Hello fellow allies! I've been meaning to sign up to this forum for a long time, and now I've finally got around to do it.
I know this is a week late, but I wanted to share my story of meeting a few of the Easy Allies crew.
If you've never been to E3 before, its a lot of fun! But it can also be exhausting, thankfully there's a large number of fellow gamers to talk to while waiting in line that helps the time pass by easier.
One of the highlights of E3 this year was getting a chance to meet Brandon Jones, Michael Huber, Bradley Ellis, and Ben Moore. Unfortunately I did not see any of the other allies, so I won't be mentioning them, though as you would expect, I would have loved to met all of them! (One day, Don... one day!)
On day three of E3, Huber announced he was going to the Sony booth in the afternoon, I arrived a little early and saw a small gathering of people talking, then I noticed they were all surrounding Brandon. I had met Jones previously at PSX 2015 (he was so nice back then), he greeted me and remembered that we had met before.
Brandon was trying his best to speak to as many people as possible, which is quite a challenge, but he tried to reserve time for everyone. We spoke and I asked why he was here, turns out he was at the Sony booth to meet Huber as well! I also talked to him about my ideas about E3 and he listened to my ideas and bounced back his own thoughts.
Then I suggested that he should give Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a second chance since he had previously given up on the second level. He agreed! We have to hold him to that, everyone! Make sure he plays this game, its too good to skip!
After a few minutes Brandon had a scheduled appointment to go to and he gave all the people near him a high five and jogged away.
Everyone in this area was an EZA fan, and we were all gathered awaiting the arrival of the Great White Hype. I spoke to a few of the people here, most likely everyone was a Patreon member like myself, and they were all great to speak with.
Sure enough, the man himself had arrived. Huber came to the Sony booth and people immediately swarmed him. He was laughing, smiling, joking, and shaking hands; his energy was instantaneously infectious.
I had met Huber at PSX 2015 as well, we hugged back then, but it wasn't enough, I required another hug. Sure enough, he remembered that we had hugged at PSX and was ready for round two. Hugging Huber, just feels right.
Brad showed up soon after and was very personable, lots of people wanted to speak to him, and he was doing his best to accommodate everyone. While that was happening, unexpectedly Ben appeared! I actually had always been meaning to e-mail Ben some Frame Trap related thoughts, but the guy was here in the flesh, so why not now?
When I told Ben I wanted to talk about some of my Frame Trap thoughts, was immediately interested in hearing me out. When I shared my thoughts, he bounced back with his own thoughts both in agreement and disagreement. The thing about Ben was, he seemed to not just hear me, but actually listened to me in earnest.
He did not blindly agree with me just to appease me, but rather had a genuine conversation with me. That's a sign of respect, and it made it all the better talking to him. I asked for a hug and he agreed, hugging Ben also felt good.
Mike and Brad were playing game of the year, KNACK 2 in jolly co-op, and after their session ended, all the allies had to leave for their own meetings. As Huber was walking away, I told him that I donated $300 to the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign, he turned around, pointed at me, and shouted "THANK YOU!"
The EZA fan crowd started to disperse and E3 was winding down. Soon enough the show was over. I walked outside, and surprisingly, I bumped into both Brad and Mike. I spoke to them for a few seconds, and Brad stuck out his hand, we shook hands and they were off.
I walked away from the LA Convention Center. No longer surrounded by 68,000 fellow gamers, no more waiting in incredibly long lines, or smothered in neon lights by the wall to wall TV screens. E3 was over, and while I had a good time, and got to play some fun games one of my most memorable moments was meeting half of the Easy Allies crew.
If you didn't get to go to E3 this year, go next year and meet the allies, they're just as great as you'd hope them to be!
