I actually went to a couple back in the early 2000s, and it was exhausting, but pretty cool. Frankly, I'm too old for that shit, and I have a better time a) not working at the event, and b) enjoying other people doing all the work and presenting to me my favorite games.
I have two events around which I plan my entire year: St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training in Jupiter, FL (March) and E3 (June). I'm a planner, and I plan the living shit out of things, especially these two.
I actually enjoy the planning part of E3 more, though. I'm more in control, and I don't have to pacify anyone or take anyone else's needs or feelings into consideration. It's MY week, just for ME. And it's great (Spring Training is also amazing, but in a whole different way. It's the most relaxing thing I do every year.)
Before we dive into it, check out this video that Anthony Parisi posted about his trip to the first-ever E3 in 1995. It's pretty amazing stuff.
So, E3 used to just be a couple days of a floor show, and maybe a press conference or two, but it's now ballooned into a spectacle that spans about a week.
The actual show, for a few years now, has been three days in June, on a Tues-Thurs. For a while, several companies, like Microsoft and Sony, have held their pressers the day before, on Monday. Now, companies have been pushing into the day before that, Sunday, and EA holds an event the weekend before.
You'll also see some trickles the week before now, where studios and/or publishers will host online events around one game, to ensure that it doesn't get totally buried in the madness of the following week. I remember examples from last year included Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Destiny: Whatever That Expansion Was.
EA
So, EA already put their stake in the ground for this year. Again, they're not going to have a booth, but they will have their own event in the weekend before the show (like last year), and their games will be at other publishers' booths (namely platform holders, like Microsoft and Sony). No word on when their presser will be, but they led off last year, and went mid-day Sunday. And it was a fucking disaster. They just didn't show any compelling footage. It was a few seconds of Mass Effect Andromeda, a spoiled teaser for Titanfall 2 single player, several minutes of people looking very serious in front of monitors while presumably 'developing' while some voice assured us that they were hard at work on Star Wars, and what seemed like 45 minutes of dudes talking about soccer. It was awful, and such a bad way to start my E3.
EA needs to learn from last year. Presumably, they'll be showing Battlefront 2, BioWare's new IP, something else cool, and then about 80 minutes of fucking FIFA and more than two minutes on the Sims, which is two minutes too much, and five minutes on their American sports games.
Everyone Else
The other big guys (Bethesda, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo [and occasionally Squenix]) usually trickle out their presser times and rough plans in the two months leading up.
PC Gamer, the last couple years, has put on a not-presser, as well. I hope they do it again. It's been a little rough, but has been great for gamers like me to see the really niche PC shit that I care about.
Outlets like IGN, GameSpot, Twitch, and others will start releasing their coverage schedules anywhere from a couple weeks out, to a couple days out.
My Planning
I start a OneNote late in the year before. I would start it right away, but I'm usually so sad that E3 is over that I just need to get away.
Games
I start with the games that I think might be there, and I make a second list of games that aren't out, won't be out before E3, but I think won't be at E3 (super indie stuff or stuff that's WAAAY down the line). Publishers, of late, have been loathe to even hint at games that aren't close to release at E3. What we've had recently is stuff that's going to be out by Christmas that year, with a few exceptions.
This is also a good way to deduce where in the dev cycle a game is. I knew Mass Effect Andromeda was not going to release last year based on how little presence it had, despite reassurances from EA. I don't believe for a moment that BioWare and EA had any confidence that it was going to make 2016, based on the lack of stage presence and the lack of E3 demos.
I continue to every so often tweak my lists of the 'will be there and wanna see it' and 'probably won't be there but let's make sure.' As we get closer to the show, if I don't see the game on any coverage schedules, I'll shoot a note to someone at the developer or publisher and ask. They'll usually tell ya straight up if the game is NOT going to be there, unless it's a major MAJOR HUUUGE release and is planning on being a surprise at a presser.
Pressers
As each publisher announces their presser date/time (they're usually the same every year), I make note of those and start blocking out a schedule. I factor in pre and post shows from both the publisher, and the outlets (Easy Allies was the best for this last year). Last year was a little irritating because Ubi and the PC Gaming Show overlapped a little. I hope they avoid that this year.
YouTube Gaming had some excellent programming on Presser Day last year. I hope they do the same this year.
Floor Show
In late May and early June, the press outlets will start releasing their coverage schedules, and it's usually not all at once. You'll need to keep checking back, all the way up to the first day of the floor show.
The floor show coverage is now at a point of total saturation. There's more coverage of more games than any of us can consume (or would want to), so I sift through their schedules, look at what's interesting, then pick that.
I used to watch every demo of each game in which I was interested, but what I usually found was that it was the same demo every time (more and more, what's brought to the stage by the developer is a recording of someone playing, and not a live demo), and the outlets tend to ask the same-ish questions. What I go for at that point is I'll watch whoever has it first, and usually one more time at another outlet, just to verify that I'm not seeing anything new. This can also be a good time to hop over to another game that you don't know anything about, and just give it a look.
In the past, I've watched GameSpot (usually my first choice and multiple stages), IGN (the earliest coverage), and Twitch (who, annoyingly, isn't on the same 20min blocks as the other two, but is instead on 15min blocks, which fucks up my Excel spreadsheets).
End of Day
Giant Bomb and Easy Allies both have had solid end-of-day coverage. Giant Bomb is fun because of the guests that flow in and out, and Easy Allies is fun because I just love their cast of characters and personalities.
What I usually do is put on a game and one of the two end-of-day streams, and just chill the fuck out. It's a great way to relax and process everything, especially after the Monday pressers and Tuesday floor show. Sony usually gets too much talk, but they're also the current flavor among the peasants, and almost every console game worth owning is also on PC, so it's all good.
I'll have more to say about this as the next four months tick by, but watching that 1995 video got me flashing back.
Also: E3 this year is 6/13-15, but that's just the floor show. Prepend a couple days to that, and that's more or less the whole experience.
What about you? What's your E3 procedure? What are you hyped about?
Lemme know in the comments!
UPDATE
I almost forgot. Here's some cool streams I'm watching today. GameSpot: The Lobby (1300 central) and The PC Gamer Show (1500 central).
Watch live video from GameSpot on www.twitch.tv
Watch live video from PCGamer on www.twitch.tv
-Blaine
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