Being A Video Game Journalist is Freaking Awesome

So if you all have been keeping up with my blog then you'd know that I missed class last week to go to Santa Monica, CA (all-expenses paid) for an Activision Press Event. For the uniniated, Activision is the leading third-party video game company (third-party meaning that they don't make a console like Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony). Activision has a lot of money. I got to see what that money produces.



While I technically can't go into specifics about the games I saw (there's a media embargo for them going off of 9 AM PST on Thursday and another one at the same time on next Tuesday. Check out Nintendo World Report and read my previews and impressions when they hit!), I can detail how absurd these events get.

The first event I went to was about Activision's upcoming Spider-Man game, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. This was low-key. However, the event following it which involved Quantum of Solace, the game based off the next James Bond move, was not.

First, I was taken in a car with another gaming journalist. In the driver's seat sat an "undercover chaffeur" and a Bond girl sat in the passenger seat. We were zipped around the streets of Santa Monica as they told us "we were being chased." We wound up being dumped into a parking lot where someone with a car trunk full of briefcases gave us each a briefcase and told us to put on the shirt inside and read the note for further instructions. We put on our ridiculous suit t-shirts and waited for our driver to come back.

After that, we were finally driven to the actual location of the event where we posed for pictures near an Aston Martin and were handed martinis (shaken, not stirred). We then played the new Quantum of Solace game for about an hour and a half. We were then booted outside around the nice pool area of the hotel where we were treated to an open bar, bikini-clad women, and food ranging from sushi to chicken and waffles.

Finally, after about two hours of bullshitting with gaming press, developers, and the Call of Duty military advisor, we were allowed back into the room where the games were setup. Only this time, there were casino games setup. I kicked back and played Texas Hold'em and Blackjack with a cadre of sober, drunk, and drunker games journalists for the rest of the night.

Not sporting the trademark hangover that half of the journalists at the event seemed to have, I enjoyed the final day of the event as I previewed the latest Call of Duty game.

Then I flew home.

So...what'd I miss in class?