Blogs Play the Access Game

Running the guest list for the hottest show in town means that sometimes you have to deny access to some people. Otherwise it wouldn't be the hottest show in town anymore.

The center of the world today -- as far as "hot" is concerned -- is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry's annual trade show. E3, as everyone calls it, is ground zero between now and Friday for unmitigated dealmaking and boasting from hardware and game developers, set against a backdrop of seizure-inducing flashing lights, video screens and general game mayhem. It is the chief meeting point for the movers in a $7.3 billion industry whose star seems to do nothing but rise.

For the video game fan, it's a vision more alluring than the prospect of two hours in a room alone with a copy of "Virtually Jenna." After all, E3 has first-person shooters AND sexy booth babes to entice passersby. Add some junk food, a few cocktails and a smattering of exclusive parties and it's enough to inspire visions of Halo 3...

But there's always a catch. While the organizers of the show don't include a specific proscription against bloggers, they limit media passes to journalists who work for established members of the mainstream media. That definition, as far as E3 is concerned, doesn't include blogs.

The Cohn & Wolfe PR team that runs media affairs at the expo was unable to make anyone from E3's parent, the Entertainment Software Association, (or anyone else for that matter) available for comment.

The idea, according to an anonymous source, is that E3 is one of those shows, the ones that are so popular that people are willing to do whatever they can to finagle their way in. Exhibitors, rock bands, developers, the press and all manner of other bigwigs mingle in a heady assortment that excludes the public. That predictably makes it all the more interesting for people who want to get a piece of the action. As a result, the PR folks must be stingy with the press passes to keep out the riff-raff.

A representative from the Cohn & Wolfe told me that bloggers who represent a legitimate business do stand a chance of getting in, as evidenced by Jason McCable Calacanis, chief executive of Weblogs Inc. Calacanis, who financed the 18-month-old company along with Dallas Mavericks owner and regular blogger Mark Cuban, said that blogs occupy distinct classes from disjointed mutterings to slick, professionally-run operations. The latter, he said, tend to be known to the industry folks who make the decisions about who crosses the velvet rope. Among them, as you might expect, are Engadget and Joystiq, both run by Weblogs.

"You have to be a real blog, not someone who created it last week to go to the event," he said.

Calacanis said that conference organizers do this as a filtering device rather than a wall. "I sympathize with them because every salesperson and PR person now has a blog. Those are the people who used to buy tickets to events," he said.

Some people don't buy that reasoning. Insisting on a business plan is not the best way to establish legitimacy, said Jay Rosen, a professor at New York University's Department of Journalism and one of the nation's preeminent blogging experts. "I'm part of the Media Bloggers Association, which is a loose network of bloggers. Just looking across the membership, which is several hundred at this point, most have not even started down that road."

"Filtering" isn't such an irrational idea from a logistics standpoint. E3 attracted 65,000 attendees in 2004, along with 4,000 reporters. Handling that many scribblers seeking exclusive access, free food, free computer time and, well, free everything-they-can-get-their-hands-on -- that can be tricky. Factor in the accompanying egos and the coddling required for some of the more highly self-regarded members of my profession and you can see why any flack worth his or her salt would want to keep us at bay.

It's particularly extreme at the most popular press conferences, said Ankarino Lara, director of Gamespot.com, a game publication run by CNET Networks Inc. "People want to get into the Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft press conferences," he said. "People would be willing to sell their firstborn."