by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
It’s that time of year again to toast the holidays and reflect back on the year that has past and just how far we have come. That was on the agenda for the Entertainment Software Association’s 20th Anniversary Celebration, but it went much further than that.
Imagine a trip through time showcasing the best electronic entertainment of past and present, plus food and drink and music and lights…this is what hundreds experienced at the annual celebration last week.
Anyone can book a hotel ballroom to throw a party, but that’s so cliché, why not have it in an empty, under-construction floor of a prominent office building. Anyone can have a dance floor, but why not a dance stage where guests broke it down with the popular game “Just Dance.” And of course, in every corner were a mix of the most cutting edge video games, along with throwbacks like Pac man, Super Mario Brothers and Space Invaders.
ESA is the industry association for video game companies so this completely fits the bill. The old games showed just how far we have come while inspiring nostalgia in the hundreds of guests who struggled to remember just which cheat codes and shortcuts and combinations of buttons could push you through to the next level. That’s normal behavior for adults right? And you have milk and cookies while you do that right? At the ESA party you do.
It was like a giant rave that a 12 year old helped to plan…and there’s nothing wrong with that.
