Trigger Happy
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of character in videogames. So I’m going to brave the
crush and see for myself.
Inside Makuhari Messe, the vast national exhibition
center (whose undulating roof gives it the appearance
of eight hi-tech railway stations shoved together), more
than a hundred and sixty thousand Japanese men,
women and children have come over the two public
days of the exhibition in March 1999 to see and play
the newest videogames, the ones that will be launched
in the next six months. Each hardware or software
company has its own stand in the enormous, roaring
halls, all competing with their neighbors to attract the
gamers’ attention with gigantic neon signs, hundred-
strong ranks of TV monitors with consoles lined up
underneath them, constant blasts of game sound effects
and music, and professional software “spokespeople”:
glamorous Japanese women dressed in skin-tight PVC,
silver miniskirts or Lycra bikinis, who smile, hand out
leaflets and pose for batteries of photographers. (The
show presents an award to “the most excellent
companion lady.”)
Just as in Los Angeles at the E3 show, the big
companies advertise themselves with their videogame
mascots—the stars of their top games. But whereas
Sony, for instance, contents itself in America with
