's something validating about being immersed in the immediate future of the games industry, but mostly because I like meeting people face-to-face with whom I usually only have a digital relationship. Covering E3, even for a relatively low-maintenance audience like GWJ – and I say that with infinite gratefulness – is a hell of a lot of work. I'm not complaining exactly, because in the process I get to play video games still months from release, but there's a lot of jockeying through understaffed PR folks to see canned demos by over-tired developers who've spent too many hours over the past three months just trying to make their E3 demos look good.

And in the end, from the uncomfortable chairs of the media center, my olfactory processes abused by the stench of sweat and stale caffeinated drinks, I end up reporting basically the same information as everyone else.

That sounds cynical I suppose, and it could have something to do with why I'm reporting to you this year from my favorite office chair, but don't misunderstand me. Good content can come from E3, and I maintain a position I had last year that outlets not called Gamespot or The Official Anything Magazine should use E3 as at least an opportunity to show that you're willing to make an effort. I suppose it's one thing to keep quiet in the group meetings during Q&A if you know you're getting one-on-one time later with Peter Moore, but if you're reporting for Kevin's Big Video Game Site.com and you can't think of a good question to ask Ray Mazurka after watching the latest demo of Mass Effect, then you may need to come to terms with the reality that you have the journalistic instincts of a rather pensive oak tree.

I hope the general reporting from E3 will be better this year, that perhaps in the aftermath of the show's shake-up the people who really want to make an effort will be sending back the news from Santa Monica. On the other hand, I feel like we did good work the last few years, and here we are on the sidelines waiting to see how it all shakes out. I almost feel guilty sitting here in the cheap seats and passing judgment. Almost.

As far as the experience of E3, whatever that may prove to be this time around, I'm not sure I feel like I'm missing out yet. I'm far better informed here in front of my PC, able to monitor events in real time, than I'd ever be at the actual show, and while one may imagine that E3 is a paradise of fondling fresh and untested code, in reality it is an endless sea of lines, crowd, noise and sensory overload. Only a few times per show do you really _feel_ like you're getting good, fun playtime in, and it's usually around that moment that I remember I've got twelve game write-ups to do and fifteen people behind me waiting to play the same damn game.

Being able to leisurely sip at the succulent core of E3 in my own time and at my own pace, if only through the digital ether of 1,500 miles, is itself something of a treat. But, best of all I sleep in my own bed tonight, and when I feel like not being at E3 anymore then I get up and go in the other room. E3 on demand is far better than I'd remembered.

In truth, I had kinda hoped that I would feel out of the loop here in my chair, and that I'd hear from people that it was a great experience and I was a fool for missing out. What I'm hearing instead is that it was an exhausting, poorly planned and somewhat uncertain event that didn't quite know what it wanted to be anymore; like E3 of old had exploded and its detritus had been littered about the city of Santa Monica stunned and disoriented. Only through online absorption has the show approached anything apparently cohesive, and that's through the diligent efforts of tired web-writers.

Not surprisingly, it seems like the fun is more in being the consumer than on the wait staff.

Does this mean I don't plan to go back? No, I like getting to see people too much, and for better or worse I do like doing the leg work to get my voice heard. But, believe me, being at home and consuming the show on my own time, playing the occasional new demo on my own 360, well that's certainly more fun from a gamer perspective.