E3 2005 - Day 1 - Evening

Reed Hubbard Posted: May 18, 2005 8:00 PM ET
Category: Previews 0

Don't throw stones: Players get hands-on in Turbine's glass booth

Uncharted Waters Online. Japan only for now, but TBA in America in Europe

Guild Wars is very popular with attendees

Wednesday Evening, 8:30p Pacific

With an attendance of approximately 1 trillion people, E3 can get a bit crowded at times. There are a lot of people here, and most all of them are gamers clamoring to see the new stuff on display. Being a reporter from a MMO site, my focus is admittedly limited, but the game fan in me is just as interested in Battlefield 2 and SOCOM3 as I am in Dark and Light or Age of Conan. Even so, it’s exhausting to negotiate throngs of people just to get a 5-minute glimpse of a high profile title.

That’s why it’s nice to visit a booth that’s a bit off the beaten path, such as Mythic’s. Occupying a large space in one of the smaller halls, the area occupied by the creators of Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Imperator is a good place to get away from the crowd and focus on the company’s games. At 5:30, an invitation only event was a good place to cool one’s heels and speak with the company representatives, but this quiet spot would turn out to be one of the most exciting places in the whole event.

As the crowd of media watched a quick film, CEO Mark Jacobs announced that Mythic would be developing Warhammer Online. Immediately, Richard Duffek and I were on the phone to the MMORPG.com main office in Hawaii to get the news on the site. I took a few shots of the newly unveiled Warhammer logo next to the more familiar DAoC and Imperator brands and dashed off to the media center. I passed Destin Bales, content lead for DAoC, on the way out and told him I was on my way to upload my exclusive shots from the breaking story. I felt like a reporter from CNN!

For an MMO site, it was definitely ending the day on a high note. After a walk to the hotel, several of us were off to Hollywood for a Gods and Heroes party where, thankfully, food was served. It’s one of the unfortunate realities of such a large (and crowded) show that lines at the few eateries are extremely long, so your humble reporter went the whole day on nothing but Mountain Dew. Geez, the sacrifices I make for you people!

More updates as the hectic schedule permits!