Final E3 2010 Bombcast: Awesome in many ways
By captainfish 23 Comments
I was a little bit of a hater tonight during the Bombcast Ustream chat. You may be asking, "why would you feel the need to be mean in a Bombcast ustream chat?" Well, the reason was that Leigh "Nazi uniforms are objectively sexy" Alexander had returned and was already drunk by the time I had joined. She started off really overpowering the conversation, through a three-pronged attack of interrupting, speaking loudly and having a higher pitched more noticeable voice. She hated a lot on Boston in front of a dude from Boston (Harmonix Guy). Harmonix guy gave a Rock Band 3 pitch, basically out of nowhere, and then gave away some codes. Paul "the most interesting man" Barnett was interrupted quite a bit, but still managed to be interesting. It's not hard, though. Even when I disagree with that man, he is so well spoken it just doesn't matter. At one point he compares a Wii to a breadmaker and it's- well I can't do it justice, just listen to the cast. Leigh didn't have much to say that was super interesting like her MGS4 or Resident Evil comments of last year, but at least she didn't hate on Bioware dudes this time. Mostly she asked if the Kinect was really necessary, since the Wii already exists, and it doesn't seem to have use in "core" games.
At some point Leigh decided to discuss the cost that she had been assured that Activision had paid for their Staples centre show. She claimed her sources confirmed 775 million dollars, and straight from Bobby Kotick's pocket no less. I didn't really think too much of it, until Paul called her out saying "That is 3 quarters of a billion dollars!" She refused to admit that she might be off by a few factors of ten. She did bring up the salient point that Treyarch is in a tough spot in having to create the next Call of Duty, due to the cross studio tension with Infinity Ward. Chris Tillton then used the power of the internet to confirm that the cost was 7.75 million dollars prompting me to suggest that her nickname be Leigh "775 Million Dollars" Alexander until next year's Bombcast.
A short while after this, Ryan had to leave his station as host. He had been reigning Leigh in, threatening to cut her mic if she continued to hate on Boston (a threat Leigh constantly ignored) and just straight shutting her up at points. She took this time to basically recap why there was some controversy last year, recapping the Nazi uniforms are sexy debacle, but leaving out the key word, "objectively." She stated that she had read all the mail and other messages her previous attendance had provoked, and said that while the negative stuff hurt her feelings (aww, muffin*), there was also a number of positive responses. I thought this was pretty big of her to go back to a place where she received such vitriol and just be upfront about what happened. Jeff said it was cool, and that she didn't need to apologize, Leigh apologized again and then we continued on.
*Sarcasm
I can't tell whether it was the apology or the sip of sparks that fueled her tiny body, but from then on Leigh transformed into a bundle of energy. Once again she began monopolizing the conversation and interrupting others at every turn, even when she had asked a question. It was all of the rude without any of the interesting insight she had brought the previous year. It was near this point that I went to another stream. I won't say much more about that. It was a cooler stream.
Soon after, she had to leave and Paul, Ryan, Dino and Chris began to have an extremely compelling discussion about the importance of 3d as a technology improvement and the comparison to the DS and the iPad as game delivery systems. Dino's expression that taking that 3d out of the screen with holograms to have your interactions actually seem to connect with a physical object was a great idea, and something I would expect from some one working on Dead Space interface stuff. Soon after this it closed out.
All throughout the cast I was in the chat, getting angry at the interrupting and making "775 million" jokes. It was kinda crazy. There were white knights, standing up for Leigh despite her interruptions, dudes wishing that she would leave or shut up, people just trying to figure out who all was there, and others just yelling out inappropriate sexual stuff. The whole thing was really charged. It was also quite funny. Especially when Leigh praised the same community that was, at least in part, being super childish in the chat. All in all, I hope she's on the Bombcast next year, so I can sit in the chat and have a fun time if she drinks, or listen to some interesting discourse if she doesn't. Hell, maybe I'll get the best of both worlds.
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