E3 Media accepted me last year, Rejects me this year
By RJay_64 3 Comments
I'm not here to say it was right or wrong that E3 rejected me this year, only to point out how much I'll miss it.
Somehow, someway last year, I convinced E3 that a university radio station in the Turlock/Modesto area in California deserved to be there. I didn't expect them to admit me. I only thought that since I had nothing to lose, I might as well throw up a hail mary and see what happens. It was funny, because in my initial interaction with the staff through email, they told me I would not qualify as media. But I applied anyway, despite their initial rejection of the idea that college media is real media, and miraculously two weeks later they told me I was in.
Rest assured, attending E3 does live up to all the hype. I once wrote a long Tumblr post about it, as well as talked about the experience on my radio show numerous times. http://reinman64.tumblr.com/post/6672483363/final-thoughts-on-e3
Initially I thought this was some fluke, until I tried to see what would happen if I applied to other events. After E3, I got accepted to every single convention I applied to as press. Of course, nothing ever lived up to E3. Nothing. I won't list every event I've been accepted to, but the list is quite surprising and even includes the prestigious Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. After a while, I felt invincible. Unfortunately, I had no money to drive to Las Vegas and couldn't make it, but getting accepted into that proved to me without a doubt, that getting into E3 last year was no accident, or so I thought.
In the past year also, I joined my university newspaper as a way of not necessarily adding to my credentials for these events, but to make myself a better journalist regardless, because I truly and honestly love reporting on video games.
But, as the title of this blog mentions, E3 rejected me this year. I have argued with them about it over email, saying our station is getting a new transmitter which will expand our reach, pointing out that there's absolutely nothing different about the qualification process as last year, only to have them reply their rules have magically become stricter.
I don't know anymore if I'm just a really gifted writer to have made all these conventions believe I belong, or if my university media status legitimately qualified me for every event that I was accepted to over the past year. It does not matter. My luck ran out.
It's their event I suppose and they can do what they want. I could go on and on about how inconsistent it is for them to admit me one year, and reject me the next despite turning in the exact same application materials. It's over though. It would not matter if I wrote 10 pages about this. I'd be less surprised if a chocobo flew threw the sky than me entering E3 ever again.
I just wanted to share my story. I went to E3 last year representing a small radio station in Turlock, CA, and I will probably never duplicate such an accomplishment again. Thanks for the memories.
3 Comments