What it’s like to see a game demo at E3 for Tera

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a games journalist at E3? Check out this video for the upcoming MMO, Tera. What you’ll see is a trimmed down version of the demo presented to journalists behind closed doors at E3 2010.

Above: A video based on the Tera demo, which was presented to games journalists at E3 2010

What the video doesn’t show is a room full of games journalists sitting with their recorders out and pens poised. After a demonstration like this ends, a brief Q&A session with the presenters usually follows. Since Tera is an MMO, you can count on at least one person to try to clumsily work World of Warcraft into his question while everyone else in the room rolls their eyes. That’s because WoW is probably the only MMO said games journalist is vaguely familiar with - and he’s fishing for some way to work the word ‘WoW’ into his future headline for a preview. Example: “Could Tera be the next WoW killer?”


Above: We didn’t attend this Tera demo. But we had, we know we’d be thinking about whether this crab has a weak point that can be hit for massive damage

Tradition requires that this embarrassing moment be followed by more awkward questions about the game’s pricing structure and what its “end game” will be like - and if you’re really lucky someone will try to impress everyone in the room with an off-topic question that’s really more of an over intellectualized observation that makes him sound like a jerk.

Other than that, this video really does give you a good idea of what a game demo is really like. It sounds a bit rehearsed because presenters really spend a lot of time practicing and fine-tuning what they want to say. After all, they often only have a few minutes to tell a group of games journalists everything they need to know about a project their team has probably been working on for years.

That being said, after watching the video, Tera looks like a pretty impressive and action-y MMO, doesn't it? We regret that we weren’t able to attend the demonstration. And seriously, expect more news from on Tera as its 2011 release draws nearer. In the meantime, you can head to the official site for more details.

July 2, 2010