Multi Platform Gamer

The problems with the E3 Expo media credential qualifications

By: Jeff Rivera

I attend E3 each year. I've gone there for GamingID, Kombo, as a freelancer, and last year for the first time for Gamer Theory. While many complain about the crowds, the circus, and the brutal production schedule, I look forward to it each year. E3 for many of us isn't just about playing games ahead of their release dates. It's not about getting access to developers and PR. It's a week when we push ourselves to the limit and prove to ourselves just how dedicated we are to covering the gaming industry actively, rather than passively. For a decade I've been attending E3, reporting on everything I could get my hands on, taking pictures, conducting interviews, and meeting up with other great writers and journalists. 

In 2012, I may get told to stay home.

Last year the ESA really tightened up the requirements for letting people get media passes for the E3 Expo. Joystiq was able to find out what it was that the E3 Expo wanted to see in regards to a site's traffic level before bestowing free passes. According to the email Joystiq received, a site must have at least 8,000 monthly unique visitors to receive a single media badge, and at least 10,000 to receive a pair. They also revealed that they used Alexa.com, Xinureturns.com (now SiteTrail.com), Quantcast.com, and Compete.com as measuring tools. Each site is handy for a light evaluation of a site's traffic performance, but there's an issue with each one of them.

They're all horribly inaccurate.

Last year I fell just below the required traffic threshold to get a media badge, but with some savvy talking and a lot of whining, I was able to get into the show with an Exhibits Only badge, but they didn't charge me the admission. This year, I have been able to directly measure Gamer Theory's traffic and we've surpassed the requirements laid out by the ESA. In February we're on pace to quite easily surpass the 10,000 unique visitors requirement, but there's a problem. Alexa, Quantcast, SiteTrail, and Compete don't recognize our traffic properly. In fact, each site greatly under reports our traffic stats.

In the case of Alexa, February has been our strongest month for traffic over the past year, but we've seen our Alexa ranking slip throughout the month. Quantcast is only measuring roughly one out of every eight visitors to Gamer Theory. Compete doesn't have data on us, and SiteTrail is so far off the mark that it's not even worth discussing. So when the E3 Expo media team takes a look at Gamer Theory, we'll probably be denied passes. Part of this is due to the fact that our forums are on a separate sub-domain, but we had good reasons to go that route. 91% of our site visitors visit our forums, and a fairly large percentage of visitors only visit the forums. These 3rd party traffic stat counters have issues properly quantifying the visits that Gamer Theory actually receives.

If Gamer Theory simply didn't qualify, I'd accept it and work on improving the site to the point where we do qualify. But to know that we're likely to be denied due to inaccurate metrics, it really hurts. Combine that with the fact that the ESA has doubled the price of entry for general admission (Exhibits Only) passes, and if we can't get a media badge, we'll be reporting from home this year.

And Gamer Theory is not alone. There are many other blogs, sites, and networks that deserve to go to E3. I know that the ESA can't let us all in, but they are locking out great content creators. A quick check of some of my favorite enthusiast sites, which include Press The Buttons, Games Are Evil, and TV & Lust shows that all of them are worse off than Gamer Theory according to the ESA's chosen metrics. To me, this is a terrible thought.

And what is the worst thing about these metrics? Well, they can be easily manipulated. I can buy Alexa traffic if I want to. I can buy traffic that will trigger positive hits in Quantcast, Compete, and Alexa all day long. I can buy these hits for cheaper than buying this year's E3 passes for general admission while qualifying for media passes. It shows just how silly of a system the ESA has put in place.

I understand that there has to be some sort of filter. You can't open the doors to everybody or else nobody would get any quality hands-on time with the games. Crowds would be immense. But when these metrics are so inaccurate, the ESA needs to look for a better system.

And if the ESA insists on such a flawed system for determining media badge qualification, they also need to crack down on how easy it is to buy a general admission pass. Supposedly the crackdown is to control crowds, so why not try to thin out the numbers of people who buy their way in and have no industry affiliation? I think at a reasonable price, gaming journalists would buy their way in, but not at the astronomical asking price of 2012.

It's time to figure this out, ESA. As developers and publishers are complaining about crowds at the show, it's wrong to limit legitimate gaming journalists while deep pocketed gamers buy their way in. And while I can probably afford the entrance fee with some careful budgeting, I'd feel bad rewarding the ESA with a paid admissino for doubling general admission prices while scaling back entry for people who sincerely want to cover the event.

As media registration is now open, I'd like to hear from other site owners and journalists applying for media badges. Let me know how your experience went and what reactions you got from the media support team at the E3 Expo. You can contact me by emailing me at jeff [at] gamertheory.com. I'll be following up this story with another one once I request a badge for myself and see how the E3 Expo team evaluates Gamer Theory.