Friday October 19, 2007
1 p.m.

Though I am not a proponent of spill-it-all blogs, I have a confession to
make.
I usually go to fairs – ranging from the California State Fair to on-campus career fairs – for nothing more than the free stuff. After all, why go back-to-school shopping when you can get free pens, pencils and Post-Its? Oh, and don't forget the food (I shamelessly load up on free samples)!
Though E for All Expo isn't exactly a fair, I was habitually drawn to inquire about all of the free giveaways available for attendees. About five booths were giving away free pens with their company logos, a few exhibitors were giving out T-shirts (sadly, all a few sizes too big for me), PowerUp Games (a company that trains people to be games testers) offered me a media packet in a laptop bag, 5-Hour Energy was passing out sample energy shots (might be helpful for late-night gamers), and "Guitar Hero III" was
distributing game-related stickers and Target wristbands.
But I think the award really goes to Nintendo. Not only was the innovative company passing out t-shirts for contestants in the "Super Smash Brothers Brawl" tournaments, they were handing out these finger-sized Wiimote keychains. They don't function as actual Wiimotes (I would be impressed if they did), but I discovered about half an hour later (I was too distracted by all the Nintendo madness to notice) that it is actually an LED light! How cute!

A side note: I was pretty disappointed by Sony and Microsoft's lack of appearance at the Expo, especially Sony's. Nintendo had one of the biggest interactive booths out of all of the other exhibitor booths, which is natural since they have to display both games and the consoles (and the Wiimote shooting controller). Microsoft had a presence there, though not in physical name. All of the gaming consoles on display for players to sample
at the "Guitar Hero II" and "Guitar Hero III" booths were Xboxes, and, of course, all the multiplayer platform matches were mostly for "Halo" on Xboxes as well. The Playstation 3 had little representation at all, except at the Konami booth, which had an exclusive caged-off area for playing "Metal Gear Solid 4." Sony, I like you too, and I really missed you today.